IT and DEV

Should I Use the sp_ Prefix for Procedure Names?

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:25:00 +0000

A little gem: SQL Server gives name-resolution preference to the master database for procedures that have the sp_ prefix. SQL Server looks for a compiled plan for the procedure associated with the master database and doesn't find it because, in this case, the sp_Select1 procedure exists in tempdb. SQL Server assumes the procedure isn't in cache (and thus must be recompiled) and acquires an exclusive compile lock on the stored procedure for a short time. However, the short time that the lock exists is enough to cause performance problems...

Should I Use the sp_ Prefix for Procedure Names?

Using a prefix like usp_ should circumvent this quite nicely. Apart from that, having a naming convention (or nomenclature) in place is a great big ol' must have!

Antratek is selling .NET Micro Framework products

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:16:00 +0000

It's good to see that Antratek, a Dutch company, is now also selling a hardware platform with support for the .NET Micro Framework, the Embedded Master modules. The web site is in Dutch, translation is here. They're the first in the Benelux!

One of the nice key features (pdf) of the platform is a FAT file system using USB memory devices such as hard drives, as well as SD/MMC cards. Near unlimited data recording and storage, anyone?

It comes complete with Ethernet with full TCP/IP stack, 2 USB ports and the obligatory features like analog in/outputs, Serial Interfaces, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and so on. Prices start at EUR 199,96 for the Development Platform and EUR 63,96 for the Master Module.

I've bought stuff from Antratek before and it was a pleasure doing business with them.

Personal note: I am not affiliated with Antratek in any way.

SharePoint Object Hierarchy: How it all fits together

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:00:00 +0000

Martin Kearn, a Microsoft Consultant from the UK, has drafted a picture of the overall Sharepoint hierarchy: How it all fits together. A very nice overview which certainly has its benefits.

Thanks Martin!

TED: Benjamin Zander

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:12:00 +0000

Benjamin Zander talks passionately about Classical Music and his definition of success.

A great talk.

Passed My 24th Exam

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:52:00 +0000

Yesterday morning I took exam 70-431, SQL Server 2005 Technical Specialist, which I passed with flying colors: 940 out of 1000 points.

This was also my first encounter with real simulation-based questions! I have to say, it felt a bit uneasy at first and I backtracked a couple of times to make sure I answered my questions just right. It is soo easy to make additional unintended changes.

But in conclusion, I have to say that I like those questions. They test your knowledge of the technology in a much more real-world like fashion. And about those gradual changes like these in exam setups? Well, suffice to say that there is much more in store where that came from...

On a side note: the next exam will be a milestone! That will take me to 25 Microsoft Exams taken so far. I just have to choose a nice one. And I don't mean milestone. I'm open for suggestions.

By the way, if you take a look at the numbers of Microsoft Certified Professionals worldwide, you'll find that there is a great difference in numbers. A short list of some of the certifications I currently hold:

Certification	Worldwide achievers
MCTS SQL Server 2005	29,038
MCTS MOSS Config	6,384
MCTS Team Foundation Server	315
MCITP Enterprise Admin	819

And for the bright ones among us: there is something odd about that page... can you spot it? The first one who tells me about it will get a candy bar if you're in the neighborhood.

Microsoft Certified Master: SharePoint Server 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:10:00 +0000

The Microsoft Certified Master program has just launched. For now it only includes the following tracks:

Microsoft Certified Master: Exchange Server 2007
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008
Microsoft Certified Master: Windows Server 2008 – Directory

But Per promises the Microsoft Certified Master: SharePoint Server 2007 track will be available soon! Be aware though, this is not for the faint-hearted:

"The prices for the programs are $18,500USD which includes 3 weeks of training, and the first attempts at each of the four required tests: 3 'written' tests and one lab based exam. Retakes cost $250 per written test, and $1,500 for the lab exam, and you are only allowed a maximum of three attempts per test. We know this isn’t exactly pocket change, but based on customer feedback from the Ranger program, we are confident that it is a good value to those of you who will go through the program. We recognize that the cost may be a barrier to entry to some people who could otherwise make the grade—but that is something we will have to live with in the short term; getting top notch subject matter experts in one place for three weeks, the hardware, etc. just don’t come cheap."

