I had the pleasure of speaking at the local NYC Silverlight Meetup recently. The goal of the presentation was to give a starting point for the Silverlight 4 beta that we released at PDC09 as well as some of the new Silverlight features in Visual Studio 2010. Since this is a hot topic right now I figured I would post my content publically for all. It is always hard going through slides without a presenter but they may be of use in your own discussions.
My talk covered everything ScottGu demoed during the keynote as well as most of the features covered in John Papa’s Whitepaper. Everything we walked through was built off publically available samples (ie: the World of Warcraft video puzzle was the HTMLControl/Brush example from the keynote I modified).
I’ve listed where to get all the code sample projects below and you can grab the slides here.
PhotoBooth, Rich TextPad and HTML Puzzle Keynote examples
Silverilght 4 How-Do-I videos and code
Silverlight 4 Hands on Labs
Rene Schulte Augmented Reality Demo
Don’t forget to check out the new show on Channel9 - SilverlightTV!
MSDN Events presents: Take Your Applications Sky High with Cloud Computing and the Windows Azure Platform
Andrew, Dani, Rachel and I will be taking a deep dive into cloud computing and the Windows Azure Platform. We’ll start with a developer-focused overview of this new platform and the cloud computing services that can be used either together or independently to build highly scalable applications. As the day unfolds, we’ll explore data storage, SQL Azure, and the basics of deployment with Windows Azure.
All events start promptly at 1pm (check-in at 12:30) and end at 5pm. Refreshments (and plenty of caffeine!) will be served.
Here are the dates and registration links:
| City | Date | Register |
| Total | 5 locations |
| Richmond, VA | March 3, 2010 | Register |
| Baltimore, MD | March 10, 2010 | Register |
| Pittsburgh, PA | March 16, 2010 | Register |
| Allentown, PA | March 18, 2010 | Register |
| Washington, DC | March 23, 2010 | Register |
If you register and attend this event, you will be placed in a raffle to win a chance to bring home one (1) free copy of Windows 7 – you could be the lucky winner!
Hands on with the Cloud
SESSION 1: Overview of Cloud Computing and Windows Azure
The Windows Azure platform is a set of high-performance cloud computing services that can be used together or independently and enable developers to leverage existing skills and familiar tools to develop cloud applications. In this session, we’ll provide a developer-focused overview of this new online service computing platform. We’ll explore the components, key features and real day-to-day benefits of Windows Azure.
Highlights include:
- What is cloud computing?
- Running web and web service applications in the cloud
- Using the Windows Azure and local developer cloud fabric
- Getting started – tools, SDKs and accounts
- Writing applications for Windows Azure
SESSION 2: Survey of Windows Azure Platform Storage Options
Durable data storage is a key component of any cloud computing offering. The Windows Azure Platform offers many options, which can be used alone or in combination. Windows Azure itself offers ready-to-use and lightweight storage in the form of tables, blobs, and queues. Another choice for storage is SQL Azure, a true relational database in the cloud. In this session, we’ll explore the highlights of these implementations and how to both create and use storage in each form. We’ll give you guidance on choosing the right forms of storage for your application scenarios.
Highlights include:
- Understanding table & blob storage
- Programming against table & blob storage
- Working with queue storage
- Managing credentials and connection strings
- Scaling and configuration
- Understanding SQL Azure databases versus local SQL Server databases
- SQL Azure firewall, logins and passwords
- Database creation, deployments and migrations
- Database management using SQL Management Studio
- Programming against SQL Azure databases
SESSION 3: Going Live with your Azure Solution
Windows Azure features a powerful, yet simple deployment model. By focusing on your application and abstracting away the infrastructure details, you can deploy almost any app with minimal fuss. In this session, we’ll walk you through the basics of Windows Azure deployment, including site monitoring, diagnostics and performance issues.
Highlights include:
- Start-to-Finish Visual Studio demonstration of a realistic XML data driven business web site from the desktop to the cloud.
- Windows Azure Deployments
- Start-to-Finish Visual Studio demonstration of a realistic SQL Server data driven business web site from the desktop to the cloud.
- Configuration of your application in the cloud
- Guidance and Suggestions to ensure your success
Hope to see you there!
During my recent presentation at Lehigh Valley.NET a really great question was asked about Azure pricing.
What does a computing hour mean? If I run multiple instances at the same time do they both count or only the entire time used?
Not wanting to see any of developers friends get hit with large, unexpected, cloud computing bills I figured I would do some investigating.
Here is what i found…
Azure billing goes live on February 1st
This means all existing CTP accounts will need to be upgraded by January 31st. If you have not singed up for Azure yet there are a couple of options available to you.
MSDN Subscribers
The first is for MSDN Subscribers and includes several benefits such as free computing hours and storage based on the level of your subscription.
Microsoft Partners
Partners have several offers available to them as well with pricing up to almost half off.
Free Trial available to everyone
There is also an introductory special you can use to test out Azure.
Computing Instances
This is where some of the confusion set in. From the page we can see that the trial starts to charge $0.12 per hour for small instances once you pass 25 hours. But what exactly is a computing hour?
If you we click on more details for computing instances on the page we are given the following explanation:
The compute hours included with this subscription can be applied to any of the four compute instance levels at the rates shown in the Compute Instance Conversion Rate Table.
All compute hours are converted into small instance hours when presented on your bill. For example, one elapsed hour of a medium compute instance would be presented as two small compute instance hours at the small instance rate of $0.12 per hour on your bill.
We are also given the following table:
Seems a bit confusing eh? Fortunately so did my fellow teammate Jim O’Neil. After chatting it over with ourselves, going over a few scenarios, and Jim getting some clarification from our internal Azure groups we came up with the following.
- The minimum charge for one compute instance/role is an hour $0.12.
- Each instance runs in parallel and is charged at the same time.
