Desultory of an Architect - Christian Thilmany's Blog

see the Microsoft Experience at Internet week in NYC

Christian J. Thilmany — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:42:04 GMT

Are you a blogger, press, or simply interested in seeing some of Microsoft’s latest technologies such as Windows 7, IE8, Silverlight 3, Surface, and much more. Come visit me at 414 W 14th Street in New York City starting June 1st. I can help arrange discussions with top local agencies, hardware partners, and of course Microsoft evangelists to review these technologies with you in a open forum.

As a venue for thought leadership, the Microsoft Experience space can host at least one presentation, speaking panel, or activity per day of Internet Week. Sample topics and activities are:

· Designing Multi-Touch Experiences for the Web and Desktop

· How Technology Enables Art and How Art Influences Technology – Artist and Partner Panel

· Coming of Digital Age: What is Your Agency’s Mix of Traditional vs Digital? – Partner Panel

· In-Game Advertising Presented by Massive and Microsoft Advertising

· Silverlight 3: Ready for Prime Time

· Surface is a Big Table with Big Experiences - Partner Pane

· Opening Night Reception

· Weekend Evening Reception and XBOX 360 Rock Band or Gaming Competition

· Webby Awards Pre-Event Reception

BizSpark 1.5 Goes Live!!

Christian J. Thilmany — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:05:26 GMT

New Portal Goes Live, Go Daddy and startups.ro Featured, Robotics and CCR & DSS Toolkit Available, and More
From signing up more than 12,000 Startups in just six months, to launching the new BizSpark portal to the Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans, this newsletter features success stories and best practices, news and events, and ways to further engage your Startup. For even more, visit our website: www.MicrosoftStartupZone.com/BizSpark.

6 Million+ Customers: Go Daddy — Go
With 35 million+ domains under management and as one of the world's dominant hosting providers, The Go Daddy Group, Inc. offers a complete product line including comprehensive hosting solutions, Web site creation tools, SSL certificates, personalized email with spam and anti-phishing filtering, e-commerce tools and much more. Network Partner and Hosting Partner Go Daddy works with more than six million customers around the world. Here is our conversation with Yong Lee, Director of Business Development at GoDaddy.com. Read more.

Romanian Hub for Startups
Cristina Alexandru, a former BusinessWeek Romania journalist, founded startups.ro — the only independent online publishing platform for entrepreneurs in Romania. Since launching the site in November 2008, she has signed up 500 entrepreneurs, Startups, and investors. Read more.

A New, More Intuitive BizSpark Portal — It’s LIVE
We’ve listened to your feedback and incorporated it into the newest release of the Microsoft BizSpark portal (www.microsoft.com/bizspark). It is easier to use, and more intuitive than ever before. You now have faster access to a Microsoft Champ to answer your questions, customized messages from your Microsoft country Champ, and much more.

12,000+ Startups Served
Since Microsoft BizSpark debuted just six months ago, we’ve signed up more than 12,000 Startup companies — that comes out to more than 65 new companies every day. Available in 82 countries, enrollments have been particularly strong in the US and UK as well as emerging countries like Brazil, Russia, China, and India. Our 12,000 BizSpark companies span a variety of industries, including social networks, SaaS, healthcare, education, mobility, entertainment, finance and more. Read more, and read what people are tweeting about BizSpark.
Ballmer Shares Optimism for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
In early May, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talked to a packed house of more than 1,700 students and others at Stanford University as part of its Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Lecture Series. He shared his optimism for emerging innovation in the midst of economic turmoil, and the story of his own entrepreneurial path. Says Ballmer, “Entrepreneurs who invent, who create, who really add to the level of innovation, the productivity in the economy, will change the world, will create economic value, will drive jobs, and will have a heck of a lot of fun doing it.” Read his speech here.

WPC 2009
July 13 - 16, 2009
New Orleans, Louisiana
Registration is now open! When you attend the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) 2009 in New Orleans, you’ll gain exclusive access to the latest information and insights about upcoming Microsoft strategies, cutting edge technologies, and programs — directly from Microsoft executives, including Steve Ballmer, Kevin Turner, and Allison Watson. Register here.
Local Events — United States
Launch: Silicon Valley 2009
June 9, 2009
Mountain View, California
Co-presented by Microsoft, SVASE, and Garage Technology Ventures, you are invited to hear up to 30 exciting young companies pitch their products. Join in on the networking opportunity with an audience of several hundred of the most influential people in the Valley. For more information or to register, go here.
SparkStart
June 12, 2009
Microsoft Technology Center
Dallas, Texas
SparkStart is a daylong ‘Startup Boot Camp’ that provides your Startup with business and technology discussions (open format), networking, and many other learning opportunities. Even if you’re a prospective BizSpark Startup, a new Startup, or are already enrolled in the program, this event is for you. It provides ways for you to learn more about key strategies for success — funding, marketing, and production to technology topics such as RIA and Cloud Development. For more. Register here.

Robotics Developer Studio 2008 and CCR & DSS Toolkit Now Available — Separately
As a BizSpark Startup, you can now go to MSDN and download the Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (RDS) 2008 OR the Microsoft CCR & DSS Toolkit Standard Edition. Microsoft RDS is the newest version of Microsoft’s robotics programming platform that includes support for 64-bit operating systems, new samples showing how to use the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight, greatly improved documentation, enhanced Project Wizards, runtime optimizations, and many other new features.
The Microsoft CCR and DSS Toolkit 2008 can be used in non-robotics applications where concurrency and distributed processing are required — enabling your developers to better address some of the challenges of today’s application development.
Get Windows 7 Online Developer Training
Your developers can now get online training for Windows 7 — “A Developer's First Look at Windows 7”. This on-demand series introduces Windows 7 with an emphasis on new and interesting features. It consists of: two introductory sessions, one focusing on the new user interface, and one on behind-the-scenes features; two hour-long sessions that cover compatibility and security issues; and six shorter sessions that focus on coding for a single new feature. You can access these webcasts anywhere in the world with no need to login or fill out any forms.
Get Your Windows Mobile Applications in Front of Millions
Windows® Marketplace for Mobile is a new offering from Microsoft with Windows Mobile 6.5, which launches this fall. With Microsoft distributing your Windows Mobile 6.5 applications, you will earn a 70% revenue share. For more information, and to take advantage of a limited time offer, click here. The new Windows Mobile 6.5 delivers a new user experience — a touch screen interface, dashboard items for new e-mails, texts, missed calls and calendar, and much more. Windows Mobile for Developers.
Promote Your Startup on BizSparkDB
Add a short profile on your company by going to the “Add Your Startup” tab on the BizSparkDB at microsoftstartupzone.com, fill out a short profile and we’ll do the rest. It’s so easy. More than 1,700 Startups have profiled themselves on the BizSparkDB. Each week, we select a new Startup to showcase — we recently featured ColdLight, Sparus, Tweba, Ecovadis, and Qbox.com.

Microsoft StartupZone
Find guidance for your startup and your investors
BizSparkDB
Gain visibility by profiling your startup company
MSDN Download
Find and share software and code samples
Microsoft BizSpark
Software, support and visibility for your Startup
Port 25
Get insights and analysis from the Open Source Community at Microsoft
Channel 9
MSDN community for access to the people who devise Microsoft technologies
Microsoft Partner Program,
Development, training, marketing, and sales resources

texas startups: win an xbox 360 elite console …

Christian J. Thilmany — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:22:10 GMT

Want to win prizes and meet some of the top local Venture Capitalists face to face? What about some of the top Angels in Texas? Need information on how to market yourself both traditionally, virally, or through SEO? Want access to free software for 3 years? Want to win an xbox 360 elite console and other valuable prizes such as a zune, xbox games, and Microsoft software.

Then join us for SparkStart on June 12th at the Dallas Microsoft Technology Center – www.twitter.com/sparkstart

Registration: http://sparkstart.eventbrite.com

We will have 6 tracks (3 business, 2 technology, and one demo) on key business topics such as “Funding”, “Marketing”, and “Production”. Each business track will feature a panel of business experts. Here is your chance to personally meet panel members from the business community and moderators who are experts in their field, both from the Dallas/Fort Worth area and from all over Texas that include bootstrappers, venture capitalists, angels, incubators, and consulting.

We will feature technology topics such as “RIA Development”, “Cloud Development”, and provide an opportunity to visit our “Envisioning Center” where we will be demonstrating our web technologies and the Microsoft Surface (http://www.microsoft.com/surface/) throughout the day. Attendees will literally get to see what our large customer executives see at the Microsoft Technology Center in Dallas in our envisioning room in order to inspire, ideate, and get answers to vital questions.

We will also have a “sign-up” station for startups who want to sign up for BizSpark and begin immediately receiving the benefits e.g. software, support, and visibility. (http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark)

silverlight 3: pixel shaders

Christian J. Thilmany — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:39:17 GMT

with pixel shaders in silverlight 3 effects such as blurs and drop shadows are literally one line of xaml markup – no code required. More advanced effects can also be applied by writing your own pixel shader or leveraging the already converted WPF Pixel shade library for SL which can be found at http://wpffx.codeplex.com/

<Page

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">

<Grid>

        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

            <ColumnDefinition Width="300"/>

            <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>

        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

        <StackPanel Margin="8" Grid.Column="0">

            <TextBlock Text="This text should be blurry" FontSize="20">

                <TextBlock.Effect>

                    <BlurEffect />

                </TextBlock.Effect>

            </TextBlock>

            <TextBlock Text="Shadow on Text" FontSize="20">

                <TextBlock.Effect>

                    <DropShadowEffect ShadowDepth="5" />

                </TextBlock.Effect>

            </TextBlock>

       </StackPanel>

        <StackPanel Margin="8" Grid.Column="1" Orientation="Horizontal" VerticalAlignment="Top">

            <Ellipse Height="100" Width="200" Fill="Blue" Margin="10 0 0 0">

                <Ellipse.Effect>

                    <DropShadowEffect ShadowDepth="10" />

                </Ellipse.Effect>

            </Ellipse>

        </StackPanel>

</Grid>

</Page>

calling all Dallas startups

Christian J. Thilmany — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:06:07 GMT

Want to meet some of the top local Venture Capitalists face to face? What about some of the top Angels in Texas? Need information on how to market yourself both traditionally, virally, or through SEO? Want access to free software for 3 years?

Then join us for SparkStart on June 12th at the Dallas Microsoft Technology Center – www.twitter.com/sparkstart

Here are some of the folks you will get to meet at the event.

Giovanni Gallucci is a recovering .NET programmer turned tech evangelist who provides strategy for social media, brand development, and Online PR for forward-thinking companies and individuals. Giovanni designed, developed and deployed online communities when MySpace was no one's space, has used a Mac since before the “i” anything, and created vertical search engines when Larry and Sergey (Google’s co-founders) were still undergrads.

Look for Giovanni’s upcoming book entitled “Missing Clicks: The Seven Disciplines of Online Marketing” this summer. Giovanni also provides individuals with one day workshops on social media marketing, PR and publicity at ExtremeSocialMarketing.com.

The nexus of Giovanni's online universe can be found at http://gallucci.net. Giovanni is a keynote speaker who presents at national events like ad:tech, FlashForward, Macworld, and Search Engine Watch Live! and has been covered in a variety of media outlets including AdAge, AdWeek, The Dallas Morning News, Fox Business News, The Houston Chronicle, Inc. Magazine, InfoWorld, NBC, The New York Times, The London Telegraph, USA Today, and Wired Magazine among others.

Giovanni provides social media marketing services through Simply Interactive (http://simplyinteractive.net) and other top-tier interactive agencies and public relations firms.

Jeff Brown is Gulf Coast Regional Director for the of Corum Group, a specialist mergers and acquisitions firm for software companies worldwide. He has over 25 years of entrepreneurial and consulting experience building software and services companies. He specializes in strategy, vertical market entrepreneurship and the energy industry. Jeff is a veteran of three software startups and one turnaround. He last served as CEO of Severn Trent Worksuite, a FTSE 100 subsidiary, and a leading provider of enterprise workflow management software. Jeff began his career as a research Geologist at Columbia University and is a published author. Jeff is also on the advisory boards of several Houston start-up companies. His related volunteer activities include serving as Chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum’s New Venture Clinic, an Energy Advisor for the Houston Technology Center and volunteer executive in the Prison Entrepreneurship Program.

Chuck McCoy is Executive Director of the North Texas Angel Network. Chuck has always been a part of the entrepreneurial community. His first year of graduate school was financed partly by payments from a retail pottery store he co-founded with a friend and partly by profits from buying classic Ford Mustangs in the Oklahoma countryside and selling them in the city. Chuck began 25 years in the software business in Arthur Andersen’s Tulsa office. Eventually, Texas oilman offered Chuck the opportunity to “have your own deal if you will come handle a systems problem for my company”. During the next seven years Chuck developed and rolled-out 3 software products as an entrepreneur. The lessons learned about growing a business without a financing or capital appreciation plan serve well to this day. Since 1992 Chuck has worked as an independent product developer, mostly for large companies such as AT&T, E-Systems, MCI, and others. In time his accounting background, combined with years of face-to-face selling, resulted in being engaged to help grow businesses by M&A transactions or rolling-out new products. The end of his technical career marked the beginning of his focus on new venture development. Chuck spent a year as Director, Commercialization Programs, at the North Texas RCIC. This work was at the right time – the Texas Emerging Technology Fund had gotten its legs under it and was funding technology start-ups. During that year broad conversations decrying the poor state of organized angel investing groups in the North Texas area repeatedly occurred. He founded the North Texas Angel Network (NTAN) at the beginning of 2008. NTAN focuses on fast, well coached companies for the benefit of investors, entrepreneurs, and the community.

Alex Muse is The Texas Startup Blog has been published by Alexander Muse since 2005. With more than 2000 articles on startups, entrepreneurship and venture capital; the blog has garnered international attention with more than 70,000 monthly readers around the globe. The Texas Startup Blog is part of the SpringStage Startup Community. Alexander is a serial entrepreneur with more than a decade of startup experience. Alexander’s day job is with Big in Japan, where his team builds cool applications for mobile devices, including ShopSavvy built for Google’s open source Android platform. In 2007 he sold Fancast to Comcast Interactive and is an active investor and contributor in several companies including SpringStage, Architel, ServiceGuy and WhiteBox. Previously, he was founder and CEO of LayerOne, a venture capital-backed telecommunications infrastructure company he started in the late 1990’s. Alexander has been involved in several organizations including the Entrepreneurs Foundation of North Texas (EFNT), the Young Entrepreneurs Organization (YEO), the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), IEEE, The Open Management Consortium, DFW Entrepreneur Network, OnStartups, Start-Up Phase Forum and Startup Ventures Links.

