New look for my Blog

I have been using the same template for my blog for the past 2 and a half years. I wanted to change it but never got the time. So this weekend upgraded my blog to a new blogger template. Had quite a hard time setting up my comments since i was using comments from HaloScan. Other than that the rest of the stuff were ok and didn't require a major work when i moved to the newer template.

One issue i am having is setting up Windows live writer to use blogger labels for posts. Have been trying to set it up without luck. So now after i publish a post from Windows live writer i have to login to blogger to set the labels. Not very smart, but until i figure it out i have to stick with this.

Windows developer tools day

It was windows developers tools day yesterday, to draw some attention to the free and open source software (FOSS) tools that helps us in doing development.

If i were to pick one single FOSS tool that made quite a difference in my development experience it definitely has to be NUnit. NUnit is the ultimate tool that brought test driven development (TDD) to the .NET world. As most starting out on test driven development, i was also hesitant when i started out test driven development using NUnit. But the more i used it the more addicted i became to this tool. Though now i use VS.NET 2005 for doing TDD most of the times, still there are occasions i jump back to using NUnit because of its simplicity.

So even now for anyone who wants to start out on TDD, just go to www.nunit.org and download the bits and start using it. You will never do programming the same way again.

PS: And for anyone interested in more useful tools do check out the book "Windows developers power tools" for a whole lot of goodies similar to NUnit

Got my MCT credentials

Finally i got the notification that i got my MCT. Personally for me it means i can do training sessions with that added confidence that i am a MCT and at the same time pushes me to perform more. I love training and public speaking on Microsoft technologies and wanted to do more of it this year. Hence getting the MCT status is a good boost to my plans for this year

Looking back at 2006 ...

What a rollercoaster year 2006 was. Worked on some very interesting projects and on a whole bunch of technologies and had to switch a lot between technolgies which i dont mind doing at this stage. One of the best things for this year was my MVP award getting renewed and had a job switch as well. Overall 2006 was a very happening year, and i am happy the way it turned out ... , Now waiting to see how 2007 would be