Brian Goldfarb's Blog : Silverlight

New official Silverlight Blog

bgold — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:29:20 GMT

earlier this week, as part of MIX09, we launched an official Silverlight team blog. Subscribe now! We’ll push out new technical content, videos, and use it as a venue to respond to critical industry events that require our voice. You can use it as a direct conduit to us and the team with feedback (both good and bad!).

We’ll cover our entire UX platform including Expression Studio with a focus on Expression Blend (and the newly announced SkethFlow functionality which has had rave reviews), Silverlight, Visual Studio, and anything else we think is important.

Spread the news – http://team.silverlight.net/

I kicked us off with this post: http://team.silverlight.net/announcements/introducing-the-new-silverlight-blog/

CBS Chooses Silverlight for March Madness

bgold — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 05:24:23 GMT

As a huge Duke Basketball fan this win is particularly gratifying :) a few great articles below

http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/61563

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/02/silverlight-to-power-2009-ncaa-march-madness.ars

http://search.live.com/news/results.aspx?q=silverlight+cbs&form=QBNR

MIX09 – Register by Feb 27 and save $300

bgold — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:49:31 GMT

MIX09 is going to be amazing. I can’t give away the details, but as the keynote owner for Scott Guthrie (as I have been every year, it’s a glorious job to be the man behind the curtain :)) and I can tell you this year is on track to be the best ever.

We will be bringing to market some amazing technology, setting the stage for the future of our Web and RIA technologies, showing off the great work of many of our amazing partners, and so much more. I know times are tough, but if you can swing it or tell a friend do it.

To help with costs, 3rd night’s on us now :)

http://visitmix.com/News/Free-Third-Night-at-The-Venetian

Let me know if you have any questions! or feedback on what you want to see in the day 1 keynote :)

Microsoft Web Platform Installer Release Candidate – Now works with XP and Windows 2003!

bgold — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:37:57 GMT

I'm going to blatantly steal Bill Staples words since they were so good :)

"I’m excited to announce the availability of the Release Candidate version of the Microsoft Web Platform Installer (Web PI).

Web PI is a free tool that makes it simple to download and install the latest components of the Microsoft Web Platform, including IIS, ASP.NET, Visual Web Developer Express and SQL Server, along with a lot of cool IIS extensions like URL rewrite and ASP.NET MVC.

Web PI offers a simple experience for downloading and installing the entire stack through a single installer to help you obtain the software you need to build and run a complete Web solution on the Microsoft Web platform, whether you are using Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008.

Run Web PI to get started and then run it again anytime to check for new extensions to the platform. Every time Web PI is run it checks online to ensure the most current versions and new additions to the Microsoft Web Platform are downloaded. Give Web PI a try today!"

MSN Germany with Silverlight wins IPTV Award 2008 - coolness

bgold — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:02:30 GMT

I just heard some great news from Europe: MSN Germany received the “IPTV Award 2008” for technical innovation for their brand new Social Video Mashup MSN ClipClub TV. The solution was built by Axinom, a German Microsoft partner.

In a highly competitive environment, where there are strong video, social, and chat options, MSN created a solution that combines different products: Clip Club TV connects existing MSN video content to the functionality of Windows Live Messenger in an innovative Silverlight 2 interface - this is the first Live Messenger UI built with Silverlight 2 that I'm aware of. Combined technologies and services are worth more than the sum of their parts.

http://clipclub.video.msn.de

“IPTV Award 2008” competition is huge and one of the most prestigious IPTV awards in Europe sponsored by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as well as the IPTV Forum and, among others, Deutsche Bank and Universal Publishing.

Almost 200 entries have been invited for the: promising business models, outstanding creativity and design, exciting content, innovative technology and audience award in cooperation with one of Germanys largest TV Guides ‘TV Movie’.

Congrats to MSN, ClipClub TV and Axiom for winning and being part of a pretty elite group of folks!

Give us feedback on Silverlight 2!

bgold — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:56:14 GMT

My team pulled this together, help them pick your brain!

Give us feedback on Silverlight 2

We’ve put together a short survey to help us improve our Silverlight features and API. Spend 15 minutes and tell us what is good and bad about Silverlight so far.

>Play 2008

bgold — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:29:51 GMT

I'm speaking at >Play this year. The show actually started earlier this morning, but heading over in the afternoon. If you are around, say hello :) Should be a fun one!

BizSpark is here -- easy access to Software, Support, and Visibility for startups

bgold — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:48:39 GMT

Today, we announced BizSpark, a global program designed to help accelerate the success of early stage software Startups. This is an awesome program that is really going to change the way startups evaluate technology usage. Choosing Microsoft, not only gets you best of breed technology solutions, but now marketing, demand generation, support, and more! The net cool thing here is a startup can build a killer software app in the cloud and money off it for 3 years for $100 -- pretty sweet.