Blake Burris is an entrepreneur and is the founder of Corazón Labs, a social applications company which builds social applications for self-improvement, competition and fun. Their first product, Challenge, was profiled at Facebook f8 08 in San Francisco. He is also the founder of CoHabitat, the Dallas coworking community for developers, creatives and entrepreneurs. Their collaborative office space is a 100-year old house located in the State-Thomas neighborhood.

Sean Jackson is the CEO of Lead Maverick - developers of content optimization tools for search marketing. Often referred to as the "Geek that Speaks," Sean has a true passion for technology and how it is applied to the needs of marketing. Starting in the early days of the web, Sean has built more than 50 eBusiness applications for Fortune 1000 companies, founded and sold two technology companies, and is an active member of the Dallas business community, which includes leadership positions with DFW Search Engine Marketing, Dallas Round Table, the Dallas Ad League, and member of Colonial Country Club. Lead Maverick is also a member of SEMPO and the Better Business Bureau.

Bridgette Penel is co-founder and investor, is currently Managing Director and President of the new venture capital firm, Zikyn, Inc., with the head-quartered office located in Houston, Texas. In addition, she has worked with executives in PMO strategies and development and has championed business analysis and technology projects with major corporations, such as Memorial Hermann, Starbucks, Blue Bell, HP, and Shell. While consulting leadership for innovative solutions to improve business objectives and operations, her primary experience includes development of business strategies based on technology utilizations, information technology management, business development, and operations management. Ms. Penel currently sits on the board of all Zikyn, Inc. portfolio companies and frequently participates in various venture review panels, as well as extends membership involvement in various business strategy groups. In addition, she works with forming technology companies in business plan development and strategies.

Kat Rice graduated from the University of North Texas after studying Creative Writing and BioChemistry. She has owned internet-based companies since she was 18 and has 6 years of online marketing experience. She currently owns Veribatim, a web design and consulting company. She is an internet consultant, helping businesses market their companies online through web presence, Search Engine Optimization and other more creative avenues such as Social Media. She has a particular passion for bridging the generation gap between Gen Y and the Baby Boomers and has begun speaking and writing about this subject. Kat and her team have recently begun developing a social media website for nonprofits called GiveCheerfully which she hopes will help charities spread their message online. She also serves on the board of multiple non-profits as a consultant to assist in their online presence including her local political party and CITY House. She is also a member of Nancy Barry’s Gen Y Board. Kat has recently been recognized as a viral marketing specialist after multiple successful grassroots campaigns in 2009.

Caleb Jenkins is a Principal Consultant with Improving Enterprises, National Speaker for INETA, Microsoft MVP, featured presenter for xTrain.com and Adobe.TV, technical editor for Wrox Publishing and certified Scrum Master. Improving Enterprises, Inc (http://ImprovingEnterprises.com) specializes in delivering enterprise solutions, agile methodologies and mentoring on the Microsoft and Java platforms.

Other bios to coming including Maria Smith (North Central Angel Network), Andrew Clark (Houston Angel Network), Marc Nathan (HTC), Yasser Shohoud, David Browne and more …

announcement: state of .NET event

Christian J. Thilmany — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:57:13 GMT

The State of .NET in Dallas (FREE)
When: Tuesday, May 28, 2009 - 1:30 - 4:30 PM
Where: Microsoft - Dallas Offices - 7000 SR-161 (George Bush Turnpike)

A free, unbiased look at the current and future development with .NET.

Join Markus Egger, the Publisher of CoDe Magazine and CSA of EPS Software Corp. for an afternoon of free and independent information about current Microsoft development technologies! What is the state of .NET today? Which of the many .NET technologies have gained traction? Which ones can you ignore for now? What is new in .NET 3.5 and the coming .NET 4.0? What other Microsoft technologies should you include in your development efforts?

For this free event, industry renowned expert, author, speaker, MVP, President of EPS Software Corp., and Publisher of CoDe Magazine, Markus Egger provides an unbiased and independent look at the current state of .NET development. This event is completely free of charge. It is designed for developers as well as (IT) decision makers. Specific prior knowledge is not required.

Exact information to be disclosed is under NDA until after Microsoft TechEd, however anticipated topics include:

Silverlight 2.0 and 3.0
WPF and Visual Styles
Windows Azure and Cloud Services
Expression Blend 3
How to make sure your website is IE8 compliant
ASP.NET MVC
Preview of .NET 4.0 with "Dev10" (Visual Studio 10)
Windows 7
Microsoft Surface

Attendees of this event will come away with a clear understanding of which technologies to use for various technical challenges. Questions? Please e-mail info@eps-software.com or call 832-717-4445 x32.

