OK - it is time to do my predictions for the Swedish Brass Band Championships. I have already brushed on the subject but now its really closing in (three weeks) so I though you might wanna know how it will happen.

There has been some major problems to get bands together for this event (trust me, got phoned by three different band to fill some pretty prestigious seat, that would not have happened if they didn’t ask other people first…:)). Probably the whole event while have a slight yawn over it since some bands that are sure to place good is missing.

Stockholm Brass Band will not show up altogether which has to do with a lot of professional musicians in the band. They will - and often must - prioritize differently and this is a “spare time” thing. I hate to be one of those people that...

The last thing the Gothenburg Brass band did before the stopped playing was go on a tour in England. On the tour the found time to record a CD and take part in the European Championships.

I got the great privilege to write the inlet of the CD, which is called In Perfect Peace after one of the pieces on the CD. That particular piece is written by Kenneth Downie and was very important for the band and Bengt Eklund. So it’s very fitting that the last CD is called that and that the piece is on it.

About a week ago I found the CD in the catalog from World of Brass… Made me very proud. It’ll be the first time I am published in such a way.

I’ve just entered a period of my project at work that is learning me why SCRUM “iterations” are called sprints. After we have sprinted for seven sprints in a row, with only a weekend in between each we have not started a period of bug-cleaning.

And it feels so slow (this is the second week, mind you). Nothing that pushes you, no goal in sight and just bugs coming in and being fixed. Booooring!

But hey - if you’re not bored the fun will not feel as fun. I guess.

OK - in my private life there is loads of things to do right now so i might be a blessing in disguise. I also try to do some reading up on new technolgies - first in line is WCF and LINQ

I can’t hold it in anymore. The service quality of The Phone House is bugging me enough to write them an angry email and enclose this service.

About 8 months ago I bought the most expensive telephone in my life, 4000 SEK. It was an HTC MTeoR. I have used HTC before and was recommended by the salesman at The Phone House that it was a good choice. Little did I know…

However - after a few months some problem did occur. When the phone rang it all of a sudden just lost it’s net. When I rebooted it the net was there again. Annoying but no problems - that can happen.

I went to The Phone House to get some help. I was very surprised when i did get to give them the phone until I tried for the third time. Their excuses “Have you tried to patch it?”,...

Tomorrow we have the last demo of the project. It feels great when you think of what we have accomplished in this short while:

• 4-5 persons
• 6 months (including the famous Swedish vacation month of 6 weeks)
• 100 000 lines of code
• Implementing and learning new architecture and Scrum

I am really proud of the project and the members in it. Thank you guys for the opportunity to do this together.

The last few weeks there have been a lot of really strange and sad things happening in my network of friends and relatives. There have been deaths, suicidal, people nearly dying, relationships ending and several friends with some pretty serious problems to handle.

At the same time I feel like I am on the right place and at the right time in life. I experience the best project and learning experience of my life at work, I love the band and my corps and most of all Elin and I have never had it better.

Why is this? It feels really strange to still feel … not happy but strong, maybe. I can only take it as a blessing from God and that I hope that I can be of support to anyone who needs me. I cannot count the number of times it’s been the other way around.

My...

Just some short lines of praise to an excellent web GUI to access TFS (Team Foundation Server) - Team plain.

Via this GUI you can easily access most functionality for TFS in a very nice manner. And this have to be the nicest Web-GUI i’ve ever seen. I could possibly be because it’s using AJAX - and then my friends the future promises good thing for us.

We are closing in on the end of the project (the development phase) and it a mixture of feelings that comes over me.

First and foremost I would say it’s a bit of sadness. This is the best project i’ve been in so far - a lot of fun, speed, wild discussions and great flow in the group. Much to this I have to credit SCRUM for - which promotes just those things; building teams and delivering software.

Then of course I am proud of what we have accomplished. 100 000 lines of code in 4 months, 4 people. And the structure of the system feels very nice too - the bugs that are found now is quite easy to fix.

So the project is, in all right, slowing down while we are transiting into the testing phase. Oh how I would have loved to have testers in our team....

Here is a video with the Cory Band and a singing group. Really nice and made the hairs of my arm stand on end.

Pretty cool in the beginning when the band takes the stage (i.e. mountain)…

Every Monday morning I usually listens to the last broadcast of Listen to the band. This week there are some serious playing going on… Grimethorpe and Black Dyke.

This is very, very good playing indeed - and live. Don’t try this a home kids… Please keep all limbs inside the computer until it has come to a complete stop. :)

It’s out for a week. Don’t miss the chance to hear some great playing.