Silverlight

MSDN Unleashed!

Instead of having our regularly scheduled IADNUG meeting, we're having Mike Benkovich and Kent Tegels do an MSDN Unleashed Event at DMACC West!  Here's the info on it: Join us at our MSDN Unleashed events for the latest tips, tools and technical information you need to build powerful applications and engaging user experiences. We'll show you how SQL Server 2008 delivers new development capabilities, including support for Spatial Data types, a fresh storage mechanism and more. You'll also learn how to leverage the Silverlight platform to build next generation applications for consumers and business. Don't miss these free, live sessions near...

posted @ Wednesday, November 5, 2008 9:32 AM | Feedback (621)

Not At PDC

Can't make it to the Professional Developer's Conference (PDC) in LA?  Well, we've started a new group called NotAtPDC!  Chris Love is the genious behind this movement! Here's some info from him: We are going to have live meeting sessions, links to Blogs, Podcasts and any other .NET related content featured this week. Right now we are trying to get things organized better. We will have a site live in the morning. If you want to schedule a session or something DM http://twitter.com/NotAtPDC. Chris is in the process on getting a website up to aggregate some of the content that the...

posted @ Sunday, October 26, 2008 8:33 PM | Feedback (616)

New Wrox Title: ASP.NET 3.5 Programmer's Reference

So, here's a little shameless self plug for a book that Bryan Sampica and I are writing...also, I'm using this blog post as a warm up for my writing this evening! Yes, like I just mentioned, I'm co-authoring a book for Wrox with Bryan entitled, ASP.NET 3.5 Programmer's Reference.  The purpose of the book is to get you the novice/beginner introduced to the features of ASP.NET 3.5, and hopefully teach you a few tricks things along the way.  The book is due out in November, so that means that my summer (evenings) is pretty much booked up.  I must...

posted @ Tuesday, May 13, 2008 11:21 PM | Feedback (612)

MVP Summit Highlights

Well, I had a great time meeting old friends and making new ones at this year's summit.  There were so many things going on and so many people to see and talk to, that it's next to impossible to consume everything at once!  So, to keep things simple, here are of the highlights per day: Sunday Although, I was not there until late (way late), it was a lot fun hanging around the Westin's lobby and talk about how a chicken takes a dookie.  Yeah, that's right.  Keith Elder had the great intentions of recording a podcast that...

posted @ Sunday, April 20, 2008 11:08 AM | Feedback (741)

Twin Cities Code Camp: Silverlight Presentation

For those of you that attended my Silverlight presentation yesterday at the Twin Cities Code Camp, I just want to say, "Thanks for coming! I hope you enjoyed it!" As promised, you can download the presentation slides and source code from Google code using TortoiseSVN. Again, thanks for coming to my presentation and thanks to Jason Bock for allowing me to come up and be part of a great event!

posted @ Sunday, April 6, 2008 4:35 PM | Feedback (612)

Ask An Expert Live Chat: May 1st, 2008

That's right!  We're having another ASP.NET Expert Live Chat on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 6 PM PST.  Here's more info on the event: Get your tough development questions answered by Microsoft MVPs, Regional Directors, and other industry experts. Community experts will be on hand to answer your .NET- and Visual Studio-related questions. No off topic questions please. Please note that questions regarding upcoming products and future product specs might not be answered. Would you like to participate as an expert? Contact Ryan Olshan at Ryan[dot]Olshan[at]strongtypes[dot]com. MSDN Online Chats - http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/chats/default.aspx Chat Room...

posted @ Saturday, April 5, 2008 12:47 AM | Feedback (643)

Video.Show 1.0 Released

I'm not sure how many of you out there have heard of Video.Show, a ready to run solution for hosting video on the web. It's a great video sharing web site blue print built by the guys at Vertigo.  I've been looking at this app since it's RC (or beta) release and it's pretty sweet.  The display and interaction of HD video is pretty awesome! Jon Galloway, one (if not the) developers, of the application has a great write up of the features of this application out on his blog.  If you want more detail info on the features of...

posted @ Monday, February 18, 2008 9:01 PM | Feedback (613)

flickrNSurface: The Open Source Project

That's right, remember a while back when I blogged about FlickrNSurface?  Well, since then, I've been showing people the demo code and some of them have been wanting to know how they can get their hands on it for their own website/projects.  At that point, I thought to myself, what is the best way to share the code and any changes that I make to it?  That's when I realized I should make this into an open-source project!  What better way to share ideas and implementations with community than by allowing them to contribute directly to it! Again, I've...

