"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
-- George Bernard Shaw

Autocomment your code:
Dont you feel that commenting you code(particularly before the review) is a tedious/redundant job and we have advanced so much that the system should actually infer the comment automatically.... gosh the day has just arrived !!
Installed GhostDoc yesterday download it here. Amazing product.
If you follow the right naming conventions the add-in will automatically (and accurately) add comments for you. ...really cool !!

Something to ponder :
One of the differences between building
architecture and software architecture is
that a lot of decisions about a building
are hard to change. It is hard to go back
and change your basement, though it is
possible.
There is no theoretical reason that anything
is hard to change about software.
If you pick any one aspect of software
then you can make it easy to change,
but we don’t know how to make everything
easy to change. Making something
easy to change makes the overall system
a little more complex, and making
everything easy to change makes the entire
system very complex. Complexity is
what makes software hard to change.

Software is not limited by physics, like
buildings are. It is limited by imagination,
by design, by organization. In
short, it is limited by properties of people,
not by properties of the world. “We
have met the enemy, and he is us.”

BizTalk 2004: Free tutorials for Biztalk 2004, links to BizTalk 2004, BTS 2004 documents., Integration patterns using BizTalk 2004(BTS 2004)
Extract from a blog :


BizTalk Overview
Books
BizTalk Server 2004Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 Developer's Guide by Scott Woodgate, et al. Integration Patterns PAG (architecture guidance group at Microsoft) - FREE!
BizTalk Server 2002BizTalk Server 2002 Design and Implementation by Xin Chen. One sample chapter is available.Biztalk Unleashed (for 2002) by Susie Adams, et al. Two sample chapters are available.
General B2B and EAIEnterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions by Gregor Hohpe, Bobby Woolf. One sample chapter is available. There is also a paper on the author's web site on using these patterns with BizTalk Server!Integration Patterns guidance from Microsoft.

Microsoft Web sites
BizTalk homeBizTalk Server downloadsBizTalk Server on MSDNBizTalk Server on TechnetBizTalk Server DocumentationBizTalk Server Code SamplesBizTalk Server White Papers
GotDotNet has a page on Microsoft server products, including BizTalk.

Third-party Web sites
UsingBiztalk - your one stop shop for BizTalk Server.
TopXML has a great section on Learn B2B, BizTalk and XML. Lots of articles, presentations, and downloads.
TopXML also has some great BizTalk utilities for both 2002 and 2004.
Only4Gurus has a BizTalk Server category which has BizTalk presentations, articles, and downloads too.
Christoph has a post on BizTalk Baby Steps, to help get you up and running quickly.

Important Downloads2004BizTalk Server 2004 Product DocumentationDownload the updated product documentation Help file to have new content for BizTalk Server 2004 on your desktop. The production documentation is updated on a quarterly basis. Or view the BizTalk Server 2004 Documentation online.
BizTalk Server 2004 SDK RefreshThe BizTalk Server 2004 SDK Refresh contains updates and additions to samples, utilities, headers, and other developer artifacts to aide in the development of BizTalk Server 2004 applications.
BizTalk Server 2004 Installation GuideLearn how to install BizTalk Server 2004 on a single computer or on multiple computers, with the information in this document.
Orchestration Designer for Business AnalystsVisio Add-In that enables Business Analysts to create business orchestrations that can be implemented using BizTalk Server 2004.
BizTalk 2004 TutorialThe BizTalk Server Tutorial contains detailed information about how Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 can be used within your company to facilitate Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and among business partners to automate business-to-business processes.
BizTalk Server 2004 Performance Characteristics
BizTalk Server 2004 Technical Deployment Guide for Security
BizTalk Server 2004 Migration
BizTalk Server 2004 Multi-Box Install
BizTalk Adapter Development Guide
2002Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002 Publish-Subscribe ToolkitThe Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002 Publish-Subscribe Toolkit is an abstraction layer built upon the standard BizTalk objects (also called "artifacts"), such as receive functions, channels, ports, documents, and organizations.
Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002 Toolkit for Microsoft .NET With the Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002 Toolkit for Microsoft .NET, developers can build complete BizTalk projects using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET and orchestrate ASP.NET XML Web services.
Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002 Service Pack 1BTS 2002 SP1 contains a collection of hotfixes and security fixes, as well as support for Windows Server 2003. Before installing BizTalk Server 2002 SP1, it is strongly recommended that you carefully review the documentation located in the Related Resources section to the right.

