Dedication
I would like to thank my wife, Carrie, my daughter, Allie, and my son, Ben, for their patience and understand-
ing while I took on another long nights-and-weekends project.
—Mike Snell
I’d like to thank my wife, Alisa, and my four children, Kyle, Cameron, Gillian, and Curtis, for their love and
support. While they might not have written any of the words directly, they certainly helped create an environ-
ment where I could get my ideas down on paper. It may be the first time that my kids have seen their names in
a book, but I strongly suspect that it won’t be the last. Not that I’m sure to be authoring more books in the future,
but that they will be.
—Bruce Johnson
To Kurt, Robin, Sam, Brian, and everyone else who believed in me...when I didn’t.
—Brian C. Lanham
For Steve
—Sara Morgan
To Chris Sells, my friend and mentor
—Shawn Wildermuth
For my kids, Nashly, Abbi, and London
—Shannon Horn
A huge thanks to Ken Jones, Maureen Zimmerman, and everyone else at Microsoft for their work during this
project. I would also like to thank my wife, Mariya, for her support. She is my big help and always had good
advice for those times when I said, "I have no idea how I am going to create the next batch of practice items.”
Thanks also to my son, Anthony, who was patient when he asked me, "Dad, when are you going to finish your
work?” And thanks to my little Sophie, who always gives me energy and cheers me up.
—Val Mazur
For my angel, Belina, and for my family—Tim, Jerri, and Greta—who have always been there for me. I love you
all so much
—Murray Gordon
v
About the Authors
Mike Snell
Mike Snell has more than 15 years of experience as a software architect and consultant. He has
led a number of enterprise-level projects, building client solutions on the Microsoft platform.
He has delivered training and mentoring to hundreds of developers. Currently, Mike runs the
Microsoft Consulting Practice at CEI (www.ceiamerica.com) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There,
with his team of consulting architects, he helps CEI’s diverse client base build mission-critical
software.
Mike is recognized as a Microsoft Regional Director, a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer
(MCSD), and a Project Management Professional (PMP). His co-authoring credits include
MCPD Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-548): Designing and Developing Windows-Based Applica-
tions Using the Microsoft .NET Framework (Microsoft Press, 2007) and Microsoft Visual Studio
2005 Unleashed (Sams, 2006).
Bruce Johnson
Bruce Johnson is a partner at ObjectSharp Consulting and is a 25-year veteran of the computer
industry. The first half of his career was spent working in the trenches—otherwise known as the
UNIX field. The last 14 years he has spent on projects at the leading edge of Windows technol-
ogy—from C++ through the myriad versions of Visual Basic and ASP, up to the present incarna-
tions in .NET 3.0. Bruce’s experience includes creating commercial Web applications,
implementing Web services in a financial institution, and building Windows Forms applications.
As well as having fun with system design and development, Bruce has given more than 200
presentations at conferences and user groups throughout North America. He has written col-
umns and articles for numerous magazines and attempts to write regular posts on his blog at
www.objectsharp.com/blogs/bruce. He guarantees that his activity on this blog will increase
after this book is published.
Brian C. Lanham
After serving as a nuclear-qualified electrician for six years in the United States Navy, Brian C.
Lanham pursued a computer science degree at Pennsylvania State University. During that time,
Brian developed C applications for UNIX and DOS. He then moved on to Microsoft Windows
and Web applications. Although he has dabbled in Java, .NET is his platform of choice. Brian
currently lives in the Roanoke, Virginia, area. He can be reached at codesailor@gmail.com.
vi About the Authors
Sara Morgan
Sara Morgan, MCSD, MCDBA, is an independent author and consultant based in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. She specializes in developing leading-edge Web-based applications using Microsoft
technologies. Since graduating from Louisiana State University with a degree in quantitative
business analysis, she has been developing software for a variety of industries, including a not-
for-profit hospital, a financial company offering mortgages, a major retailer, a software com-
pany that writes legislative software, and an application service provider.
Sara has written articles for MSDN Magazine, Enterprise Development, .NET Development, Visual
Studio Magazine and DevX.com. Sara’s articles about enhanced computing and her latest
research efforts can be found at www.custsolutions.net.
Shawn Wildermuth
Shawn Wildermuth is a Microsoft C# MVP and is the founder of Wildermuth Consulting Ser-
vices, LLC, a company that delivers software and training solutions in the Atlanta, Georgia,
area. Shawn goes by the moniker “The ADO Guy” and can be contacted through his Web site
at http://adoguy.com.
A member of the INETA Speaker Bureau, Shawn has spoken at several national conferences.
He is the author of the book Pragmatic ADO.NET (Addison-Wesley, 2002) and coauthor of
MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0—Application Devel-
opment Foundation (Microsoft Press, 2006). He has written articles for a variety of magazines
and a number of Web sites, including MSDN, DevSource, InformIT, Windows IT Pro, Server-
Side, WindowsDevCenter, and Intel’s Rich Client Series. Shawn has enjoyed building data-
driven software for more than 20 years.
Shannon Horn
Shannon Horn delivers training for companies such as Microsoft and AppDev and has been a
featured speaker on training videos with Learn-Key. He has also worked with large corporate
clients on projects using .NET and Web technologies. Shannon is currently pursuing his third-
degree black belt in tae kwon do; he plays electric bass guitar and lives for his kids. You can
find out more about him by visiting http://shannonhorn.spaces.live.com/.
