Brian Ritchie

I've updated my Dilbert Image Service to handle the redesign of the Dilbert.com site that broke it today.  It's nice to have a portal with good content, but it's better to have a portal with a today's Dilbert comic!  Nothing brings users to your portal like Dilbert.  I hope you enjoy the updated service.

Tuning SQL Server has always been a black art.  Luckily, SQL Server 2005 added a number of tools to give us a glimpse into its inner workings through Dynamic Management Views (DMV). In the MSDN article, SQL Server: Uncover Hidden Data to Optimize Application Performance, Ian Stirk provides an excellent overview of the various DMVs.  "SQL Server 2005 collects data relating to running queries. This data, which is held in memory and starts accumulating after a server restart, can be used to identify numerous issues and metrics, including those surrounding table indexes, query performance, and server I/O. You can query this data via the SQL Server Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) and related Dynamic Management Functions (DMFs)."  More...

Is cubicle life making you too happy?  Are you starting to feel motivated?  Have no fear, the folks at Despair.com are here to help.  They are fighting the war against motivation!

The .NET Language List at dotnetpowered.com has become one of the most comprehensive lists of .NET-targeted languages available on the net.  This is thanks in large part to community involvement.  I've wanted to do some upgrades on the page for some time, and the first of them are finally online.  Click on the Enhanced View link to see the new functionality.  You can vote for your favorite language & sort the list different ways.  I'll also be adding the ability to add comment support so you can discuss your the aspects of your favorite language with the community.  Please let me know what you think and how I can make it better.  Also, if you know of a new language, please send it my way.

This a major release for the Mono project and includes many improvements:

MS Research has been working on a ".NET-based" operating system for some time.  Its a pretty exiting idea that could open up all kinds of new possiblities.  Now, it looks like the open source community may be getting in on the act.  The mono-develop mailing list has been buzzing with discussions of a CIL-based OS.  William Lahti has already start something he calls Jeto.  Jeto is an open source managed OS based on GNU/Linux. If you want to stay up on the discussion or contribute...look at the SharpOS web site.

For the past few years, I've been using Sharepoint for my development portal.  However, it doesn't seem to be the best tool for building out documentation on our development projects.  A Wiki seems like a much better choice.  I've started using ScrewTurn Wiki.  It is written in .NET 2.0 and is very nice.  ScrewTurn is very lightweight, easy to use, looks great, and has no need for a database.  The next major release will add plug-in support and a number of other features. Give it a try...I think you'll be impressed.

I wish I could have attended the Mono Meeting up in Cambridge, but it wasn't in the cards.  It looks like it was a great meeting.  These links aren't the same as being there, but they are pretty good.