Microsoft Visual Studio has extensive support for setting breakpoints with extra conditions, including code, and then searching for and managing those breakpoints. Read more to see how to put beakpoints to work for you.

There are as many explanations, examples, and mathematical descriptions for covariance and contravariance as you care to explore, but all of this information adds to the confusion. This article shows you why they are important concepts for software developers and how you can leverage variance when you design your code.

The VB and C# programming teams have merged and you'll start to notice capability features--like Lambda Expressions and automatic properties--that are more similar in these two languages, but both languages are suited for the same kinds of software development.

Auto-implemented properties in VB 2010 provide developers with the convenience of fields, in terms of how much code you write and the benefit of properties.

Beginning with basic file I/O concepts this article wraps up by demonstrating how you can use the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) in .NET 4.0 to map text file data to objects.

LINQ to SQL is one of many valuable implementations of LINQ. Check out this post for information on reading, updating, and managing concurrent updates with LINQ to SQL.

Dynamic objects in VB let you bind data to members at runtime without defining a custom mapping class.

Write a reflection mechanism one time to reflect any object or collection; knowing your code's state is the first step in writing bug-free code.

VB2010 supports Sub routine Lambda expressions and multiline expressions, read on to see how to define these little method packages.

Paul Kimmel writes about his favorite top ten new features that are being rolled out with this recent Microsoft update of Visual Basic.

Learn to use the basic parallel operations--multithreading--incorporated into .NET framework 4.0.

By default LINQ uses deferred query execution. This means you can access the results, change the data and use the same query again. Using Visual Studio 2010, beta 1 and the .NET Framework 4.0 we'll see how to use this to our advantage.

Learn to use CodeRush in Microsoft Visual Studio to write code faster and easier than ever before.

Say your goodbyes to line continuation characters, with a brief look back at Basic.

Learn how to dynamically build and explore Lambda expressions from expression trees.

Learn about LINQ and all the ways you can use "Where" in your code.

Paul takes a look at WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) to see how it might bridge the gap between Web development and Windows development.

Learn about the history of debugging and evolutionary improvements in Intellisense in Visual Studio 2010.

Using an anonymous type in VB, which is essential for technologies like LINQ, means that the compiler will generate a class for you based on context and named initializers saving you time and effort. To learn more read on.

Add ultimate flexibility and power to your programs with function parameters and Lambda Expressions.

Follow these simple steps to let users upload image files and display them as thumbnails in ASP.NET.

Sometimes when you have all kinds of data what you really need is XML. LINQ to XML let's you employ functional construction to convert your data into XML.

Using skins and themes make it much easier to quickly, uniformly, and easily change the way web application looks.

Obtain client-specific information from your Web application using ActiveX, which only works with Internet Explorer and browsers that have ActiveX extensions.

Programming is hard,debugging is hard. Doing both well is critical to being a good programmer. To make things easier for us Paul Kimmel demonstrates how to run custom Tracepoint with macros.

OP-ED: Unlike the Illuminati, the IEEE exists, and they have a secret. This secret helps them turn out shiny MP3 players, phones, and computers with processing power than we programmers can figure out how to use. This is how they do it. When will developers learn the same truths?

Providing a drop down list in your ASP.NET Web applications help users avoid wasting time with bad data and it's a kinder, gentler thing to do.

Discover how to render an image directly from a database using an IHttpHandler and how to modify the image on its way to the client using GDI+.

Respond to every HTTP request. Just implement event handlers or an IHttpModule (which is a cool way to write a re-deployable solution for multiple projects).

How do I hide the unneeded features? Don't cut corners just because people are cutting budgets and staff.

The security-hole testing that hackers engage results in a sparring match where security-conscious companies like Microsoft are forced to—well, make life harder on the rest of us.

Old school programming, whereby the programmer reads control values and writes inline SQL, still works, but it's so 90s. If you are new to WinForms or Web programming but experienced, peruse the article and then master LINQ.

Elevate your SQL game (a little bit) with CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY.

Devexpress has a commitment to providing amazing ASP.NET (and other controls), such as their latest revision of their ASPxGridView, version 8.3, which supports filtering, grouping, sorting, and much more, with little or no coding on your part.

Round those corners and make your user interfaces a little jazzier with a rounded rectangle Panel control; a fun chunk of code to incorporate into your application.

Few projects end up having too much time. Successfully completing a project often depends on tackling core, significant, and risky aspects of any custom solution first—like the long hard march up hill—and finishing with the trim, or cosmetic work, last.

Emitted code and the DynamicMethod have the benefit of speed and the emitted code can be unloaded when the DynamicMethod goes out of scope, resulting in the best of all worlds.

Use Reflection.Emit to speed up Reflection intensive processes by writing one general algorithm that emits a specific solution.

When handed a crate of lemons, make lemonade. Success in a tough economic climate is about perspective and attitude.

One general-purpose algorithm, written one time, is a great time saver for programmers.

Some things that seem hard are actually quite easy, and some things that seem easy take a little work, like that little [X] on a Windows Form, the ControlBox. Learn how to know just when that little bugger is pressed.

The MenuStrip and ToolStripMenuItem are a little harder to use than the Menu from earlier versions of VB. Walk through exercises using the MenuStrip, ToolStrip, and the Command behavior pattern to encapsulate a Recents menu for your applications that operate on files.

Wisdom is figuring out whether every time you encounter a pointy-headed manager you are going to roll over and save your sanity (and possibly your job) or stand up, be counted, and risk greatness or the guillotine. There is a temporary sense of safety in staying with the herd, but all herd-roads lead to the butcher.

Let the .NET Framework write your XML Schema document (XSD) for you.

Learn to add attachments to hyperlinks that contain email addresses by using a little bit of VBA.

LINQ to SQL eliminates SQL Injection Attacks and is easier to use than straight SQL to boot.

The .NET framework is full of small, discrete, and useful classes and big chunky bits. When you start combining the chunky bits, like LINQ to SQL and Windows Communication Foundation, things get interesting real fast.

Developers working at all levels of experience can take advantage of this technique. Discover how to invoke a stored procedure with parameters using the AddWithValue method of the SqlParameterCollection to define SQL parameters in one step.

If a person or group does something successfully one time, ten times, or a hundred times, there is an increasingly better chance that group will succeed again. All of the books in the world won't turn a ten year old kid into Gordy Howe or Wayne Gretzky. There is an element of talent. Find the talent.

ADO.NET 3.0 and the ADO.NET Entity Framework are designed to let you spend less time writing SQL and database plumbing code and more time working in the space of the problem you are trying to solve.