IIS is such an important part of any MS based enterprise, it has grown from a simple web hosting application into a fully functional application server. This book covers all of the important details needed to successfully install, configure and manage IIS. As a developer and an IIS Administrator I have found this book to be invaluable, especially when trying performance tune my applications and deployments.
The chapter on Implementing Security Strategies is worth purchasing this book for on its own, correctly configuring the security of a web based application is critical and this chapter covers the topic in great depth. Not only describing how to implement a policy but also what the pitfalls of different approaches are.
A must have book for anybody who comes into contact with IIS, both Developers and IT Pros.

A simple straightforward guide to designing applications. If you are involved in any designing or developing solutions running under the .net framework then you really should read this book!
This book takes you from first principles through how to, and more importantly why you should; architect a .net based application. The coverage is clear, concise and easily readable providing an enjoyable read whilst conveying the intricate nuances of this important topic. The text is frequently broken up by some simple diagrams and code examples showing how to apply the principles described in practice.
Unlike most architecture and design books this is not a slave to pattern oriented design; patterns are used throughout this text but are not exclusively used. Having said that the coverage of patterns is done in a wonderfully pragmatic way with emphasis given to ensuring the best design for the problem at hand rather than conforming to some predefined structure.
This book can be read in conjunction with, Microsoft® ASP.NET and AJAX: Architecting Web Applications (PRO-Developer), which provides a clear guide to applying these design principles to the world of ASP.net and AJAX.
 

I needed a solution to store all my source code from the past 10 years, up until now I had been relying on various external drives and writable CD's, however this was not a robust solution especially given the risks of drive failure. After shopping around I was shocked at some of the prices for NAS devices with this size capacity. I was therefore quite happy to discover this little beauty, I have been a fan of Western Digital derives for some time, and was pleased to discover they had a solution at a reasonable price point.

The device does not disappoint, despite being a fairly unattractive grey cube, it does blend in fairly well with the other bits in the office. The setup is very simple and quick, it is a bit of a shame the security will not fully integrate with Active Directory, but this is to be expected with LINUX based OS's. The included drives are fairly fast and quiet, the gigabit Ethernet interface allows for a good transfer time; around 4.5 minutes for a 2.4GB file.

If any maintenance is needed then the box is simple to open and the drives can be easily replaced. The unit comes preconfigured with 4 1TB drives set in a RAID 5 Configuration give a total of 2.7GB of usable space. This can easily be increased by swapping the drives for larger ones, or reducing the level of resilience by changing to RAID 0.

The download manager is not a fully featured bit torrent client, rather it is a rather simple FTP download scheduler, which is not that useful. The iTunes server is a nice feature which helps keep all your music accessible form all machines on your network as is the media server which works perfectly with both my media PC and Xbox 360.