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 Page Brooks "Mr. Silverlight" has just kicked it up a notch...
Imagine the Silverlight developer community in a friendly competition to created to see who can write the best Silverlight control. That's what has begun at GoSilverlight.org, brain child of Page. From the site: Welcome to the Silverlight Control Builder Contest! With this contest, we hope to incite the development of many open and free Silverlight Controls that all developers can use in their applications... ... and win some pretty cool prizes... Prizes? Oh yeah... Here they are: 1st Place: - 1-Year MSDN Premium Subscription (Not for Resale)
- Your choice of one book from the entire O'Reilly catalog
2nd Place - Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition
- Your choice of one book from the entire O'Reilly catalog
3rd Place - Essential Silverlight 2 Up-to-Date from O'Reilly
- Your choice of one book from the entire O'Reilly catalog
To read the specific rules and submit your entries visit http://gosilverlight.org/
 My good friend Chris Craft started a 30 days of mobile development series last weekend. If you are into mobile development or would like to learn more about it... Check it out. He explains the app, explains the technology, provides screen shots, and provides code in C#. For you VB.NET people... visit Lou Vega's blog for the VB.NET code.
From Chris' site: Over the years, I have given many presentations on developing Windows Mobile applications. One thing that I have heard time and time again is that people have a hard time writing their first mobile application. I think sometimes people have a hard time taking those first steps. It is easy to think that it will take too much time, and that it will be too hard. But that is simply not the case. But instead of telling people, I'm going to show them how easy it really is. The key here is simple: "Taking baby steps is better than taking no steps at all!" I plan on writing 30 mobile applications in the next 30 days. I will publish both the executable and the source code for each application. My goal is for each of these applications to be useful, interesting, and straight-forward. Someone considering writing their first Windows Mobile application should be able to look at these applications and "get it". One of the great things about his series... He is looking for more ideas for his applications. I encourage you to go to his site and leave him a comment... you never know, he may choose yours to write as part of his 30 day challenge.
We moved the event to April 29th for this month... Please help us by registering for the event. Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Chris Reeder, Chris Craft, and Page Brooks
Topic: SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008 (Respectively) Tuesday, April 29th, 2008, is the next meeting of the Pee Dee Area .NET User Group. Chris Reeder, Chris Craft, and Page Brooks will be presenting on the latest exciting new products from Microsoft. First, Chris Reeder will give us a run down on a few cool features in SQL Server 2008. Next, Chris Craft will take us on a tour of some excellent new features in Internet Information Services 7 (IIS7). Page Brooks will finish off the presentation with a few cool tips and tricks in Visual Studio 2008. Please click the link below to register. We use this information to determine how much food to buy!
 Here is the tentative schedule:
6:00 PM - 6:20 PM Socializing / Free Dinner
6:20 PM - 6:30 PM Introduction, Sponsor Time, and News.
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Presentations
I almost made this post into one long April Fool's joke about me becoming a Microsoft MVP... but..... - I could not think of anything I am even close to being competent enough to receive an MVP nomination... much less an actual MVP...
- With a site like StupidProgrammer.com, who would believe me about being an MVP...
- Does Microsoft have a MVP for great blogs... hum... that wouldn't even get me a nomination...
- So, instead...
How about I send a shout out to Chris Craft for receiving his MVP in Device Application Development! That is not an April Fool's joke! Way to go Chris! You truly do show a deep commitment to the .NET community and have a GREAT willingness to help me others!