Note: This event is co-hosted by EPS Software Corp. and Microsoft Corporation. EPS is responsible for all content presented at this event.

Click here to sign up! (Link will take you through our VFPConversion signup page)

business makers show: radio interview on bizspark

Christian J. Thilmany — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:54:22 GMT

Check out my interview on the business maker radio show last weekend. We discuss the bizspark program and how it benefits startups through free software, support, and promotes visibility for their new company.

announcement: 65% Discount on Visual Studio 2008 for partners

Christian J. Thilmany — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:59:45 GMT

Special Offer for Gold Certified and Certified Partners–Save up to 65%*

Offer #1—save up to 65%* off Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team System 2008 Team Editions with MSDN® Premium Subscription
Expand your team collaboration capabilities and help ensure better software quality. Select from Development, Database, Test, and Architecture Editions. As a bonus, if you select either the Development Edition or the Database Edition, you can get access to the other edition at no extra charge!

Offer #2—save up to 65%* off Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite with MSDN Premium Subscription
Amplify your productivity with the Visual Studio Team Suite to speed up development, improve application qualify, and enhance collaboration.

In addition to special pricing, with either of these offers, active MSDN Subscribers may also receive priority access to
Visual Studio 2010 when available.

Act before June 26, 2009 to take advantage of these offers.

Contact your preferred reseller (promo code 324145), or distributor (promo code 320794).

Visit https://partner.microsoft.com/40082293 for more details

announcement: 65% off of visual studio 2008 for partners

Christian J. Thilmany — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:56:00 GMT

Special Offer for Gold Certified and Certified Partners–Save up to 65%*

Offer #1—save up to 65%* off Microsoft® Visual Studio® Team System 2008 Team Editions with MSDN® Premium Subscription

Expand your team collaboration capabilities and help ensure better software quality. Select from Development, Database, Test, and Architecture Editions. As a bonus, if you select either the Development Edition or the Database Edition, you can get access to the other edition at no extra charge!

Offer #2—save up to 65%* off Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite with MSDN Premium Subscription

Amplify your productivity with the Visual Studio Team Suite to speed up development, improve applicationqualify, and enhance collaboration. In addition to special pricing, with either of these offers, active MSDN Subscribers may also receive priority access to Visual Studio 2010 when available.

Act before June 26, 2009 to take advantage of these offers.

Contact your preferred reseller (promo code 324145), or distributor (promo code 320794).

Visit https://partner.microsoft.com/40082293 for more details

Microsoft sketchflow and Blend 3: screencast

Christian J. Thilmany — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:35:02 GMT

For those who didn’t make it to Mix 2009 or those who want to get a short “elevator pitch” version of the what sketchflow is and does I put together this screencast for you. In it I review the top features in sketchflow as announced at Mix. Sketchflow is currently not part of the blend 3 preview so hopefully this will help provide a closer look at what you can expect from this really cool rapid prototyping tool. As you can see you can now produce prototypes that won’t require interpreting what the designer had intended nor wasting work as now you can move from thought to sketch to production level detail in one tool much without writing one line of code!

updated: silverlight 3 features

Christian J. Thilmany — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:05:53 GMT

Fully supported by Visual Studio and Expression Blend, highlights of new features and functionality of Silverlight 3 include: major media enhancements, out of browser support allowing Web applications to work on the desktop; significant graphics improvements including 3D graphics support, GPU acceleration and H.264 video support; and many features to improve RIA development productivity. Also, in order to fully integrate all the .NET developer tools, Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Web Developer Express will support a fully editable and interactive designer for Silverlight. New features in Silverlight 3 include:

· Support for Higher Quality Video & Audio. With support for native H.264/Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) Audio, live and on-demand IIS7 Smooth Streaming, full HD (720p+) playback, and an extensible decoder pipeline, Silverlight 3 brings rich, full-screen, stutter-free media experiences to the desktop. New and enhanced media features in Silverlight 3 include:

o Live and on-demand true HD (720p+) Smooth Streaming. IIS Media Services (formerly IIS Media Pack), an integrated HTTP media delivery platform, features Smooth Streaming which dynamically detects and seamlessly switches, in real time, the video quality of a media file delivered to Silverlight based on local bandwidth and CPU conditions.

o More format choice. In addition to native support for VC-1/WMA, Silverlight 3 now offers users native support for MPEG-4-based H.264/AAC Audio, enabling content distributors to deliver high-quality content to a wide variety of computers and devices.

o True HD playback in full-screen. Leveraging graphics processor unit (GPU) hardware acceleration, Silverlight experiences can now be delivered in true full-screen HD (720p+).

o Extensible media format support. With the new Raw AV pipeline, Silverlight can easily support a wide variety of third-party codecs. Audio and video can be decoded outside the runtime and rendered in Silverlight, extending format support beyond the native codecs.

o Industry leading content protection. Silverlight DRM, Powered by PlayReady Content Protection enables protected in-browser experiences using AES encryption or Windows Media DRM.