GotDotNet Workspaces
BizTalk Server 2004 Generic Adapter SampleMicrosoft® BizTalk® 2004 enables connectivity to external systems through an extension API called the Adapter Framework. Adapters in BizTalk are the main carriers for messages (either into the BizTalk messaging repository, called the "message box" or out of it). Out of the box, BizTalk 2004 comes with adapters for open protocols such as file, http, soap, ftp and others. System-specific adapters for SAP and MQSeries are also available. The adapter framework, while being versatile and enabling extension point for writing adapters for everything you can think of, are non trivial to implement and require thorough understanding of the interface with the BizTalk runtime. This document describes a "generic adapter" (its code is accompanied), which serves as an abstraction layer and enables writing "custom adapters" quickly and easily.
BizTalk Server Adapter for SharePoint LibrariesThis article describes a Microsoft® BizTalk® Server adapter that facilitates end-to-end communication between front-end Microsoft Office System 2003 applications and back-end enterprise systems. SharePoint libraries store Office System XML data while BizTalk Server orchestration provides services for integrating that data with back-end systems. This adapter makes SharePoint libraries accessible to BizTalk Server 2004 to provide an end-to-end integration path from the Office System 2003 applications to back-end enterprise systems
BizTalk Server 2004 Beta – Request BrokerThe Request Broker scenario sample for Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 Beta demonstrates how you can use BizTalk Server 2004 to implement a uniform request handler solution. The sample is intended to demonstrate development best practices to be used when building applications on BizTalk Server 2004. Annotated source code is included for review to help you understand how the application was archtected and built.
BizTalk Server 2004 Beta – Request for QuotationThe Request for Quotation for Biz Talk 2004 Beta demonstrates how you can use BizTalk Server 2004 to implement a RFQ solution. The sample is intended to demonstrate development best practices to be used when building applications on BizTalk Server 2004. Annotated source code is included for review to help you understand how the application was architected and built. Documentation is also provided which explains the scenario in detail including instructions for setting it up and running it.
BizTalk Server Fail Fast Tutorial and sample AICFail fast process is the process where Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002 shuts down an XLANG schedule instance even if it is not completed. In the fail fast process, the DTC transaction rolls back and the XLANG schedule shuts down without calling any On Failure or Compensate code. In highly sensible systems this can force the developer to create a tracking mechanism to make sure all instances completed, and re-try if not. To make this process easier, we replaced the Generic AIC with our own AIC which sends a Message Queuing message to a tracking queue and only then send it to the original private queue.

BizTalk Bloggers
Owen Allen has a BizTalk Server category on his blog. His blog covers Microsoft E-Business Technologies including Content Management Server and Commerce Server as well as BizTalk Server.
Scott Woodgate's E-Business OutBursts blog is all about BizTalk Server (he also wrote Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004 Developer's Guide and is on the BizTalk team).
Sylvain Duford has a blog on Enterprise Integration with a lot of BizTalk Server content.
Kevin B Smith was a developer on the BizTalk core engine.
Speaking of BizTalk Core Engine, they have a blog too!
Scott Colestock’s blog is on BizTalk Server, business process automation, and service-orientation.
Jan Tielens has a BizTalk category on his blog.
Darren Jefford has a BizTalk category on his blog.
Paul Brown, the "BizTalk Hacker", has a BizTalk Server 2004 blog.
Laurence Timms has a BizTalk-focused blog.
Lamont Harrington has a BizTalk category on his blog.
Charles Young has a BizTalk category on his blog.
The BizTalk Visionary has a BizTalk-focused blog.
I have a BizTalk category on this blog too.
Christof Claessens' WebLog.
Jeff Lynch is a BizTalk Enthusiast.
Martijn has a blog on E-Commerce, EAI, BizTalk and .NET.
Gilles' Weblog has lots of good BizTalk 2004 information.
Eldar Musayev has a BizTalk blog.

