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These days, it's common to design application using an n-layer/n-tier architecture. 

But why?

This article dives in the reasons behind these concepts (which are taken too much for granted in my perspective):

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnbda/html/NPALayering.asp

Also readable for beginners!

I recently noticed that a lot of my colleagues don't know how to connect with a SQL Server 2005 named instance.

When you want to connect to a named instance of SQL Server 2005 with TCP/IP, then you have 2 options:

1. Start the SQL Server browser service
2. Make sure that you define the port number in the connection string.

The first option is often the simplest solution.  As this service didn't exist in SQL 2000 it seems to be rather unknown.

If you want to know what it really does, have a look at
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181087.aspx

If you're an experienced web developer, then you probably ever created a web application that features form authentication and an authorization model based on roles.

You then probably know this can be quite a bit of work:

• create a db scheme to store users, etc
• build screens to manage this data
• provide endusers with features for self-registration, pasword control
• store confidential data in a secured way (e.g. encrypt paswords)

The ASP.Net membership provider gives you a head start for all of this.  I did this for the first time yesterday, and in one hour I had the lot up and running.

You can find a walkthough for this on the MSDN site:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/879kf95c.aspx

And you know what the best part is:
If you have somewhat deviating requirements (existing db scheme, other db/ldap server) you can still use this system.  You only have to create/update the membership provider to suit your needs, but the rest of the system stays the same.

Interesting overview of the most common issues when building smart client applications + (and that's the good part) an assessment of the solution provided by microsoft in these areas:
MSDN Solution Architecture Center: Smart Clients: Essential Requirements and Candidate Services