There does not seem to be a Developer-specific track yet. Not even an 'it-isn't-here-yet-but-will-be-soon'-track! All tracks look more or less Infrastructure-based and there is only a vague promise of a Dev MCM. Stay tuned...

Off topic: I learned of the Master Program being created at Microsoft about four months ago. I didn't want to disclose its existence before going live. Hey, you never know what those pesky NDA's can do now can you?

Troubleshooting SPSite/SPWeb leaks and the Importance of Loadtesting

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:31:00 +0000

Stefan has a good article on troubleshooting leaks in your WSS and MOSS applications. One of the very nice features is that whenever a certain threshold is crossed, an entry will be written in the ULS logs:

"Potentially excessive number of SPRequest objects (<NUMBER>) currently unreleased on thread <NUMBER>"

This is a very convenient way for a Sharepoint Administrator to keep track of sites with an excessive amount of memory consumption through SPRequest objects.

He also talks about issues surrounding the potential number of site objects generated with a site navigation control:

"That means if you have a navigation control configured to enumerate 3 levels of sites and on each level you have 20 sites that you will end up with more than 400 SPRequest objects. So you need to be very careful with how to configure your navigation controls and also how many sites to create on each level!"

Now consider that each site object will use approximately 2-4 MB of memory on the server. Combine this with the scenario above and you will end up with a huge amount of allocated IIS memory. I don't know if this is per individual user session or not, but either way, this is not something you will want to have on your environment without some consideration beforehand.

There are roughly two ways to gauge what your application will do:

Theory::Estimation

Based on the site architecture, software architecture, usage forecasts, amount of change permitted on the webpart architecture and so on, you can get an estimate on how your solution will behave. How many objects will there be any given time? What is the variance?
But -sadly- hardly anyone does this, let alone completely.

So, what's the second option?

Practice::Loadtesting

This should come as no surprise. (If it does, shame on you!) Yes you can do unit testing. Yes you can do TDD. Yes you can test against coding guidelines. And yes you all will do functional testing. That's all good.

But only, and only if you test your whole A-Z architecture against real life usage and benchmark it, stress it, stress it hard, you will be able to get information how everything will hold up. How is that pesky CrossList webpart doing? And what about that navigation control? If it looks like it is generating a whole lot of memory pressure, you might want to consider other options and go back to the drawing board.

Loadtesting also includes talking to the client to get the testing requirements. What will be their expected usage patterns? Okay, you want the application to react fast? What do you mean by fast? Can you put that in numbers? Let's talk about your Application SLA. What can you tell me about it? How can we translate this into something meaningful for the project?

I can not stress this enough: if you do not incorporate loadtesting as a core requirement in the process, you will be introducing One. Huge. Unmanaged. Risk. Factor. Period.

I have seen too many deployments go down in flames because of this. You might have created a stunning application which leaves the customer absolutely breathless with tears in their eyes, but if he finds out that it will only scale to 6 concurrent users with no more that 5 pages per second before another Web Frontend (WFE) is needed, which, by the way, is definitely NOT the solution to your problem, you will have a serious problem. And this will not be easy to solve if you have come this far in the project.

This is what Microsoft has to say about it: "Load testing should be part and parcel of every Web development effort, and it should be performed early in the process. However, if you think you can load test using your development environment, you're going to have some surprises when you go live..."

So, to sum it all up: "if you do not loadtest, you fail".

Links

Stefan Goßner : Troubleshooting SPSite/SPWeb leaks in WSS v3 and MOSS 2007
MSDN: Real-World Load Testing Tips to Avoid Bottlenecks When Your Web App Goes Live
Modeling the Real World for Load Testing Web Sites

Amphibious snake-like robot "ACM-R5"

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:46:00 +0000

The scientists at the Hirose Fukushima Lab have come up with a new version of the snake-like robot, called ACM-R5. Its behavior is very life-like.

