Data Looking for a Good Home - Where Might It Be?

Been coding mainframes 25 years; just started learning this platform. Fish out of water.

Have 2005 VWebDeveloper Express and 2005 SQL Betas. I have a million bytes of data to test my asp.net app locally. 100 columns, 200 rows and 6 items within each row. The data grows by 1 row per day; app. 5000 bytes.

MSDN tutorials that come with VWD Express talk about a "Northwind SQL Server" being required to, at least, follow the tutorials. This is very unclear.

Q. What is Northwind? And is it in anyway relevant to testing a VWD Express app?

Q. What are you folks using for a server to test your apps locally?

Q. Where do you find the most clear, concise guide for learning how to use SQL 2005 Express from a VWD Express app?

Q. Would you use "XML Data Store" instead?

Thanks for your consideration.Q. What is Northwind?  And is it in anyway relevant to testing a VWD Express app?
A. Northwind is a sample database and only needed if you want to test the msdn examples or examples using this database.
Q. What are you folks using for a server to test your apps locally?
I use SQL Server Developer Edition or Express Edition on my Win XP Prof. .
Q. Where do you find the most clear, concise guide for learning how to use SQL 2005 Express from a VWD Express app?
A. You may take a look at codeproject.com or msdn.microsoft.com
Q. Would you use "XML  Data Store" instead?
A. Iwould use it only for small and not complex databases.