When markup won't do, why not markdown? [Scott] recently wrote about JottIt and MarkDown. JottIt is a simple way to create a web page. The content is rendered using Markdown, and feels allot like a Wiki. Upon creation of your first site (just go to JottIt and type something in the big empty text box), you are redirected to a URL like http://jottit.com/d4b8y/. You do have the ability to create a sub domain with a more meaningful URL.

Markdown is a way to support rich text, without using a rich text editor, which is how allot of Wiki's work, I just never knew there was a formal definition. The markdown that I have linked to, is a .Net port, and compiled into a .net assembly. Not requiring a cumbersome rich text control, and removing HTML formatting from user controlled text are two big reasons to consider MarkDown. The syntax as extremely easy, and rates high on Scott's WAF.

I attended a presentation sponsored by Microsoft, at their local office in Waukesha; ArcReady - Web 2.0 & Beyond, Applying Lessons to Your Company. Session 1 was used to define Web 2.0 in the eyes of the presenter, Jon, Rauschenberger, CTO for Clarity Consulting, followed by how to write web 2.0 applications on the Microsoft platform. Since you can't write an complete application in only 75 minutes, the 2nd session was more a quick sample of some of the technologies available. I was too busy trying to digest the first session to pay much attention, and I had seen most of the technologies presented before.

For me, the first session made the trip down from Madison more then worthwhile. Previously I had thought of Web 2.0 as Ajax, but I know realize it's much more, and just because your site uses Ajax, doesn't make it a Web 2.0 site (and no, you don't have to have a web 2.0 site to be successful). The other main point I took away was, enterprise applications are still not ready to be mainstream web 2.0 applications. All of the examples provided were consumer grade web applications.

High Level Notes:

• Web 2.0 is a term used to describe a web site that encompasses many different technologies and concepts. I feel that to be a Web 2.0 site, you need to use 2 or more of the following, and do 1 of them really good.
  • Develop a Platform, not an application (Facebook, SalesForce.com)
  • Harnessing the Collective (Wikipedia)
  • Data as the Next "Intel Inside" (Google Apps, Microsoft Live, Amazon S3)
  • End of the Software Release Cycle (Google Apps)
  • Lightweight Programming Model (Facebook)
  • Software above a single device
  • Rich User Experience (UX)
• Applications come and go, but a good platform has the potential to live on. Take a look at the big players, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Salesforce, Amazon. They are all developing a platform for developers to write applications for. It kind of reminds me of the open source movement, where you you have a bunch of people producing a piece of software that is so much more then if just 1 person was developing it. Encouraging developers to design applications for your web platform, gives you more functionality then you could ever implement on your own.
• Automated testing and deployment to production is a must in the Web 2.0 age. Fear of breaking production and complicated build procedures slow the process of getting your application and features to market. It also makes it easier to fix bugs when they are found. This really helps support Agile/XP, which is the norm in Web 2.0. Breaking up features such that a single developer can implement something in one day, and let the automated build process deploy it, will get that feature to your customers much sooner. Consider following Microsoft and Google in that their web applications are always in beta.
• The traditional way of gathering requirements does not work as well in Web 2.0, especially with a very Agile, highly automated build. Having a BA sit with a customer and turn out the next version of Encyclopedia Britannica for requirements just doesn't work. Instead, a user experience expert, should sit down with the customer, and come up with a set of working screen mock ups that meet the customers needs. Then, these screens are turned over to the Architect and Developers to implement the backend systems, and hook everything up. This should cut significantly down on end user acceptance testing, since the customer already saw the working screens, which allows for automated deployment to production. The user experience expert needs to have some understanding of development, just as the developers need to have some understanding of the UI.
• End user participation is key in building loyalty. However, this is sometimes difficult in the enterprise (External and Internal), and depends on your application. Some examples of what you can do, and what is almost expected as a minimum in Web 2.0:
  • Developer Blogs
  • Tech Support Forums
  • Feature Request Forums
  • Allow customers to post reviews on products
• There is a difference between internal and external use of web applications in the enterprise.
  • External refers to your public facing applications for customers.
  • Internal refers to intranet applications, such as Sharepoint, used to help your businesses grow and manage data internally.
• Internal use of Web 2.0 is just as important
  • There is a huge amount of untapped data trapped in the minds of employees.
  • It is hard to get people to share information, and break down traditional barriers in the enterprise
  • Platforms such as Sharepoint can greatly increase the exhchange of information, and management of data.
  • You need to train employees on how to use the platform. For example, posting documents in Sharepoint is about 1% of it's total functionality, and in reality, a network share handles it better. The document revision tracking, linking to discussion boards, Wiki's, blogs start to leverage it's full power. How to create and use lists, sites and workspaces should be taught in a way such that IT doesn't need to have a hand in everything.
  • Management needs to be comfortable with things like the Wiki and blog, and encourage their use.

