Recent posts

Today I tried installing the latest Express Edition of SQL Server: version 2017. Sadly, Microsoft no longer seems to offer offline installers. If you look at their download page, you’ll only find the option for downloading a small, 5 MB bootstrapper that will then take care of downloading the actual installation files. Even Scott Hanselman’s famous page only links to it now, instead of any real installation media.  read full post

I attended the ESA Open Day this year, at ESTEC in Noordwijk (The Netherlands). read full post

There’s a logic puzzle called Einstein’s Riddle (originally known as the Zebra Puzzle) which is supposedly pretty well-known, as far as logic puzzles are concerned. It’s also claimed to be quite difficult, with only 2% of people capable of solving it, although that sounds pretty sensationalist and I can’t find a source for that figure.  read full post

If you use C#, you’re probably familiar with interpolated strings, introduced in C# 6. In case you’re not, this:  read full post

If you’ve ever worked with Entity Framework, then you’re probably familiar with the .Include(…) function. You’ve probably also wondered if it’s possible to perform a conditional include (i.e. including only those entities that match a certain predicate). The include function itself doesn’t allow for this, and I thought it simply wasn’t possible until a coworker showed me the following trick.  read full post

There’s lots to love about Windows Phone, but since I’m nitpicking stuff anyway I figure I might as well rant about the rest of my annoyances.  read full post

When you power on your Windows Phone, it automatically prompts you for your SIM PIN to unlock, well, the phone part of the phone. Of course it’s possible to cancel out of this dialog, because unlocking the phone is not required to access the rest of the device.  read full post