- I think is the one most developers will hit since we’ll want to fire off a few instances for really intensive computing tasks. A scenario for this might look as follows:
- I load up 100 roles
- I run my application for 10 minutes
- Total Cost is $12
- Why? 100 roles running for 10 minutes rounds to 100 hours which is $12. Also note because of the rounding it would be $12 if the 100 roles ran for 59 minutes each as well.
- Hours are also correlated with wall time. That is the hours are calculated from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m,. etc. So deploying at 1:40 and shutting down at 2:35, which is 55 minutes, may still cost you two hours of time, because you used part of the 1-2 block and part of the 2-3 block.
Getting the most power for your money
Bottom line – be careful of how many instances you create during any given time period. Also deploying at the top of the hour will get you the most computing power for your money due to the rounding that takes place.
If you are like me and like to test just how much my app can do you might want to be careful of how many instances you create. Especially if you decide to do a test that will last for a longer period of time.
Hopefully this clarification will remove any fears you might have around billing for trial Azure accounts. As always, please feel free to contact me with any additional questions and I will post the responses here.
It’s about Sharing
One of the favorite things in my role at Microsoft is going out to local usergroup meetings (you can check out the full listing in the blog sidebar to the left). The environment of sharing and enabling others to grow never ceases to impress. Maybe it is the fact I am just getting older but in recent years the relationships I build with people have come to mean more to me than the technology I learn. These groups offer a healthy portion of both with various technical presentations and dedicated networking time to get to know one another.
Having spent most of my career in large enterprises a trip report is something I just made a habit of doing. Especially, when I got the rare opportunity to attend a big conference. Those on my team have seen some of the twenty page trip reports I have put together but how can I share that with the community?
I see the traffic on twitter and know many are busy doing giving briefings now to their own workgroups on what they saw at PDC09. I thought about it and here is how I think I can help…
A PDC09 Trip Report Kit
I often do summaries of my trips to major conferences or announcements but I wanted to get something out to you this time you could use for your own presentations.
The idea behind this kit is to put together a starting point for your meeting. Whether that is at your workplace, or at your local usergroup, you can take this presentation and demos and modify as you see fit.
Slides
This PowerPoint is available here and runs about 90 slides. Depending on how much Q&A you get you should allow for 90-120 minutes. It does not cover everything from PDC and is meant as a starting point for your audience to follow-up with more in-depth hands on technical labs.
Above all else it attempts to explain where Microsoft is headed, why we do the things we do and as always – ENTERTAIN. What do I mean by entertain? We are at a point now where people can get technical content anywhere but often feel overloaded by the amount of stuff being thrown at them. Be sure to share your own insights and experiences where you can those are the things people remember. I have also put information in the slide notes on what to highlight, where to grab more content, and some of my own thoughts.
Demos
The topics I presented on included the following but you should feel free to swap out where appropriate:
- Windows 7 Multi-Touch
- Office, Paint, WPF C# code, Surface Multi-Touch Pack
- Silverlight 4
- Expression Blend Preview for .Net 4
- Behaviors, Data-Binging
- Printing
- WebCam
I have included the code for the Silverlight 4 demo here as well. Please remember you will need to have installed Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2, Blend Preview for .NET 4.0, and the updated Silverlight 4 Tools all of which can be found here.
If you would like more information on any of the topics you can also download my presentations from the MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshows here.
Have Fun with it
Hopefully this will make a great starting point for you. We often share content like this internally at Microsoft and I thought it might be something you find valuable too.
So far the response from the groups I have presented it to has been overwhelming positive. If you find it useful please send me an e-mail. I would love to hear about your own experiences and discussions. It not only helps me as a presenter but it is invaluable to the teams back in Redmond. Depending on your feedback this may be something I continue to do with big conferences moving forward.
-Dave
What is it?
The PDC has traditionally been held when Microsoft has something big to announce instead of an annual event. In the past that meant announcing the .NET Framework in 2002, Longhorn in 2003, Office 12 in 2005 and last year’s PDC announcement was Windows Azure.
My first PDC was in 2005 and it still holds a special place for me. Even though I had been a Microsoft developer for years going back to Visual Basic 5 this was the first time I worked for a company that could afford to send me to the conference. It was pivotal point in my career, a time where I was being pushed further into the management track but still loved technology. Did it even matter that I still loved to code?
I remember coming to the convention center and seeing people walk around with t-shirts proudly declaring Geek and Got XAML? I felt something I hadn't felt for a long time as a professional developer – pride. Nothing rings truer than the logo of PDC itself “Be with your Tribe” and everyone at the conference can feel it.
It is also a conference I think that is grounded very much in the reality of the business we all work in. I love the MIX conference, and having been pulled more and more into the RIA space this past few years it is probably my favorite conference. But, nothing beats the focus you get on PDC on solving real world problems with people who are going through the same stuff you are today.
It is a great combination of the current technologies available as a Microsoft Developer as well as what is coming down the pipe from Redmond. It is at PDC that you find attendees who still haven’t heard of Scott Guthrie or Ray Ozzie mixed in with the biggest of fans. For some of the attendees this is a treat for a job well done all year and the expectation is you will bring back that knowledge to your fellow co-workers. While others have been involved in local community events all year long traveling from state to state and can be found tweeting online multiple times a day.
It was only at least years conference that one of my long time fellow coders (going back to the mid 90’s) finally got to come along – Irv Keppen. I think Irv is a great example because he has made his entire career as a professional developer using Microsoft technologies but would have a hard time naming a single person from Redmond who creates the products he uses. I remember sitting down with him during the keynote and him asking “Who is this guy in the red shirt?” That is what is so great about being a Microsoft Developer – the ecosystem is huge and even though I interact with thousands of developers I still meet ones who feel isolated and work in a bubble. PDC brings us all together and I wouldn’t miss it for anything.
So what was announced?
