Scott Hanselman's ComputerZen.com

Old news I'm sure, but here's a great FAQ on how to simultaneously run ASP.NET 1.0 and 1.1 on the same box (using Windows .NET Framework 1.0 and Windows .NET Framework 1.1 on various IIS "Applications"). Useful stuff, and very easy.

This just in.  Today the Doculabs "@Bench" Web Services Benchmark came out.  Here's a snippet from the Table of Contents to give you an idea of the scenarios they tried:

Summary Results: Application Server X on Windows 2000 and Oracle9i
Summary Results: Application Server Y on Windows 2000 and Oracle9i
Summary Results: JBoss on Red Hat Linux 8.0 and Oracle9i
Summary Results: .NET 1.1 on Windows 2000 and Oracle9i
Summary Results: .NET 1.1 on Windows 2003 and Oracle9i
Summary Results: .NET 1.1 on Windows 2003 and SQL Server 2000

The results you ask?  Let's just summarize by saying:

• Windows and the .NET Framework is the Best Platform for Web Services
• JBoss on Linux was the fastest Java system (!)
• Web Services on J2EE offers inconsistant performance
• Oracle on Windows 2003 Server is a very viable option
• Windows 2003 Server and Oracle offered a 37% increase in throughput compared to Windows 2000 and Oracle
• Windows 2003 Server and SQL2k offered roughtly an 38% increase in throughput compared to Windows 2003 and Oracle

I'm presenting on WSE (Web Services Enhancements) at the Visual Studio/Windows Server 2003 launch in Seattle on Thursday, and while going through an internal Rough Draft my CTO Chris Brooks, brought up the question, but where does WSDL define DIME.  My short answer was, "Hell if I know, it's out of band" and Chris said "that's not good enough."  So, a little poking around led us to Mike Deem's DIME WSDL Extension roughspec/RFC.  What's going on in this space?  There's a cacophony of WS-KitchenSink specs out there with all their glorious interrelationships, and WSDL a tricky touch point.  I know some folks have strong opinions about WSDL, but regardless, WSDL clearly, as XML is wont to do, can be twisted and turned to fit, but should it be? And until then should I just chalk DIME up as out-of-band literally and contractually?  Or do I eat Deem's Dogfood?

There's a number of ways to "export" data to Excel from an ASP.NET site - some more elegant than others.

• Gross: You can use ASP.NET to generate a CSV file of Mime Type text/plain or text/csv and write it back to the browser.
• NOT Gross: You can use ASP.NET to generate an XML-SS (Excel XML Spreadsheet) document and write it back to the browser.
• Really Easy but not Really XMLy: You can take advantage of the ASP.NET DataGrid's ability to generate HTML tables quickly and return the page with a Mime Type of application/vnd.ms-excel.  Here's a great example on how to create these reports. 
• Easy but uses 3rd Party Control: Use ExcelWriter on the server side to create the Report.
• Disgusting: Automate Excel on the ServerSide.  Don't do this for Pete's Sake.