posted @ Sunday, January 20, 2008 9:37 PM | Feedback (613)

ASP.NET MVC CTP Download

Well, we can finally get our hands on the ASP.NET MVC bits!  They're being released as part of the ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions CTP.  This release includes: ASP.NET AJAX Improvements: New ASP.NET AJAX features in the ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions release include better browser history support (back/forward button integration, and server-side history management support), improved AJAX content linking support with permalinks, and additional JavaScript library improvements. ASP.NET MVC: This model view controller (MVC) framework for ASP.NET provides a structured model that enables a clear separation of concerns within web applications, and makes...

posted @ Monday, December 10, 2007 9:14 AM | Feedback (769)

IADNUG Silverlight Presentation Demos

Well, it's been over a month since the I did my Silverlight presentation at the IADNUG November meeting and I've realized that I've forgotten to post my demo code.  Well, sorry about that.  For those of you that are interested, you can download it from the link below.  Sorry! Files: silverlight_presentation.zip (~20 MB - it include videos).

posted @ Saturday, December 8, 2007 11:05 PM | Feedback (623)

Visual Studio 2008 Demo Contest

Well, as I previously blogged about it, the details are done for our demo contest during the VS2008 InstallFest in Des Moines are finalized.  Here they are: Visual Studio 2008 Demo Contest! Want to show off your VS2008 or .NET 3.5 skills?  If you answered, yes, this is your opportunity to strut your stuff! During the Visual Studio 2008 InstallFest & Holiday Party on December 12, 2007 at the DMACC West Campus, we'll be having a demo contest in the auditorium.  Here's the scoop ... What do I need to...

posted @ Friday, December 7, 2007 2:42 PM | Feedback (611)

Silverlight 1.1 Tools Alpha for Visual Studio 2008

That's right, you can now download the Silverlight 1.1 Tools Alpha for Visual Studio 2008 RTM.  Get it while it's hot!! One thing to notice is that this release does not work with the Express Editions.

posted @ Monday, November 26, 2007 9:33 PM | Feedback (616)

IADNUG Meeting: Building Rich Web Experiences using Silverlight

On Wednesday, November 7th, I will be presenting about Silverlight to our user group in Des Moines.  Here's the info: Abstract: This is an overview presentation of the feature set that both Silverlight v1.0 and v1.1 have to offer to developers. We will also cover some of the current tools available for both designers and developers to create Silverlight applications. What is Silverlight? Microsoft® Silverlight™ is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.  Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#,...

posted @ Sunday, November 4, 2007 9:14 PM | Feedback (613)

MS Popfly and Yahoo Pipes Comparison

Yesterday, Microsoft announced the opening of Popfly beta to public use.  One of the first things that I thought about Popfly is how are other people out there (both technical and non-technical) are going to use it.  I've been looking at Yahoo! Pipes for a while and thought it was a pretty cool way to gather information.  To me the one thing it lacked was the presentation of the information (what good is the info if I can't get to it effectively?).  So last night I decided to do a little video that compares both Popfly and Yahoo! Pipes trying to "solve" the same...

posted @ Friday, October 19, 2007 1:52 PM | Feedback (612)

Microsoft Releases Popfly Public Beta

Today Microsoft is announcing that Popfly will be going into public beta.  So for those you that had requested to sign up for the beta, no worries!  You can automatically login without a hassle! (Pretty sweet, huh?) And for those of you that haven't signed up or don't know anything about it, just to go http://popfly.com and login with Passport. Here's a brief description of what Popfly: It's a Silverlight 1.0 application to create a really slick UI that allows you to use drag-and-drop tools to build some cool things.  It also includes support for Vista Sidebar and Live Gadgets.  For those...

posted @ Thursday, October 18, 2007 6:45 PM | Feedback (564)

Halo 3 Pre-Release Party In Chicago

Once again, Dave Bost, has blogged about a Halo3 pre-release party the MS Evangelism Team in Chicago is hosting on September 24th, 2007...for those of you paying attention that's a day before the Halo3 release date.  If you're interested in attending, SPACE IS LIMITED, check out Dave's post on the matter. ...Now, if I only had an XBOX 360...or even better, if I only had the TIME to play an XBOX 360...yeah, that would be nice! ;-)

posted @ Thursday, September 13, 2007 8:35 AM | Feedback (612)