· Empowering Richer Experiences. Silverlight 3 contains new 3D graphics, animation features, hardware accelerated effects and text improvements that enable designers and developers to create next generation Web visuals. Additional features include:

o Perspective 3D Graphics. Silverlight 3 allows developers and designers to apply content to a 3D plane. Users can rotate or scale live content in space without writing any additional code. Other effects include creating a queue in 3D and transitions.

o Pixel Shader effects. These software based effects include blur and drop shadow. In addition, you can also write your own effect. Effects can be applied to any graphical content. An example would be to make a button appear depressed on rollover you could use a drop shadow effect on the pressed visual state.

o Bitmap Caching. Silverlight 3 dramatically improves the rendering performance of applications by allowing users to cache vector content, text and controls into bitmaps. This feature is useful for background content and for content which needs to scale without making changes to its internal appearance.

o New Bitmap API. With Silverlight 3, developers can now write pixels to a bitmap. Thus, they can build a photo editor to do red eye correction, perform edits on scanned documents or create specials effects for cached bitmaps from elements on the screen.

o Themed application support. Developers can now theme applications by applying styles to their Silverlight 3 applications and changing them at runtime. Additionally, developers can cascade styles by basing them on each other.

o Animation Effects. Silverlight 3 provides new effects such as spring and bounce. These make animation more natural. Developers can also now develop their own mathematical functions to describe an animation

o Enhanced control skinning. Silverlight 3 provides easier skinning capabilities by keeping a common set of controls external from an application. This allows the sharing of styles and control skins between different applications.

o Improved text rendering & font support. Silverlight 3 allows far more efficient rendering and rapid animation of text. Applications also load faster by enabling the use of local fonts.

· Improving Rich Internet Application Productivity. New features include:

o 60+ controls with source code : Silverlight 3 is packed with over 60 high-quality, fully skinnable and customizable out-of-the-box controls such as charting and media, new layout containers such as dock and viewbox, and controls such as autocomplete, treeview and datagrid. The controls come with nine professional designed themes and the source code can be modified/recompiled or utilized as-is. Other additions include multiple selection in listbox controls, file save dialog making it easier to write files, and support for multiple page applications with navigation.

o Deep Linking. Silverlight 3 includes support for deep linking, which enables bookmarking a page within a RIA.

o Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Silverlight 3 enables users to solve the SEO-related challenges posed by RIAs. By utilizing business objects on the server, together with ASP.NET controls and site maps, users can automatically mirror database-driven RIA content into HTML that is easily indexed by the leading search engines.

o Enhanced Data Support Silverlight 3 delivers:

§ Element to Element binding : UI designers use binding between two UI properties to create compelling UI experiences. Silverlight now enables property binding to CLR objects and other UI components via XAML, for instance binding a slider value to the volume control of a media player.

§ Data Forms. The Data Form control provides support for layout of fields, validation, updating and paging through data.

§ New features for data validation which automatically catch incorrect input and warn the user with built-in validation controls.

§ Support for business objects on both client and server with n-Tier data support. Easily load, sort, filter and page data with added support for working with data. Includes a new built-in CollectionView to perform a set of complex operations against server side data. A new set of .NET RIA services supports these features on the server.

o Improved performance, through:

§ Application library caching, which reduces the size of applications by caching framework on the client in order to improve rendering performance.

§ Enhanced Deep Zoom, allows users to fluidly navigate through larger image collections by zooming.

§ Binary XML allows communication with the server to be compressed, greatly increasing the speed at which data can be exchanged.

§ Local Connection This feature allows communication between two Silverlight applications on the client-side without incurring a server roundtrip: for instance a chart in one control can communicate with a datagrid in another.

· Out of Browser Capabilities. Silverlight 3 offers a new set of features for building light-weight, sandboxed companion experiences for the Web that run on the desktop. Silverlight out of browser allows websites to build even closer, persistent relationships with customers. It enables the application to be placed in a restricted store on the user’s machine; and then provide a link directly to it from the user’s desktop, start menu or Windows 7 superbar (if the user chooses). This is all enabled within Silverlight 3 without any additional download of runtime or the need to write applications in a different way. An application can now be easily found on the user’s desktop or start menu, and launched with a single click. In addition, it can test if the network is connected, it can update itself, and can also have access to Isolated Storage. Taken together, these features represent a radical upgrade to the web experience:

o Desktop shortcuts and start menu support –place an application on the desktop and be one click away from your customer.

o Run outside of browser –no longer need the distraction of the browser chrome

o Safer, more secure, sandboxed – an application can be trusted without security warnings, keeping your customers safer.

o Consumer friendly non-administrator install – applications are held in a cache and do not require any privileges to run

o Built in auto-update – an application will check for new versions on the server and update on launch

o Connectivity detection (in browser, out of browser) – can detect a loss of connection and then chose to cache users work until the reconnect

o Windows integration – on Windows 7, support will be provided for superbar integration, multitouch, and location awareness services such as GPS support so that your application can react to the users location e.g. for mapping or location targeted information.

