The problem with conjuring tricks is that they lose practically all their glamour once you find out how they are done.  It's very cool to see David Blaine walk down the street, do a few passes over his hand, and resurrect a fly which proceeds to flee.  It's rather disappointing to do a google search and discover that in order to prepare for this trick, the first requirement is that you freeze a fly.

My trick is to make an autocomplete extender from the Ajax Control Toolkit call a WCF service instead of an asmx service.  For this recipe, I assume that you are already familiar with the autocomplete extender, and that you are using Visual Studio 2008.  I warn you in advance -- my trick disappoints.  It is so trivially easy that, once the technique spreads, it is very unlikely to impress your colleagues at work, much less get you a date with a supermodel.

Science is all about making proposals that can be tested (especially after Karl Popper's formulation of the Falsifiability Criterion), and then undergoing the experience of having that proposal rejected.  This is the essence of any successful process -- not that it eliminates errors altogether, but rather that it is able to make corrections despite these errors so that the target need never shift.

Professor Alain Connes recently gave his opinion of Xin-Jing Li's proof for the Riemann Hypothesis -- a proof which relies in part on Professor Connes' work ...

Nancy Davolio was a fictitious employee in the Microsoft Access 97 Northwind sample database. Many office workers became smitten with her furtive smile and stylish hair, and while she continued to exist as an employee in later releases of the Northwind database, her employee photo changed, leading many to suspect that something untoward had happened to the real Nancy. As most people know, "Nancy Davolio" is an anagram for "A Navy Cod Loin" ...

Ajax, the fleet son of Oileus, commanded the Locrians. He was not so great, nor nearly so great, as Ajax the son of Telamon. He was a little man, and his breastplate was made of linen, but in use of the spear he excelled all the Hellenes and the Achaeans. --The Iliad

Ajax son of Oileus is traditionally called Ajax the Lesser, while Ajax Telamon's son is Ajax the Greater.  The Trojan War  is often portrayed as a battle between the national heroes of two great armies, Hector on one side, and Achilles on the other.  What makes the arraying of the sides peculiar is that, in fact, the Achaeans have two heroes that can defeat the war chief of the Trojans.  Both Achilles and Ajax the Greater are superior warriors to Hector.  This feature was actually a giveaway to many classicists back in 1959 that the newly released western Warlock was based on The Iliad.

Two years ago Microsoft began a campaign to carve out a niche in the Ajax world...

Joe DeCarlo, a colleague from my Turner Broadcasting days, was recently awarded the MCA.  That is, he is now a Microsoft Certified Architect.  Kirk Evans posted an interview with him about the program here.  It is a difficult program to get into, and requires a recommendation from at least one MCA, as well as vetting by other MCA's.  They are a rather elite circle of professionals with a strong interest in maintaining the high standards of excellence of their self-selecting club.   Hats off to Joe for making it.

While articulating what an architect's specific role in a company actually is can be difficult -- which is one of the reasons Microsoft began this program -- the outlines are fairly simple.  The architect is there to make sure that the contractors don't screw you when you need some work done on your house, or when you need a new enterprise application built for your company.  Anything beyond that, like making sure the roof doesn't fall in once you start running a million transactions a day through your new edifice, is gravy.