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
Bill Ryan
Topic: ADO.NET 3.5 (LINQ) and Windows Home Server! Tuesday, February 12th, 2008, is the next meeting of the Pee Dee Area .NET User Group. Bill is a typical .NET Nerd, and a Microsoft MVP. Currently, he works as a Principal Consultant and Technology Evangelist for Magenic Technologies in Atlanta, GA. He is quite active in the development community speaking frequently at users groups, code camps and web casts. In addition, Bill has authored several books and worked extensively with Microsoft and partners to develop training content for the MCTS and MCPD certification exams. In addition to spending most of his time playing with ADO.NET and the .NET Compact Framework, he helps run http://www.knowdotnet.com/ and http://www.devbuzz.com/. Part I: ADO.NET 3.5 (LINQ)
Bill Ryan will be doing an overview of ADO .NET 3.5, in particular LINQ, in preparation for an advanced ADO.NET course he'll be doing in Stockholm, Sweden. So be sure to bring your tough questions. Part II: Windows Home Server Bill Ryan will follow up with an overview on Windows Home Server cover everything from how to set it up, all the way to what all can it do. If possible, he will bring his Windows Home Server and let everyone see it for themselves. Please click the link below to register. We use this information to determine how much food to buy! Tentative schedule: 6:00 PM - 6:20 PM Socializing / Free Dinner
6:20 PM - 6:30 PM Introduction, Sponsor Time, and News.
6:30 PM - 7:15 PM Presentation
7:15 PM - 8:00 PM Drawing for free stuff / Wrap Up
 Last year, our local .NET User Group held a four session .NET University to cover the 3.0 Framework (WPF, WCF, WF, and CardSpace).
Now, thanks to Karl Rissland (special thanks to Doug for sharing the information), there are sessions for BizTalk. You can get all the information over at the .NET University Site (Power Points, videos, labs, etc...). If there is anyone that would like to present the material at our Pee Dee Area User Group, please let me know!!!
For those that have never heard of this product... You should check it out. Microsoft recently released a new version (FREE) downloadable here. What is it you ask... The SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) gathers data from Microsoft Windows and SQL Server configuration settings. BPA uses a predefined list of SQL Server 2005 recommendations and best practices to determine if there are potential issues in the database environment. It provides a great deal of information about your servers. I ran it on my local SQL Server so I could show an example and it found this. Apply Cumulative Update to Improve Query Performance On versions of SQL Server before 9.0.3171.0, a known issue can degrade query performance on 32-bit and 64-bit systems with 2 gigabytes (GB) or more of memory. When you execute queries under the context of a login that is not a member of the sysadmin fixed server role, you might encounter performance degradation symptoms that arise from a large and growing Security Token cache. These issues can include performance degradation of queries, high CPU usage for the SQL Server process, and a sharp increase in worker threads and SQL user connections. Systems that have less than 2 GB of memory should not experience these issues because normal memory usage requirements keep the Security Token cache from growing too large. Best Practices Recommendations Apply the latest cumulative update package or cumulative update package #3 from the SQL Server Support page to SQL Server versions before 9.0.3171.0. Alternatively, you can apply the following hotfixes, which are all included in cumulative update package #3. - KB article 927396: Queries take a longer time to finish running when the size of the TokenAndPermUserStore cache grows in SQL Server 2005
- KB article 933564: FIX: A gradual increase in memory consumption for the USERSTORE_TOKENPERM cache store occurs in SQL Server 2005
- KB article 937745: FIX: You may receive error messages when you try to log in to an instance of SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server handles many concurrent connections
Kinda interesting stuff. Other items listed (for more examples). Keep in mind, this is my local SQL development server... don't be too critical  - Sysdtslog90 Table is found in [msdb] database on Server [slowMachine]. Do not create the Sysdtslog90 table for logging in the [master] and [msdb] databases. This is not a security related concern but could be a performance issue since SSIS can generate a lot of logging data. We recommend creating a separate database for logging.
- Login [goodUserBlah] on Server [slowMachine] has Password Policy set to [True] and Password Expiration set to [False]. We recommend that both Password Policy and Expiration must be enabled for SQL accounts.
- Service [MSSQLSERVER] on host [slowMachine] is found to be running under LocalSystem account. We recommend that SQL Server services should not run under LocalSystem account.
- Database [awesomeDatabase] on server [slowMachine] does not have PAGE_VERIFY option set to 'CHECKSUM'. We recommend setting PAGE_VERIFY option to 'CHECKSUM'.