Both keynotes were broadcasted in live HD over Silverlight this year. Because they used Silverlight Smooth Streaming this also enabled viewers were able to join in at any time and rewind the live stream. Something that had never been seen before in a streamed event. Then on the second day the Silverlight Media Framework was announced allowing to developers to create the same live streaming experiences they enjoyed during the PDC and Olympics.
I highly recommend watching the keynotes at your own leisure and view all the announcements first hand.
Day 1
Similar to last years PDC Day 1 primarily focused on the Cloud. This included but was not limited to the following:
- Azure RTM of January 1st next year with no charges being applied until February
- Dallas a marketplace for cloud data services
- ASP.Net MVC2 – the next release of the popular, streamlined web framework
- Azure AppFabric – way for you to easily connect all of your cloud applications regardless of where they are hosted
It also included the announcement of PinPoint. The Microsoft eco-system is huge with thousands of applications, services and companies offering solutions. Even Steve Jobs mentions Microsoft’s ability to partner as being one of the things he most admired about the company.
But how do you get to all of those services? What are the best solutions for you? We live in the age of Social Media and the Internet and PinPoint is about bringing that together. Think of it as your one stop shop where Partners, Applications and Services that use Microsoft technologies are rated by fellow customers like you.
Day 2
I’ll get this out of the way right now. Day 2 was the Oprah Moment you probably heard about.
During Steve Sinofsky’s keynote on Windows 7 he announced that Microsoft had been working closely with Acer to create a special Tablet for all attendees.
Windows 7, 3G, Wireless, slim form factor, and a Multi-Touch screen it was a beautiful little device. Kudos to the Windows team for doing this! What started out on Day 1 as a see of older laptops running XP, some Vista, a few Windows 7 a sprinkle of MacBooks soon turned into something completely different.
Even though they had two full days to pick it up - attendees couldn’t wait to get their shiny new toy (can you blame them?) The lines started to form with happy and anxious developers. By Day 2 every session I went to was a sea of Microsoft-Acer Multi-Touch Win7 Laptops. Will it happen again? Only time will tell but maybe we will see something at next years MIX conference (no official promises here but you never know). Microsoft was a company created by developers, for developers, and nobody deservers it more than you. Enjoy your new PC!
After getting over the shock of the new laptops were treated to some exciting announcements for the web and office:
- Internet Explorer 9 – a first look at IE9 and some of the ideas the team is working on. This included hardware GPU acceleration which results in even normal web pages loading and being drawn faster. The team also announced this would be the first time IE was being released without a corresponding operating system (IE6 to XP, IE7 to Vista, IE8 to Win7). Internet users today expect browsers to be updated constantly with new features and the team is looking to answer that call.
- Office 2010 Public Beta available – having used the internal alphas and betas for a while I was glad to see the general beta availability. For me – this is the version that brought me back to Outlook. There are so many new features in Office 2010 (finally an e-mail mute button!) to name here so be sure to check it out for yourself. This also included the Windows Phone versions.
Silverlight 4
Finally the wait was over and we announced Silverlight 4! Some really interesting statistics were given out:
- Silverlight is now installed on over 45% of devices connected to the Internet
- Over 70% of the features in this latest version of Silverlight came from your feedback.
- 9 of the top 10 feature requests on the Silverlight Feedback forum were implemented. How is that for being heard?
From the official Silverlight.Net site - Silverlight 4 delivers a full suite of powerful capabilities to business application developers, bringing the best-of-breed .NET platform to browser-based experiences. Silverlight provides an ideal platform for developing and deploying modern business applications for both customer facing and staff-facing applications.
Business Application Development
Silverlight 4 consolidates its position as the natural choice for building business applications on the Web:
New Features for Application Developers
- Comprehensive printing support enabling hardcopy reports and documents as well as a virtual print view, independent of screen content.
- A full set of forms controls with over 60 customizable, styleable components. New controls include RichTextbox with hyperlinks, images and editing and Masked textbox for complex field validation. Enhanced controls include DataGrid with sortable/resizeable columns and copy/paste rows.
- WCF RIA Services introduces enterprise class networking and data access for building n-tier applications including transactions, paging of data, WCF and HTTP enhancements.
- Localization enhancements with Bi-Directional text, Right-to-Left support and complex scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew and Thai and 30 new languages.
- The .NET Common Runtime (CLR) now enables the same compiled code to be run on the desktop and Silverlight without change.
- Enhanced databinding support increases flexibility and productivity through data grouping/editing and string formatting within bindings.
- Managed Extensibility Framework supports building large composite applications.
- Exclusive tooling support for Silverlight, new in Visual Studio 2010. Including a full editable design surface, drag & drop data-binding, automatically bound controls, datasource selection, integration with Expression Blend styling resources, Silverlight project support and full IntelliSense.
Developer tools
- Fully editable design surface for drawing out controls and layouts.
- Rich property grid and new editors for values
- Drag and drop support for databinding and automatically creating bound controls such as listbox, datagrid. New datasources window and picker.
- Easy to pick styles and resources to make a good looking application based on designer resources built in Expression Blend.
- Built in project support for Silverlight applications
- Editor with full intellisense for XAML and C# and VB languages.
Empowering richer, more interactive experiences
Silverlight is already in use as a comprehensive platform for building rich experiences both for application and pure media scenarios including HD quality, interactive video through Smooth Streaming. Silverlight 4 introduces additional capabilities to enable creation of ever more rich, appealing high-performance interactive experiences and innovative media experiences:
- Fluid interface enhancements advance application usability through animation effects.
- Webcam and microphone to allow sharing of video and audio for instance for chat or customer service applications.
- Audio and video local recording capabilities capture RAW video without requiring server interaction, enabling a wide range of end-user interaction and communication scenarios for example video conferencing.
- Bring data in to your application with features such as copy and paste or drag and drop.
- Long lists can now be scrolled effortlessly with the mouse wheel.
- Support conventional desktop interaction models through new features such as right-click context menu.
