John Howell

Microsoft has put together a very cool web site giving you some information about Microsoft Technology.  It’s informative and VERY entertaining!  Check it out!

Warning!  The following content can cause uncontrollable excitement in developers and web designers. Please attempt to remain seated and please avoid screaming (it will cause chaos in the cubicles next to you).

Expression has gone Beta!

Download your free trial today!!!!!

Here is a very good and very quick demo of using the Report Viewer control.   It also demonstrates the TableAdapter and adding charts to a report.  Worth the 5 min to watch.

In a recent discussion about project development techniques (or more appropriately ‘styles’), it became evident that what worked for one team didn’t necessarily work for the next team.  We all came to this conclusion without any territorial resentment, just the purpose of trying to find out what’s best. When we began to discuss why one technique worked or didn’t work, we discovered that there were four major pieces that seem to determine whether a technique will ‘fit’.

The first piece is the team itself, the talent, the skill level and even the historical experience seemed to play a part. The second was the Project Manager. The leader may or may not have a prejudice against one technique or another or may not be open or any one of a hundred other influences. The third is the type of project of course. Many of the techniques work for small scale projects but tend to break down in large scale projects. That’s not to say that they won’t work, but they have to be handled differently in order to meet the needs of the project. The fourth piece is ultimately the client and owner. It could be an outside client or it could be the ‘boss man’. Your project management style MUST be able to provide the EXPECTED information at the EXPECTED pace. Otherwise, it will be viewed as a failure before you even complete it.

That last phrase can also be lent to everyone that plays a part in the project. A project works best when one person gives the other person the information they need, in the format best suited for them and at a speed best for their needs.

I know I’ve just opened about a dozen cans of worms in one post, but we’ll go into these things in more detail as we go along. Just remember, a project is a living thing who’s moving parts are everyone involved.

Here comes Acropolis and Hawaii!

And if that wasn’t enough, this little tidbit…

What an exciting time to be in the software business!!!!

I know, I know, geek alert, but you really need to check this one out.  This is an industrial strength server that you can install WITHOUT the GUI (called Server Core installation option).  That saves cycles and patches.  You have PowerShell to do and automate virtually anything that needs doing.  There are some REALLY cool IIS features going in that haven’t even been talked much about.  This is going to be a great update!

Sorry to be off-line for so long.  I haven’t taken the family on vacation for several years so we decided to just take one.  Took the boys (3 & 5) down to Disney World in FL.   The 10 hour drive each way was tough but watching their expressions was worth it all.  Thanks for your patience and I already have a few things waiting in the wings to post.   🙂

The Code Project has a good ‘starter’ example to get you started working with SilverLight.   Check it out!  Short read and will get you oriented to the basics. 

Whether ’tis nobler in the CPU to suffer the memory consumption and poor performance of outrageous XMLDOMs, Or to take arms against a sea of XML shredding, and by examining them, remove them.

OK, that’s not quite how that goes, but you get the idea.  I’m sure most of you deal with XML in some form or fashion and Microsoft  has made it easy to deal with and shread XML.  Our web services inhale XML, our databases shred it and then our web services exhale XML.  But wait, you said "our databases shread it".  Yes I did.  Many places feel that since their data is already in XML it’s more performant to keep it in XML and only shread it as needed; which is subsequently in the database.  So is it really more performant?  Some will disagree but the real answer is no.  SQL Server 2005 will deal with XML easily and without complaint, but there is no free lunch here!  You’re building overhead into your process by relying on the dB to do your shreading.  Sure you can do it, but the XML DOM is not going to be as fast (yet) as the query engine.

In one midsized app, looking over some performance analysis revealed that 85% of the time from request to response was IN THE DATABASE!  That’s not even near sane.  Any complex processing should be in your tiers.   That gives you an easy path to scale.  Databases perform best with simple data types.  You could index on an element in an XML column, but why in Gate’s name would you????  You could keep everything in BLOBs too, but why would you?

So, come on people.  Think!  There are times when you have no choice but to deal with XML in the database.  But for heaven’s sake, if it is a high maintenance column or you have to do more than just store and retrieve it, think of an alternative!  Don’t kill the entire performance of your system just because you think you can move all your code from the middle tier into the database.

OK, I know I’m going to get flamed and I don’t know everything.  So if you have a high TPS system shreading, storing and maintaining XML the database, I’d love to hear about it.

Holy cow!  How long have we been waiting for this one!  Finally better integration between our development worlds.  We can thank the "Data Dude" for his perseverance and dedication to get this one to this point.  Check it out!

BTW, for those of you who don’t know: VSDBPro is Visual Studio for Database Professionals!