And so, we come to the end of 2004. This is the end of this magazine's second year in print, and we have made substantial progress over the past year in pursuing our goal of becoming the premier source for information of interest to .NET software developers!

Toward this end, we have engaged in several projects over the last year or so. For me, these projects began with hosting SYS-CON Radio at Microsoft's Professional Developer's Conference last October. They continued as I gathered numerous interviews for your amusement at Tech Ed in May. They culminated, for me, with my decision to move from Expand Beyond to Magenic Technologies - a sign of my irreversible commitment to the Microsoft platform (versus that sinister "other" technology in which I used to dabble).

One of the most exciting new projects we launched this year to take us in this direction was our "INETA's Choice" initiative. Under "INETA's Choice," developers in the broader community are able to suggest topics to SYS-CON that they would like to see covered in the pages of this magazine. Three times a year, we gather up the suggested topics and bring you an issue - just like this one - that is largely driven by those suggested topics.

One of the articles specifically suggested by INETA is Jeevan Murkoth's excellent coverage of the new Master Pages functionality in ASP.NET 2.0. Another INETA's Choice article is Dan Clark's piece on customizing SQL Server Reporting Services.

A couple of non-INETA articles were so interesting this month that we felt compelled to bring them to you ASAP, even in the middle of our INETA issue!

In this group is Piper Keairnes' piece on his company's EdgeXtend solution. EdgeXtend makes it much easier for organizations to incorporate CORBA-based applications into an emerging .NET solution. Given the amount of legacy CORBA software that's out there in the real world, this is a technology that no serious developer should ignore!

As a special treat - a holiday present, if you will - I have contributed a crossword puzzle to this month's issue. Answers will be printed in our January 2005 issue, so if you can't quite figure everything out - be sure not to miss the next issue!

To make things extra interesting, how about this? The first person to scan in and e-mail me a finished copy of the crossword will receive an honorable mention in the next issue. I considered offering an autographed copy of my "Mobile .NET" book, but I just gave away the last of those at our Day of .NET conference here in Chicago a couple of weeks ago.

About Next Month
Besides the answer to this month's crossword, our January issue will also feature the absolute best coverage of Microsoft's forthcoming Team System functionality in Visual Studio 2005. Editor Jon Box has been working closely with the folks in Redmond to get the "inside scoop" on this fascinating new technology - so be sure not to miss it!

As always, send all comments, complaints, and compliments to derek@sys-con.com!