June, 2007

Spotted over on Chris Bowen's Blog, a handy list of Silverlight Games

• "Dr. Popper" - Burst the matching bubbles, the more, the better.
• "Digger" - Sort of Dig-Dug meets Montezuma's Revenge.
• "Zero Gravity"  - An addictive and well-made game!  A nice example of the possibilities of the platform.
• "Chess" - Your basic chess, but shows how Silverlight 1.1 with .NET fares against a JavaScript-based AI.
• "Destroy All Invaders" - A cool mashup with Virtual Earth where you fly over the oblique angle view of a location of your choice while shooting UFOs.
• "Silverlight Rocks!" - A shoot the asteroids game.
• "Sprawl"  - A good demonstration of potential with Silverlight 1.0.

Interested in learning more about game development with Silverlight?  Chris points us to the Silverlight Games 101 blog. 

I got this email today from reader Steven Nagy about a sidebar gadget he has developed

-----Original Message-----
From: steven@snagy.name [mailto:steven@snagy.name]
Sent: Saturday, 30 June 2007 9:00 AM
To: Frank Arrigo
Subject: (frankarr - an aussie microsoft blogger) : SurfWatch Gadget
Importance: High

Hi Frank,

Just wanted to let you know that I have written a gadget and thought you might like to check it out. Its on gallery.live.com and its called "SurfWatch".

I know you've mentioned a couple other Aussie gadgets over the past month so thought you might be keen to check mine out.

Ok yes, I'm shamelessly looking for a plug on your blog! I did it as an individual, not for any company and was all a fun learning experience.

Cheers,

Steven Nagy

----------------------------------

Thx for the note Steven.

Let's go check it out ....

SurfWatch 1.0

Surfs up! This gadget lets you monitor waves easily from your desktop! Configure it once and point to your favourite beach. Then with a glance, get up to date information about wave heights, wave period, wind speed and more.

This is useful for:
* Surfing
* Boating
* Water Sports
* Much more!

With a single mouse click, a flyout shows forecast information for the next couple of days. Or click through another button to open a web page with more detailed information about your location from BuoyWeather.com

While customised for Queensland beaches, it can easily be modified to accept any latitude/longitude (as long as its not land locked: for a quirky result, select Mt Isa as your location!)

All feedback welcome. Feel free to use this gadget for free, and if you modify it, please retain my details as the original author. Have fun!

Checkout the website: http://surfwatch.snagy.name

So, there has been some speculation about the new editors for TechTalkBlogs.

I dropped a hint to Brian Madsen, but it took a while for the penny to drop.

Time to break the news. Let the LOLCat out of the bag

The next guest editors on TechTalkBlogs are

• Bronwen Zande
• Elaine Van Bergen
• Lorraine Young

And, yes, it's our first all female team on TTB

The topic will be Tech.Ed. I am sure we will get a fresh perspective on Tech.Ed, from the lead-up, the event, the parties, and the aftermath. I am really looking forward to reading what they have to say.

Kudos to alexb - you correct named tech.elaine, but I think there was some insider trading at play.

As Kool & the Gang sang back in 1979, it's Ladies' Night every night on TechTalkBlogs!

I had an interview on the phone today with Renai LeMay from The Australian Financial Review .

I've spoken with Renai a few times, but the most fun I had was the Journalist v Blogger debate we had a Tech.ED 2005 (Tech.Ed : Day 1 : The Rest Of The Day & Tech.Ed : Sharing the love & the news)

So, what were we talking about this time? Why Silverlight of course!!

Questions included:

• What was the buzz like at ReMIX 2007?
• It seems almost like designers and developers are coming together and their skill sets are crossing over?
• How are things going in Australia with Silverlight – it’s not yet out of beta but I’m already hearing cases of people using it?
• Even though it’s still in beta, people are deploying it a month after it was announced. Is it easy for developers to pick up the skills needed?
• The other side of the coin is the adoption of the technology – do you have any stats on how many people have downloaded the plug-in?
• One thing I have heard is the focus on full-screen video. What are your thoughts on this and how integral is it in Silverlight?
• What has been the reaction from developers in general – is it seen as just another technology they have to learn or are they positive about it?

How did I answer?

Well, I will save that to Renai's article and the readers of The Australian Financial Review.  (or I might post some answers over the next few days)

When games appear on a new platform, it's always exciting.

Tim Heuer blogs about a game developed in Silverlight 1.1, called Zero Gravity featuring lt. bennett

Zero Gravity is a game and involves our absent-minded astronaut, lt. bennett, who continues to crash his ship into an asteroid.  your objective?  help lt. bennett find his way back to his ship in each level through various mazes.  there are different types of levels and different types of obstacles involving teleports, asteroids, ice blocks, pipes, etc.  once you get lt. bennett back to his ship, you advance.  your score is based on time and moves.

I really like this:

follow lt. bennett and his journey via myspace, facebook and follow him as a friend in twitter.

Go check it out!!!

Today I got to speak to a room full of AMP folks (what would be the collective noun - host? gaggle troop?) at the AMP Innovation and Thought Leadership Festival.

The event was held at the iconic AMP Building in Sydney, which was built in 1962 and was the first skyscraper in Australia.

The topic was "To blog or not to blog; that is the corporate question…? " and I told my story about blogging at Microsoft.

One thing I did for this presentation was to demonstrate the power of blogs when it comes to search.

Check out these two screen shots

AMP Innovation & Thought Leadership Festival

What do you notice? 

Yup, I have the top entries for "AMP Innovation & Thought Leadership Festival". LOLZ.

So, for the folks who came along. I hope you enjoyed the presentation.

I know that at least of the attendees is a blogger - Hi Jade !!

My presentation is attached

It only seems like the other day that I introduced the talented trio who were the Guest Editors on TechTalkBlogs.

But, like they say, all good things come to an end.

The message is already out there:

• A change is a comin' - AB signs out
• Moving Out

Here's the scorecard. (I like this little part of the goodbye)

• Anthony Borton - 30 posts
• Andrew Dugdell - 10 posts
• Ken Schaefer - 6 posts

Does this mean 1 Anthony can get you 3 Dugies, or 5 Kens ???? LOL

Seriously, I would like to thank all 3 for their support of TechTalkBlogs. It's been a good one.

Now, who is next??

Let me say, there is another talented trio in the wings.

Some obscure hints

• They have all attended Tech.Ed in the past
• They will be attending Tech.Ed this year
• They all ROCK!!!

I reckon no one will guess. But leave your suggestions in the comments. (I'll find a prize if someone does get it)