Sysinternals tools on Live!

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:31:00 +0000

You can now use the Sysinternals tools directly from the Microsoft site or even use a drive mapping to the tools directory: \\live.sysinternals.com\tools\. No longer will you have to search for the latest version of the tool, download each tool individually...

See link.

Sharepoint Templates - Types

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:48:00 +0000

Aravindhan has compiled a list of Templates:

Template Name	Description
GLOBAL#0	Global template (1033)
STS#0	Team Site (1033)
STS#1	Blank Site (1033)
STS#2	Document Workspace (1033)
MPS#0	Basic Meeting Workspace (1033)
MPS#1	Blank Meeting Workspace (1033)
MPS#2	Decision Meeting Workspace (1033)
MPS#3	Social Meeting Workspace (1033)
MPS#4	Multipage Meeting Workspace (1033)
CENTRALADMIN#0	Central Admin Site (1033)
WIKI#0	Wiki Site (1033)
BLOG#0	Blog (1033)
BDR#0	Document Center (1033)
OFFILE#0	Records Center (1033)
OFFILE#1	Records Center (1033)
OSRV#0	Shared Services Administration Site (1033)
SPS#0	SharePoint Portal Server Site (1033)
SPSPERS#0	SharePoint Portal Server Personal Space (1033)
SPSMSITE#0	Personalization Site (1033)
SPSTOC#0	Contents area Template (1033)
SPSTOPIC#0	Topic area template (1033)
SPSNEWS#0	News Site (1033)
CMSPUBLISHING#0	Publishing Site (1033)
BLANKINTERNET#0	Publishing Site (1033)
BLANKINTERNET#1	Press Releases Site (1033)
BLANKINTERNET#2	Publishing Site with Workflow (1033)
SPSNHOME#0	News Site (1033)
SPSSITES#0	Site Directory (1033)
SPSCOMMU#0	Community area template (1033)
SPSREPORTCENTER#0	Report Center (1033)
SPSPORTAL#0	Collaboration Portal (1033)
SRCHCEN#0	Search Center with Tabs (1033)
PROFILES#0	Profiles (1033)
BLANKINTERNETCONTAINER#0	Publishing Portal (1033)
SPSMSITEHOST#0	My Site Host (1033)
SRCHCENTERLITE#0	Search Center (1033)
SRCHCENTERLITE#1	Search Center (1033)
SPSBWEB#0	SharePoint Portal Server BucketWeb Template (1033)

Rob Miles on the Micro Framework, also coming to DevDays

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Sun, 18 May 2008 15:31:00 +0000

Rob Miles, a typical British lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the Hull University and a Microsoft C# MVP, has a cool video about the .NET Micro Framework. He will also host a session called Embedded Development on DevDays next week. I can't wait to attend this session!

See the video: What's the Micro Framework? | Posts | Channel 8

And here is another nice video about the .NET Micro Framework where an application gets written (Space Invaders to be exact) and is deployed on a board based on a FreeScale i.MXS microprocessor.

I looked at the site of FreeScale and saw that they are also selling the HC11 microprocessor! I've worked with these processors in the past. I can still remember the juggling of registers, setting of flags and staring at byte opcode.

Talk about a blast from the past...

Quickly installing MOSS 2007 on Windows Server 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Sat, 17 May 2008 17:48:00 +0000

You can slipstream SP1 yourself, but it turns out there's an easier way. First, install the trial version of MOSS 2007 with SP1 (32 bit or 64 bit). After you install the trial version, upgrade from the trial version.

In Central Administration, on the top link bar, click Operations.
On the Operations page, in the Upgrade and Migration section, click Convert license type.
On the Convert License Type page, in the Enter the Product Key box, type the new product key.

Thanks to Kirk Allen Evans for the tip!

