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I just needed to blog this so that I have a bookmark reference to it.

My GotDotNet User Samples cracked the 4,000 download mark today!

OK, one day into it and I'm already making changes. My new categories for recording development time are:

So, today I started out on my path to statistical verification. My first job was to grab a small, pocket-sized notebook to keep track of my daily entries. The notebook will be kept in my pocket at work so that I can easily make entries as they are required. The idea of using paper - as opposed to some sort of technological wizardry - was forwarded by Darrell Norton who seems to be a fountain of useful information when it comes to process improvement ideas and the like... thanks Darrell!

The ASP.NET ContextMenu server control is now available from GotDotNet:

Yesterday's discussion on "developer metrics" seemed to be a bit of a curve-ball and I received some mixed feedback. I think that one thing which threw people was when I mentioned the deadly phrase: "Counting Lines of Code" { insert sinister sound effect }. It's a bad metric and should be removed from my original posting unless (of course) you have a tool which is sophisticated enough to provide a reliable and meaningful count of lines (i.e.: working lines, raw lines, checked-in lines etc.) -- and I don't! And nor do any of the programmers that I know, so I'm gunna chuck that measurement out (for now).

I finished off some of the rough edges of ContextMenu tonight and have to say that I am quite impressed with the result. Although, I have to say that this will be the last control that I build using VB until Whidbey; the sad part of this story is that after spending 5 or 6 hours working on it I am unable to get VBCommenter to successfully emit Xml based on my code comments.

The other day whilst reading some of ^Z's entries it struck me that he uses metrics to mark many of his important observations. This is a hallmark of many of my trusted sources of information. For example Mark has been keeping a log-book of his jogging; he can now look back through the statistics that he's been keeping and use them to check his jogging patterns. I think that this is important because - as I've mentioned previously - it's often easier to plan for where you are going if you know where you're coming from.