The case of the missing Tilde ~

I've been looking at Ruby on Rails recently following the book Rails for .Net developers. This has meant I've been working in a Windows 7 VM in my Mac Book Pro. (I use the excellent Parallels). At some point in the book I had to use the tilde (~) symbol but the life of me couldn't find it as the tilde (~) key produces a pipe |. My Web Search skills failed me and there seemed to be nothing on the Parallels site but eventually I discovered it. So for the benefit of the next person to search I'm going to document it here. 

To type a tilde (~) in a windows 7 vm on parallels with a macbook pro you press:

SHIFT and §  

That's shift and the section sign symbol (§) which is the ±.

EDIT: This works for VMWare too.

Thoughts on Testing

I drew a picture with Balsamiq. Which is great. These are my current thoughts on testing.

Consider this blog part II of my SEO unfriendly series.

Community Rocks

Apparently Microsoft gave out there MVP awards today. MVPs (most valuable professionals are described as such:

These exceptional community leaders come from a wide range of backgrounds. They are teachers, artists, doctors, engineers, as well as technologists, who actively share their high-quality, real-world technical expertise with the community and with Microsoft.

Inevitably there are people who don't get these award who deserve them. Those people that give their time and effort unselfishly for the benefit of others. Or those who want to have their efforts recognised but they've not quite made it.

I seem to be meeting more and more people that "actively share their high-quality, real-world technical expertise with the community" either through Twitter or sites like StackOverflow, the blogosphere or the user groups I attend. And that's ignoring the tons of excellent free open-source software. So I just wanted to thank you all. I don't care about your motivations whether they be completely altruistic or for the fact you're trying to jump up a notch in some imaginary ladder. Your engagement with me validates this sometimes difficult job. Thank you.