Dave Mellors

Learning how to program - again!

2008-06-22T15:49:00Z

The problem with not programming all the time is keeping up with the constant developments in programming. I was impressed with the very readable and informative "Foundations of programming" series of blog posts by Karl Seguin and certainly recommend them. The foundation series so far includes:- Part 1 - Introduction Part 2 - Domain domain domain Part 3 - Persistence Part 4 - Dependency injection Part 5 - Unit testing Part 6 - NHibernate Part 7 (sorta) - ActiveRecord Part 7 - Back to basics: Memory...(read more)

SQL Comparison SDK - Updating a customer database schema example

2008-06-19T14:37:00Z

Overview A common use of the Red Gate SQL Comparison SDK is to package up the latest version of a database schema and send it to customers as an executable. NOTE: SQL Comparison SDK is to be the new name for SQL Toolkit Pre-requisites Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008 Red Gate SQL Comparison SDK You can download a 14 day free trial of SQL Comparison SDK if you haven't already got it. WidgetProduction and WidgetStaging SQL creation script This database creation script is used by some of the...(read more)

Microsoft VHD administrator password

2008-06-17T13:11:00Z

Ha! I just spent the last ten minutes trying to get into a microsoft VHD. The administrator password is contained in the readme file but I just couldn't get it to work! Eventually, it dawned on me... keyboard layout!!! The password was pass@word1 and because I am in the UK it was coming out as pass"word1 but of course as it was a password textbox I couldn't see that. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!...(read more)

SQL Toolkit introduction

2008-06-05T10:37:00Z

SQL Toolkit is an software development kit (SDK) from Red Gate Software (my employers) that provides .net developers with an api, samples and documentation for doing schema and data comparisons of Microsoft SQL Server databases. The toolkit also has a an api for packaging databases and database updates....(read more)

Red Gate SQL Toolkit: SQL Deployment example

2008-06-04T09:27:00Z

We are getting a lot of customers interested in using SQL Toolkit for deploying database updates to remote customer sites. Using SQL Toolkit you can distribute a single executable to your customers and use the Toolkit to do a schema comparison and then automatically update the customers database with the differences between a snapshot from your database and the customers database. Up until now I haven't used SQL Toolkit that much so I thought it would be nice to learn more about the product and come...(read more)

How to: Remove Microsoft Outlook 2007 Add-in

2008-05-29T08:34:00Z

After uninstalling Symantec Anti-virus I found that when I started Outlook 2007 it came up with the following error: The Add-in "Symantec AntiVirus 10.1" (c:\program files(x86)\Symantec Antivirus\vpnsece4.dll) cannot be loaded by Outlook. Please contact the Add-in manufacturer for an update. If no update is available please uninstall the Add-in. The problem was that the addin didn't appear in Tool->Trust Center->Add-ins so I couldn't uninstall it from there. Fortunately, deleting the file extend...(read more)

ASP.NET MVC: UI Helpers and code in your view

2008-04-28T08:16:00Z

With some past experience as a web developer I still maintain an interest in web development and it's been great to see ASP.NET MVC become available and the interest this has sparked. One of the gripes that people seem to have about MVC is having a mix of HTML markup and code in views and this was something I wanted to learn more about. Now that I've seen the " Cleaning up the view " screencast I feel more comfortable with this mix. You can keep your views readable and that it's not as messy as things...(read more)

Joel Spolsky and his Martian headsets

2008-04-01T08:50:00Z

In a recent blog post Joel writes about the start of the mother of all flamewars with Microsofts IE8 team write in the middle of it. It's a great article that goes into some of the difficulties faced by standards and software. Unsure where the Martian headsets fit in? Then, I recommend you go read his post - Martian headsets Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit!...(read more)

The difference good customer service makes

2008-03-26T08:20:00Z

Just before Christmas I purchased a rather expensive Sony digital camera and had a problem with it as it stops recording video after 10 minutes. At first I thought this must be a fault but looking at the technical support site it appears to be a "feature" which was odd because I always research thoroughly before making an expensive purchase and wasn't aware of this limitation. Revisiting the Sony website and the "10 minutes cut-off feature" isn't mentioned and so I contacted customer service and...(read more)

