Platforms to Try

http://plone.org/

VisualWorks

Java EE application servers (JRun, WebSphere, JBoss, Geronimo, Tomcat, Resin Server, Jetty (web server),

Games to Code In

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asheron%27s_Call - allows plugin development

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life - There is also a procedural scripting language, Linden Scripting Language, which can be used to add interactivity to objects. Although sculpted prims (sculpties), mesh, textures for clothing or other objects, and animations and gestures can be created using external software and imported, all such options require extensive programming skills making Second Life a complex game, best experienced by people with beyond-average computer gaming knowledge.

Frameworks to try

Microsoft Sync Framework

Querydsl  LINQ alternative for Java?

MXUnit, CFCUnit

http://caliburn.codeplex.com/ and http://caliburnmicro.codeplex.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalyst_(software) (perl MVC framework);  Maypole, Jifty

http://www.jdon.org/quickconf.html 

MEF

http://backbonejs.org/

MvcContrib

Calcium framework

LifeRay Portal framework

PureMVC, Mate, Swiz, Cairngorn, ColdBox, ModelGlue, Mach-II, ColdSpring

 Zope

JRule or JBoss Rules,  Drools, Jess etc.

 Butterfly

Spring Boot

Cordova

Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF)

Micro virtual-dom frameworks: Mithril.js, Riot.js, Cycle.js, Mercury.js

magento (ecommerce suite)

Tutorials/samples to try

http://silverlightedweb.blogspot.com/2010/03/creating-wcf-proxy-without-reference.html

http://prodinner.codeplex.com/

Windows Phone "On your way home" app from MSDN magazine (March 2012) "Create a Continuous Client Using Portable Class Libraries"

http://blogs.technet.com/b/vedant/archive/2009/08/07/using-silverlight-in-sharepoint-2007.aspx - see links to videos and tutorials

http://msmvps.com/blogs/deborahk/archive/2010/07/19/the-world-s-simplest-silverlight-ria-poco-example.aspx

N-Tier and Connection Pooling

write a sample app: https://www.google.com/#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&rlz=1C2CHMQ_enUS307&q=connection+pooling+in+asp.net&oq=connection-pooling+&aq=9K&aqi=g-K10&aql=1&gs_l=hp.1.9.0i30l10.3516.3516.1.24346.1.1.0.0.0.0.60.60.1.1.0.edvst.1.0.0.3rD1ZHf_g0E&psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=669bb0f587f6dede&biw=1109&bih=881
 that is n-tier with connection pooling as opposed to traditional client-server