Search Results for: opinion

How I’m reducing my debt

Posted on Friday, 28 August, 2009 by Colin Mackay

I recently came across some notes I’d made some years ago about how I planned to reduce my debt and increase my savings. It is something that has worked (and is working) for me and it might be useful to … Continue reading →

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Open Source Risk Management

Posted on Tuesday, 30 June, 2009 by Colin Mackay

There are some pretty cool things happening in the open source space on the .NET platform these days and new projects are being started every day. However how do you sort the wheat from the chaff? How do you manage … Continue reading →

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Microsoft MVP Award

Posted on Monday, 6 April, 2009 by Colin Mackay

Last week, Microsoft honoured me once again by bestowing on me the MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award again. This is an annual award that Microsoft give to “exceptional technical community leaders from around the world.” From the MVP website: Microsoft … Continue reading →

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Some advice on CVs

Posted on Sunday, 28 December, 2008 by Colin Mackay

As a lead developer part of my job is to review CVs for developers that we are potentially going to hire. There are, however, some people that I think do put the most inappropriate things on their CV. I’m not … Continue reading →

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Method hiding or overriding – or the difference between new and virtual

Posted on Friday, 10 October, 2008 by Colin Mackay

When developing applications it is very important to understand the difference between method hiding and method overriding. By default C# methods are non-virtual. If you are a Java developer this may come as a surprise. This means that in C# … Continue reading →

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Friday was my last day…

Posted on Saturday, 16 August, 2008 by Colin Mackay

Friday was my last day at Barbon Insurance Group Ltd. A company named after the guy that invented Fire Insurance, Nicholas Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned Barbon. I kid you not! (Incidentally, the change of name to BIGL, for short, had nothing to do … Continue reading →

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Event Organisation – The Feedback

Posted on Monday, 23 June, 2008 by Colin Mackay

This is the first post in a series of random thoughts on community events that I’m writing based on my experience running a user group and the Developer Day Scotland conference. In this post I’ll concentrate on receiving feedback. Photo … Continue reading →

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Introduction to LINQ to XML

Posted on Tuesday, 8 April, 2008 by Colin Mackay

Last year I wrote about the new languages features available in C# 3.0 (Anonymous Types, Extension Methods, Automatic Properties, A start on LINQ, Object Initialisers I, Object Initialisers II, & Object Initialisers III) and since then I’ve really got in … Continue reading →

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DALs and the DAAB

Posted on Saturday, 3 November, 2007 by Colin Mackay

I’ve been pondering something that was raised in passing earlier this week and that is the relationship between a DAL (Data Abstraction Layer) and the DAAB (Data Access Application Block). It was briefly mentioned in a conversation that I had … Continue reading →

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The Ashoka Karaoke

Posted on Friday, 2 November, 2007 by Colin Mackay

I wouldn’t normally review restaurants on my blog but a friend of mine has just received a lawyer’s letter about his review of a restaurant called “The Ashoka” which does karaoke and is located in Elderslie Street, Glasgow. He has … Continue reading →

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