Implementing a game using Silverlight is a good way to learn its more advanced aspects. Dave Wheeler shows us how, and has some fun on the way.

Threading is a big and important topic. Mike James explains how the many forms of Invoke make it easier.

Ben Hall introduces a new way to query your data using the .NET platform.

Do we really need another approach to properties? Dave Wheeler thinks we do, and argues that WPF’s new dependency properties are a really good idea.

Redirection may be a magician’s main trick, but Ian Stevenson explains that it’s also useful when building a web site.

The role of custom attributes in C# can be confusing. Mike James gets to grips with them and provides some examples.

Taking full advantage of multiple-core CPU architectures is becoming an essential step for new applications. How do you automate the process?

What exactly is XAML all about? Is it a replacement for HTML? Not according to Ian Elliot, who explains exactly what it does.

A key strength of Windows Presentation Foundation is its ability to divorce information from display, using data binding. But you can’t simply shovel data in and hope it will stick – it helps to know how to “shape” it.

This year sees the arrival of SQL Server 2008. What are the key features?

Are you ready for LINQ? Jon Skeet thinks that the time is right to find out how it works and how to use it.

Delivering on the mobile data access promise with the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Knowing how to send and receive Windows messages is essential if you want to work with the Skype API.

There’s no need to be scared of the mouse if you’re working with Silverlight, but as Dave Wheeler explains, it’s not quite as straightforward as it could be.

Mobile applications are generally regarded as difficult. Sing Li describes a mobile architecture that is highly generalisable.

Data binding in WPF is relatively straightforward, but it’s even easier with the help of Ed Blankenship’s example.

Dave Wheeler continues his series of articles on Microsoft’s new Silverlight technology.

Going beyond dynamic GUI and responsive interactions for web applications, GWT provides an easy-to-use remote procedure mechanism that your AJAX application can use to fetch data from a remote server. Sing Li shows how to extend a GWT application to access data across a network via RPC.

Most of the emphasis with AJAX is on how to perform an asynchronous update at the client. Dino Esposito considers the other end of the connection – how exactly does the server provide the data that the client needs?

Are generics useful or are they just syntactic fluff? Mike James shows how they can be used to create complicated dynamic data structures.

Is Silverlight the way to make your browser based applications as rich as a desktop application? Dave Wheeler thinks so and put the case for sophistication in Silverlight.

Last month, we looked at the combination of Jalapeño and Caché from InterSystems to see how well the two worked together for the Java developer. This month, it’s the turn of the web browser development feature in Caché, Zen.

Web 2.0 and AJAX are exciting, but writing production grade systems that utilize these technologies is far from easy. There existed no way for Java developers to break into AJAX ‘gently’ – until now! The Google Web Toolkit (GWT) lets you program AJAX in Java.

Ian Elliot shows how you can make cryptography so easy that you can build it into almost any application.

Introducing Microsoft’s new rival to Flash.

SQL Server’s Service Broker sounds mysterious, but it’s easy to use and effective, as Klaus Aschenbrenner demonstrates.

How do you manage the session state in a suitably modern way? Robert Faulkner has some suggestions for controlling the session object.

The unified approach to objects, data structures and programming.

.NET and ADO .NET in particular has lots of interesting facilities for working with database, but can they really be useful when no database is involved? Ian Elliot comes to the surprising conclusion that they can.

XML is at the heart of Office 2007, and Mike Ormond introduces its exciting possibilities.

Mike James explains how closure applies to anonymous methods, and why it’s useful.

Java SE 6 is no wimp when it comes to high performance interactive animations. Learn the tricks of the trade for Java animations and apply them in your next project.

If you think of XML as just being about static data storage, you need to see Windows Live Data in action. It uses XML as an active way of changing stored data, as Martin Parry explains.

Ian Stevenson makes Windows forms data binding seem easy and usable, and makes the connection with ASP.NET.

Metadata is the new solution to all our problems. If you have lost a file, then metadata helps you find it. However, not all is rosy in the metadata world, as Mike James explains.

If you hate creating documentation you will love Sandcastle. Ian Stevenson thinks it’s the solution to a task we all try to avoid.