- It's found that DBCC CheckDB for database [awesomeDatabase] on server [slowMachine] has not executed ever since the database created. We recommend you to check the database for integrity at least once in 14 days.
Anyway... you get the idea... SQL 2000 Version here. NOTE: You will need registry access to scan the SQL Server.
 Wow! What a night last night. We (PDANUG) had the pleasure of having Brian Hitney and Chad Brooks come to little ole' Florence, SC. It was exciting to see 33 techies crammed into our conference room with laptops and power strips everywhere!
Watching everyone play guitar hero was fun... lets just say... some people are obviously better than others! And it showed! I am speaking for Florence and the rest of South Carolina, a location that does not get credit for being the tech center of the South.... Thank you both for everything you guys do for us!!! YOU BOTH ROCK!!!
Oh yeah... Getting a FREE copy of Visual Studio 2008 rocked too!!!
We have a saying where I grew up (Lancaster, SC): "Free is for me"
Coming to Florence, SC, tomorrow, December 11th, 2007!!! Pee Dee Area .NET User Groups Presents: Brian Hitney & Chad Brooks
Topic: Visual Studio 2008 Install-fest!!
Directions: http://pdanug.net Tentative schedule: 6:00 PM - 6:20 PM Socializing / Free Food / XBox 360 Play
6:20 PM - 6:30 PM Introduction, Sponsor Time, and News.
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Presentation / VS 2008 Install-fest and Wrap Up I know I posted about this here, but I wanted to remind everyone planning on attending to please register. To do so, follow the link below: 
And if you are not currently subscribed to the Pee Dee Area .NET User Group blog, you can here  to keep informed.
Coming to Florence, SC; December 11th, 2007!!! Pee Dee Area .NET User Groups Presents: Brian Hitney
Topic: Silverlight and AJAX Development with Visual Studio 2008 + Visual Studio 2008 Install-fest!!
 We have a very special holiday event planned for December! Brian Hitney from Microsoft will be dropping in to give us an overview of Silverlight and AJAX development in Visual Studio 2008. You don’t want to miss this event because Brian will be bringing with him a FREE COPY of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional for each attendee! That’s right, a free copy to all attendees! However, there are some rules that you must follow: - You must be present to receive a copy of Visual Studio 2008 Professional.
- It is highly recommended that each attendee bring their laptop/desktop to the event, after all, this is an install-fest. For those people with desktops, we may have a few extra LCD panels at the event for general use but they will be first-come first-serve.
- Quantities of Visual Studio 2008 Professional are limited and the people who bring their computers will be first in line. In other words, if you don’t bring your computer and we run out of copies to hand out, you simply won’t receive a copy.
- These copies of Visual Studio 2008 Professional are Not for Resale. (No E-bay!!!)
Please register here so we have an idea of how many people will be attending.
Tentative schedule:
6:00 PM - 6:20 PM Socializing / Free Dinner
6:20 PM - 6:30 PM Introduction, Sponsor Time, and News.
6:30 PM - 7:15 PM Presentation
7:15 PM - 8:00 PM VS 2008 Install-fest and Wrap Up Hope to see you there!!!
 It is here... With everyone promoting the released of Visual Studio 2008...
What about SQL? Yeah I know, not yet RTM... but an update either way. Get it while it's hot! (download here) Also, Express Edition is now available with this release...
 Russ Fustino is coming to Florence, SC this Wednesday! Russ is a MSDN Developer Community Champion for Microsoft. (Register for the event here) Russ is stopping by on his way to Raleigh from Tallahassee!
