My middle finger is going to be tired for a while - but hopefully not that long a time
I always have to peek behind the scenes. Whether it's sneaking a look into a construction site to see what a crew is building, trying to figure out how a special effect in a Disney attraction works, or ..., I just can't help myself noticing these things - it's second nature and just the way I'm wired.
With the web, it used to be about URLs. Whenever I visit a page, I can't help but notice the extension at the end of the URL. Since coming to work for Microsoft, it's been even more prominent. When I visit a new site, and it ends in ".asp" I think "better upgrade to .NET, guys". I don't see too much of that now with the adoption of .NET more and more so I get this little happy feeling when I see ".aspx". Anything else and I half-jokingly say to myself "Oops, you guys missed out on a lot by going with [PHP, ColdFusion, JSP, etc]. :)
Now along comes Silverlight. It's really going to rewrite the rules on building interactivity and UX into web pages. But I won't gush about it here - there are so many resources out there that talk about how fantastic Silverlight is, I would just be another voice in the wind. And besides, in our next series of MSDN Events (August-September) we're going to feature a session on Silverlight, so you can come see for yourself and discuss it in a community setting.
For me personally, it's going to be about watching the adoption of Silverlight from my favorite scientific perspective - my own web surfing. So my latest habit is to right-click on anything in a web page that is slick and highly interactive. If I see that menu that starts with Zoom In, Zoom Out, Show All then I know what I'm seeing is old school. But when I see that short and sweet About Microsoft Silverlight menu, I'm a teensy bit happier.
Boy, my middle finger is going to get tired... (hold the middle finger jokes, folks...)
