I haven’t seen a whole lot of information coming out about how Microsoft can help you optimize your IT infrastructure so I thought I could mention it. You can read more about the whole program at http://www.microsoft.com/optimization/default.mspx There is more information on our Server and Tools site at http://www.microsoft.com/servers/optimization.mspx There are also some learning links that you can use to help also at http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/optimization/default.mspx .   So what is this Optimization about anyway? Well, it is a set of three models that we have build to enable a business to realize the full value of its IT infrastructure and platform investments.  This is all about putting more of your time and effort...

In this series of blog entries, I build an entire ASP.NET MVC application from start to finish. In this entry, I integrate the Silverlight Media Player into the Family Videos MVC application so I can play videos. Before reading this blog entry, you might want to first read the previous two entries: Family Video Website #1 – Upload the Videos – In this entry, I create an MVC controller that accepts large file uploads. Family Video Website #2 –Add the Database – In this entry, I added a database so that I could associate additional information, such as a title and description, with each video. In this blog entry, I make two major changes to the Family Videos Website. First, I redesign the view that renders the uploaded...

Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets: Andrew King: Books ISBN : 0596515081 ISBN-13 : 9780596515089 The folks at O'Reilly recently published this gem ! From the book description: This book is a comprehensive guide to the tips, techniques, secrets, standards, and methods of website optimization. From increasing site traffic to maximizing leads, from revving up responsiveness to increasing navigability, from prospect retention to closing more sales, the world of 21st century website optimization is explored, exemplified and explained. Though I've just started readying it I'm already convinced it's a must have ! [ Click Here to get your copy ! ] Read More...

Back in the early days of VS2008 planning, I captured some of our thoughts on planning and looks like some of them might be catching on.  I just ran across this entry .  I guess if a few more people use "Peanut Buttering" in this context we could make it into the dictionary!  Catchword : peanut buttering Filed Under : English , Technology , Slang Part of Speech : n. Quotation : Peanut buttering (v)—The tendency to evenly distribute resources across the full range of a product rather than focusing on a few core Value Propositions. While discussing this issue recently someone described it as “peanut buttering” the product. By spreading out all our resources evenly across the product we lose the opportunity...

So there is this very smart guy on the ASP.NET team named David Hunter who is one of the guys working on Dynamic Data ! He has just added a sample of using Dynamic Data with Stored Procedures to the Dynamic Data Samples on CodePlex. Click [ HERE ] for the Sample Project home page. Click [ HERE ] for a forums discussion on Dynamic Data with Stored Procedures. Read More...

So I recently posted Known issues for ASP.NET with .NET 3.5 SP1 , what I wanted to do is see how SP1 was working out for everyone so far.  The things I am wondering are: Did you have any problems installing SP1 Have any existing applications run into any problems Have any new projects been adjusted because of SP1 What are your overall impressions of SP1 If you have any other thoughts, I’d like to hear them too.  I’m hoping there aren’t many problems and that it is proving useful to everyone. Read More...

In part 1 , we saw how to use DataView to render JavaScript data using a simple template. In this post, we'll see how rich bindings unlock richer scenarios where user changes automatically propagate back to the data and to all UI that is bound to it. In part 1 , we used the simplest type of binding, one-way, one-time bindings. These bindings are created using the {{ expression }} syntax, which is both simple and rich in that it enables arbitrary JavaScript expressions. This is made possible by the fact that templates are compiled by the Ajax framework into a JavaScript function and these bindings get embedded right into that generated function. Because of that, the binding gets evaluated only once, when the template is instantiated. For...

The Deep Fried Bytes guys caught up with me at DevLink and we had a talk about developer security needs, mistakes, activities, etc ! Listen Here http://deepfriedbytes.com/ Read More...

One of my favorite features of VS2008 is the ability to target older versions of the .NET Framework.  This allows developers to use the latest and greatest tools even if some client machines can't be upgraded to the latest version of framework right away. While there is really good support for this in VS2008 for example, VS 2008 is smart enough to keep you from adding a reference to assemblies that are not found in the target version of the framework (for example, you can't use WPF if your target framework is .NET Framework 2.0).    But what about the case when new methods are added to existing classes or new classes in existing assemblies?  For example the DateTimeOffsite?   For those we added a new...

When you have to pass an object back and forth between processes or application domains you have to serialize it into some type of stream that can be understood by both the client and the server.   The more complex and big the object gets the more expensive it is to serialize, both CPU wise and memory wise, and if the object is big and complex enough you can easily run into out of memory exceptions during the actual serialization process... and that is exactly what happened to one of my customers...  They had to pass very large datasets back and forth between the UI layer and the datalayer and these datasets could easily get up to a couple of hundred MB in size.  When they passed the datasets back they would get OutOfMemory...