FYI: A copy of Office Ultimate 2007 will be given away! Did you ever feel inundated with developer tools? Did you ever feel you are missing something that could make your life easier as a developer and as a power user? There are so many tools available to choose from and it keeps getting tougher to keep up with. Tool familiarity continues to be one of the top developers challenges. This series of seminars is all about tools for developers, by developers. Welcome to this new, fresh and original ground breaking MSDN seminar series from Russ’ Tool Shed called … It’s All About The Tools. This is the first installment of many more to come. This session is tech talk about tools for developers. Join Microsoft Florida Developer Evangelist Russ Fustino for his take on what's hot in the developer's toolbox. There's something here for everyone, from beginners to experts. Oh, by the way, you might want to put your hard hat on for this one! In this session you will see demonstrations the following tools and a few more surprises… Fiddler
Web Stress Tool
IE Developer Toolbar
Visual Studio IDE tools
code convertors
obfuscator
snippit manager (and the snippet tool in vista as a bonus)
toolbox scratch pad
Refactor
Visual Studio Express tool’s
Visual Web Developer Express:
Web Administrator
Membership and personalization
Visual Express C#
XNA Express
Live Services
Spaces
Live Writer
MSDN article on search provider (2007.08) Silverlight 1.0/1.1 XAML Designer (Expression Blend)
Community Tool Web Site Review
Top downloaded SDK’s
GotDotNet: http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/ide/
MSDN Dev Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/downloads/powertoys/
CodePlex home: http://www.codeplex.com/Default.aspx
Download center and more! To find out more and register for the event go here. This is going to be an awesome event! Florence, Columbia, Charleston, Conway, Myrtle Beach, Fayetteville, Wilmington, Charlotte (anyone from anyplace)... You are ALL WELCOME to attend this FREE event.
I have known about this for a while, but just recently stumbled upon it again. Here is a cool site at http://www.databaseanswers.org to assist with data model designs. They have hundreds of database designs specific for certain types of needs such as... 163+ data models... Thanks Chris Craft for first sharing the site with me!
 Windows 2008 RC0 was released yesterday. I am really looking forward to using IIS7. I am anxious to setup a few web sites with SQL 2008 and see how it works and performs.
Get it Windows 2008 RC0 here
Get SQL 2008 CTP here Cool Benefits of Windows 2008 (taken from here) - Cross-site copy allows you to easily copy Web site settings across multiple Web servers without additional configuration.
- Built-in virtualization to virtualize multiple operating systems—Windows, Linux and others—on a single server. With virtualization built into the operating system and with simpler, more flexible licensing policies, it's now easier than ever to take advantage of all the benefits and cost savings of virtualization.
- Protection of your server with security innovations that reduce attack surface area of the kernel, resulting in a more robust and secure server environment.
- Protection against malicious software with User Account Control with a new authentication architecture. (NOOOOOOOOOOO)
- Simplified management of your IT infrastructure by using new tools that provide a one-stop interface for server configuration and monitoring, as well as the ability to automate routine tasks.
- Effectively pinpointing and resolving trouble spots with powerful diagnostic tools that give you ongoing visibility into your server environment, both physical and virtual.
And the one I really want to see... - Delegated administration of applications and sites so you can give control to different parts of the Web server to those who need it.
My understanding is that this will allow web hosting companies to give more control of IIS to clients hosting their web applications on your server. Pretty cool!!! Thanks Somasegar for the announcement.