- Support for Google’s Chrome browser.
- Performance optimizations mean Silverlight 4 applications start quicker and run 200% faster than the equivalent Silverlight 3 application.
- Multi-touch support enables a range of gestures and touch interactions to be integrated into user experiences.
- Multicast networking, enabling Enterprises to lower the cost of streaming broadcast events such as company meetings and training, interoperating seamlessly with existing Windows Media Server streaming infrastructure.
- Content protection for H.264 media through Silverlight DRM powered by PlayReady.
- Output protection for audio/video streams allowing content owners or distributors to ensure protected content is only viewed through a secure video connection.
Move beyond the browser
Silverlight 3 pioneered the delivery of a new class of Rich Internet Applications to work on the desktop without additional code or runtimes. Silverlight 4 extends this capability:
For Sandboxed applications
- Place HTML within your application enabling much tighter integration with content from web servers such as email, help and reports.
- Provide support for ‘toast’ notification windows, allowing applications to communicate status or change information while the user is working on another application through a popup window on the taskbar.
- Offline DRM, extending the existing Silverlight DRM powered by PlayReady technology to work offline. Protected content can be delivered with a persistent license so that users can go offline immediately and start enjoying their content.
- Control over aspects of UI include window settings such as start position, size and chrome.
For Trusted applications
- Read and write files to the user’s MyDocuments, MyMusic, MyPictures and MyVideos folder (or equivalent for non-windows platforms) for example storage of media files and taking local copies of reports.
- Run other desktop programs such as Office, for example requesting Outlook to send an email, send a report to Word or data to Excel.
- COM automation enables access to devices and other system capabilities by calling into application components; for instance to access a USB security card reader.
- A new user interface for requesting application privileges access outside the standard Silverlight sandbox.
- Group policy objects allow organizations to tailor which applications may have elevated trust.
- Full keyboard support in fullscreen mode richer kiosk and media applications.
- Enhancements to networking allow cross-domain access without a security policy file.
Channel 9 to the rescue – Online Training Kits
Feeling overwhelmed by all the new stuff that came out of PDC? The people over at Channel9 have got your back!
Things you may have missed
Some of the most interesting stuff at PDC doesn’t happen in the sessions or keynotes it happens in the Big Room. This is an open spaced filled with PC Manufacturers, Trainers, Software Vendors, Microsoft Partners, and the teams from Redmond themselves. Something bugging you about Silverlight? Go tell the developer who wrote that feature. Got a question on Azure? Meet the folks who wrote it.
Or better yet – how about reaching out and actually touching a piece of the Azure Cloud? Not only did the team come to answer your questions but they brought an Azure Block with them complete with the servers that are running your applications today.
AzureBlast
One of my favorite spots in the Big Room is the Microsoft Research section. I came across a really interesting application this year called AzureBlast that allows Scientists to run BLASTs in the cloud.
BLAST, Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, is an algorithm for comparing primary biological sequence information, such as the amino-acid sequences of different proteins or the nucleotides of DNA sequences. A BLAST search enables a researcher to compare a query sequence with a library or database of sequences, and identify library sequences that resemble the query sequence above a certain threshold.
Having worked in the Pharmaceutical industry for years before coming to Microsoft I can tell you that BLAST is used a lot in BioInformatics research. What was disheartening to met the first time I talked with researches was the amount of time it took to run. Even with clustered computing some of these BLASTs could take hours. This was time that was holding up important cancer drugs and auto immune disease research.
By moving all of this to the cloud the researches could fire up as many servers as they needed for computation taking the time down from hours to minutes. It also let them access the data visually through a Silverlight front end and Microsoft Office. The Research team is dedicated to enabling better free and open source tools for scientists and has created The Microsoft Biology Foundation to help foster collaboration. If you are a researcher or in the BioInformatics field I highly recommend checking out the website or contact me and I will connect you with the team directly.
Pivot
Pivot is generating a lot of buzz right now on the Web. Think of Pivot as the next step in how we can visualize a huge amount of data. It takes the concepts introduced in Microsoft Research’s Deep Zoom and applies them to all sorts of common data types. Cars, Movies, Wikipedia, Presidents, even Magic the Gathering collections.
Check out this short video that explains what Pivot can do for you:
Home at Last
What an amazing couple of days it was. Exiting beta bits of technology, laptops for everyone, catching up with both new and old friends, but above all else a renewed excitement for who we are and what we do as developers.
After taking the redeye home on Thursday night I arrived in freshly holiday decorated Philly Airport. Whatever your beliefs this is a magical time of the year where we can think back on the blessing we have been given and time spent with family. I think there will be more than a few of us spending some of that time on new Windows7 laptops and shiny Silverlight applications. May your time be filled with turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and PDC09 Sessions in HD.
Happy Holidays!
-Dave
Best Buy Windows 7 Launch
One of the great things about working at Microsoft is the company has so many customers, regardless of what your role is people understand at least who it is you work for. I work with developers and designers day to day on our application development stack but my relatives all still consider me the windows guy. If there is a problem that needs troubleshooting I am the family help desk. I think a lot of people in our industry can relate and it only gets worse when you work for the company that makes Office and Windows.
Windows releases are always big and this was my first chance to see the launch of a new operating system from behind the scenes. Having been able to present to a technical audience at numerous launch events I was looking forward to getting regular people’s views on Windows 7.
On Thursday, October 22nd launch I quickly headed out to my local Best Buy to help answer questions and see what the buzz was like.
The first thing I wanted to see was what the retail product versioning was like. In a recent C-Net.com interview Steve Ballmer mentioned that consumers would be seeing simplified versions at retail stores. The lesson had been learned from Vista and consumers wanted a simplified sku base and also where each upgrade version included the features of its predecessor. I am happy to report that the team followed through with Steve’s promise.
