Mark Brown's Web Platform Blog : Cool Stuff

Vote for my Session at SXSW

mjbrown — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:32:31 GMT

Hey everybody. I am up for Community Voting for the next SXSW Interactive Festival happening next March and I need your votes to get accepted. Here is the session I am presenting.

HD Video Streaming Server using PHP and Silverlight

A dash of PHP, a pinch of Silverlight and a smidge of IIS and you can easily make an HD video streaming server. Check out this session as we'll build a fully functional HD video streaming server and then give you the code so you can use it yourself. As a bonus we may even show on the fly encoding so you can make your very own HD version of YouTube with user generated content.

This promises to be an AWESOME session and I really want to show people how far the technology has come to not only stream video content over the internet easily but also to deliver HD quality video over the internet as well.

To get accepted for the SXSW event I need to get votes from the community that think this is a cool session and want to see it. So click on the session title above or the “Thumbs Up” graphic there up top, go register yourself if you haven’t (even if you’re not attending) and then click on this link above here to vote up my session.

Thanks !!!

Technorati Tags: SXSW,IIS,Microsoft,PHP

Virtual Earth JavaScript Intellisense Helper 6.2 is Released

mjbrown — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:14:53 GMT

Our Virtual Earth MVP’s rock. Not even a week after we released version 6.2 of the Virtual Earth Map control Chris Pietschmann (update: and Nicolas Boonaert) went and updated the 6.1 version of the Virtual Earth JavaScript Intellisense Helper library to support all our new 6.2 features.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this library this little diddy makes the pain of programming in javascript all go away by providing intellisense features for the Virtual Earth Map Control right there in Visual Studio 2008.

Read more about it here at Marc Schweigert’s blog and download it today.

Track Hurricane Gustav with Virtual Earth

mjbrown — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:46:38 GMT

For those that want to get the latest track and wind speed data for Hurricane Gustav and for all active hurricanes go check out our Hurricane Tracker out on MSNBC.COM where they’ve linked to it from their home page.

When you first visit the link the page will draw out the path of the hurricane and land on it’s current position then continue to draw the forecasted path 120 hours out. You can hover over each of the hurricane symbols to get the stats for the recorded including the storm rating, wind speed, location, etc. There’s also a handy histogram on the lower left hand corner that shows wind speeds over time. To check out the other active hurricanes just click the “more” link at the top left.

This is a pretty cool looking map. I kind of like the black background. What do you guys think?

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth,Hurricane Gustav

Behind the Maps – Flying the UltraCam

mjbrown — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:41:20 GMT

Hey everyone. So I’ve published our second episode in our series, Behind the Maps - The Technology of Virtual Earth, on Virtual Earth out on Channel 9. In this episode, Flying the UltraCam we go to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, home of Keystone Aerial Surveys, one of the companies that flies the UltraCam that captures the imagery you see in Virtual Earth today.

Throughout we’ll interview a number of the people who work with this camera including Ken Potter, Executive Vice President and Neil DiFranco, Project Manager at Keystone. Neil, who himself is a Survey Pilot, will show us how they do flight planning with an aerial camera which is very different than what a regular pilot does and will demo the software they use to do it. Later Neil will take us on a flight and we’ll meet Ben Miller, one of their operators who will talk about how the UltraCam and the flight management software work together. He’ll show us all the steps during the flight and show us the UltraCam in action! After our flight we’ll meet David Day, Director of IT for Keystone, who will walk us through what happens to the imagery when it gets back on the ground and how they process it before it is sent to Boulder for the next step in its journey and the subject of our next episode.

This was a really fun video to make. Generally I like to keep these videos as simple as possible and if I can do the entire thing in one take. This one was different. There is a TON of content we cover and I probably should have made this into three separate videos. But seeing as this is the internet age and everyone wants everything right now I decided to make it into one long video. It runs nearly an hour but I promise there is a ton of great information on the UltraCam and we go into deep detail on each step in how it is used to capture the high resolution aerial imagery. What you also may not realize is there is a bunch of technology that goes into the flight planning, the operation of the camera and the flight software in the air and the post-processing of the imagery. I think you’ll find this episode fascinating and I do hope you all enjoy it.

Behind The Maps - Flying the UltraCam

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth,UltraCam,Channel 9

Virtual Earth at Cowes Week

mjbrown — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:02:43 GMT

One of our Microsoft partners Inca X is working with the Pelican Racing Team to track it at the Cowes Week Regatta, August 2-9. Cowes is the longest running Regatta in the world, didn’t ya know. The fun gets started this Saturday, 10:00 GMT. That’s 8am for us here in Seattle.

