Since we are hiring, we need to get some more workstations – thus it is time
once again to see how much power a couple of grand will buy. If you have recently bought a kickin workstation for ArcGIS Development – I’d love to hear about your experiences…

Instead of simply specing out a top end box without much idea as to how it
would perform, I decided to try and figure our what ESRI would recommend. I started by cracking open the 2006 System Design
Strategies white paper from ESRI. I say cracking, but really it was quite a bit of waiting as Acrobat loaded the 289 page document.

Here’s the important bit – on page 7-17, the document states that ESRI uses
the “SPECInt Rate 2000″ as their system comparison benchmark. Conveniently the
rates for all kinds of systems are published so you
can check things out.

After further digging in the system design document, it turns out there was little in there that I could directly apply to the developer experience i.e.
they have not done benchmarking for how fast ArcMap starts, or how fast visual studio is while debugging. So, I decided to check the rating on
our current systems, so I’d at least have a
relative ranking.

Current Workstations:

Dell Precision 370, 3.8Ghz P4 w/ hyper threading, 3GB RAM, 256Mb dual head video card, ~100GB
disk

While not specifically listed, a similarly equipped Acer system with this
chip rates
a 23.5

While not bad, these workstations certainly could be faster – particularly
when starting ArcMap, and running Visual Studio 2005 with large solutions. Thus,
I started looking at systems which had a higher Spec rating, and more
specifically at the CPU’s which had the high ratings.

AMD Athlon vs Intel Core Duo

Obviously there are other factors which make a PC fast, but at the heart of
it all is the CPU, so may as well start there.

The top rated AMD chip is the Athlon
64 FX-62, with a 43.7

The top of the heap from Intel is the Core
2 Extreme X6800 at 63.5 with other Core 2 Duo’s coming in at 58.7 (E6700)
and 53.7 (E6600). Based on this, I figured that we should be able to at least double our workstation performance. The next step was figuring out what is was going to cost.

Looking for Systems

Traditionally we’ve been a Dell shop, so I started there.

The Dell
Precision 390  can be configured with each of the Core 2 Duo chips. For the pricing below, all
have 4GB of DDR2 RAM, and 2 80GB harddrives, 128Mb dual head video card, CD/DVD
burner WinXp. (For those scratching their heads on the 80GB drives – we really don’t need a lot of disk space, as 90% of our projects use ArcSDE as the data store.)

Here are the prices (as of 10/27/06)

1. Core 2 Extreme X6800: ~$2800 (Spec 63.5)
2. Core 2 Duo E6700: ~$2350 (Spec 58.7)
3. Core 2 Duo E6600: ~$2150 (Spec 53.9)

Not bad, but last winter I built a box for home and I’ve been really happy
with it, so I thought I’d check out what I can get from there -
GlobalComputer.com.

They have a Systemax
system that’s build to order – same basic config – 4GB DDR2 RAM, 2 80GB hard
drives, 256Mb dual head video card, CD/DVD burner, Win Xp.

1. Systemax Core 2 Duo E6700: ~$1950 (Spec 58.7)
2. Systemax Core 2 Duo E6600: ~$1650 (Spec 53.9)

Verdict?

It’s hard to say – Dell does have great support, and it’s the exact system
noted in the Spec ratings, so that’s a bonus. That said, is the support really
worth the $400-$500 difference? An even better question relates to the cost
difference vs. performance difference between the top $2800 system (63.5)
and the much cheaper $2150 system (53.9). Is that 10 spec points really worth
$650? Or is there just a premium on the fastest chips?

We’ll have to make the call next week, but right now, I’m leaning towards the
Systemax boxes. We’ve had great luck with other off-brand boxes (1/2 our servers
are SuperMicros) and I’m sure that I can find some other cool stuff to get with
the remaining cash.

I’m doing some testing with ArcSDE direct connections and Windows Authentication, and needed a quick way to check how the settings were working for different users. Of course I could go to another PC, and login as one of the test users, or setup a bunch of virtual machines, log into each of them as different users, and test the connections that way, but it seemed like a lot of work when there is the “run as” command in Windows XP.

Basically “Run As” allows you to start up an application or process as a different Windows login. Here’s the syntax (showing how to start ArcMap)

runas /user:your-domain\testuser /profile /savecred "C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\Bin\ArcMap.exe"

So, I happliy created some test users on our domain, and whipped up a quick batch file, and ran it, expecting ArcMap to fire up as the specified user. Not quite. I got an error when ArcMap was spinning up – a totally generic “ArcMap has encountered a Problem and needs to close” error. Usually this is a really bad type of error, but before I got too wound up, I thought about things a little, and when ArcMap starts up for the first time, it writes a bunch of stuff into the users profile. But this user does not yet have a profile on my machine since they have never logged in!

