If you've used Google Maps API to plot a route, and then tried to find locations near that route, you'll likely have come across their RouteBoxer utility, included in the V3 utility library. Either that, or you're using a database with OpenGIS spatial capabilities, like PostgreSQL.

 In the past year or 2, I must've installed SQL Server 2008 Express dozens of times, and each time I seem to run into the same few configuration issues. Although there are other nuances and caveats to installing this product, the ones I'll document here top my initial check-list.

 Essentially, there are 3 things that I always do on a new installation (or don't do, and then waste a half hour troubleshooting):

 As I tool this site up for blogging about dev stuff, I wanted to test this easy-looking syntax highlighter. Let's give her a whirl, shall we?

using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace Web.Controllers
{
    [Authorize]
    public class MainController : BaseController
    {

        public ActionResult Default()
        {
            return View();
        }
    }
}

 Sexy, ain't it?