TED: Secrets of success in 8 words, 3 minutes

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:08:00 +0000

Secrets of Success

Richard St. John has a nice little talk featured on TED where he talks about the secrets of success. He interviewed several members of TED and came up with the following list of features:

Passion, love for what you do
Work hard and have fun
Practice
Focus
Push Yourself
Serve
Ideas
Persistence, through C.R.A.P.

Crap stands for Criticism, Rejection, Assholes and Pressure.

Never knew they could say words like that and publish them.

Missing Microsoft Robotics Development Studio Templates in Visual Studio 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:52:00 +0000

After I installed Visual Studio Team System 2008 and the April CTP of the Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio, the Robotics project templates were missing from the Visual Studio 2008 project templates list.

After a bit of digging around I finally solved the issue. These are the steps I took to resolve it:

Exit Visual Studio 2008.
Go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates\CSharp and create a folder called 'robotics'.
In the folder 'robotics', create another folder named '1033'.
Go to C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME>\Microsoft Robotics Dev Studio 2008\tools\Templates\CSharp and copy the three zipfiles CS_Hosting_2.0.730.3.zip, CS_Implement_2.0.730.3.zip and CS_Simple_2.0.730.3.zip to the folder '1033' you've just created.
Start Visual Studio 2008 and take a look to see if the three project templates are listed under 'robotics'.
If not, exit Visual Studio 2008, open the Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt and execute the following: devenv.exe /setup.

Hopefully this helps someone.

I Need a Good SharePoint Admin. What should I be looking for?

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:38:00 +0000

"SharePoint represents the first true class of products by Microsoft that completely blurs the line of Admin and Developer. [...] So when asked, by my customers how and what should I be looking for in an finding an administrator for SharePoint, my response is always STOP looking for an administrator and start searching for the NEXT GENERATION IT STAR that can code and administer your solution."

According to Technical Account Manager Gregory MacBeth from Microsoft.

Good to see more and more people are getting it.

Why business users should grab a copy of Microsoft’s new robotics toolkit

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:30:00 +0000

"Businesses have discovered that the Microsoft Robotics Studio includes technology that is suited for programming multicore, distributed systems. “In the Microsoft Robotics Studio, you see the new programming model we are creating at Microsoft,” Trower said.

Ultimately, Microsoft is planning to make CCR part of Visual Studio itself and possibly even part of the Common Language Runtime (CLR).

Tandy Trower: “We’re working with cloud-based services under (Chief Software Architect Ray) Ozzie and other teams inside Microsoft,” Trower said. “Half our time these days is in these (internal) integration efforts. We are talking to Microsoft about integrating into their (services) platforms.”

And this is just the beginning folks...

Read the article

Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 CTP

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:22:00 +0000

Microsoft has released a CTP on the Robotics Studio, called the Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008 CTP April: "Microsoft announces the first Community Technical Preview (CTP) of Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio 2008. The preview contains a large number of new features and improvements including increased runtime performance, improved security management, support for distributed language integrated queries (LINQ), support for creating applications that run on multiple DSS nodes, and many new features in the Visual Simulation Environment."

Since I've just bought the book Programming Microsoft Robotics Studio by Sara Morgan from MS Press, I'll stick with the 1.5 refresh version for now.

It also looks like there is some progress made with extracting the DSS and CCR and incorporating them into other frameworks. I won't be surprised if these components find their way into the .NET Framework pretty soon.

Terminal Services, Silverlight, Microsoft Robotics Studio and Lego Mindstorms NXT

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:53:00 +0000

Narenda Wicaksono has made a video of a nice mix-up between Terminal Services, Silverlight, Microsoft Robotics Studio and Lego Mindstorms NXT.

Oh and I passed 70-631 with flying colors today.