Pretty much every laptop and desktop (with the exception of the Netbooks running Starter edition) ran Windows 7 Home Premium. For customers who needed to upgrade to Professional (ability to join domains) or Ultimate (BitLocker and BitLocker to Go) the Best Buy crew had a process in place to do it right there in the store. I took a picture of the display explaining the differences between the three versions and the upgrade prices below.
This was really great to see! Customers were getting a complete Windows 7 experience out of the box with Home Premium on almost all the machines and if they required additional features for their workplace they could get it installed right at checkout.
The next question that came to my mind was what about all those people who had recently purchased PCs and were wondering if they were eligible for a Windows 7 upgrade? Great news on that front as well. I can’t imagine my relatives sticking in a Windows 7 upgrade disk that HP or Dell shipped them and then completely migrating their PC over (in fact I’ve been asked to do this already as an early Christmas present). Great news on that front as well!
As long as a customer purchased a PC between June 26th and October 21st they need only bring the PC into Best Buy and for $40 they will upgrade the entire PC to Windows 7. No waiting for disks to be mailed from the computer manufacturer they simply only need stop by the store and they can get the upgrade.
Common Customer Questions
So what kind of questions did I get asked as The Microsoft Guy in the store that morning. I think it is interesting to note as much as we get swept up in technology on the Internet to everyday people it is still just a tool. To my surprise over half of the people I met did not know it was Windows 7 release day at all. They had just taken the time to go out and buy a new PC that day for various reasons. That was a bit shocking to me but makes sense if you think about how many people out there are running Windows.
Other common themes I heard…
“I need to post pictures and videos to the web.”
“I want to make my own movies.”
“I need to watch DVDs on it.” (the only deal breaker I saw for Netbooks people were just not into having to buy an external DVD drive and worry about getting it setup)
“Does it come with Office?”
This was an eye opener for me too. I am so focused on the tools to create applications (Silverlight, Expression Studio and Visual Studio) or how businesses can create better architecture solutions that I missed what the average retailer customer would be using Windows for.
I can’t begin to tell you how happy the built in Windows DVD Maker made people that day. Windows Live Movie Maker and Windows Security Essentials were also a big hit and every customer I talked to wanted it already installed on their machine.
What features did I demo? Peak, Shake, the new Taskbar, Jumplists and Homegroups were all well received. These hit home with a lot of folks who use windows day in and out and now have an easier way to get common tasks done. Rather then go through each one of them check out this great site that includes 7 second clips of each feature and how people are using them.
I also want to give big kudos to the Best Buy team. Most of them had been up late the night before replacing every PC with the Windows 7 version. This was a lot of machines! Every desktop, laptop and netbook I saw (with the exception of one XP netbook) was running Windows 7!
This included the kiosk demos that run on all the machines when they were idle. These were great covering a lot of the questions I listed above and going over how to publish pictures/video to the web and make movies.
Another thing I noticed was that most of the machines when you would go up to them and click the mouse or touch the keyboard would go to an “overview mode”.
This mode would show an Explore This Computer screen that listed the processor, ram, hard drive space, windows version and included software all in one place. A very slick way to present answers to some of the most common questions people had. Once these common questions around tasks and processing power were answered purchasing a new PC became more of a touch and feel experience. I constantly saw people move from machine to machine until they found one that felt right. For some that meant a certain sized screen while for others it meant the keys on the keyboard being a certain size or alignment. It’s good to be a PC.
House Party
Yes I geeked out and signed up to be one of the House Party hosts. It wound up being a great reason though for a lot of the guys in the neighborhood to get together, eat some pepperoni and cheese, and talk shop.
In fact I was surprised how many IT guys there are in my own neighborhood (thanks to my wife and everybody else's wives for connecting the dots for us). We had SQL DBA’s, Technology Managers from Pharma companies and Microsoft Partners all represented.
Due to the nature of the crowd I decided to dig a little deeper into Windows 7 instead of the general features you saw listed above. I connected one of my HDTV’s to a new HP TouchSmart TX2z tablet I have. This let me show off Windows 7 multi-touch in all its glory. I raffled off the signed Windows 7 Ultimate and everybody who did not win left with a poster or goody bag. Everybody enjoyed themselves and it gave my five year old (that’s her picture in the middle) a chance to show off her party planning and decorating skills.
Happy Windows 7 launch!
Why a Netbook?
Several weeks ago I decided to go out and purchase a Netbook. A Gateway LT Series Netbook to be exact. Why you ask?
For starters Netbooks are the fastest growing pc market and more customers will be using those netbooks over the coming months. As a developer I was curious to see what all the latest web technologies would run like on it (Silverlight, Flash, HTML5, AJAX, and jQuery).
What would Silverlight run like with a single core 1.2 GHz processor and only 2 gigs ram? Would I be able to do Fullscreen HD video streaming like on Netflix (the answer is yes). I was curious too if it would be possible to use it as a development machine. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a portable two pound dev station with me at all times?
Windows 7 Ultimate and will it Blend?
The first thing I did was throw Windows 7 Ultimate RTM on it and I’m happy to report it runs surprisingly well. There have been some rumors going around that only the starter edition would be available to install on Netbooks. That is simply not the case and you can install any version you wish.
What about Visual Studio, Expression Blend, Silverlight and WPF? The answer is yes! At the recent Harrisburg MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow I did the entire show on the Netbook over a tethered 3g connection and Silverlight streaming/deepzoom both ran flawlessly.
Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 was also announced for download today. I was curious to see if I could get these new bits working on the Netbook. I quickly logged onto MSDN and pulled down VS2010 Beta 2 Ultimate. Thanks to some speedy servers and FIOS I had the bits within 20 minutes. I then opened up the ISO and copied the files to a local USB Key, the same key I used to install Windows 7 on the Netbook. The entire process took about 45 minutes.
A video is worth a thousand pictures
When talking about performance I think it is better to actually see it than me throw up some benchmarks on my blog. So I put together a little Screencast for you. In addition I wanted to record and edit the video itself entirely using just the Netbook.
