How to invoke a BizTalk Orchestration using Office InfoPath 2003

Here is a nice article at CodeProject.com. I work Biztalk and InfoPath quite a lot. Never got to writing a guide and whitepaper but i thought this would be a good read.

It is written by Naveen Karamchetti

Microsoft eyes XAML to wed designers, developers

It sees Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere as a more flexible alternative to Flash.

Read more (at computerworld.com)

The Worst Web Design Techniques Featured on Web Pages That Suck in 2005

Q&A: Microsoft exec details Team Foundation Server launch

Multiple Active Resut Sets (MARS) in SQL

Here is a small FAQ on MARS. It is short but it has got some important details. Read it...

What is BASE64.

If you want to learn more about Base64, there's a pretty good article over at Wikipedia.

Free Encryption By: Michael Coles (from SQLServerCentral.com)

Free SQL Server 2000 Encryption for your data!!! Author Michael Coles has put together a toolkit and some XPs that you can use to encrypt your data with the Blowfish algorithm. It is hard to write good applications that encrpyt data and manage the keys and security. This will give you a great headstart on protecting your data.

How-To-Select an Obfuscation Tool for .NET™

From the How-To-Select™ Guides at http://www.howtoselectguides.com/

Automated Smart Client Deployment and Update - Today and Tomorrow

March 31, 2005 (at http://www.theserverside.net)
Smart client application architecture is gaining ground as a replacement for many intranet and some internet web applications. Smart client architectures have many considerations that you need to take into account to build a well robust, reliable, scalable, performant, and secure app. However, building the application is only part of the battle.

Once you get the smart client application designed and tested along with its supporting middle tier components, you need to deploy the application to client machines and support it with (possibly frequent) updates while it is there.

This article will discuss some of your options, including capabilities that exist today with .NET 1.1 such as Windows Installer, No Touch Deployment, and the Updater Application Block, as well as those that will soon arrive with the release of .NET 2.0, specifically ClickOnce.

A Case Study in Performance Tuning

Columnist : Gordon Pollokoff Posted: 01/24/2005 at sqlservercentral.com

Summary:SQL Server does a wonderful job of tuning itself, selecting the optimum query plans and in general performing very well under a variety of conditions. That does not mean the a good DBA cannot add value by setting up the system and ensuring the optimizer receives the information that it needs. New author Gordon Pollokoff brings us a short case study from a project he as recently involved in where a new application required a bit of tuning.

Microsoft Enterprise Library 2.0 Released

Microsoft Enterprise Library 2.0 Released Microsoft's Patterns & Practices Team has released Enterprise Library 2.0. Enterprise Library is a collection of application blocks including data access, logging, configuration, cryptography, exception handling, caching, and security.

This version has been updated to work with .NET 2.0 and includes some significant changes.

Key Changes from Enterprise Library 1.x

• Configuration now built on System.Configuration
• Configuration Application Block no longer exists
• Easier to use blocks with or without configuration files
• Instrumentation configurable and disabled by default
• Much Improved Logging Application Block
• Flexibility and Performance Improvements
• Simpler and more powerful Data Access Application Block
• Use with OLE-DB, ODBC or any managed provider
• Most of the Security Application Block has been removed
• Deprecated in favor of .NET's Membership and Profile Features

Step-byStep in debugging ASP.Net memory leaks

Tess Ferandez, MVP, posted in the blog about NET Memory Leak Case Study: The Event Handlers That Made The Memory Baloon. Very good read.

Go-Live License for WCF and WF

Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation are now Go-Live enabled as of Beta 2.

Read more on Go-Live... http://msdn.microsoft.com/winfx/getthebeta/golive/default.aspx

History of BASIC and C Based Languages by Billy Hollis

Billy Hollis takes a rather tongue-in-cheek look at the history of the BASIC and C family of languages in two recent blog posts.

Complex data binding expressions in ASP.NET

Complex Data Binding Expressions in ASP.Net by Fritz Onion

New Patterns & Practices: Upgrading VB6 to VB.NET and VB 2005

TheServerSide.net

Microsoft's Patterns & Practices group has published a new guide in its series of books. The title is "Upgrading Visual Basic 6.0 Applications to Visual Basic .NET and Visual Basic 2005."

This guide is intended for software technical decision makers, solution architects, and software developers who are involved in Visual Basic 6.0 application or component development. It helps individuals understand the issues and risks that go along with upgrading to Visual Basic .NET. It also provides steps for preparing your applications for a successful and cost-effective upgrade. Finally, it gives ideas and pointers about how advance your application after you successfully upgrade it to Visual Basic .NET.

The 700+ page book consists of 21 chapters and is organized into the following four parts:
General Upgrade Practices
Understanding the Upgrade Process
Manual Upgrade Tasks
Beyond the Upgrade

/Gill

patterns and guidance available for securing web services with WSE 3.0 and Indigo.

Web Service Security Guide

Brief Description
Scenarios, Patterns, and Implementation Guidance for Web Services Enhancements 3.0. This guide will help you quickly make the most appropriate security decisions in the context of your Web service's requirements while providing the rationale and education for each option.

Overview
This guide will help you quickly make the most appropriate security decisions in the context of your Web service's requirements while providing the rationale and education for each option. A scenario-driven approach is provided to demonstrate situations where different security patterns are successful. The guide also combines a series of decision matrices to assist you in applying your own criteria to use the Web service security patterns to meet the requirements of your environment.

CorasWorks Free Web Part - WSS Cross-Site Search

Todd from MindSharpBlog has posted on the free webpart for searching across website, which out of the box, WSS does not do.

Here is the download URL but please do the read the

Microsoft Uses Ajax To Web-enable Corporate IM

Microsoft Uses Ajax To Web-enable Corporate IM
http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/180531/207397/3931/0/

Embedding SQL Server Express into Custom Applications

Embedding SQL Server Express into Custom Applications
By: Additional Articles (from MSDN Developer Community)

This white paper discusses how to integrate and deploy Microsoft SQL Server Express-based applications by using configuration files and the ClickOnce deployment technology in Microsoft Visual Studio.