Webcasts
MSDN Webcast: Getting up to speed with BizTalk Server 2004 for the Visual Studio .NET Developer
MSDN Webcast: Biztalk Server 2004 Orchestration for the Visual Studio .NET Developer
MSDN Webcast: Biztalk Server 2004 Architecture
MSDN Webcast: BizTalk Server 2004 Performance and Early Adopter Experiences
MSDN Webcast: Using Web Services with BizTalk Server 2004
MSDN Webcast: BizTalk Server 2004 Business Rules for the Visual Studio .NET Developer
MSDN Webcast: Integrating BizTalk Server 2004 with SharePoint
MSDN Webcast: Extending Mainframe Applications using BizTalk Server 2004 and Host Integration 2004
MSDN Webcast: Business Workflow and BizTalk
MSDN Webcast: Adding Business Activity Monitoring your BizTalk Server 2004 Projects
MSDN Webcast: Real-World BizTalk Server 2004 Editing and Mapping Techniques
MSDN Webcast: Building on BizTalk Server 2004 Human Workflow Services for the Visual Studio .NET developer
MSDN Webcast: BizTalk Server 2004 EDI with and without the Covast Accelerator
MSDN Webcast: InfoPath SP1 and BizTalk Server
MSDN Webcast: Migrating from BizTalk Server 2002 to 2004
MSDN Webcast: Building BizTalk Server 2004 Adapters for the Visual Studio .NET Developer
MSDN Webcast: Advanced Orchestration Concepts in BizTalk Server 2004
MSDN Webcast: Extending Mainframe Applications using BizTalk Server 2004 and Host Integration 2004
MSDN Webcast: BizTalk Server 2004 Adapters for the Visual Studio .NET Developer

Newsgroups (Microsoft-sponsored)
Topic
Web-based client
Newsreader
Administration
HTML
NNTP
Application integration
HTML
NNTP
Framework
HTML
NNTP
General
HTML
NNTP
Library
HTML
NNTP
Non-XML
HTML
NNTP
Orchestration
HTML
NNTP
SDK
HTML
NNTP
Server
HTML
NNTP
Setup
HTML
NNTP
Tools
HTML
NNTP
Financial Services
HTML
NNTP
HIPAA
HTML
NNTP
HL7
HTML (GotDotNet Community)
RosettaNet
HTML
NNTP

MSN Groups
BizTalk Server Stuff

Tips and Tricks
Deployment - tips for deploying BizTalk Server 2000.Development - tips for BizTalk Editor.Development - tips for BizTalk Mapper.Development - tips for BizTalk Orchestration Designer.

Articles
Database Integration with Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002By Scott Woodgate, Microsoft Corporation
Business-to-business data processing requires data interchange that uses XML as the ubiquitous, extensible, and platform-independent transform format. The challenge is how to reconcile the requirements of relational data stores and hierarchical XML data. This article focuses on providing reusable samples and techniques for integrating Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002 and databases, with specific reference to leveraging Microsoft SQL Server 2000.
Orchestrate Web Services with BizTalk Server 2002By Randy Holloway
BizTalk Server supports the defining and changing of business processes through BizTalk Orchestration, which enables messaging and the integration of application components. Randy explains how to use BizTalk Orchestration and Web services integration.
Microsoft BizTalk Server 2002 First LookBy Hitesh Seth
The author takes a quick look at BizTalk Server, including a useful image showing the BizTalk architecture.
BizTalk Server 2004: Harnessing Data and ContentBy Jame Healy
.NETDJ Guest Editor Jame Healy recently interviewed Microsoft's Scott Woodgate, lead product manager for Microsoft's E-Business Servers group. In this exclusive interview, Woodgate talks about the history of BizTalk Server, the process of developing a new BizTalk Server version, and bridging the gap between developers and business analysts.
A Basic Introduction to Messaging with Microsoft BizTalk Server 2004By Christof Claessens
BizTalk Server 2004 has just been released and a lot of people are planning to hit the road with it. While BizTalk Server 2004 has lot to offer, this article focuses on the core workings of this brand new server, more in particular: messaging.
BizTalk Baby StepsBy Christoph Schittko
The lack of BizTalk developer documentation however, is making it very hard to take your first baby steps with BizTalk. You feel like a toddler with the urge to run, but you first have to master taking simple steps first. I had quite a few moments where I just wanted to plop on my butt an cry until my mommy comes and makes it all go away ... I hope this article will help some people to get past the baby step phase quicker and get them running in no time.

