I just watched an excellent presentation on Identity 2.0 by Dick Hardt, Founder and CEO of Sxip Identity. The greatest thing about this presentation was not the content, but the style in which it was given. 

You simply have to watch it.

Sxip = Simple eXtensible Identity Protocol

The latest February CTP releases of both Web Application Projects and Web Deployment Projects were released on Friday.

Web Application Projects
Updated Feb 10, 2006
Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Projects provide a companion web project model option for Visual Studio 2005 that works like the Visual Studio .NET 2003 web project model and can be used as an alternative to the built-in web-site based version. This latest release adds designer field generation and migration support.

Web Deployment Projects
Updated Feb 10, 2006
If you have a complex Visual Studio 2005 web project which requires different web.config settings for deployment or you'd like more control over the compilation process, check out Web Deployment Projects, a new tool for Visual Studio 2005. This latest version adds support for Web Application Projects, preserves file encoding when using the new merge tool, and more.

SqlAssist is a great Visual Studio add-in that gives you intellisense for SQL scripts.  There are versions for both Visual Studio 2003 and Visual Studio 2005.  It's currently still in beta, but very stable - I have yet to see any problems with it.  Some of the features are:

• Context aware intellisense.
• Ability to run your SQL scripts right in the IDE.
• Uses it's own text editor that provides several convenience features: Auto-Correct Case as You Type, Comment In/Out, Insert Closing Delimiter, Standard Visual Studio Features.
• Ability to define templates for quick and easy access to code that is used repeatedly.
• SQL pretty formatting.
• An object explorer modeled after the new SQL Server Management Studio explorer.

This is a great tool and most likely one you'll come to depend on.  Be sure to check it out.

I just came across this new method of sending payments that should rival PayPal - TextPayMe.  This new service allows you to send money to anyone through your mobile phone via SMS. You just text 'pay <amount> <phonenumber>' to TextPayMe's 5 digit number. You will then get a phone call back confirming that you really wanted to send the payment and then you authorize it with your PIN. The two forms of security are 1) the confirmation is sent to your phone and 2) you have to know your PIN.

They're also running a special if you sign up now during the beta you'll get $5.00 added to your account and are guaranteed to never have any transaction fees - for life!  You'll also have a chance of winning a new XBox 360.