The solution that the Pelican Team is using for this race is the Inca X Live Media GPS. This takes a mobile phone and does live video streaming as well as supplies the GPS coordinates which are then displayed in Microsoft Virtual Earth. Phil Bishop, the CTO for Inca X puts it best…

"Our Live Media GPS application allows anyone to broadcast their current activities directly from a mobile phone. The broadcasts are directly linked to Virtual Earth so that your precise location and movements can be mapped. You can share all this information with your chosen audience, be it public or private.”

If you want to watch the races this week and get both the broadcast media from the boat as well as the Virtual Earth view of where they are on the map check them out here, http://www.ix-m.com/pelican/. The action gets started at 10:00 GMT so us Yanks had better not go have too many beers tonight at the pub.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth

Add your own 3D models to Virtual Earth

mjbrown — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:00:43 GMT

Well we've finally done it! We now have a way for you to create or import your own models and put them into Virtual Earth using truSpace which comes from Caligari who we brought into Microsoft not too long ago. Not only that but you can get truSpace for FREE. You can also import models you have already from many of the popular 3D modeling tools into truSpace and then upload them right into Virtual Earth. So get it for FREE today.

Chris Pendleton has all the details. This is a long post but includes step-by-step instructions on how to load your 3D models into Virtual Earth so it's worth a read and also includes a great video showing how you could use truSpace to create a virtual retail environment. --Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth,3D,Caligari,truSpace

W00T, MapPoint 2009 and Streets & Trips 2009

mjbrown — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:41:04 GMT

Ah yeah. I’m so happy I can talk about this now. Chris Pendleton’s got the scoop here on the upcoming release of our MapPoint 2009 product for businesses and Streets & Trips 2009 for consumers, coming out September 1st. The work they did on this version is AWESOME with a new UI that is really cool.

Check out Chris’ blog for screen shots and all the details.

Call 411 for Maps

mjbrown — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:10:26 GMT

It’s kind of funny but things happen in waves don’t they? For instance the subject of Google’s 411 service has been cropping up on me constantly for the last week. People tell me, “Oooo, Google, they are so smart over there with their 411 thing” or “Ahhh, wow that is cool. Those Google guys are real innovators over there. Its too bad Microsoft can’t do this”.

Riiiiiiight….

I’m dead serious, people talk to me that way. Actually, we do have 411 as well. In fact, I would dare say that ours might be better than Google’s. <ducks> No really. Here’s a list of features.

Search by business name or type of business. You can even narrow your search by neighborhood.
Get maps and directions sent directly to your phone. You can also get traffic too.
Get the current and forecasted weather.
Get movie listings and even have the service tell you if there are still tickets, then connect you.
Share listings with friends so you both have directions on where you are meeting up.

Pretty cool stuff. So check it out. +1-800-CALL-411. You can also check out their web page to hear a demo at http://www.livesearch411.com/

Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth

New Video Series, Behind the Maps – The Technology of Virtual Earth

mjbrown — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 04:06:14 GMT

Hey everyone so I’ve finally published the first episode of Behind the Maps out on Channel 9. This video series will take you on a journey where we will follow the path the data and imagery in Virtual Earth takes from the manufacture of the camera, to the capturing of imagery in an airplane, to the processing of that imagery, to the Virtual Earth platform and 3D control that delivers all of this data and imagery straight to your browser.

Our first episode takes us to Graz, Austria home of the UltraCam, our high-resolution aerial image camera. We meet Dr. Michael Gruber, inventor of the UltraCam and Bernhard Reitinger the creator of the UltraMap software that is used with the UltraCam camera.

Michael goes into some details about just how they built a camera that has such a high mega-pixel rate using a technique to combine 9 individual CCD’s to act like one big one and use 4 other CCD’s to handle all the color spectrum channels. Bernhard also goes into details on the UltraMap software and how it is used to manage and correct the imagery that is captured by this incredible camera. Here’s a link to the video below. I also have a nice picture of this camera here below I took at their camera laboratory in Graz. --Enjoy.

Behind The Maps - UltraCam

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth,UltraCam,Channel 9

New Silverlight Wrapper for Virtual Earth

mjbrown — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:11:57 GMT

A couple of guys from Microsoft, Jared Bienz from US-DPE ISV Team and Adam Eversole from Microsoft Research have created a new managed wrapper around the Virtual Earth AJAX control and released it onto Code Plex. From the projects description:

The Virtual Earth Wrapper for Silverlight (VIEWS) is a wrapper around the JavaScript Virtual Earth control that allows a developer to write a complex Virtual Earth Mashup using a managed language for all client-side scripting. This is accomplished by using the CLR (Common Language Runtime) support in Silverlight 2.0 (or later), and allows coding in C#, VB, Python, or other languages. Many developers already are using a managed language in ASP.NET for server-side tasks, now the same managed language can be used on the client-side as well, leveraging existing knowledge, and providing more continuity and consistency to the end-to-end solution.

They’ve also posted a screen cast showing this new control in action out on Channel 9. Check it out.

