I think I need to add Carlos Aguilar Mares to my list of computer-related “people I'd like to buy a beer.” I'm evaluating some reporting/charting options and his .Net WebChart control may be just what I needed. Yes, SQL Reporting Services is very nice, but it may be overkill for my particular task. Plus, I'm not real happy with using IFrames or other page parsing methods to get the charts out of Reporting Services1. I may be missing something (I'm far from a Reporting Services Expert), but CarlosAg's web control is light weight and ready to roll. The sample code mostly works on the site, and he even includes a step by step tutorial for the less adventurous users, so it was easy to get up and running.
For the record, my computer-related “people I'd like to buy a beer“ list includes:
- Bob Reselman (of CodingSlave fame); when I caught up with him at TechEd he was abstaining for a variety of reasons. He's still on the list.
- Anybody involved with WeProgram.Net; I think the one thing our user group misses is more social stuff -- including a beer or two. We had a nerd dinner cooked up a long while back, but it fizzled.
- Brendan Tompkins (since he has yet to attend a WeProgram.Net event, he doesn't fall under item 2). We haven't caught up since June.
- John Robbins from Wintellect -- as Darrell is fond of pointing out my non-sexual nerd crush on Johnnie R, and no list such as this is complete without it.
1 To clinch my decision, the customer isn't 100% certain on Sql Server as the back-end so I can't bet the farm on having a SQL Server available to report with.