CrissCross
Microsoft Sql Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is mostly pretty good. The report designer is ok, the flexibility you get with web services and the ASP.NET ReportViewer component is pretty good. If you're already running Sql Server then SSRS pretty much comes for free.
Made In Lambeth
I've lived in Lambeth for 11 of the last 15 years, but I've never spent that much time thinking about Lambeth Council. I appreciated it when they started collecting cardboard for recycling. I was vaguely impressed when I could pay my council tax online rather than by post. I enjoyed Myatts Fields and Brockwell Park. And I was wary of the councillor pamphlets, which only ever seemed to arrive when they needed me to vote. I understood the benefits of local government, but the reality of trying to engage with it meant reading highly partisan election leaflets that highlighted the negatives and blamed the other parties for them. So, I was not particularly engaged.
Homeless Hack Day
Hackathons are all the rage at the moment, and are great events for lots of reasons. I'm aiming to go to hackathons that have charitable objectives, and hence I was excited to see that a bunch of organisations (the Goverment Digital Service, Go On UK, Westminster City Council, The Connection at St Martins, SHP and Homeless Link) had worked together to organise a Homeless Hack Day on 16th June 2012.
jQuery multiselect widgets
While working on CrissCross I've experimented with various different jQuery MultiSelect widgets. That is, web page controls that let users easily select multiple items from a list - here's a quick round up:
SSRS multi-value parameters with less fail
SSRS supports multi-value parameters, which is nice, but there are a few issues with them. This is how I deal with them.
Setting up S#arp Architecture 1.6 for VS 2008
The latest S#arp architecure is 1.9 something, rapidly heading towards 2.0, and all targeted at VS2010.