To do that I used the Expression Encoder 3 Screen Capture tool and Windows Live Movie Maker. It definitely stretched the little guy to the limit and you’ll see it bog down a bit when I’m running the screen capture tool and a couple of the dev tools at the same time. Realistically you wouldn’t be running a screen capture app and the dev tools at the same time but I show you how to get some more performance when doing that as well.
Here is what you’ll see running on the Netbook in the video:
- Windows 7 Ultimate
- Windows Experience Index
- Visual Studio 2008
- Visual Studio 2010
- Expression Blend 3.0
- Expression Encoder 3.0 Screen Capture Tool
Watch the video here on Channel9. Bonus points if you can name the font I used for the overlays in Movie Maker. ;-)
-Dave
It was great meeting a lot of you over the past few months and I feel lucky to be part of the communities we have here. September kicked off my first roadshow and I didn’t know what to expect. From the open Q&A, hallway conversations, to the number of people who left ready to install Expression Studio 3 the enthusiasm was all around. Thank you! I was honored by the great evaluation feedback you gave me and hope to continue deliver top notch content.
Developers live in the real world
Your feedback also confirmed what I had always thought important for these events. Longer sessions on a single topic, real world examples, and a big picture view on why you would even want to look at the technology. In a nutshell having speakers who have walked in your shoes and who realize developers don’t work in a bubble. Understanding we all have to convince the very groups we work with sometimes on the benefits of a new technology before we even click that Install icon.
I was on the other side of that podium listening to a Microsoft speaker talk about the new shiny stuff mere months ago. All fired up and then I would go back to my cubicle at work and find myself programming plain old html again. What is wrong with this picture? It was a vicious cycle and something I hoped to change for you by providing not just the what’s new but the how do I impress my boss/business and how do I get the technology approved at my company?
It is a theme I will continue to embrace and bring as we move to the end of the year and then into Visual Studio 2010/.NET 4.0 next year. You can, and should, expect that same philosophy from the speakers you listen to. It’s time we all moved beyond “hello world” and into being the IT partner the business has always asked of us.
Windows 7 is here but are we ready?
The Windows 7 Philadelphia and Pittsburgh launches were a great time for me. Who knew I’d have my name up in lights on the big screen some day? The Dev tracks were packed with hundreds of people who came to get a glimpse of what was new in 7. Many of you enjoyed the Multi-Touch demos as well as diving into how to code some of the Windows 7 specific features like trigger start services, jump lists and the new taskbar. You also asked me if I would be doing a local recap.
I am proud to announce the next MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow kicking off this November! I will follow the same style I did at the previous roadshow and attempt to bring you all real world examples that go beyond hello-world. Whether this includes commercial off the shelf software already using the great new Windows 7 features or practical applications of Multi-Touch on the web (think Silverlight for Visually impaired). I’m hoping to give you a 105 minutes you’ll enjoy and be able to use.
Here is how the day will pan out:
What’s new in Windows 7 for Developers
Windows 7 has many improvements in both performance and user interface that you can take advantage of in your applications. This session will give an overview of how to code in those features users will expect such as Libraries, the new Taskbar, and Jump Lists. We will also look at taking advantage of several performance improvements like Trigger Start services and the new Windows Troubleshooter. Finally, we will look at adding some of the new interface options available such as Multi-Touch and the Ribbon Menu to your existing applications.
Level: 200 | Length: 1:45
My fellow road showers will also being doing the same for Silverlight. A longer, single session with a focus this time on data and networking.
Data Access and Network Options in Silverlight
Wondering about the most effective way of getting data into your Silverlight application? Trying to sort out the different options available? Then this session is for you. We will provide an overview of the different networking and data access techniques available in Silverlight. We’ll show examples of using each of these technologies, and along the way, we’ll also look at the role these technologies can play in other .NET applications, as well as look at the Sample Data feature in Expression Blend 3, and how to transition from Sample Data to production data in your applications.
Level: 200 | Length: 1:45
Where to sign up? You can sign up using the registration links below and Each event will from 1pm to 5pm with refreshments being served.
Hope to see you there!
Over the next three weeks I will be packing it up, hitting the road, and talking directly with Developers and Designers like you! From Philly to Norfolk to Harrisburg to Pittsburgh I’ll be showing off in person everything Expression Studio 3, Silverlight 3 and Windows 7 can bring to your applications.
MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow
First up is the rest of the MSDN Mid-Atlantic Roadshow. Curious about Silveright 3? Expression Studio 3? I’ll be giving both an overview as well as tips and tricks I’ve picked up the past two years in Blend. We’ll be giving away Expression Studio 3 trial DVDs to all attendees and raffling off some great prizes like Xbox 360 games.
Creating Rich Internet Applications on the Microsoft Platform using Silverlight 3 and Expression Studio 3
You’re a Developer not a Designer. So how do you shine in this new world of Rich Internet Applications (RIA) while still leveraging your .NET skills? This 2 hour overview will get you up to speed on the latest Microsoft Silverlight, Expression Studio and Visual Studio has to offer. Go beyond hello world and get the latest tips and tricks to make your application shine. You’ll be surprised how easily you can create a working web application that is engaging to your users, and integrates with your existing web architecture.
Level: 200-300 | Length: 1:45
| City | Date | Register |
| Stops Left | 4! |
| Allentown, PA | 9/21/2009 | Register |
| Malvern, PA | 9/22/2009 | Register |
| Norfolk, VA | 9/25/2009 | Register |
| Harrisburg, PA | 9/29/2009 | Register |
Windows 7 Launch
Next up are the official Windows 7 launch events! Interested in how you can use the new features in Windows 7 to enhance your application? Multi-touch, jumplists and new graphics options are not only easy to code in but they offer competitive advantages.
I’ll be covering both the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh launches so be sure to sign up and say hello.
