I’ve been following the concept of what RIA represents since well, I can’t honestly remember but it’s around 1998. My first glimpse of RIA was via Erik’s ye olde project called WebOS.com , which was a virtual web based operating system built with DHTML (pre-AJAX wave). It began with Formats For years...

When I first started the RIA Evangelism role in Microsoft, I had this nagging feeling that the term RIA was just all over the place. Depending on which technology you are backing and which stream of alliance you uphold, the truth is the term was destined to be abused before it really took off. I even...

I like both the "blue monster campaign" and SIlverlight and given I'm dabbling around in 3D at the moment, I decided to play around with the idea of combining the two. Note : This is not the official mascot for Silverlight, instead it's simply me mucking around with 3D. Please do not use this in...

Last night I put up my RIA Chat video teaser and I got a few direct emails from folks asking who said the quote at the end: "..What you do with the UX Platform today will define what RIA looks like tomorrow.." Well, *proud look* it was me. It's something I settled on a while back as at the...

I've been a busy little Microsoftee and have done a lot of interviews over the past few months with folks from all walks of life. I'm about to go live very soon with a project. What's the project? not telling until it's finished. I will give you a teaser though. It's nothing I've seen done here at Microsoft...

I stumbled upon a post by Chad Campbell via my RSS reads (244 down, 9398 to go) and I enjoyed reading Chad's passion and insight into what he's thoughts are about the Silverlight 2.0 journey ahead. Chad has also written or is writing a book on Silverlight 2.0, so be sure to keep an eye out for that....

I was mucking about in YouTube today (smacks for me and not doing work) and I came across a project being built at MIT. This project allows folks to draw a physics based diagram which then comes to life on what appears to be a homemade (MIT style) "Smart Board". Watch the YouTube video below...

I read an interesting post this morning on how the author wanted folks to consider the 800px resolution for their designs. He cites that although he has a large resolution, it doesn't mean that he's not also using other applications at the same time. ...But with 1900+ pixels, I keep half for the browser...

12:33 AM and I'm currently putting together my power point deck for an upcoming internal conference (Seattle - February 4th - 15th). I typically like to use as many visuals as possible, as I've sort of decided that I'd prefer all my presentations going forward have a bit more "bang" associated...

Tonight, I found via twitter a deck from Plaxo’s Joseph Smarr . In this deck he talks about the war injuries he received in heading down the AJAX route. It’s a great deck and worth checking out but what I liked the most about it, was that it reminded me of my struggle back in 2002 as a web...

Last year I spent a great deal of time studying research papers, articles, bloggers, anything related at all to RIA. I did this as being a RIA Evangelist for Microsoft It was important that I not only understand my audience but also what motivates them. I don't have all the answers, but I have some and...

When you first type in http://labs.cynergysystems.com you are presented with a matrix style decision. On the left you have the red pill whilst on the right you have the blue pill. This one screen summarises Cynergy Systems really well, as it shows this is a true agnostic company willing to place bets...

Like most technology bloggers today, I also will take a stab at a prediction for 2008. The prediction is simple; this will be the year that we engage in discussion around devices and RIA. State of Play Devices are getting smarter, more usable and most important of all – cheap. If you are like me...

I've been an avid user of telerik's "RadControls for ASP.NET" for quite some time now. RadControls are essentially a control framework built on top of ASP.NET technology which allows the average ASP.NET punter to produce Rich AJAX driven solutions with skinning capabilities. They have things...

Well, lots actually. Take today, I woke up around 7am to get a start on some ideas / projects I've been brewing for a month now. I never got a single thing done as I was swamped in Video related S.O.S requests around Silverlight driven video sites. Now these weren't mah and pah's fish`n`chip shop brands...

One thing annoys me more than anything in this world, is when I hear folks whom aren't designers refer to them as "pony tail, black skivvy wearing..." and the comments trail off. It's not that I care whether they think we have pony tails, it's more to the point that it smacks of contempt at...

In my RSS hunt & aggregate daily routine, I stumbled upon an article that initially made me groan . It did so as I thought to myself " here we go, another Proprietary vs Open Source debate, the never goes anywhere " and I was hoping that it for once left Microsoft out of the discussion...

A User Account Today. Typically when you set out to build a RIA, you look at what data you're about to keep about a persons account. In that obviously "Username, Password and Email" are three key pieces of information you need to begin.  The rest is the other metadata associated to an...

I've been enjoying the overall experience of what Silverlight has to offer since I started with Microsoft back in January 07. That being said, I've often been an internal "goto" person at times for some Flash advice on behalf of Microsoft customers around the world. In light of this, recently...

When you sit down one night and decide to road-test a theory or an idea you have, then a Proof of Concept (POC) is something you should consider. That being said, when you do decide to write a POC knowing the difference between when you are writing a POC vs Application is something you can easily fool...

I have an Icon fetish that is disturbingly wrong. In that I collect them, horde them and will happily spend Microsoft's good hard earned money on as many of them as I can find - if allowed. Yet, what makes Icon's so special? in that why do they enhance an applications user interface to the point where...

I was browsing the web and I stumbled upon " ChoreWars ". A brilliant concept, whereby parents can set chores for their kids and they in return earn experience points (XP). I look at this solution and not only do I applaud it's approach, but it leaves me wondering how far you could take this...

I got a question the other day that kind of threw me. In that, someone asked if we were going to do a Silverlight version of AIR. That's something you'd probably need to ask the executive folks around Silverlight (I'm just a guy whom uses the product, I don't decide on it's end to end features). That...

There are many things that make up a RIA today. I posted last week about Interactive vs Internet, and I think it's played out enough. Personally my conclusion is to let the "I" be silent, and it could be "Information, Interactive, Internet, Interface, Idiocy" etc. "I" of...

I just finished a blog post by James Ward (by far the best Evangelist Adobe have today) and it was a bloody good post, so much so, it helped me formulate this post (inspiration can come from many things I guess). “I was a young man with uninformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering...