Handy script that I frequently use to recycle IIS app pool for the various sites I maintain.

[sourcecode language='powershell'  padlinenumbers='true']
param(
    [string]$poolName
)

Write-Output $poolName
if(!$poolName)
{
    Write-Error "No AppPool name provided."
    return
}

$appPool = Get-IISAppPool -Name $poolName

if(!$appPool)
{
    Write-Error "No such apppool"
    return
}
$appPool.Recycle() 
[/sourcecode]

I found a desktop CPU heat sink lying around in my work desk. I’ve never given it a detailed look, until today because I thought of returning it to it’s owner.

Was then left wondering what the liquid cooled heat sink in Surface Pro 3 would be like and then stumbled upon this jaw dropping video

BTW, the thickness of Surface Pro 3 is nearly the same as the copper plate (marked in green in the first picture above)

For the previous (and latest) release of Indian Cinema UK app for Windows Phone 8.1, I wanted to display the Film Info in a Hub, but the screen estate to look like the Bing Apps on Windows Phone. I got this inspiration from Amar’s blog post.

But, having done it, there was a problem. There was a margin on the left and because I was displaying the film poster, it looked odd. I wanted the film poster to look flushed left.

Being new to Hub control, I thought it was the 1st Hub Section adding some kind of margin, so I tried a negative margin with a guessed value. This did not work. So, I wanted to inspect the Xaml Visual Tree to find out

1. which control was contributing the left margin
2. how much margin was being set

And to do this, XAML Spy came to help. This incredible piece of software shows the visual tree, rather than having to guess the complex XAML rendering behaviour.

Turns out that a default margin is added by the Hub control for all the Hub Sections and the value is 19 as shown below.

Having discovered that, I then set the margin for the Hub control and here is how it appears now.

Release Notes

Windows Phone 8.1

version 1.3

• New design to accommodate more screen space. Like the Bing News app.

• Link to this Release Notes page from the app.

version 1.2 (12 June 2014)

• Show times for a film being screened in Cineworld cinemas using integration with the free Cineworld app. Thanks to @hermitdave
• Ability to provide feedback to the developer and rate the app from the About screen.
• Renamed app to Indian Cinema UK

version 1.1 (24 May 2014)

• Richer film details (Full Cast & Crew, Trailers, Posters etc) from themoviedb.org using integration with the free FilmCloset app. Thanks to @Vaggelis Diatsigkos 

version 1.0 (17 May 2014)

• Last Chance – Films about to disappear from Cinemas in UK
• Releasing Next – Films guaranteed to be released in UK

One of the key foundations of Startups is to be Agile.

Being able to experiment without time and location restrictions is awesome. With the Lean Startup gaining mainstream adoption, it becomes important for the engineering team to have the skills and processes that allow experiments on software MVP.

Here is where Git Hub Flow helps a lot. Having the ability to branch off from Master and work on feature branches is a very powerful way to experiment, demo, discard or improve the feature.

In my recent project, for Indian Cinema UK, an idea would strike while commuting by train. I would pull out my PC and code off by branching off. A one point I had 3 feature branches and switching between them at will using Visual Studio is super cool.

The biggest advantage though is the change in mind shift towards “Self-Permission to fail”. This is normally hard to come to terms for a developer working in an enterprise setup where the mentality is to not disrupt the status quo. Writing throw-away code is an important skill needed if one has to consider themselves as a “Full Stack Product Person”.

So, in summary, why adopt Git Hub Flow?

1. Freedom (from time and location) to experiment
2. Self-Permission to fail
3. Change to throw-away mind shift (a mini build-measure-learn attitude)