The power point presentation should be posted in a couple of weeks:

http://www.claritycon.com/arcready

Having some problems at work were some of our units in the field are having communication issues. IS says it's an IT problem, IT says it's an IS problem, a vicious cycle indeed ;) In order to help narrow the problem down, I (representing the IS team), and my co-worker Mark (representing the IT Team, although in this case, he's really on my side) have installed some monitoring software on our home PC's to assist in the diagnosis. We needed something that was free and easy to setup for our little test, and Servers Alive fit the bill.

The free/trial version of Servers Alive allows you to monitor up to 10 entries, with an entry being a 1 IP and 1 check. There are a large number of checks available, with the ones being used for our test tonight being, TCP Port Connect, FTP, HTTP URL, and Ping. I pretty much used up all 10 of my free entries, 8 of which were set to monitor stuff at work, and 2 were set to monitor 2 other external web sites (this blog, and msn.com), to serve as a baseline comparison.

Servers Alive has excellent alerting capabilities, as well as a pretty extensible reporting engine, in the form of log files, and HTML generation based on templates. For our test, I'm using a sample template contributed by a member of the Server's Alive community, and then publish it via FTP (included functionality in SA) to my web site. I also have turned on the file logging capability and set it to maximum.

I encourage you to check out Servers Alive, it's Features, and Free add-ons.

After getting Servers Alive up and running, I turned to doing some research on other monitoring software that was available. One of the key requirements I was looking for, was a open source monitoring framework, something I could build my own monitors for and tweak stuff as needed. My Google search led me to a site at Standford that lists a plethora of monitoring and other network administration tools. I quickly scanned thru the list and picked out one commercial one that I had heard of before, and the gem I found in Polymon.

GFI: GFI makes several commercial products, including the linked application, Network server monitor (NSM). NSM has tons of monitoring, reporting and alerting capabilities out of the box. There is support for using SQL as a data store, and you can extend and add your own monitors using VBScript. Pricing is based per IP, which makes it cheaper then MOM. With the SQL data store option, you could easily create a web site, or integrate it into an existing web site/portal. GFI states that no client apps need to be installed on the machines you are monitoring.

Polymon: Polymon is an open source project on CodePlex, that meets my needs in that it is an open source monitoring framework, with a good deal of out of the box functionality, and it's based on the .Net Framework. Just looking at the screen shots, shows the amount of time that has been put into this project so far, and the project roadmap shows the developer has put some thought into this for the future.

Out of the box, there are a good deal of monitors, although not as many as a commercial solution. The monitors in green are the ones required to replace our current commercial monitoring solution (if we choose that route). Even if we don't do it at work, I'll be looking to get this running on my new server.

• CPU
• Disk
• File (Age and Counts)
• Windows Performance Counters
• Ping
• PowerShell Scripting
• SQL Monitor via Stored Procedures
• SNMP
• TCP Port
• URL
• Windows Service Monitor
• WMI Monitor

Polymon is extensible in several different ways, and you should check out some of the samples available. First, you can add performance counters, and WMI information to your applications. This approach allows you to switch to a different monitoring solution down the road, including MOM, as WMI is widely supported. From a SQL server standpoint, anything you can do in a stored procedure, can be monitored and reported on. Third, there is PowerShell, which in case you didn't know, gives you the power of the .Net Framework from a command prompt, so basically, you can write a script to do just about anything you want. Finally, you can make your own monitor by extending from an included interface and adding the assembly to the install folder.

For our current project, I see a definite need f0r the existing monitors we are using (highlighted in green above), add in WMI for BizTalk, and we are a good way thru our monitoring requirements. One thing I see missing, is a email monitor, but this could be added via a PowerShell script, or custom assembly. Another thing missing, is a way to kick off a process (actually something missing from other monitoring software as well). Monitoring is great, but it can't tell you something is wrong if it doesn't know it's supposed to check something.