SilverlightCamp In Chicago

Dave Bost, DE for IL, IN, WI and former golfing partner, invited me through Facebook to the SilverlightDevCamp in Chicago, IL.  For those of you in the area or interested in attending this FR-EE event, here's the info from Dave's blog post: On Friday, September 28th and Saturday, September 29th, Clarity Consulting will host a Silverlight DevCamp at their offices in the Loop. This is a great opportunity for people interested in Silverlight to come together and hack out an application or two. DevCamps are similar to BarCamps in that it’s a casual gathering of like minded individuals. BarCamps tend...

posted @ Tuesday, September 11, 2007 11:43 AM | Feedback (613)

Live ASP.NET Chat

Just a reminder about the live ASP.NET "ask an expert" chat this Thursday, the 23rd of August at 7 PM CDT (5 PM PDT).  Come join the fun.  Here are the links. Main announcement - http://community.strongcoders.com/blogs/ryan/archive/2007/07/24/august-23-2007-ask-an-expert-live-chat.aspx Prize announcement - http://community.strongcoders.com/blogs/ryan/archive/2007/07/26/august-23-2007-ask-an-expert-live-chat-prizes.aspx Chat experts - http://community.strongcoders.com/blogs/ryan/archive/2007/07/30/august-23-2007-ask-an-expert-live-chat-experts.aspx

posted @ Monday, August 20, 2007 10:14 PM | Feedback (544)

Ask An Expert Live Chat On August 23, 2007

That's right, if you have a question that needs answering come check out our "Ask An Expert" live chat on August 23rd, 2007 at 5 PM PDT.  Please note that this chat is not being hosted by Microsoft and as such questions regarding upcoming products and future product specs may not be answered. To see the main announcement, check out Ryan's blog for the info.  Also there seems to be a prize give away for this chat! How cool?!  Here's the list of experts involved in the chat.  It's quite the line up! Calendar: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/chats/default.aspx ICS: http://www.microsoft.com/communities/chats/vcs/07_0823_msdn_aspnet.ics Hope to see...

posted @ Tuesday, July 31, 2007 9:03 AM | Feedback (611)

FlickrNSurface

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about David Anson's surface-like Silverlight application that functions like Microsoft Surface.  Well, earlier this week, I created what I call FlickrNSurface (pronounced: "flickering surface").  Essentially, it's a mashup of flickr and Anson's Silverlight application. To retrieve the images from flickr, I used FlickrNet and an interesting post back mechanism.  I will have more posts talking about the design of the application and how you can do the same thing with your Silverlight applications.  For now, take a look at it and let me know what you think! You can download the code by going here:...

posted @ Sunday, July 22, 2007 2:40 PM | Feedback (611)

JetFuel - Silverlight Plugin for Windows Live Writer

While playing around with Silverlight during lunch, I ran into this plugin for Windows Live Writer (WLW) called JetFuel.  It takes the creation of Silverlight applications to the next level.  It's a nice little package of the steps outlined in the SDK into a wizard.

posted @ Friday, June 22, 2007 2:23 PM | Feedback (611)

Heartland Developer Conference, I'll be there. Will you?

That's right, I received word from Phil Wolfe earlier this week that I've been accepted to be a speaker (this is my third year!) for the Heartland Developer Conference in Omaha, NE on Oct. 18-19th.  If you check out the speakers page, you won't see my info there but I'm sure it's coming.  For those of you that like my presentations,  here's a list of topics I've been kicking around: .NET Tooling for Oracle - There's some applications out there that need talk with Oracle.  How do I make things as easily as possible to get my work done?...

posted @ Friday, June 15, 2007 11:43 AM | Feedback (613)

Surface-like Experience Using Silverlight

I'm not sure how many of you have heard of the new Microsoft Surface product (if you haven't, are you living under a rock?!?! ;-) ), but in one of the demo videos, they show how you can take images and resize/rotate them by using your fingertips.  Well, the same thing can be done using Silverlight through a web application.  Delay has posted a great sample Silverlight application that does the same thing!  It's pretty awesome app that shows the power of Silverlight!  If you have the time, check out the live demo or get its source code (you'll need Orcas...

posted @ Sunday, June 3, 2007 5:10 PM | Feedback (556)

Silverlight Add-In for Reflector

Yesterday, Levi sent me a link to this add-in for Reflector that disassembles a Silverlight applications and shows your the JavaScript to run it.  I must say, it's a pretty nice little add-in (that includes its source) for Reflector.  Below is a picture of the disassembled Silverlight Airlines demo given at MIX '07: Check it out if you have the time, it's pretty sweet!

posted @ Tuesday, May 22, 2007 9:45 AM | Feedback (613)