I've seen people blogging on the application blocks before, but I ran across a few people this weekend that had never even heard of them, so I thought I'd create a short list of available application blocks.
These are all written or approved by Microsoft, and can make your life a hundred million gazillion times easier. Compare it with: buying a robot to do your dishes, laundry and vacuuming, given that there are clothes and dishes in various piles all over your countertops and floor. Seriously.
data access application block: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnbda/html/daab-rm.asp?frame=true
exception management application block: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnbda/html/emab-rm.asp?frame=true
authorization and profile application block: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnpag/html/authpro.asp?frame=true
aggregation application block: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnpag/html/ServiceAgg.asp?frame=true
asyncronous invocation application block: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnpag/html/PAIBlock.asp?frame=true
configuration management application block: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnbda/html/cmab.asp?frame=true
updater application block: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnbda/html/updater.asp?frame=true
user interface process application block: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnbda/html/uip.asp?frame=true
web services facade for legacy applications: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnpag/html/WSFacadeLegacyApp.asp?frame=true
Happy Programming. :-)
Update: Heh. Oops. I *swear* I have this one copied into the notepad version of this message I was working on... <shrug>
The Caching Application Block:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnpag/html/CachingBlock.asp?frame=true