XmlLite: A Small And Fast XML Parser For Native C++   16 Mar 2007 20:45 GMT
XmlLite provides a high-performance, low-overhead XML reader and writer for applications written in native C++. Learn more here.
Source: MSDN

Event Tracing: Improve Debugging And Performance Tuning With ETW   16 Mar 2007 10:52 GMT
Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) provides general-purpose, high-speed tracing of events raised by both user-mode applications and kernel-mode device drivers. Learn how ETW can improve your development and debugging work.
Source: MSDN

Wrangling SharePoint Workflows with Visual Studio   16 Mar 2007 02:19 GMT
SharePoint and Workflow may be the most powerful combination since chocolate and peanut butter, but the trick is harnessing their combined power. That isn't as easy as it first seems, but in this article you'll learn how create a SharePoint workflow in Visual Studio from start to finish.
Source: DevX

Roll Your Own SMS Gateway   14 Mar 2007 21:25 GMT
You can do a lot of fun applications using an SMS gateway but unless you work for a major television network, good luck getting a return on your investment. In this article, we'll show you a great alternative to an expensive SMS gateway using a Pocket PC and a Bluetooth connection.
Source: DevX

Enterprise Reporting with Excel   14 Mar 2007 04:08 GMT
Microsoft Office Excel 2007 version lifts several of the limitations in previous versions, making Excel reporting even more powerful.
Source: DevX

Health Monitoring in ASP.NET 2.0: The Basics   14 Mar 2007 00:00 GMT

Software engineering involves a number of important stages that occur before the application is deployed, such as requirements analysis, design, coding, and testing. The software engineering process, however, does not end once an application has been deployed and is being used. Regardless of how well designed, coded, and tested a web application may have been, there will invariably be hiccups. The database server may go offline, the website might be experiencing an unexpected heavy load, or there may be a hardware failure on the web server itself. And, unless the application is trivial or you are a programming god, there are bound to be bugs that will weild their nasty little heads every now and then.

To help detect and diagnose problems, it is important that key web application metrics and information are monitored and logged. There are a number of open-source and Microsoft-created libraries to help with with logging unhandled exceptions and notifying developers. See Gracefully Responding to Unhandled Exceptions - Processing Unhandled Exceptions for information on how to log unhandled exceptions.

ASP.NET version 1.x did not include any built-in logging and notification system and therefore required a little bit of code or configuration effort from the developer. ASP.NET 2.0, however, provides built-in Health Monitoring facilities that make it a snap to configure a website to record events to the event log, a database, via WMI, in an email, or to the ASP.NET page tracing system. Moreover, the Health Monitoring system was created using the provider design pattern, making it possible to implement our own logging logic.

This is the start of a series that explores the ASP.NET 2.0 Health Monitoring system. In this article we will examine the basics of Health Monitoring and see how to setup Health Monitoring to log events to a SQL Server database. Read on to learn more!
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Source: 4GuysFromRolla

A Phased Approach for Converting SQL-centric Applications to LINQ   13 Mar 2007 03:15 GMT
LINQ lets you use an object-centric approach to access and update data along with convenient automated mapping. Best of all, you don't have to completely rewrite your applications to take advantage of it.
Source: DevX

.NET Rocks! - Ted Neward on Interoperability   08 Mar 2007 01:24 GMT
Ted Neward discusses the present state and future of interoperability. Java and .NET compatibility are discussed and Ted touches on a wide range of topics ranging from XML's shortcomings as a messenger format to proprietary systems in .NET 3.0.
Source: MSDN

Now Available: Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Update for Windows Vista   07 Mar 2007 19:08 GMT
During the development of Windows Vista, several key investments were made to vastly improve overall quality, security, and reliability from previous versions of Windows. The Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista addresses areas of Visual Studio impacted by these Windows Vista enhancements.
Source: MSDN

Visual Studio 2005 SDK 4.0 RTM Released   07 Mar 2007 16:01 GMT
This is the official Visual Studio 2005 software development kit that allows developers to integrate tools, editors, designers, languages, and much more inside Visual Studio 2005. It adds the following features: VS SDK Browser, Package Load Analyzer, Toolbox Control Installer together with a toolbox control installation sample, a redistributable package for Toolbox component vendors that simplifies deployment, a new tool for generating managed class library documentation (Sandcastle), an updated Setup experience, a new toolbar combo box sample, new integration tests for the EditorWithToolbox sample that use the VsIdeHostAdapter and much more.
Source: MSDN