So I logged myself out, and logged in as the test user – which created the profile. I then promptly logged out and back in as myself again. Now when I run the batch file – ArcMap happily starts up as the specified user. Nice.

If you are using Windows Authentication with ArcSDE, this can be a useful tool – it can allow you to run in a more restricted mode most of the time, but when you need to you can switch over to a login which has rights to make schema modifications – without having to log out of your windows session.

I’m not sure what it is about fall, but for some reason I always get an itch to re-design things about now. Thus,  in addition to upgrading to  dasBlog 1.9, I’ve also re-cooked my look and feel. Although I have not been doing mych web work lately, for some reason my CSS seems to have stuck better than most other things. Besides the time fiddling in photoshop to come up with the look, it only took a few hours to whip up the skin.

Changes:
- More “web 2.0″ overall (minus ajax)
- bigger fonts
- change style sheets (Settings section)
- tag cloud
- Nicer comment entry box
- styled comments (you can actually tell who wrote them now!)

Still to come:
- re-skin my actual ASP.NET 2.0 site and add more content (playing with OpenLayers + .NET)
- Contact page with IM and Email info
- addition of LightBox into blog for viewing large images

For those who read this via  an aggregator, here’s a peek…

New “web 2.0″ look complete with fades and large fonts

and a “tag cloud” – how did I ever blog without one?

I promise to post more ArcObjects goodness shortly – I’m playing doing some enterprise research & design work with ArcGIS 9.2 these days (particularly looking at SDE direct connect + windows authentication),  and we all know that ESRI will cut out my tongue should I talk about anything prior to release.

If you have installed SQL Server 2005, and run into a COM error when opening Managment Studio that looks like this:

Unable to cast COM
object of type ‘System.__ComObject’ to interface type
‘Microsoft.VisualStudio.OLE.Interop.IServiceProvider’. This operation
failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM component for the
interface with IID ‘{6D5140C1-7436-11CE-8034-00AA006009FA}’ failed due
to the following error: No such interface supported (Exception from
HRESULT: 0×80004002 (E_NOINTERFACE)).

the fix is a registry hack: (provided by Nicolas Buse on the MSDN forums)

I’ve pasted the registry section below as much for my reference, as to have another place on the net to locate this little gem. Hope this helps!

[Copy from HERE]
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Interface\{6D5140C1-7436-11CE-8034-00AA006009FA}\ProxyStubClsid32]
@=”{B8DA6310-E19B-11D0-933C-00A0C90DCAA9}”
[ ... TO HERE]

Simply copy the above text, and put it into a text file with a .reg extension. Then double click the file and click yes on the resulting dialog box.

The Sanborn GIS Development Team is expanding!

At this time, we are looking for two full-time ArcObjects developers to help us build enterprise GIS systems. These are entry to mid-level positions, with plenty of opportunity for growth. You’ll be working with a relaxed team of professional developers who strive to build the best damn GIS software solutions out there. These positions will be working on both desktop customizations and back-end ArcGIS Server
component development. Current projects include an ecosystem managment
toolset for the Marine Corps (ArcGIS 9.1 + .NET 2.0), and a state wide
forest managment system for Pennsylvania (ArcGIS 9.2 Desktop &
Server + .NET 2.0).

What is the job?
Developing enterprise scale applications with ArcGIS and .NET – these are end-to-end systems, typically involving multiple technologies – ArcMap, ArcGIS Server, ArcSDE, ArcIMS, smart client, winforms, web forms. 

When I look at positions, one thing that I always ask about is the tools, so here’s what you’ll be working with:

• Microsoft Team System – Source control  project managment
• ArcSDE on Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle
• Visual Studio 2005 – VB.NET or C#
• MSDN subscription
• ESRI EDN Subscription
• Dual flat-screen workstation (3+GB RAM, 3+Ghz CPU)
• Citrix farm for client test access
• Good desk and chair – sorry no aerons. (yet!)

Who will fill it?
Are you the go-to person on your team? Are you sick of the general ‘hacking’ nature of GIS development? Do you know ArcObjects like the back of your hand? Interested in a more ‘agile’ approach to development? Can you whip out winforms apps? Dig web services and smart client applications?  Are you applying Unit Testing to your GIS applications? We want to hear from you!

Regardless of the laundry lists of skills in the formal postings, we are really looking for quick learning, self directed team players who really give a rip about producing quality software, and staying on the leading edge of software development. And if you blog, all the better!

Where is it?
These positions are located in sunny Fort Collins, Colorado – I’ve been here 10 years, and love it, but don’t just take my word for it -this year Money Magazine rated it the #1 place to live in the US.

When can I start?
We are looking to fill one position by early November, and the second by early January. Check out the detailed position descriptions and then email me (dbouwman AT sanborn DOT com) your resume.