It seems that it is that time of year when the conferences start tom come in bunches. In addition to presenting a full day data access workshop [http://www.ftponline.com/conferences/vslive/2006/orlando/workshops.aspx#7] at VSLive Orlando [http://www.ftponline.com/conferences/vslive/2006/orlando/] i

Would you use a drill to pre-drill a hole for a nail to hang a picture? I wouldn't either. Just hammer the nail into the wall. OK, need something more code related? Would you define a class with a single property and no other members just to store a string? Me neither. <FONT color=#008000&g

<FONT color=#800080>Tip: when installing SQL Server, consider using named instances. I recently installed SQL Server 2005 on my PC. It went fairly quick and installed with 0 issues. I was also quite pleased that it installed very nicely side by side with a SQL Server 2000 installation already

A very talented former colleague of mine has entered the world of blogging. You can check out all that The Zenker [http://www.dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/azenker/default.aspx] (Andreas Zenker) has to say at his new blog at http://www.dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/azenker/default.aspx.

We're all celebrating the recent advancements in .NET and other technologies like LINQ, XML in SQL Server and the fascinating tools like CodeRush [http://www.devexpress.com]and ReSharper [http://www.jetbrains.com]. But it struck me this week that we haven;t gone far enough in some areas ... like