BizTalk Links
Links taken from http://pluralsight.com/wiki/default.aspx/Aaron/TheBiztalkWiki.html

MSDN Sites
BizTalk Server Developer Center
BizTalk Server Community
Biztalk Webcasts
MSDNTV
Developing for Biztalk Server 2004 Inside Visual Studio .NET
Building Your First Business Process
WSE 2.0 Adapter for Biztalk Server 2004
Advanced Orchestration Concepts in Biztalk Server 2004 - Convoy Processing
BizTalk Server and 'Indigo'
Installation Guides
Microsoft BTS 2004 Installation Guide
The Quickstart Guide to Installing & Configuring BTS 2004 for Windows Server 2003
The Quickstart Guide - Multi-Box
BizTalk Installation Troubleshooting
Updating a VPC Biztalk Install
Extra Downloads / Utilities
Official Product Updates (SP1, ODBA, updated documentation, SDK refresh, etc)
BTS 2004 Adapter for Web Services Enhancement 2.0
BTS 2004 Adapter for MSMQ v2.0
BizTalk Partner Adapters
BizTalk Assembly Viewer
BizTalk 2004 Management Tool
BizTalk Server 2004 Performance Tool
Samples
Enhanced Validator Sample
Jon Flander's Samples
Whitepaper Listings
Microsoft Whitepapers - Published
Microsoft Whitepapers for Community Review - MSN Groups
Recommended Whitepapers / Articles
Understanding BTS 2004
Developing a BTS Solution
BTS 2004 Internals (awesome stuff)
BTS 2004 Web Services
Using XML Schema in BizTalk
Security in BTS 2004
What is BPEL?
Implementing Process Integration - PAG
Developing Integration Solutions with BTS 2004
Authoring Adapters
BizTalk Server 2004 Performance Characteristics
BizTalk Server 2004 Technical Guide for High Availability
BizTalk Server 2004 Convoy Deep Dives
Microsoft Biztalk Blogs
The Blogger's Guide to Biztalk (an aggregation of numerous blogs)
Microsoft Community Blogs
Scott Woodgate
Michael Woods
Biztalk Core Engine Weblog
BizTalk Server Performance
BizTalk Chalk Talk
Biztalk Customer Response Team's Blog
MSDN Webcasts Weblog
David Hurtado's Integration Traces
Darren Jefford
Kevin Smith
Stephen Kaufman
Recommended Blog Entries
How messages work in BTS 2004 Orchestrations
Constructing BTS 2004 XML Messages
BizTalk's Pub/Sub
Receive Pipelines
Promoting schema properties into message context
MSMQT Testing / MSMQ Acks
EAI Using MSMQ, .NET, and BTS 2004
BizTalk 2004 Flat File Schema Tutorial 1
Remote HAT
Create an Encryption Functoid
Deployment Framework for Biz Talk 2004 Applications - based on NAnt
DTC Transactions in an Orchestration

In the business world the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield
-Warren Buffett

.NET vs J2EE
December 2004 column in SD Times, Allen Holub, a Java expert and one of its staunchest defenders, questioned the relevance of the JCP, saying, "Just look at created-by-committee junk like EJB (Enterprise JavaBeans Technology) and JSF (JavaServer Faces). I personally believe that EJB has been responsible for the failure of more companies than almost any other single technology. EJB is too expensive at every level."
(extract taken from https://partner.microsoft.com/global/40009708)

TOP STORY
Adobe agreed to buy Macromedia for $3.4 billion in stock, in a deal that would create a software company with broad ability to distribute media to PCs, cellphones and hand-held devices.

Acquisitions are on the rise and the order of the day is to acquire your competitor and get his market share. Though the compaq taker over was not very successful for HP.. it was due to the fact that the products of the merger was not strategically aligned by HP. Whereas Macromedia take over appears to be promising for Adobe. In time we will know.

