This is a quick post for my presentation slide and demos at SharePoint Pro Singapore User Group Meeting last week. I discussed about configuration on SharePoint box to make it Silverlight enabled, and also giving some demos to write Silverlight video player then deploy it to SharePoint.

The PPT and demos are available for download from my Skydrive. Enjoy!

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I presented at Community Technology Update 2008, organized by Microsoft Singapore DPE on November 22, 2008. It was a fantastic community event, a place when community members gathered together to share their passion on latest Microsoft Technologies.

My first session at the morning was Web 2.0 Programming with Visual Studio 2008. I presented Web 2.0 term, and what kind of tools available in Visual Studio 2008 to achieve Web 2.0 effects. I was much inspired by DropThings project  by fellow ASP.NET MVP Omar Al Zabir.

The second session was about SQL Server Performance Tools. No, this is not yet another Microsoft product come out. It is a collection of free tools, scripts, and tips to identify server bottleneck and resolve performance problems. My idea was to share hidden tools and script to reveal performance bottleneck. I was presenting about PAL, SQLDiag, server side script and database tuning advisor. I have to give a big credit to Itzik Ben Gan book for collection of server side trace script instead of using graphical Profiler. Both PPTs are available for download from my Skydrive:

Web 2.0 with VS 2008

SQL Server Performance Tools

I am not able to publish my demo code at the moment, because it was running on my real machine at that time, so I need to fine tune and modify some configuration to avoid any problem. Once I finished with the changes, I will update share my demo code here.

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I spoke on SQL Server User Group Indonesia monthly meeting last month, discussed about a developer perspectives of SQL Server Security. I covered most of the session with some SQL Injection techniques, completed with real sample code in web application.

I started with the awareness that network administrator is not the only person who’s responsible for computer security. Networking guys are only responsible at the network (firewall) and host (OS) level. At the application level, is a developer responsiblity for the software security. Ensure that no single line of code contains a hole, something that can be utilized by an attacker to compromise the system.

These are the summarry for SQL Injection countermeasures:

• Never use user input as a string concatenation element
• Avoid string concatenation in SQL statement
• Use Parameter collection of ADO.NET Command object for parameter parsing
• Use stored procedure as possible
• Validate user input, never trust them
• Client side validation is not enough (java script can be removed)
• Utilize built in database constraint
• Change the sa password
• Remove built in administrator

Some configurations for locking down SQL Server from any vulnerabilities:

• Disable xp_cmdshell (default ON in SQL2000)
• Disable OPENROWSET and OPENDATASOURCE (default ON in SQL2000)
• Don’t enable SQL CLR if not needed
• Minimize protocol used
• Disable remote access if not needed
• All setting can be modified using sp_configure
• SQL authentication: create user mapping, don’t use the real SQL user
• Use Application Role if possible

Download the presentation here.
Download the sample code here.

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I just come back from Yogyakarta, giving a 2 hours chat on Data Mining at Atma Jaya University. Last weekend was very busy, I presented about SQL Server 2005 BI for Foxpro developer in MS Office on Friday (April 28), and early in the Saturday morning on April 29 I went to Yogya with the first flight schedule.

The presentation material and demo code is rather same for both events, but I added some Foxpro snipet code for Friday material. I talked more on practical implementation of OLAP and data mining for Atma Jaya student, and my fellow Zeddy gave more attention on academic approach of mining model. I made some coding enhanchments for Saturday chat, so It looks more fancy and real. The demo code was about “smart” ASP.NET application using Association Rule mining algorithm of SQL2005.

This demo is like Amazon’s features, which able to give some movies recommendation based on visitor’s shopping basket. It drives them to other movie titles that maybe they interested, and encourage them to make “impulse buying”.
I reused some codes that made by Raman Iyer and Jesper Lind in his article at ASPNETPro Magazine. Then adding some user interface improvements so the application looks more nature and fancy as online shopping mall. I also added a data layer with C# 2.0 generics to demonstrate data access best practices for Atma Jaya’s student.

Don’t forget that you need at least Visual Studio 2005 Professional edition to open and run the demo file.
Download PPT file and code here:

• PPT: BI with SQL2005: Data Mining Case Study (Atma Jaya Univ)
• DataMiningAspnetCode

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