Shop windows have been unboarded, the bunting has been put away and cats, dogs and small children can be let out to play: The Chaps have returned home from their tri-annual 4 Chaps event. Speaking to a representative of The Swindon Mayhem Containment Society (SMaCS), Mike Bawden (the Mayor of Swindon) was heard to say "Thank God that’s over for another 3 years". As Tudor, Scott, Long and Smith-Ferrier, aka 4 Chaps From Blighty, left Swindon under police escort, the military begun the process of stepping down. A local Swindon man (who for obvious reasons did not want to be named) had this to say: "Forget 120 arrests in Stuttgart. We survived a visit by The 4 Chaps. And most of my family are still alive". He went on to say that a lovely semi-detatched with resplendent rose bushes and floral arrangements is expected to be for sale in another 2 years and 363 days.

From left to right: Brian Long, Steve Tudor, Steve Scott, Guy Smith-Ferrier.

When criticized that putting the Royal Navy on full alert and cancelling all leave was over-reacting the Home Secretary had this to say "Everyone thought all of the preparation for the Y2K bug was overkill after the event. But what would have happened if we hadn’t done all that preparation ?".

4 Chaps spokesperson, Steve Tudor, left with these final words: "Honestly, I don’t know what all the fuss is about. We just came to have some beer and a chat. I really think you’re over-reacting".

If you’re interested in the World Cup in Germany this June and July you might like to know that Microsoft have a free utility for keeping track of events, scores, teams and everything to do with each game. You can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=df6a6e6e-21af-4786-ad1d-a38e8bfda82f&displaylang=en.

One of the cool features in MS Scoreboard is the fact that it can alert you when goals are scored or red or yellow cards are given.

At present it has a problem where it displays GMT time and not BST time so all of the times are one hour ahead if you’re in the UK. However, it has an auto update facility built in and they intend to fix this bug before 9th June so your copy will be automatically updated by then.

The Problem
DDD is a great free event held twice a year at Microsoft’s UK Campus in Reading. It provides 4 simultaneous sessions from non-Microsoft speakers and promotes home grown talent whilst providing the usual excellent Microsoft food. The problem is that it is very popular. It is always sold out and the latest DDD3 is no exception. It is so sold out that typically even the waiting list is full. This is a great problem to have. DDD wants a problem like this. But it is a problem all the same. So we need a solution.

The Solution
The solution is a bit tricky because at 400 attendees (including speakers and staff) Microsoft is at capacity. So increasing the number of attendees whilst keeping the same location doesn’t work.

It is a free event because Microsoft foots the bill but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost Microsoft anything. If the event were moved to a different location someone would have to pay for the location and the food. The likelihood is that it wouldn’t be free then.

So here’s my solution: repeat DDD on another day. In other words run the whole event twice. The second day could either be the next day (i.e. the Sunday) or the following Saturday. Attendees would sign up for one specific day.

It’s a simple plan but it might work. I welcome everyone’s opinions on how to solve this problem so don’t be shy in piping up.

On this 21st day of the month of October in the year of 2005 I have officially joined the rest of the community in the adventure that is blogging. Like most bloggers I feel that this is way overdue but at last I’m here.

Over the coming weeks and months I hope to give you a feel for who I am and what I do but to summarize for now I am a Microsoft .NET Solutions Architect, author, speaker and trainer. On this blog you will see posts on the .NET Framework, software development in general and considerable content on a subject of great interest to me: .NET Internationalization.

I hope you enjoy this blog and trust you will be patient with my first attempts.

Guy Smith-Ferrier