Virtual Earth Mapping in Silverlight with VIEWS

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth,Silverlight

Virtual Earth & Silverlight Together on Windows Mobile

mjbrown — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:49:21 GMT

My friend Sam Chenaur over in the Developer and Platform Evangelism Team (DPE) here at Microsoft posted a blog entry the other day about an interview he did on Channel 10 with the CEO of John L. Scott Realty. If you didn’t know. John L. Scott is an existing user of Virtual Earth and did an amazing job integrating Virtual Earth onto their site. Check out the Neighborhood Wizard using Virtual Earth. It’s not surprising that John L Scott is doing so well given the way they use technology.

With the help of a few folks they’ve now taken that a step further and have created a proof-of-concept application that brings Virtual Earth down to the mobile device using Silverlight technology. This POC allows you to search for homes straight from your phone providing you details on the house, a video that showcases the house, more pictures and even allows you to call the real estate agent directly from the application. You can also use the application in GPS mode so you can drive around various communities and use the application to see what homes are for sale in that area without having to touch the device at all. Totally cool!

Silverlight Mobile with John L Scott Real Estate

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth,Silverlight,Windows Mobile

Virtual Earth makes golfing more enjoyable

mjbrown — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:59:49 GMT

My friend Jerry over on the Virtual Earth 3D team turned me on to a company called, Terra Imaging who makes a product called, 3D Golf Course. They just finished doing the Torrey Pines course in La Jolla, CA where Tiger just won his 14th major championship. Here’s an interview they did on the local NBC affiliate. Their software is installed and used on golf carts to help golfers navigate the course. Here’s some screen shots. This thing is really cool.

This is the main screen you see while driving down the fairway trying to find your ball.

This is a player information screen to see your player information. Notice too that while you’re entering in your name you can watch the stock market.

Here on this screen you can see the player scorecard.

I love this screen where you can order food from your cart. Think I’ll order the Bunker Burger with a side of Flop Shot Fries and a Mulligan Milkshake. Mmmmmm….

Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth,3D

Find the Best Gas Prices Using Mobile Live Search

mjbrown — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:47:17 GMT

I just came across this feature when I updated the Mobile Live Search client on my Windows Mobile phone. There now is a feature which allows you to find the lowest gas prices in your area. If you have a GPS enabled phone this feature is even easier to use. Currently the Mobile Live Search application is supported across a number of Windows Mobile versions in the US and UK and a beta version for Blackberry 4.0 and above in the US only. You can get the download here, http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/livesearch/default.mspx

Happy motoring.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Windows Mobile,Live Maps,Virtual Earth

Cool Silverlight Deep Zoom – Virtual Earth Demo

mjbrown — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:20:42 GMT

Our friends from Australia, Soul Solutions, headed up by two of our most creative Virtual Earth MVP’s have built a totally cool Virtual Earth application using Silverlight complete with extensive blog entry and extending the MultiScaleTileSource class originally referenced in a ScottGu blog recently.

Follow the links to check it out. Here’s a screen shot. Incredible stuff. Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth,Silverlight,DeepZoom

State & Local Governments Getting Jiggy with Virtual Earth

mjbrown — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:25:26 GMT

State and Local Governments love mapping stuff. They also create really cool looking websites that their citizens find really useful. Here's a list of some State and Local Governments that are using Virtual Earth and what they are doing with it. To quote my spiritual advisor: actor, singer, dancer, spiritual lama, Will Smith, these SLG's are "Getting Jiggy Wit It".

The Texas Department of Transportation built a really cool site packed full of information. This thing shows EVERYTHING including traffic cameras and even the highway message signs that gives drivers up to date information about road conditions, closures, lane restrictions, etc. They even have the road conditions frequency you tune in on your radio that you can hover over the radio tower and get the information going out over the airwaves.

The Ohio Department of Transportation built a really great looking site. They load the map empty and put a menu on the side where you can optionally select things you want to see and get more information about. I have to say their designers did a really great job with this site. It has a nice clean look to it.

In the Puget Sound region of Washington State, the eCityGov Alliance built an application where users can search, locate, and visualize regional parks and recreational resources. Here's a look at downtown Kirkland, WA. They did a great job. At the upper right corner you can view it near full screen and they took the legend div and floated it as a transparent div in the window. Cool stuff. The funny thing is that the push pins they used look really familiar. I wonder where I've seen those before. Hmm....

The City of Miami has done an incredible implementation of Virtual Earth. They are using it for their zoning and permitting with extensive use of polygons. They even use Virtual Earth 3D to show zoning and property information. That's cool and I'll bet property developers love this feature.

Well there are tons more but that should give you a good idea of how State and Local Governments are doing great work to bring rich and interactive services to their citizens. If you know of others doing similar work for their citizens post it up here. I'd love to see them.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Virtual Earth