By joining BizSpark, Startups get:

Software: fast and easy access to Microsoft’s current full-featured development tools, platform technologies, and unlimited production licenses of server products for immediate use in developing and bringing to market innovative and interoperable solutions with no upfront costs and minimal requirements. Startups will also get access to the community technology preview (CTP) of the Microsoft Azure Services Platform.
Support: professional technical support from Microsoft (MSDN) and community support from BizSpark Network Partners around the world who provide a wide range of support resources for software startups. Network Partners are incubators, investors, advisors, government agencies and hosters who are vested in software-fueled innovation and entrepreneurship.
Visibility: a dedicated online startup directory, BizSparkDB, on the Microsoft Startup Zone website (www.microsoftstartupzone.com) where we will highlight promising companies from around the world, including the “BizSpark Startup of the Day”. Through their relationship with Microsoft and BizSpark Network Partners, startups will achieve global visibility to an audience of potential investors, clients and partners.

Plus, there is no up-front cost and no commitment (leave whenever you want). At the end (after 3 years), you pay $100. Yea that's it.

We've also lined up hosters like goGrid, Rackspace, or Opsource to help get you started.

If you want in, startup can get access to BizSpark either through a Network Partner (e.g. TiE, NVCA, select Venture Capitalists, and over 300+ entrepreneurial-focused organizations with a strong track record to helping young and promising technology companies success or through Microsoft BizSpark Program Leads (called “BizSpark Champs”). Startups can find both at Microsoft.com/bizspark.

Partners like TechStars, KPCB, Angel Capital Association or the European Business Angel Network are on board with us.

Eligibility for the program

BizSpark is available to startups that fit the following criteria, nominated by Network Partners or MSFTEES:

A private company building a software-based product or service
In business for less than 3 years
Less than USD $1M in revenue (2-4 local variants exist)
Participation lasts up to three years

Availability:

BizSpark is immediately available worldwide in most countries
82 countries have a BizSpark Program Lead (“BizSpark Champs”) to provide support

Offering Details:

Please visit www.microsoftstartupzone.com/bizspark for detailed program information.

Spread the word (I'm becoming a champ too so I can help)

Silverlight Toolkit - Already 10k downloads!

bgold — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:18:23 GMT

We announced this awesome toolkit with the RTM of Silverlight 2 and shipped the first drop at PDC, just a few days ago.

Well, we crossed the 10k downloads barrier just after 6pm last night (happy Hhalloween) and are close to 11k this morning.

Shawn Burke, the Product Unit Manager for the Silverlight Controls team has tons of information on his blog.

Silverlight Toolkit Now Available For Download

Silverlight 2 Released - Silverlight Toolkit on the Way

Get info on the controls Roadmap

PDC Silverlight Controls Roadmap talk and materials

This toolkit release under MS-PL has a bunch of controls that will only continue to get better release over release including Charting controls, layout controls, treeview, and much more.

Enjoy!

Are you a Silverlight rockstar? Get a killer job.

bgold — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:31:00 GMT

A great agency in Seattle, ramp group is looking for a rockstar Silverilght developer -- see JD below. Good luck!

Silverlight 2 Developer

Ramp Group

Bellevue, WA

www.rampgroup.com

Key skills: .Net Framework, C#, Silverlight 2.0, XML

Are you interested in working on a project which will revolutionize the advertising industry, creating market efficiencies in terms of matching publisher page inventory to advertiser demand across multiple ad networks, standardizing advertising attributes, and lowering the barriers of entry to new classes of advertising businesses? If you are a developer with a creative spirit and often have ideas for enhancing the customer experience, this is a great opportunity for you.

Ramp Group is looking for .Net / Silverlight 2.0 developers to join our team of talented and motivated individuals in architecting cutting edge solutions for our clients’ dynamic and growing businesses. This is a unique opportunity to develop systems that have the intersection of machine learning, advanced economics / auction theory, and large scale systems engineering.

In this role you would be part of a Ramp development team helping our clients to build rich, multimedia-based applications across different OS platforms and browsers. We value and respect our associates and customers always striving to enable them to achieve the measurable results that support their success. Our employees thrive at working in a fast paced environment and enjoy interacting with clients and exceeding expectations.

Experience:

· Experience building high quality web applications.

· Experience working within a collaborative team environment.