Something that might be interesting, would be to add a set of wrappers around the BizUnit tasks and turn them into monitors. This would give me more support for BizTalk, add missing support for email, and add support for staring a process for automated tests. I need to look into Polymon more to make sure that there is functionality for manually invoking a monitor, as well as monitoring different things at different intervals. If it doesn't well, it's open source, so I can always add it.

My only concerns are comments people have made about database performance and size. There is an item in the roadmap to help address the size issue, and some work around for performance. I guess I just need to get it installed and see how it runs. Again, it's open source, so changes can be made, ideally, back to the project itself to help foster it's growth.

I just picked up a new server off EBay to replace some aging hardware. I am now the proud new owner of a HP DL380 G3. I'll be updating this post after I get the server in, and setup.

I need a way to keep certain documents in sync between multiple computers at home and at work. At work I have a desktop and laptop, and am looking to pick up a used Tablet PC for note taking (since the laptop is configured as a desktop replacement). At home I have a desktop, and a laptop (although I do not use it much, it's mainly for the wife).

What type information

• Meeting Notes at work, User Groups, etc
• Notes from printed and on-line media.
• Scratch pad for project ideas
• Scratch pad for things to do (mode detailed then tasks, and probably not going to happen soon)

Where do I want this information

• Available on all of my computers
• Preferably without requiring an Internet connection 
• Easily share information with others via email, Internet (i.e. blog), internal share point site(s).

Concerns

• Offline availability
• Getting out of sync between various data storage locations
• Some stuff I would not want sync'd to the computers at work.

Options: Below are the options I have come up with in alphabetical order. They are a combination of sync techniques and documentation software.

• Blog with offline editing tool (i.e. Live Writer)
• Folder Share
• Groove
• Manual Sync 
• OneNote
• Sharepoint Server (Personal)
• Wiki with Offline Editor and Sync 

Current Solution (In Trial): As I wrote this post, it became clear that there is no one solution, and even more so, I was really looking to solve 2 different problems. The first, is, how do I get organized, the second, is, how do I sync files.

• Continue to use Live Writer and blog as I have been. The information for the blog is meant to be shared with everyone on the Internet.
• Start using OneNote, synchronized with Groove, for meeting notes, project ideas, and general life organization.
• Look into using Groove or FolderShare to sync files between different computers. This requirement might go away as we start using Sharepoint at work more and more.

Blog

I've already started using a blog to share information with others, as well as take notes for myself. I'm currently writing this post offline with Live Writer, and will later post it online.

Pros:

• Already setup and using
• Easy to share with others
• Options for offline editing, and offline availability

Folder Share

Folder share is a free file synchronization service provided by Microsoft. I'm currently using it to synchronize my IE favorites and MP3's between multiple computers. I could use a variety of software to create and manage documents, and upon saving, the files will be sync'd between the computers I have setup.

Pros:

• Will work with a wide variety of software
• All Pro's from other document management options (assume con's are addressed by using different document management programs for different needs)

Cons:

• Concerns over syncing files in a document editing environment (i.e. if you are smart, you save every couple of minutes, or the program you are using auto-saves. This could cause issues file Folder Share)
• The best way to set up the files you want to sync, would be to put them under 1 folder. However, this might mean you will be sharing stuff you don't want to

Groove

A new collaboration application that ships with Office 2007 enterprise and ultimate, or can be purchased separately. A quick note about Groove and OneNote. If you setup a file sharing workspace, it will work. A blog post indicated that even more seemless support will be forthcoming in a future release. I can see Groove replacing folder share, but have to look into it more.

Manual Sync

I put this here just to be complete. I don't even want to go into the details of why manual sync is not the answer. It becomes so tedious, and error prone that I have just given up on it. Hence the need for the blog post.

OneNote

This is a document editor program, and requires some form of sync application. I really like the new 2007 version, it has a ton of new features, so many, that I think I might raise my target price on a tablet PC.