Courage is worth nothing if the gods withhold their aid
-Euripides

Answers of life:

Life gives Answers in Three ways,
It says YES and gives Whatever u Want,
It says NO and gives u Something Better
It says Wait and gives u the Best

There are two primary components to IT... the design/development of services, and the opertaion/delivery of services.
"Business - IT Development" alignment is driven by business requirements (functional, service level, cost, time-to-market, etc). SOA isn't a "requirement", but a technique that helps IT achieve the desires of the business to support their business processes.
"Business/IT Operations" alignment is properly performed as defined by ITSM/ITIL Best Practices, and as illustrated in my graphic below. Business and IT need to work as a intimate partnership to define, implement, deliver, and continually refine an optimized Service Portfolio at contracted service levels and an established and predictable cost point. Again, SOA is simply a technique that helps IT achieve operational excellence.
All other functions are internal to IT. The fact that requirements are fleshed out in an Agile fashion and constructed/deployed using a SOA strategy is meaningless to the Business Unit. They simply want IT to build the capability they need, adjust it when asked, and deliver it as expected.

John Crupi - CTO of Sun's Enterprise (On SOA)
"[W]e cannot do SOA without a mutual effort between IT and the BU. Gone are the days of throwing the requirements over the fence and hoping it hits. Not only do these two groups have to work together, they have distinct roles and responsibilities. Basically, the BU runs the show and owns the business drivers, use-cases and processes. IT implements the BU requirements and owns the service definitions. It's unfortunate that we really do have to refer to this as a "shift", because we should be doing this anyway. But, the reality is that IT and BU typical function as disparate groups and rarely work together to have the business use-cases drive the process and service definition."

John Evdemon made two points on SOA relevant to this issue several months ago:
SOA does not enable or ensure the alignment of IT and business. The IT industry has been promising this for decades – there is no silver bullet for aligning IT and business. Alignment of IT and business is an organizational issue that will not be resolved by an architectural design philosophy alone.
Service Orientation will happen in your organization in one of two possible ways: chaotically (typical approach) or in a disciplined manner. The path your organization takes (and the cost of later fixing that path) is up to you.

Why microsoft products ?
After nearly half a decade of working on Microsoft platform i have just switched to a non microsoft software for data integration, the product is considered to be a leader in the segment but in the past couple of weeks have just realized why the development cost are so low in the MS platform.
1) There are enough news groups about the product im working on
2) the site of the company looks more like someones hobby site ( content !!!..where is it ??!)
3) The application doesnt have an intuitive look and feel and things dont come naturally to the user as a MS product.
4) the messages/ prompts were written by some guy who doesnt know the grammer of the english language !! i didnt know if i should click on Yes/No !!!
5) Google results are very poor for the product.

Been working on .NET since Beta 1 but even then i had more documentation then.... hmm.. im begining to see the light ....

Microsoft Acquires Groove Network :
"The nature of work itself has changed. Many of us, for better and worse, work in the office, at home, in hotels, at Starbucks." -- Groove Networks CEO Ray Ozzie, during a conference call last week to discuss his collaboration-software company's acquisition by Microsoft

Microsoft Acquires Grove Network

Groove Network Owner Ray Ozzie now another CTO at MS
Ray Ozzie was one of the creators of Lotus Notes !!

Groove products to integrate with Longhorn and the upcoming version of MS Office

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates
revealed his company's collaboration and communication vision
yesterday and unveiled two new Microsoft Office System products,
Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 (code-named Istanbul) and
Microsoft Live Communications Server 2005 Service Pack 1 (SP1), and
one new service, Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2005. Gates also
highlighted some of the technologies that Microsoft plans to ship in
the next Office version, code-named Office 12.

Multiple Child Aggregation:
An eyeopener docuement on Multiple Child Aggregation here
What ive been critizing all along seems to be the best approach .. duhhhh....
The document only describes the scenario on SQL Server and so the performance on Oracle is still debatable ;)

Heres a site with lots of good articles
Mostly useful for consulting and mangement type people
The details are published by the Wharton college and most
of the articles would be like the current affairs/ trends etc