Enhanced Accessibility Features. Silverlight 3 is the first browser plug-in to provide access to all system colors, allowing partially-sighted people to make changes such as high contrast color schemes for ease of readability by using familiar operating system controls.

Updated: features of Silverlight 3

Christian J. Thilmany — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:43:49 GMT

It has been awhile since I blogged briefly about the new feature provides by silverlight 3. Since Mix 2009 I’ve been compiling a list of those features and wanted to provide you with a summarized version of them. As you can see the list has grown considerably.

· With support for native H.264/Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) Audio, live and on-demand IIS7 Smooth Streaming, full HD (720p+) playback, and an extensible decoder pipeline, Silverlight 3 brings rich, full-screen, stutter-free media experiences to the desktop. New and enhanced media features in Silverlight 3 include:

o True HD playback in full-screen. Leveraging graphics processor unit (GPU) hardware acceleration, Silverlight experiences can now be delivered in true full-screen HD (720p+).

o Industry leading content protection. Silverlight DRM, Powered by PlayReady Content Protection enables protected in-browser experiences using AES encryption or Windows Media DRM.

· Silverlight 3 contains new 3D graphics, animation features, hardware accelerated effects and text improvements that enable designers and developers to create next generation Web visuals. Additional features include:

o Improved text rendering & font support. Silverlight 3 allows far more efficient rendering and rapid animation of text. Applications also load faster by enabling the use of local fonts.

60+ controls with source code : Silverlight 3 is packed with over 60 high-quality, fully skinnable and customizable out-of-the-box controls such as charting and media, new layout containers such as dock and viewbox, and controls such as autocomplete, treeview and datagrid. The controls come with nine professional designed themes and the source code can be modified/recompiled or utilized as-is. Other additions include multiple selection in listbox controls, file save dialog making it easier to write files, and support for multiple page applications with navigation.

o Deep Linking. Silverlight 3 includes support for deep linking, which enables bookmarking a page within a RIA.

o Enhanced Data Support Silverlight 3 delivers:

§ Data Forms. The Data Form control provides support for layout of fields, validation, updating and paging through data.

§ New features for data validation which automatically catch incorrect input and warn the user with built-in validation controls.

o Improved performance, through:

§ Application library caching, which reduces the size of applications by caching framework on the client in order to improve rendering performance.

§ Enhanced Deep Zoom, allows users to fluidly navigate through larger image collections by zooming.

§ Binary XML allows communication with the server to be compressed, greatly increasing the speed at which data can be exchanged.

· Silverlight 3 offers a new set of features for building light-weight, sandboxed companion experiences for the Web that run on the desktop. Silverlight out of browser allows websites to build even closer, persistent relationships with customers. It enables the application to be placed in a restricted store on the user’s machine; and then provide a link directly to it from the user’s desktop, start menu or Windows 7 superbar (if the user chooses). This is all enabled within Silverlight 3 without any additional download of runtime or the need to write applications in a different way. An application can now be easily found on the user’s desktop or start menu, and launched with a single click. In addition, it can test if the network is connected, it can update itself, and can also have access to Isolated Storage. Taken together, these features represent a radical upgrade to the web experience:

o Desktop shortcuts and start menu support –place an application on the desktop and be one click away from your customer.

o Run outside of browser –no longer need the distraction of the browser chrome

o Safer, more secure, sandboxed – an application can be trusted without security warnings, keeping your customers safer.

o Consumer friendly non-administrator install – applications are held in a cache and do not require any privileges to run

o Built in auto-update – an application will check for new versions on the server and update on launch

o Connectivity detection (in browser, out of browser) – can detect a loss of connection and then chose to cache users work until the reconnect

Technorati Tags: silverlight

Mlb.tv running into problems since switching from Silverlight to flash

Christian J. Thilmany — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:11:43 GMT

It seems as though there have been several issues for MLB.TV in their video delivery since they’ve converted from silverlight to flash.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/162805/mlb_in_social_media_stumble_with_mlbtv_blog.html?tk=loom_art

http://www.mlbsupport.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=32&sid=9918c1deb0497b6bb42cdba88be50c1c

maybe they should have stayed with silverlight.

phizzpop design challenge at South by southwest a success

Christian J. Thilmany — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:18:57 GMT

As you all have seen, we had a great deal of positive buzz coming out of SxSW this year. Microsoft’s investment in SxSW has been growing year after year, with more and more resources both coming to and participating in the event.