Visual Studio development web server dynamic port numbering problem

2008-02-20T11:55:00Z

The problem I had this problem in Visual Studio 2005 and now I have it in Visual Web Developer 2008 express edition where when debugging a web application using the development web server the dynamic port number used by the server didn't match what Visual Studio had used for the web browser. It was always wrong and normally out by two or three port numbers. For example the cassini web development server starts and I can see in the notification area what port number it uses However the web browser...(read more)

Microsoft SQL Server Database backups

2007-09-23T16:08:00Z

Sometimes I find that customers are unsure about the different types of database backups available for SQL Server. Here is a quick summary of the different types of backups available with Red Gate SQL Backup and you can use one or more type of backup to provide a complete database backup and recovery solution. Full A complete image of the entire database can be obtained by using a full backup. Advantages Doesn't require any other backup for a complete restore. Works in any recovery model. Disadvantages...(read more)

Google fiddling the stats and conning advertisers?

2007-06-14T14:51:00Z

I came across Google Trends today and immediately it struck me as odd that usopen.com and www.usopen.com were in the top 20 searches today. OK, I know that the US Open is currently running and that lots of people will be searching for information on the US Open but it seems easier for me to enter the url in the address bar rather than in Google. Until that is that I remembered that frequently when I start typing a url in the browser address bar that the focus changes to the search field on the Google...(read more)

TechEd 2007 - Totally awesome man!

2007-06-12T06:24:00Z

After a week working giving demonstrations at the ANTS Profiler booth I'm feeling pretty tired and my feet and knees certainly were happy to return to sitting behind the desk yesterday. Although, working the booth was hard work it was also extremely enjoyable and the time spent with the rest of the Red Gate team at TechEd was great and gave me an opportunity to see my colleagues in a different light (you know who you are!). One of the most rewarding aspects of manning the booth was the reaction that...(read more)

TechEd 2007 - ANTS Profiler

2007-05-31T07:10:00Z

Next week my blog will probably be even quieter than usual as I'm going to be at TechEd 2007 in Orlando, Florida. I will be at the ANTS Profiler Booth #1433 and if you are interested to see how easy it is to use ANTS Profiler for profiling .net applications then it would be great to see you there. This will be my first TechEd and although it's going to be incredibly hard work but I can't wait to get out there and meet people and give some demos on how easy it is to use ANTS Profiler. Having been...(read more)

What are we here for?

2007-05-29T19:48:00Z

This is not a theological question but a question of what is the role of Technical Support in a software company.

The answer I guess depends on what you are providing technical support for and who your employers are but for me Technical Support isn't just about logging someones technical problem and resolving it. To be effective I think Technical Support should involve the following:-

An involvement in the community
Only by being involved in the community that uses your products can you understand where your customers are coming from and what they want. The community can provide valuable insight into your products and your support teams weaknesses and strengths and even provide suggestions on what can be done to improve things.
Education, Education, Education
This depends once again on the products you support but many problems are related to product documentation not being read, understood or just being plain poor. Your customers may be after a quick solution and don't have time for training and see support as a quick answer to getting things done in time. Maybe the customer has inherited the software and doesn't really understand it's benefits. If you can educate your customers then you should reduce the number of technical support calls and your customers opinion and return on their investment should increase.
Customer Service
Sometimes customers need to voice an issue that may not even be technical and frequently the customer will turn to the most accessible part of the company (without someone trying to sell them something!) in the hope that someone will listen and try to do something about it even if it's passing the information to the right people. Actually, I once had a customer phone up who didn't want me to do anything but just wanted to get something of his chest. Listening to your customers is a vital part of technical support.
Problem solving
Yes, sometimes you get to do something technical and investigate a technical problem. However, usually to get to the technical bit you actually have to understand the problem in hand and that isn't allways as easy as it sounds and once you've done the technical bit you will either end up doing some training to get the customer to understand whats going wrong and what they can do about it or maybe you have to employ your customer service skills to explain to the customer thats its a bug and you don't know when its going to be fixed.

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