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.NET 
Manuel notified me of the possibility to use the ADO.NET framework instead of my own custom solution for the data access layer of my opensource scheduling application. I must say I was a bit skeptical because I had tried it before and it didn't impress me back then. But things can change, so I installed the latest drops of the goodness and I must say it's a very nice framework. VS2008 supports a designer for the framework now and that makes my job somewhat easier.
Previously I had to hand edit the whole model, from the store specification up to the conceptual model. This was rather cumbersome and I quickly threw the framework out because it was just too hard to work with. Now that the documentation and designers have improved it's a lot easier to work with. My current strategy for creating a new model is to let the tool generate one for me and after that I modify it so that all relations are represented in the correct manner.
With the risk of spending a whole day on finding out why ADO.NET entity framework works the way it does, I started out mapping my project schedule database. As it turns out it was pretty easy to setup and use. After one more hour I had replaced the implementation of my Project and Resource WCF service with a version that uses ADO.NET entity framework.
Microsoft is again taking a giant step towards more productivity and I personally think this can be put up aside of WPF and WCF.