• It has support for multiple notebooks, sections within a notebook, and pages within each section
• There is a new collapsible view on the left that gives a view of all notebooks and their sections
• Link to other pages, making it more like a Wiki
• Capture parts of a web page and put into a OneNote page
• Recognizes text in pictures, allowing you to search
• Live sharing session over the Internet, turns a page into a white board that everyone can write on.
• Flag items, and then view items by their flag.
• There is also a good amount of outlook integration, and with that integration, comes a bit of integration with Sharepoint.
• OneNote Mobile
• Inline Calculator
• Insert files as printouts. So if someone sends you a excel spread sheet, print it to one note, then you can write on it.
• Attach files to one note pages
• Audio and Video Recording

For sharing, there are some options. It has support for multiple computer use, however, the supported options don't work well for my situation right now. The supported options are, file share (which I don't have between work and home), Sharepoint (works is not publicly accessible, and I don't have a personal one at the moment), or USB flash drive (not sure if carrying around a USB drive is desired, although a 4GB drive on the key chain wouldn't be too bad). A personal Sharepoint server, as well as either a VPN connection at home, or VPN (should have it in 2 months), might make the folder share option a reality. VPN at work would also open up the sharepoint server at work. Finally, there is limited support in Groove (as noted above)

Sharepoint Server (Personal)

My web hosting provider, provides WSS as an add on for $19.95/year. This would open another option for the OneNote approach

Wiki

While most people think of Wiki's being Internet based, you can run them on your home computer. Why would you want to? For me, the Wiki is one of the best document editing applications out there. They have built in support for versioning, and you can easily create new "documents" and link them so easily. A the same time I setup this blog, I downloaded some Wiki software that has a internet version, as well as a desktop version (same code base) that runs in Cassinni. My plan was to use SyncBack and FTP to keep the internet and desktop version synced, but I have yet to test this.

Pros:

• Versioning
• Easy to add and link pages/documents

Cons:

• Untested offline solution
• Pretty much limited to a web page (although you could link to a word document for example)

Following the lead of Scott, here is my list of tools that I use, as well as tools that I have come across, but have not used (but that sound really cool). Tools may be listed twice if they fall into multiple categories.

Legend

• $ - Costs Money
• $$ - Costs Money and I have actually purchased (vs. using a free version)
• % - Have not actually tried yet
• Free - This product is free.
• * - Indicates a note about one or more of the above descriptions

• Internet
  • ie7Pro (Free) - Pluging for IE7 that adds things like spell check, ad block, download flash content, etc.
  • Simp Lite (Free) - Seamlessly encrypt your IM conversations using this program. The free version only lets you encrypt one type of IM (i.e, MSN, but not AOL, AOL, but not MSN).
  • Team Viewer (Free *) - Free for non commercial use. This is a remote desktop sharing program. Useful for those times when you play the role of tech support for family and friends.
  • WinSCP (Free) - Free secure FTP program. I use this for connecting to and transferring files to VMWare ESX Server.
  • YouSendIt ($ Free) - Free and Pay versions. I've used the free version to initiate, and receive large file transfers.
• Pocket PC / Smart Phone
  • PdaNet ($) -  Install on your computer and smart phone to enable your computer to user your smart phone as a modem.
  • PHM Regedit (Free %) - Registry editor for your pocket pc.
• Programming
  • Xsd.exe (Free) - Just because I have no other place to write this down, included with VS, and probably the .Net SDK, is the XSD.exe command line tool. It generates a class (partial class option) from xml or schema file for use with the xml serializer.
• Sql
  • SQL Internals Viewer (Free %) - Looks like a great tool for the serious DBA.
• Utilities
  • ISO Recorder (Free) - Shell integrated utility for making ISO images. You can make ISO's from existing CD/DVD's, or from a folder on your computer. It also support burning CD's and DVD's (Vista). The latest version supports Vista, and there are 64bit versions available. 
  • SyncBackSE ($$) - Sync, backup, restore files between a source and destination. I use this for keeping files in sync between by laptop and desktop, laptop and external HD, external HD and home computer. I've been using the free version for over a year and love it. I have finally decided to spend the $30 and purchase this product. $30 gives you a license to install on up to 5 computers, now that is a great deal. One of the licensed features I am taking advantage of is the FTP sync option to back up this blog to my local PC.
  • Virtual Clone Drive (Free) - Mount .ISO images (and .img images from MSDN). Works on Vista, and under Win XP as a limited user.
  • WinMerge (Free) - File and Folder diff tool. You can launch this directly from SyncBackSE
• Expression Media Encoder (Free %) - Encode rich media for Silverlight.

