Category: Site

Happy New Year! It's been a busy time lately with organising the relocation from Hong Kong to Düsseldorf, not long to go now, but I have managed to get the first app out of the door, certified first time. I need to do a bit of work on the presentation in the Windows Phone Store, but at least I'm now familiar with the process. Onwards to the next project :)

Metero on the Windows Phone Store

Category: Site

Acceptance into BizSpark came through today, so I've been able to update my tools to Visual Studio 2013 and have a play around and get familiar. A lot of small UI changes that make working with hosted TFS a bit more straightforward, although I'm still struggling with being able to automate unit test execution on the hosted build engine! Guess I can live with local unit testing for now.

I've spent a good few hours tinkering with the CMS and knocking up a logo that will do for the present, tweaked some CSS etc, and have been testing out a few different interface controls on Metero to get that ready for submission. Long day.

Finally though, we have a date for the big move from Hong Kong to Düsseldorf, we'll be on a plane the second week of February 2014. Can't wait to get there and get started full time :)

*gets back to German lesson*

Category: Site

Minor updates today. The mission to get my home office ready with a few extras while I am still collecting a paycheque continues with the purchase of nice mechanical Ducky keyboard, which I've written a quick review of here : Ducky Shine 3 Mechanical Keyboard Review.

In other news, I've submitted my application for Microsoft's BizSpark programme, it may be a little early, but it can't hurt! I've already got my Visual Studio Online Git and TFS hosting, Azure (which this site is running on), Windows Phone and Windows Store Dev centre accounts sorted out, which along with the VS Express tools is nearly everything, but I will take all the assistance I can get, and getting involved in the community is my number one task in the new year.

But for now, I am enjoying my last few weeks in Hong Kong, and this weekend is Clockenflap, the nearest thing we have to a music festival here, and by some extreme fluke we have a beautiful crystal clear day today, which only happens a few times a year, so I am off out to enjoy the fresh air :)

Category: Site

So, this is my site! It will be home to pages about the apps I'm working on, tutorials and other articles I write, probably a bit of my photography and links to other interesting things I find.

The layout is still being tinkered with, and site structure, but I will be starting to fill out articles in the coming weeks once I have said goodbye to 'The Man', packed in the job and started full time on my own work.

I've put a page up for my first Windows Phone app, Metero, which is almost ready for submission but I want to clear up my unit test coverage and tinker with the Visual Studio Online build/test CI functionality a little more, as well designing the icons. I may pick up a Lumia 520 as a second test device to go with my workhorse 920.

Next job, sort out a logo and icon. I'll be making use of the Surface Pro digitiser in anger for the first time in the next week or so to draft some ideas before producing the vectors.