Welcome to Andy Heathershaw

Welcome to the personal website and blog of software developer – Andy Heathershaw.

I’m a commercial Microsoft .NET developer and open-source PHP developer based in the West Midlands, England. I live with my husband and I’m daddy to a nine-year-old Labrador called Mickey and two growing boys.

Check out About Andy Heathershaw to read more about me, or browse my blog posts below.

  • Posting to social media? Why timing is everything

    Earlier this month, myself and James went to see Take That play the opening night of their Wonderland tour in Birmingham, and I learnt an important lesson when posting to social media.

    It was a a great gig and I took lots of photos for my gallery. Like most people, I used the power of social media to quickly share the joy and the buzz I felt.

    DevOps , Reflections Read more


  • “Explosions” at Manchester Arena following Ariana Grande concert

    A reported 19 concert-goers attending an Ariana Grande gig in Manchester have been killed following an explosion in a foyer area within the arena.

    Greater Manchester Police are treating the incident as terrorism.

    DevOps , Reflections Read more


  • Take That Wonderland 2017

    I was lucky enough to have received tickets for the opening night of Take That’s Wonderland 2017 live tour.

    The boys played the Genting Arena in Birmingham and were supported by 90s girl group, All Saints.

    I’ve been a Take That fan since before the breakup. I’ve supported them since the re-formation, the arrival and departure again of Robbie, and the more recent departure of Jason. I was gutted to have missed out on The Circus tour (regretted not trying to get tickets after seeing the DVD!) so I was extremely excited for Wonderland Live 2017.

    DevOps , Reflections Read more


  • Simply Remind Me: my first SaaS application

    It’s rare for commercial software developers, such as myself, to get to use the software we write. We rely on our users to report problems or suggest new features for the applications we develop.

    Therefore when I read about a PHP development framework (Laravel) that looked so interesting I just had to try it out, I came up with the idea of an application where you tell it all the dates that are important to you, and it will send you e-mail or SMS text messages when those dates are coming up.

    And so… Simply Remind Me was born.

    DevOps , Reflections Read more


  • Delegate invocation can be simplified – C#

    When you have worked with the same technology day-in, day-out for almost 15 years, it’s easy to miss some of the “under-the-radar” changes that are made without any fan-fare.

    This, for me, is one of those in C#.

    DevOps , Reflections Read more


  • Server maintenance – 1st/2nd November

    My hosting company, Memset Ltd., have advised me they will be performing important maintenance work on their Miniserver platform.

    It is taking place between 22:00 GMT on 1st November and 04:00 GMT on 2nd November. My server will be down for 15-30 minutes during this period.

    Read more about what this maintenance involves in this article.

    DevOps , Reflections Read more


  • Walt Disney World to close for Matthew’s arrival

    The Walt Disney World resort announced on Twitter earlier today that it will be closing all theme parks, water parks, golf courses, Disney Springs and the ESPN sports complex for hurricane Matthew’s arrival.

    The parks will close at 5pm local time today (Thursday) and will not open at all on Friday.

    DevOps , Reflections Read more


  • Sky become the first UK ISP to enable IPv6

    Sky – who provide broadband and digital TV services to UK residents and businesses – have recently enabled IPv6 to their consumer broadband customers.

    DevOps , Reflections Read more


  • OneDrive storage is no longer unlimited

    … after some people upload too much.

    “Today, storage limits just became a thing of the past with Office 365.”
    Julia White, general manager of Office 365 Technical Product Management. 27th October, 2014

    Fast forward to November 2015 and storage limits have just become present again.

    DevOps , Reflections Read more


  • A weekend afternoon in Autumn

    It’s getting cold outside, the trees and foliage are turning a different shade of brown or yellow with each passing day and the dark nights are drawing in – Autumn is most definitely here.

    DevOps , Reflections Read more