Utilities:

• PdaNet - Used for tethering your smart phone to computer via Bluetooth or Active Sync.
• PHM Reg Edit

• Mogul Tips and Tricks 1
• Improve A2DP Bluetooth quality (post #4 - Untried)
• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Bluetooth\A2DP\Settings
  UseJointStereo: change DWORD value from 1 to a 0
• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Bluetooth\A2DP\Settings\MaxSupportedBitPool
  Increase to 50
• HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Bluetooth\A2DP\Settings\BitPool
  Increase to 50
• Post #8 talks about changing scripts for ringtone/vibrate/led flash characteristics
• Unknown Source
• This edit allows you to see the duration of your Vision connection along with a button to disconnect it. You see it in the bubble that is displayed when you tap the Vision icon.
• Navigate to: \HKLM\ControlPanel\Phone'
• Click the bottom menu 'edit'
• Select new dword value
• Change the value name to "Flags2" (no quotes).
• Select the 'hexidecimal' button.
• Type 10
• Click ok.
• You should now see in the 'name/data' section:
• Flags2 16 (0x00010)
• When done, reset the device.
• Turn off IR Beaming, it's on by default, and affects battery usage
• Settings\Connections\Beam

Slashdot had a post about using Google Earth to search for missing adventurer, Steve Fossett. Usually the imagery from Google Earth (and MS Virtual Earth) is several years old. However, the company that supplies imagery for Google Earth updated the imagery for the area on Monday. Amazon.com us using it's Mechanical Turk service to accept submissions from Internet users who think they have spotted something.  According to Steve's web site, they have already identified 3 previously uncharted aircraft wrecks.

Writing documentation is not something I like to do. People always like to list the reasons why you should document, and today, I was reminded of why documentation is important, and was thankful that I had put forth the effort to write the documentation.

I am working on re-writing a piece of static code that handles the rules for processing data, into a more dynamic approach uses the WF rules engine. I had started this several months ago, and according to my notes, worked on this last, July 12. Finally, after 2 months, I have been able to get back to work on the rules, and thanks to the documentation I had been writing (in the form of notes), I was able to get back up to speed fairly quickly.

I think the key in this instance, was to write down notes as I came thought of them. Usually I hate writing stuff down when I'm in the early stages, because it always changes. However, this time writing notes down as I went has helped out allot, and so far, has not had to be updated as much.

So remember, the next you are debating about writing something down, it may not just be for the benefit of the next developer who comes along, it may be for your own benefit.

This is just a quick post of web testing against popup's and Ajax using the included tools in Visual Studio Test edition. In my current project we are using Telerik controls for our web application. We are trying to take advantage of the rich Ajax support offered by the Telerik controls, but had concerns over a lack of support from the web testing tools. I decided to do a quick test, and much to my surprise, I was able to do a great deal of testing using just the web recorder in visual studio. Our UI has alot of pages with Ajax enabled grids, and to edit the record, you click a button on the row, and a window pops up up with all the details. I was able to edit the record in the popup window, save, use the ValidateText feature, close the window, have the grid update, and again, use the Validate Text feature to make sure the change persisted.

According to the resources I have listed below, I was going to have alot more trouble then I did, and would probably need to use fiddler to catch the http traffic and inject it into my web test. So far, that has not been the case, I can only hope it continues to be this easy. I will update this post if/when I start to run into issues.

Resources:

• VSTT Blog
• Generic MSDN Reference
• More specific MSDN how-to

I wish I could do more then just rehash other people's posts. However, one of the purposes for this blog is a place for me to write down stuff I'd like to visit in the future (such as sample code). Scott has posted his forth installment in a series he entitles "The Weekly Source Code".

Of the links posted this week, the ones that I plan on looking into more are:

• WPF Contrib - Contrib for WPF. I'm not using WPF in any projects at the moment, however, this contrib looks like it could jump start some sample applications at home. A good way to get started with WPF.
• Wintellect Power Collections - From the web site, and Scott's post: "

Some of the collections included are the Deque, MultiDictionary, Bag, OrderedBag, OrderedDictionary, Set, OrderedSet, and OrderedMultiDictionary."

Ones that I am going to save for when a need arises:

• Koolwired.IMAP
• Lesnikowsi Mail.dll

The reason I am interested in the mail ones, are that I will be sending out email notifications in my current project, thru BizTalk. In order to test the application, I will need to be able to login to test mailboxes and retrieve messages. While .Net has some built in support for email, 3rd party libraries can't hurt.