Jacob Sebastian wrote a very cool article on "power of the merge"... How many times have you needed to merge data between tables... or mobile devices to central servers... "MERGE, a new keyword which performs INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE operations at one go" His example: Old way to merge tables: 1 /*
2 Pseudo code used for saving sales order information with SQL Server 2005
3
4 -- save order header information
5 If OrderNumber found in OrderHeader
6 Update the information
7 Else
8 Insert the information
9 end
10
11 -- save order detail information
12 Delete from Order detail table all items not in the order info
13 Update Order detail for all items present in the order info
14 Insert into order details all new items in the order info
15 */ New Way using Merge 1 /*
2 Pseudo code for saving the same order with the MERGE statement of SQL Server 2008
3
4 -- save order header information
5 MERGE order info to Order Header table
6
7 -- save order detail information
8 MERGE order info to order detail table
9 */ "No, I did not miss anything. You can write the code in just 2 lines." Check out entire article here.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007, is our next meeting of Pee Dee Area .NET User's Group. Chris Craft, from ACS Technologies, will be presenting Visual Studio .NET Tips and Tricks - Part II. Material from Part I will be recovered for any of those who may have missed it, and new tips and tricks will be presented. Visual Studio .NET is filled with thousands of features and capabilities that make our lives as developers more efficient. The number of features that Visual Studio .NET contains is immense. The Visual Studio .NET Tips and Tricks presentation is a compilation of my favorite, and most popular, tips and tricks for this great IDE. Developers who are unaware of these timesaving features miss out on opportunities to increase their programming productivity and effectiveness. This Visual Studio .NET Tips and Tricks presentation is meant to explain how to use Visual Studio .NET more effectively. Here is the tentative schedule:
6:00 PM - 6:20 PM Socializing / Dinner
6:20 PM - 6:30 PM Introduction, Sponsor Time, and News.
6:30 PM - 7:45 PM Presentation
7:45 PM - 8:00 PM Drawing and Wrap Up
Please subscribe to the PDANUG Upcoming Events and News Feed here ( ).
Tuesday, August 14, 2007, is our next meeting of Pee Dee Area .NET User's Group. Chris Reeder (that's me), from ACS Technologies, will be presenting an Introduction to SQL Server Data Partitioning. Learn how to better handle billions of records in one table or how to make better use of fast and slow drive combinations. Will also explore how to speed up disaster recovery and other maintenance. We will see real world benefits and situations for using this new feature to SQL Server 2005. Here is the tentative schedule: 6:00 PM - 6:20 PM Socializing / Dinner
6:20 PM - 6:30 PM Introduction, Sponsor Time, and News
6:30 PM - 7:45 PM Presentation on SQL Data Partitioning
7:45 PM - 8:00 PM Drawing and Wrap Up Please subscribe to the PDANUG Upcoming Events and News Feed here.
sp_msforeachdb
This allows the ability to write a SQL statement for all databases.
Example:
If I want to backup all databases on my SQL Box... EXEC sp_msforeachdb 'BACKUP DATABASE ? TO DISK = ''E:\ChrisReederTemp\?.bak'' WITH FORMAT'
Notice the question mark in the SQL statement. This is the wildcard for the database name.
Jon Galloway has a pretty good post on sp_msforeachdb with a great example of backup and restores.
Do you ever need/want to monitor if your Transaction Log on SQL Server is getting full??? If so, here is a way to do it: DBCC SQLPERF(logspace)
Below is an example of the output from Books Online:
Database Name Log Size (MB) Log Space Used (%) Status
------------- ------------- ------------------ -----------
pubs 1.99219 4.26471 0
msdb 3.99219 17.0132 0
tempdb 1.99219 1.64216 0
model 1.0 12.7953 0
master 3.99219 14.3469 0
Funny site note: That status column... it will always be zero according to books online. He He...
If you have the same curiosity about the actual data file(s)...
sp_spaceused
Results from the master database:
database_name database_size unallocated space
------------- ------------- -----------------
master 16.63 1.63 MB
reserved data index_size unused
-------- ------ ----------- --------
14592 KB 10592 KB 1344 KB 2656 KB
You can find other great DBCC commands here.
 Tuesday, July 10, 2007, is our next meeting of Pee Dee Area .NET User's Group.
Chris Craft, from Taylor Data Systems, and Page Brooks, from ACS Technologies, will be presenting a follow up introduction to Silverlight, Microsoft's new platform for delivering rich internet applications (RIAs). We will further explore Silverlight and related technologies. Here is the tentative schedule: 6:00 PM - 6:20 PM Socializing / Dinner
6:20 PM - 6:30 PM Introduction, Sponsor Time, and News
6:30 PM - 7:45 PM Presentation on Silverlight
7:45 PM - 8:00 PM Drawing and Wrap Up Please subscribe to the PDANUG Upcoming Events and News Feed here.
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