· Experience building Silverlight 2.0 clients

· Experience working with WPF a big plus

· Experience with web services ASMX/WCF a big plus

Required Skills:

· Solid C# and .NET skills

· Silverlight 2.0 skills

· Solid web development

· XML and XPath

· Advanced problem solving, coding, and debugging skills.

· SQL

· WPF skills a big plus

· WCF skills a big plus

· LINQ skills a big plus

Ramp Group is a small consulting company with just under 100 employees located in Bellevue, WA. We specialize in project based full development life cycle services ranging from user requirements analysis, user interface design and product usability evaluation to technical design, development, test, and deployment. Our employees are highly skilled in developing solutions from large-scale enterprise-class database and Web-based applications to client-side consumer software.

To learn more about this position please contact us at: careers@rampgroup.com

Please include “Silverlight Developer” in the subject line to help facilitate your application and questions.

Please visit our website at:

www.rampgroup.com

Get the early skinny on Silverlight 2

bgold — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:34:00 GMT

ScottGu has been burning the midnight oil (literally!) to pull together an incredibly detailed tutorial that shows how powerful Silverlight 2 is going to be. Get an early scoop on the features in the soon to be released Beta1, get a feel for how Visual Studio and Expression Studio work together to enable developer/designer collaboration that is second to none, and see just a subset of the power that Silverlight 2 is going to bring to building amazing RIA applications.

Get the summary here and links to over 20 pages of details.

Hard to believe all of that power is packed into 4.3mb install that just takes 4-10 seconds on a typical machine without Silverlight.

Let us know what you think -- and remember this is just the beginning, there are a lot more features and details coming soon!

Halo3 in HD with Silverlight

bgold — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 22:20:27 GMT

http://halo3.msn.com/videosHD.aspx

I've been buried in Silverlight fun... but check this out.

Silverlight is here!

bgold — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 11:21:04 GMT

Ok, so I've been quiet, but I can explain it -- I've been working really really hard on Silverlight and today is our big day! Writing live from NAB, but this is big big big -- read about the details on the links below, and stay tuned, this is only part of the fun, keep your eyes on MIX.

Sean Alexander

Soma

And many others will post, but here is the info for now -- stay tuned!

MSDN Silverlight info

Silverlight community (coming soon)

A new job for me, better products for you

bgold — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:40:58 GMT

And hopefully some more time to blog :) This week we re-organized our team so that we could better serve the needs of our internal and external partners and customers. I won't bore you with the details but it has a pretty major impact on what I do and the kinds of information I want; so I figured this was a great opportunity to share.

My new job is focused on Developer Division (which includes designers) Platform Strategy. My new team is 100% focused on making sure we build the best possible products for the market place. We get to understand the trends, the big picture, the little picture, customer needs, partner needs, and partner deeply with the engineering teams run by Scott Guthrie (NDP) and Eric Zocher (Designer) to help ensure that the products we build work great together and address the key needs of the market today, tomorrow, and way into the future.

Sounds like a huge daunting challenge, but gurantee it is going to be a lot of fun. To date, I've spent some of my time on this, but we've decided it is so critical that me and my team get to spend 100% of our time focused here. The results, well you'll be able to tell me as we lead up to MIX, PDC, and the next rev's of our products.

My team looks after the following technologies -- so take a look and lay it on, good, bad, ugly. What you want, what you don't want, what you don't even think you want, anything that you think will help us.

Tools

Expression Studio (Blend, Media, Web, Design) + futures
Visual Web Developer (the Web tooling inside Visual Studio)
"Cider" (the WPF tooling for VS) + futures

Platforms

ASP.NET
WPF
"WPF/E"
AJAX
Internet Explorer
Commerce Server

Plus the broader marketplace that encompasses these technologies (Web 2.0, UX, etc.)

I'll still be posting as much useful info as I can around the outbound work that we do, but my energy is going to be focused on building amazing products. Spread the word, we want your feedback.

Oh and joining me on the team are:

Brad Becker looking after Rich Client Platform and Tools

Sanjoy Sarkar looking after Web Platform

Pete LePage looking after IE, Web Tooling, Standards

Max Akbar looking after Commerce Server

and we are hiring a few positions

1) Expression Media and Media Workflow strategy

2) Rich Client Platform - Developer strategy

3) Rich Client Platform - Designer strategy

I'll associate JD's once we write them ;)

Scott Guthrie debuts in Red vs Blue

bgold — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 11:03:48 GMT

Words can't describe just how cool this is :) And a pretty hot looking "WFP/E" video player to boot -- tell your friends, spread the word! Definitely a great "non-traditional" type of activity.

http://channel9.msdn.com/playground/wpfe/rvbplayer/

Scott's own post about this