Designing distributed systems has never been easier. But developing robust systems that handle failure scenarios without losing data is far from trivial. In the July 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine , Udi Dahan walks you through his team’s efforts to diagnose...

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 provides branding through themes. A user can apply a WSS theme to a site to change its appearance. In the July 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine , Ted Pattison walks you through a custom branding solution for SharePoint...

Whether you are new to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) or have worked with it a bit, there are some testing techniques and principles that will make your WCF work easier. In the July 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine , Dr. James McCaffrey walks you through...

There are many things called threat modeling. Rather than argue about which is "the one true way," a good practice is to consider your needs and what your skills, abilities, and schedules are, and then work with a method that's best for you...

Want to develop games for Xbox Live? Want to get paid for it, too? Click on over to the XNA Team Blog to learn more about their initial rollout of the XNA Creators Club for XNA Game Studio .

The Microsoft Entity Data Model (EDM), based on Dr. Peter Chen's Entity Relationship (ER) model, is the driving force behind the ADO.NET Entity Framework. The EDM is also the feature that most significantly differentiates the Entity Framework from other...

System.IO.File is a handy helper class for reading and writing data, but its methods support only synchronous operation. Is there an easy way to provide File’s functionality for asynchronous file I/O? In the July 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine , Stephen...

Remember .NET Terrarium, the interactive game meant to introduce .NET development techniques? Well, the Windows SDK team has released the source code for . NET Terrarium 2.0 on CodePlex . You can read more about this release on the Windows SDK blog and...

The Enumerable class plays an important role in every LINQ query you create. Because the Enumerable class's extension methods can process many other classes—including Array and List—you can use methods of the Enumerable class not only to create LINQ queries...

Peer applications cover the gamut from simple file sharing to instant messaging (IM) to full-on collaborative applications such as shared white boarding, Voice over IP (VoIP) calling and conferencing, social networking, and much more. In the July 2008...

Back in January , we rounded up all of the recent { End Bracket } columns you may have missed, since I don’t always get around to featuring them before a new issue comes online. { End Bracket } provides a forum for developers to express opinions or share...

Here's another bunch of handy tips in my ongoing series on a topic no one thought would ever spawn so much writing... Ever needed to capture a screen shot, but the system state just doesn't support or allow running another program or even a clipboard...

SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) is a robust, scale-free data service that internally uses proven SQL Server technology and exposes its functionality over industry standard Web service interfaces. In the July 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine , David Robinson...

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) offers excellent support for managing the display and editing of complex data. In the December 2007 edition of MSDN Magazine , John Papa did a great job of explaining essential WPF data binding concepts . In the July...

The most fundamental form of Web testing is HTTP request/response testing. This involves programmatically sending an HTTP request to the Web application, fetching the HTTP response, and examining the response for an expected value. In the May 2008 issue...

In the November issue of MSDN Magazine, Jeffrey Richter demonstrates some recent additions to the C# programming language that make working with the APM significantly easier. In the June issue , Jeffrey introduces his AsyncEnumerator class , which intelligently...

The July 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine is now available online. Here's what's in the issue: Data Services: Develop Robust and Scalable Apps with SQL Server Data Services We introduce SQL Server Data Services, which exposes its functionality over standard...

The June 2008 issue features the first installment of a new MSDN Magazine column on software design fundamentals. We’ll discuss design patterns and principles in a manner that isn't bound to a specific tool or lifecycle methodology. In this issue, Jeremy...