Splitting TechEd US into two weeks stinks for SharePoint professionals

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:18:00 +0000

Andrew Connell, a MVP on MOSS, is not pleased with splitting TechEd into two weeks: "The problem I have with it is that you go to one of these major conferences, as an attendee, to get good exposure across the board. ...professionally I think it's a bad idea to separate the two because it almost tells devs/admins they don't need to know about the other's world. In some apps this might be true (for instance, I [possibly incorrectly] consider Exchange more in the admin/IT pro camp than I do in the dev camp), but for SharePoint it isn't. Even if you are a dev like me, you need to be aware of some concepts and how they work such as site collections and splitting up content databases or how admins view CAS and such. Admins need to understand how developers utilize CAS and deploy custom code."

I totally agree with him. Developers and IT Professionals should be working with each other. Especially with products like Sharepoint. There will always be a cross-over, and widening the gap is not the answer.

Besides going to the usual IT Pro events I also attend more development-centric events like MSDN Intracks and the upcoming DevDays, scheduled in May, including the Geek Night! I wonder if there will be someone from the team Coding4Fun, would like to have a chat with them. Anyone else going as well? Give me a ping!

Access Fileserver Data via SharePoint

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:04:00 +0000

René Hézser has created a nice webpart to access fileservers from Sharepoint: "I guess everybody knows this scenario. You are with a customer or at home, and need a file from your company's fileserver very badly. What can you do? VPN is not possible, and you can't phone a colleague who can then send you the file via email because nobody is in the office. <SNIP> With [this] Webpart you can access files from e.g. your fileserver via SharePoint / Browser."

Haven't tried it out yet, but this looks very nice. I'm just wondering if you might need Service Principal Names (SPN) with AD delegation implemented if you're using Kerberos authentication.

Phobot, the phobic robot - Building instructions

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:50:00 +0000

Looks like building instructions will be posted around April 5th. I can't wait to start building!

Phobot, the phobic robot

Update: The building instructions have been released.

Application-delivery architects are key hires

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:54:00 +0000

"A need for higher-level architectural management is required across the board, with special emphasis on the communications between server and browser. This includes coding of objects as cacheable versus dynamic, the use of the local browser cache and compression or request pipelining for example," Joe Skorupa, research vice president at Gartner. (...) Proposing the adoption of the "lifeboat method" of application development, where a team must work in unison to ensure success, Gartner said it sees the application-delivery architect taking on the role of "lifeboat captain". (link)

In the present day, working in unison across boundaries is a prerequisite. Anything less is doomed to get shipwrecked sooner or later.

Modular snake robots

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:33:00 +0000

This is so lifelike, it is outright creepy. And so cool.

See video.

link

Microsoft SharePoint taking business by storm

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:41:00 +0000

"Microsoft's SharePoint Server is on a billion dollar juggernaut to potentially become the next must-have technology, offering companies tools for building everything from collaborative applications to Internet sites and potentially handing Microsoft its next cash cow."

See link.

Update: fixed broken link.

Phobot, the phobic robot

noreply@blogger.com (Martijn Plijnaer) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:37:00 +0000

A team of the University of Amsterdam have built a phobic robot, called Phobot, using LEGO Mindstorms NXT and an additional sensor.

While building a LEGO Mindstorms NXT robot a is not an earth-shattering event by itself, the amount of emotion and interaction the robot conveys is quite astonishing! I did a little test and showed my daughter a video of the robot. It told her the robot was afraid of big robots and needed assurance and confirmation in order to be brave enough to approach the big robot. "And oh look! Now it starts dancing! Isn't that cute?"

Well, she immediately asked me to build it overnight so that she could play with it in the morning, it was so cute!

I have contacted the team, they told me that they were quite overwhelmed by the media attention they had gotten. And who can blame them. After things calm down a bit they would look into sending the code and perhaps the building instructions, which they haven't gotten around to just yet. Ork, if you're reading this...?

Anyway, take a look at the site and video. Be warned, the video is in Dutch. 50 seconds into the video there is a good demo of the robot, which is self explanatory.

Update: Ork just contacted me, we should expect the code and building instructions to appear very soon! That's great news! Thanks Ork.