We know what you're thinking. Visual Studio 2005 has been out for a few months now. You're getting your head around it, discovering its vast inner beauty. But still, there's a nagging voice inside your head taunting you, asking why you're content to work with a released product.

From a developer’s perspective, once a database’s schema has been defined and the tables, stored procedures, and other database objects have been created, it can be forgotten, abstracted away into the data access layer of the application’s architecture. Scott Mitchell

There are two ways you can utilize resources such as strings, images, and text-based files from your Microsoft® . NET Framework-based application. You can embed them directly in the app or you can load them from an external file. Ted Pattison

Stress testing is a fundamental quality assurance activity that should be part of every significant software testing effort. The key idea behind stress testing is simple: instead of running manual or automated tests under normal conditions, you run your tests under conditions of reduced machine or system resources. Dr. James McCaffrey

Storing data securely in a configuration system is not an easy problem to solve. While I was on the ASP. NET team, this particular feature, secure connection string storage, looked as if it wouldn’t get done. Rob Howard

In my April 2006 column I began a discussion of InfoCard, the upcoming identity metasystem, which is being prepared for release in the Windows Vista™ timeframe. If you haven’t read that column, you should definitely start there because I’m going to assume you’re familiar with the basics I covered. Keith Brown