Philly Podcamp 2009
After wrapping up the MSDN Roadshow and Windows 7 launch event I will be heading over on Saturday, Oct 3 to Philly Podcamp! If you’re like me and convinced of the important changes New Media has brought about and continues to bring then this is your chance. Not to mention an opportunity to completely embarress me in Guitar Hero. You can register on the Philly Podcamp site here.
Hope to meet you in person!
-Dave
Whether you are someone who leans more towards design or coding you have probably come across the need for some interesting fonts. Typography is a fascinating area with a long history dating back to the origins of print. When we look at creating an engaging user experience today we are often trying to make a connection with our audience. We “empathize” with our users needs and look to invoke certain feelings. Fonts can do that in amazing ways and its pretty easy to add them to your own applications.
The Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) site has a great art section where you can download wallpapers, blog bling and the font that they used. Maybe its because I’m such a video gamer but the font really connected with me and brought back memories of playing Wipeout and Star Trek.
Installing the Font into Windows
I keep a local folder in my documents directory of all the fonts I have found intriguing. Most of these go into my applications or demos I do for that extra sparkle. You can keep them anywhere you would like however I just find this method the easiest to use. That way I can zip up all my fonts if I need to use them on a different machine.
Adding a font to Windows is as easy as double clicking on the filename. The Font Manager window will them pop up (Windows 7 is pictured) and you will be given some typography information as well as samples of the font at different sizes. Just click the install button and windows will register the font for use.
This means ALL windows programs will now have access to that font such as Microsoft Word. Keep in mind that custom fonts are not required to include both uppercase and lowercase. The PDC09 font (it’s official name is Squared) only includes lowercase for example. So don’t scratch your head when word tries to capitalize at the beginning of a sentence and you see invisible letters.
Using the new font in your Silverlight application
Now that we have made sure the font installed correctly it is time to add it to a Silverlight Application. In this example I am opening up Expression Blend 3, adding a simple gradient to the default grid layout and creating a TextBlock control. I then selected the newly installed squared font from the textbox text properties and added some colors I thought to be pleasing.
Keep in mind one of the amazing things about Blend is we are seeing in real time what our application looks like. This means for Silverlight the artboard is being rendered in Silverlight. While we are in design time it understands the selected fonts and displays them correctly. However if we run the application you will notice something happens.
This is where a lot of people get tripped up. The application compiled, the browser opened up and it looks nothing like what it did in my Blend design surface. So what is up?
Font Embedding - it’s all about the download size!
It is important to remember one of the core design principles of Silverlight is a small download size. Every time you add a resource such as an image, a font, or a video the initial the size of your application will increase.
Luckily, Silverlight is really smart about this. It gives you the choice of not only which Fonts you wish to include in your application but also which parts of those fonts (Uppercase, Lowercase, etc.) giving you even more control over the size of your downloads. To bring up this menu simply click on the Font Manager button in the TextBlock text properties. As mentioned above the squared font doesn’t use any uppercase which is why you will see the “S” missing. Blend tries to capitalize the first letter of all the fonts being listed.
You can see both the Font Manager button and the Embed checkbox (I circled it in red) in the artboard screenshot above. Keep in mind you do not have to select which pieces of the font to use Blend will automatically include all subsets of that font for you. It is only necessary to check off the Embed checkbox for the font to be included in your application.
Once you click the checkbox two things will happen. A new Fonts directory will be created in your application and the selected Font source file will be copied into it for you.
Blend will then modify the XAML source for your TextBlock to point to the newly installed Font resources in your project.
Looking cool with just a TextBlock thanks to Fonts!
We are now ready to show off our finished product. Running the application will now show a correctly displaying TextBlock with the selected square font. Amazing how much of a difference fonts can make even on a plain piece of text.
This is a trick you can use in all of your applications moving forward whether it is WPF or Silverlight based Blend and Fonts have got your back.
Want more information like this? The Microsoft Professional Developers Conference is coming up in less than 3 months!
If you register by September 15th you can also save $500 bringing the cost of a ticket down to only $1,595. Be sure to check out the PDC site here for more details.
At the Philly Cloud Computing usergroup last night Chris Rolon, a local Azure wiz, showed off a new application from Neudesic called Azure ROI. This freely available application takes the currently announced Azure pricing and allows you to play with numbers around what your usage would be. Want to see what it would be like if you added more (or less) storage, messages, etc? Now you can easily change configurations around and see what your costs would be per day, month or year.
The calculator also offers a Migration Costs and ROI tab that will allow you to see your break even point as well as your up front costs for migrating to the cloud.
The application is written entirely in Silverlight and uses Azure as its back end. They will be making the source code freely available soon up on Codeplex for people to download. They’ve already got a few popular Silverlight/Azure apps up there right now including an Azure Storage Explorer that is worth checking out.
You can check out the Azure ROI Calculator here.
The downloads just went live a few minutes ago! If you are an MSDN or TechNet Subscriber you can download Windows7 now.
The downloads include both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions as well as Ultimate. I can’t help but feel such excitement downloading a fresh new operating system and installing it across my machines. Brings back memories of Windows 2000 getting released over MSDN and installing Server for the first time on my then current laptop. Wasn’t long after that I got an e-mail from the network admins telling me I had put up a server in the official production domain and needed to take it down. Then off I went to MSDN to download Windows 2000 Workstation to comply with network policy only to be struck with a limited number of IIS concurrent users which I couldn’t test against. Well it still beat using Personal Web Server. Ahh the memories of being an enterprise developer. =)
The days of having a separate IIS base between the client and server operating systems changed with Vista’s release and we can now use our base dev boxes for running most of the server components. Funny when I think about how I’m running SQL Server 2008, the entire SQL Server BI Stack, IIS, Visual Studio and now Expression Studio on my little laptop.
I might just have to go for a bit more ram (all my laptops are still running 4 gigs) on the next upgrade. But then again as any dev knows nothing beats the raw power of a custom built desktop. I just happen to be running a freshly download Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit on mine -Woot!
