ASP.NET

• Extending ASP.NET Output Caching: Scott Mitchell has a nice article that discusses how to take advantage of ASP.NET 4’s extensible cache provider API to implement richer output caching mechanisms.  Also check out my article on ASP.NET 4 output caching improvements here.

• Installing and Configuring Windows Server AppFabric and “Velocity” Memory Cache: Scott Hanselman has a nice blog post that describes how to install and configure Windows Server AppFabric – which is a free application server offering from Microsoft.  In less than 10 minutes you can enable its “Velocity” memory cache, and use it within your ASP.NET applications.

• Preventing Users From Copying Text From and Pasting It Into TextBoxes: Scott Mitchell has a useful article that discusses how to disable copy/paste within ASP.NET forms.  Useful for scenarios where you want to avoid people inadvertently duplicating a bad email registration address.

• Building a Store Locator ASP.NET Application Using Google Maps API: Scott Mitchell has a nice set of articles that discuss how to use the Google Maps API within an ASP.NET application to implement a Store Locator service.  Also check out Part 2 and Part 3 of his series.

• ASP.NET 4 SEO Improvements: Nice article from Scott Mitchell that describes some of the search engine optimization (SEO) improvements provided with ASP.NET 4.  Also check out my previous blog post on this topic.

• More details about SQL Compact Edition 4: Rob blogs more details about the recently released SQL CE 4 beta – which is available both as a standalone install as well as integrated within WebMatrix.  SQL CE 4 enables you to use an embedded database within your ASP.NET applications.  I blogged an overview of it here.

Silverlight and WPF

• Building a Simple Forms Application using the Silverlight Tool for VS 2010 and WCF RIA Services: Mark has a really nice tutorial that walks through how to build a simple data forms application using Silverlight, VS 2010 and WCF RIA Services.

• Tips and Tricks for Working with the WPF and Silverlight Designers in VS 2010: Karl has a great blog post that describes some useful tips/tricks you can take advantage of with VS 2010 when using the WPF and Silverlight designer.

• How to Enable the Binding Builder in WPF and Silverlight Applications: Another nice post from Karl that discusses how to take maximum advantage of the data sources window in VS 2010.

• Blend 4 and Sketchflow Improvements: Nice blog post from Christian that talks about some of the great improvements provided with Blend 4 and Sketchflow.

• HTTP Duplex Messaging Improvements in Silverlight 4: Nice blog post that describes some of the improvements provided with Silverlight 4 to enable better “server push” scenarios – where servers can push messages to Silverlight clients without requiring the client to explicitly poll.

Visual Studio 2010

• Snippet Designer: A cool extension for Visual Studio 2010 that enables you to quickly create and author reusable code snippets.

• StyleCop 4.4 Release Candidate: The new release of StyleCop 4.4 is now at the release candidate stage. StyleCop analyzes C# source code to enforce style and consistency guidelines. This new version supports C# 4.0 and VS 2010.

• Comparing SQL Data: Nice blog post by Zubair that demonstrates some of the data features in Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate for comparing SQL Data and Schema.

What an automated cheerful welcome..

I have never really blogged before so here it goes..