October 2006 - Posts
We installed the 180 day eval copy of Windows Server 2003 on our development server a while ago. Now I've received the license key I want to upgrade the eval version to a retail version. I definitely don't want to reinstall.
In a KB article I found the following: "To remove the 180-day expiration period for an evaluation version
of Windows Server 2003, upgrade your computer to the full retail, released
version of Windows Server 2003." Ok, mooi, so how do I do that? 
And then it tells you to go to the Windows Server home page. I've also tried the Windows Server forums, but to no avail. Only solution I found there is to put the full version cd in and upgrade it. BUT, I don't have a new cd, only the license key. And no one replied on my post. It can't be that difficult, or am I missing something here?
So as a last resort I contacted MS Support - the guy was very friendly and helpful, but his solution was that I wait for it to completely expire as it will give me the option to enter a license key then. Only problem with that is the server reboots every hour and it is still another 28 days to go... I am running out of ideas, and I can't believe that this is an uncommon problem?
I just want to congratulate all my friends that got married
in the last month! Alice & Hendrik, Maryke & Janus and Derek &
Sasha. Yes, the Spring thing obviously did it for them - the last month was
hectic to say the least. 3 bachelors, 3 bachelorettes, 1 kitchen tea PLUS the
weddings. Everyone looked spectacular, I saw a lot of people that I haven't
seen for years and we had a great time till the early morning hours. Even the
brides and grooms stayed till very late. Alice and Hendrik just made their flight, only to realize
that he forgot his wallet in South
Africa! Hmm... Maryke and Janus had to organise their whole wedding from the UK... well done!
Ek hoop julle is almal vir ewig en ewig gelukkig saam, net
soos in die fairy tales! Cheers!!! 
(Jammer Derek, Sasha, ek het nog nie 'n foto van julle s'n nie!)
[UPDATE: A little bit of advertising, my friend Alice is a professional photographer and takes wedding photo’s as well. If you are interested in wedding photo’s or any other photo's for that matter, let me know... Some examples here, here and here. Have a look at her portfolio on her website: www.alicecraven.com.]
Looking over the main page of my blog it feels like I am
only blogging when I attend training or a community event 
So here I go
again: I attended VSTS training last week which was just excellent. The
trainer, Adrian Jakeman, was very knowledgeable and made the classes a lot of
fun.
I haven't actually worked with VSTS previously and was quite
impressed. At the moment we use the following tools for our development and
surrounding processes:
| Document Repository: |
Sharepoint Services |
| Modeling: |
Microsoft Visio |
| Unit Testing: |
NUnit |
| Development: |
Visual Studio 2005 |
| Version Control: |
Subversion |
| Issue Tracking: |
Gemini |
| Continuous Integration: |
CruiseControl.NET |
While these are working very well, it would be wonderful to
be able to combine all of these. Which is exactly what VSTS does, plus
reporting.
We didn't actually install Team Foundation Server, and I
hear that it can be quite a nightmare. At this stage I am waiting for a server
and then I'll try my hand at that :S I
don't foresee us moving our current project into VSTS, but will rather start by
doing some internal projects with it. Don't have the time for any unexpected
nasty surprises!
A couple of things that I would like to improve, mostly to
do with the unit testing capabilities:
- When
you right-click in your regular project and select Create Unit Test, it
doesn't pick up the language you are working in.
- I
don't like all the additional test attributes and instructions it adds to
each test. There is probably a setting somewhere to remove that.
- Would
be useful to right-click and in test class or in test method to run only
that test. Yes, I am spoiled by TestRunner.
- The detail
in the email alerts is really limited. I am used the information that I
get from CruiseControl, and not getting the test results (only summary 20
passed/5 failed in VSTS), no coverage results, etc frustrates me. I don't
want to open the test manager every time to see that detail.
- To
configure Continuous Integration with VSTS is quite a hack, but it works.
I presume this will be improved in the next version.
- I
know our Project Manager is going to feel that the integration with MS
Project is not sufficient at this stage, especially because of 2 things:
can't group tasks and use predecessors with the work items. But I have
been told that this is one of the main priorities for the next version.
O and a very cool tool for editing the process template: Process Template Editor (original )
As soon as I have it installed I will blog some more about our experiences... any of you using it currently?