PhizzPop National Finale

Partnering with the local web creative group Refresh Austin on outreach, attendance exceeded 400 people at the event with live digital HD feeds servicing satellite events in Chicago and Minneapolis. The Minneapolis satellite event itself hosted 100 fans cheering for their hometown heroes, Zeus Jones. The event drew a veritable who’s who of web design luminaries – including Frog, Avenue A | Razorfish, Neudesic, Thirteen23, Round Arch, Projekt202, Sapient, and the competitors themselves: Zeus Jones, Manifest Digital, Vectorform, PhenomBlue, and Archetype.

The competitors did not disappoint! This year’s design challenged focused on the theme of environmental sustainability for the city of Austin. The designs exceeded all expectations and were widely considered the best work seen at a PhizzPop event. This year’s winner was Zeus Jones. Their winning entry, UseMore, can be viewed HERE. Besides being crowned as the national Phizzpop Design Challenge winners for 2009, Zeus Jones won a trip to the CRE8 Conference in Orlando, Florida, and tickets to MIX09, and each team member received an HP computer package.

In addition to having incredible talent showcasing incredible solutions, we also had some incredible judges. These included Jon Roskill, Microsoft CVP; David-Michel Davies, Executive Director of the Webby Awards; Gaston Legorburu, Chief Creative Officer, Sapient; Howard Tulman, President and CEO, Flashpoint Academy; Dave Wolf, VP Cynergy; and internet celebrities Julia Allison and Meagan Asha.

Buzz

The buzz and after-image of the event are resonating even now…

Over 168 pictures can be found HERE.

“I think Phizzpop is a fantastic idea for a competition. It really showcases the incredible possibilities that are possible great design is teamed up with thorough research and brilliant strategy. There was a huge amount of talent presented tonight, and we are very flattered to have made it to the finals. Winning was a fantastic feeling, and a solid reassurance that a smart and simple idea can prevail.

Zeus Jones was founded with the goal to ‘modernize business,’ and we are using the combination of great design with honest strategy to create flawless executions. A special thanks to Microsoft for putting this all together.” Chad Hancock, designer of PhizzPop solution, Zeus Jones

Twitter – over 80 tweets (50% - 70% positive impressions, zero negative)

“Saw invention, agility and commitment at the Phizzpop final (www.phizzpop.com) last night that will fry your eyes. and all done in two weeks” -- PaulBurcher

“sxsw - phizzpop pretty dope. maybe silverlight is legit.” -- projectc

“Microsoft's party makes up for the red rings of death” -- futuretuesday

All of the Red Couch Interviews can be found HERE.

Noteworthy videos: [Mark Hindsbo] [Joe Olsen (Phenomblue)] [David Michael-Davis (Webby Awards)]

Press

Reporters from a number of organizations, such as the Austin American-Statesman and San Antonio News, were in attendance at the event. CNet covered the event as well. Zeus Jones was welcomed back with an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Sponsors

Great events are all about bringing great partners to the table and delivering excitement. We were fortunate to have some wonderful partners who brought incredible value to the table, most notably Red Bull. Besides bringing liquid energy, they brought an outstanding DJ in the form of DJ Tina T (pictured below). In addition to Red Bull, Lucid Absinthe, and Austin local Tito’s Handmade Vodka were also sponsors.

Sensorium

Sensorium served as the official PhizzPop pre-event and VIP reception. Done in collaboration with Darren Mc Cormick at Microsoft, this event exceeded its 70 attendee reach target and landed 94 attendees from design powerhouses such as Frog, Avenue A | Razorfish, Neudesic, Schematic, and others in addition to customers and partners such as Dell, Catapult, Freescale, Ovation TV, Allianz, Convio, FlashPoint Academy, and many more.

Attendees were exposed to a number of new ideas in NUI computing from Joe Olsen of PhenomBlue. They also got to see a number of innovative and exciting solutions from David Lucatch of Intertainment Media who showcased IttyBitty – a system that was highlighted at SxSW as a unique and entirely new way of building brands leveraging social media and new online user experiences. Dave Wolf and Shawn Broxson of CynergySystems (last year’s PhizzPop winners) demonstrated a series of new designs and thoughts about touch computing and the potential for NUI to impact the market.

Icing on the cake!

In addition to this, we had other fantastic things result from our participation at SxSW:

· We gave away 1,000 copies of Windows 7!! That means one in every 12 people at the event walked away with Windows 7!

building office applications in silverlight

Christian J. Thilmany — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:28:29 GMT

if you are looking to build office applications in Silverlight such as an mail client, word processing, et al check out http://divelements.co.uk/silverlight/. Yes the following screen shot is actually running in a browser using Silverlight. Very nice. Add Silverlight 3 to mix and you can run both in browser and OOB in offline scenarios and go so dynamically given the new network awareness APIs in SL3.

Technorati Tags: Silverlight,Tools,Visual Studio,Experssion Studio