Don’t forget while you’re downloading the bits to stop on by the Windows Developers Center. Lots of details, documentation and examples on developing for Windows 7.
-Dave
I had a great time meeting everyone at PhillyNJ.Net. Lots of interest around Silverlight and Expression especially when it comes to Line of Business Applications. As promised you can now download my slides and code. The deck is a bunch of custom slides I put together that takes you from the ground up. Why should I care about UX as a Developer? What impact does it have on the Enterprise? What’s XAML? Why Expression Studio? Even more importantly it shows you some real examples you can start using today! You can grab that deck here.
The first area we covered was basic templating in Blend and created some custom controls. We also showed off some transforms and animation such as the new perspective 3d transform in Silverlight 3. You can grab the project here.
Databinding is one of the hardest concepts to get your head around. XAML Markup just seems to throw off a lot of people. One of the new features in Blend 3 is the ability to create design time data and then bind your controls to it when running your application. This becomes extremely useful for not only designers but developers as well. It is often we find ourselves with a database but no services wrapped up to it yet to bring that data into our presentation tier.
Blend 3 will allow you to simulate what the collections will look like (remember you can bind to almost anything in XAML as long as you implement IEnumerable or its child IList). Not only will Blend generate the XAML Markup for you it will also allow you to drag other elements from the same collection onto your artboard and wire them up. The example I showed was binding a datagrid (seems this is the very first thing we want to do as a Developer) to the generated collection and then have a Listbox that would show the selected item as we enumerated through the grid.
Sounds complex? It’s really not and once you look at the generated XAML you begin to see the power of it. Blend simply told the Grid I had a static resource collection and set it to the DataContext for me. It then took each item in the collection and bound it to the appropriate elements. You can even edit the generated layout like you would with any other control. You can grab that project here.
Don’t forget I’ll be hitting the road in a few weeks and bringing these sessions into your own backyard. Be sure to check out the Mid Atlantic MSDN Roadshow for more details.
All slides and code here is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
This question has come up a couple times recently during my presentations and I wanted to point a potential snag you may hit. In order for Silverlight to run Out of the Browser (OOB) it needs to have an xml manifest file included in your project.
The file looks like this…
You can have this file created for you by setting the option inside the Silverlight Project properties window. Pulling up the properties will give you two new options to select. The problem is that Visual Studio will not automatically generate this file for you until you click on the “Out-Of-Browser Settings” button. It is not enough to just click the check box to enable out of the browser.
So if you are scratching your head and wondering why your getting that nifty manifest file missing error go back in and be sure to click the button so it generates it for you.
Clicking on the OOB Settings button will give you a bunch of options where you can set the information the window will display and when you hit OK it will generate the file for you.
That is really all there is to it to enable the OOB functionality in your application. As long as users already have the Silverlight 3 plug-in they can run both in and out of the browser. No additional installation or frameworks are needed. Simply going to a page with an OOB enabled Silverlight control will give the user a new option to install locally when they right click on the control.
Clicking install will bring up an installation window with the option of creating a shortcut on your desktop or start menu.
It is important to point out that this does not change the security model of Silverlight either. It is still completely sandboxed as it would be running in the browser. If your users have additional questions there is a “More Information” link on the installation prompt that will take them to a Microsoft site with details about what “Outside the Browser” means for them.
The application can now be run both from your website as well as a stand alone application. If the user ever wants to remove the local application they need only right click anywhere in the stand alone application or the Silverlight control on the webpage and select “Remove this application”. Eliminating any need to go to “Add/Remove Programs” through the setup panel in Windows.
You can also download updated documentation for how to check whether your application has been installed yet locally, is running or out of the browser, as well as if network connectivity is present.
From the Cheesesteaks of Philadelphia to the crab cakes of Maryland my fellow geeks Dani Diaz and G. Andrew Duthie are hitting the road and coming to you! If you have been curious about the latest releases of Developer and Designer tools from Microsoft but don’t know where to start these events are for you.
We’ll be covering eight different cities and will go from using the tools themselves to the patterns and practices people are using to be more productive. Instead of just throwing a bunch of slides and “Hello World” apps at you we are going to build a working application that will spam across the entire day. From where to get the bits, planning/designing your application, to building it and finally publishing it out these events will cover it all.
Here is how the day will pan out:
Creating Rich Internet Applications on the Microsoft Platform using Silverlight 3 and Expression Studio 3
You’re a Developer not a Designer. So how do you shine in this new world of Rich Internet Applications (RIA) while still leveraging your .NET skills? This 2 hour overview will get you up to speed on the latest Microsoft Silverlight, Expression Studio and Visual Studio has to offer. Go beyond hello world and get the latest tips and tricks to make your application shine. You’ll be surprised how easily you can create a working web application that is engaging to your users, and integrates with your existing web architecture.
Level: 200-300 | Length: 1:45
Building Composite Silverlight and WPF Applications using Prism and MVVM
When you have two UI technologies like WPF and Silverlight written in similar languages (XAML) but that run against different assemblies in different situations, it's not unreasonable to want to write a UI once and later be able to choose the best or both options with only a trivial amount of effort. This session will show you how to get the most out of your XAML-based applications and what architectural decisions can help enable these options from the beginning of the development cycle.
Level: 200 | Length: 1:15
Introduction to .NET RIA Services
This session is an introduction on how Microsoft is simplifying the traditional n-tier application pattern by bringing together ASP.NET and Silverlight. Learn about patterns for working with data, implementing reusable and independently testable application logic, and application services that readily scale with growing requirements.
Level: 200 | Length: 0:30
Where to sign up?
Each event is from 1pm to 5pm and will also come after an early morning IT Professional session. So if you’re curious in learning more about Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 you can come early and stay for the Developer goodness in the afternoon.
Hope to see you there!
