Jimiz.net – Jim Becher on the web

It is a sad day.  I just found out that GotDotNet (http://www.gotdotnet.com/) will be shutting down.  You can read their reasons on the site.  They plan to shut down my favorite section (user samples) on May 22.  I have used that site many times as a great place to get code samples or tutorials.  I really hate to see it go.  They state that is may be a redundant site with all the other .net community sites out there.  I’m not sure of any the other sites (codeplex or codezone) have the same type of content.

I can remember meeting the team from gotdotnet at TechEd and seeing how excited they were to finally be part of the Microsoft Team (I still have the t-shirt they gave out).   I remember talking with them regarding the GDN workspaces, and how I felt it was unreliable to host a project there.  Infact, I had just moved IISreporter from a gdn workspace to sourceforge the week before teched.    They were really eager to hear my reasoning for moving.

I am going to miss the site.  Oh, to remember the days where .TEXT was a workspace and code sample.

I often use Microsoft’s VPC to do development and testing.  The new version of VPC came out Microsoft VPC 2007.  Though my computer has 2 gigs of RAM I still run into performance issues.  Here are a few great tips on how to keep your VPC running at top speed.

http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/articles/SqeezePerformanceOutOfVirtualPCs.aspx

 I often get questions from .NET developers on where they should host.  If they should go with a dedicated server or virtual server.  The major issue that developers have is the price.  A shared hosting site is much cheaper than a Server. The advantages of the server are due to the ability to modify the settings of IIS and also the framework and security around applications.

To get around that there are a few options.  Many times a hosting provider gives the user a control panel to allow the end user to add items and configure their hosting site.  I have used and setup many control panels in the past on Linux and have not found many good options for IIS. 

I have tested Helm, Plesk, and IIS admin control panel.  Helm and Plesk are somewhat expensive and difficult to use.   IIS admin control pannel is free and has worked well in the past.  However I just recently came across dotnetpanel.  http://www.dotnetpanel.com.  Dotnetpanel allows you to have a robust saleable solution that will grow.  They also offer a free 10 site license for those who are interested. 

Some of the features that are really useful are:

The ability to have reseller accounts, users, and administrators

Full control or limit the control of IIS.

Additional software that the end user can install (DNN, Wiki, Community server, SQL 2005 and even SharePoint)  These are powerful features from a hosting panel.

Give it a try and see how powerful of a solution this could be for you office or company.  The pricing on extended options is also very affordable.

I have been wanting to put together a list of online tools.  Some day I will get around to it.

Today I just used one of my favorite tools and discovered another related one.

I use www.domaintools.com very frequently. Where a site is hosted, what technology is used.

When using domain tools, I ran into http://www.psychicwhois.com/ it is a pretty good ajax whois.

I have made it one week with Vista.  I have migrated all the information I need from my old laptop. But keep finding applications that I am missing.  One of those I am really wanting.  I have used pdfcreator (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/) for a long time, and their current version does not work with vista.  I really miss my print to PDF option. 

The team at spout.com has updated their site to include some new features when browsing a move.  You can see these features here (http://www.spout.com/films/5109/default.aspx) (Cannonball Run 2)

You should join the spout revolution.

Scott Watermasysk has a great list of tips for using ASP.net (http://scottwater.com/blog/archive/quick-tips-for-asp-net-part-one/)

I for one did not know the “never use a label” tip.  After discussing with the guys from work a Literal is the beter method.

In Windows XP you could set the amount of disk space you wanted the system restore to use.  In Vista it auto Magically tries to set it for you and does not give you an easy way to change it.  I found that they now call this shadowstorage.  To adjust this you have to use the gold old CMD prompt (DOS)  Below are instructions for changing the system restore size to 1.5 gig from the 11 it auto-magically set.   I do frequent backups (MOZY.com) so I am too worried if my box cannot have 2-4 restore points.  I want my disk space.  Specially since Vista takes up close to 20 gig. 

To view your current shadowstorage settings use the following command (you must first open a command prompt with administrative rights – START | ALLPROGRAMS | ACCESSSORIES | Command Prompt (right click and “run as administrator))

vssadmin list shadowstorage  (this shows the current size)

vssadmin list shadows (this shows how many restore points are currently held inthe above space)

The following will adjust the size of your shadowstorage to 1.5 gig

vssadmin resize shadowstorage /On=C: /For=C: /Maxsize=1.5GB

This should help free up some needed space.  HAPPY Vista’ing

It is going ok so far.  I have had to overcome some issues with compatibility with applications and just overall performance.  I was expecting vista to be user friendly.  What I have found it is a bit difficult to find what you are looking for.  However, they have built some great technology to search for what you want.  It just happens that I don’t like searching.  I enjoy well labeled areas and controls.  I have also found that the permissions / security thing is very upsetting.   I don’t mind now that I have disabled the administrative prompt, but for those who have no idea of what vista is doing with elevated security levels they are just going to at some point ignore whatever popup comes up and get used to hitting yes.  Even if that popup is a nice virus from your email or internet advertisement. 

Some of the issues I have found were trivial.  My mouse would not work (USB Logitech Portable – 3 weeks old).  Memory issues.  I only have outlook running and I am using 56% of the 2gig of ram I have in the laptop.

For those of you who have linux machines at home and use windows at work here is a great way for you to have your linux apps on your windows machine.  I typically find myself needing a simple app written for linux but only have a windows machine handy.  I have a linux box at home and can connect via ssh, but have often wanted to have xwin. 

I use a windows X Windows server application called xming (http://www.straightrunning.com/XmingNotes/)

and a connection / configuration manager called xconnect (http://www.c3d-vr.com/xconnect/)

to connect to the remote box I use ssh and putty for windows.

 To use you just install xming then run xconnect in passive mode.  Connect to your linux box via ssh (set the X11 forward option) and then run an app like xeyes.  Behold your program is now on windows.

People always ask me what OS do I use.  And I have to admit I just switched to Vista.  And with that change I put a serious issue in front of my.  I can no longer develop in older applications (visual studio 2003).  So to get around this I use VPC (virutal PC’s)  I have used these in the past to run different operating systems (windows server, or an older version of sql) 

I have found over the years that the performance of VPC 2004 was not that great.  But with the new version Virtual PC 2007 I have seen some serious performance gains.  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx (to download)

For those who don’t know, VPC’s basically let you run another opperating system on your machine, in a window.  It is great for development and testing, because you don’t have to purchase any more hardware.

Many people have emailed me about how to setup and ssl on their development environment or internal sites without paying for a certificate.  Here are the steps to secure your local IIS server (windows 2003) with a self signing ssl.

You will need to download the IIS 6.0 Resource kit from Microsoft – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/thankyou.aspx?familyId=56FC92EE-A71A-4C73-B628-ADE629C89499&displayLang=en

Install just the selfssl (or everything if you want to use the resource kit)

Download the resource kit.  Execute the iis60rkt.exe and select next on welcome page. You will have to agree to the license.  Select Next, and select the Custom install option to just install the SelfSSL 1.0 program.

Select your directory, for this example I will just use the default. C:\program files\iis resources\.  For this example I am only selecting the SelfSSL option