Nigel Parker's Outside Line

Scott Guthrie has the low down!

Version 2 of the Silverlight developer runtime along with the Silverlight Tools is now available. This release candidate will give developers the chance to convert their sites from Beta 2 –> Release before the final release of the runtime is out. Also, included below is a link to a patch that will upgrade Blend.

Visual Studio 2008 Tools RC0
Expression Blend SP1 RC0
Windows Silverlight 2 Dev Runtime RC0

A document detailing the breaking changes between Beta2 and Release can be downloaded here.

Next week my focus turns to an eight city series of MSDN Unplugged events to help web developers get ready for the upcoming release of Silverlight 2 and prepare for what you will see announced at PDC in late October.

The session is titled Get Ready for Cloud-Based Services, IE8 & Silverlight 2. I will discuss briefly readiness and enhancements with Internet Explorer 8. I will introduce Silverlight 2 and WPF 3.5 for developers focused on service enabled rich client development and then lead into a discussion on cloud based services including WCF, REST and JSON.

If you would like an injection of the latest technology trends from Microsoft register your place today:

DUNEDIN Tue 23 Sep

CHRISTCHURCH Wed 24 Sep

WELLINGTON Tue 30 Sep

PALMERSTON NORTH Wed 1 Oct

HAWKES BAY Thu 2 Oct

TAURANGA Tue 7 Oct

HAMILTON Wed 8 Oct

AUCKLAND Fri 10 Oct

Changing tact with the dust clearing on another successful Tech.Ed conference in Auckland we have a wealth of resources online for your enjoyment. As discussed in the previous MSDN Flash Tech.Ed live is jam packed with content for developers including:

DAT302 Overview of SQL 2008 – New Features

WEB304 Web Futures – The next 18 months

WEB309 Silverlight 2 for Developers

WEB311 Designing Compelling User Experiences with Expression Studio 2

SEC305 Virtualisation and Security – What does it mean for me?

Also last week Matt Heller (from the IE team) and I embarked on a short 3 city trip around New Zealand to present 17 sessions to 750 web developers on the new Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2. If you were unable to make one of the presentations a video of the Auckland Unplugged session is available online.

See you on the road!

Silverlight Shines at International Broadcasting Conference 2008 in Amsterdam

Later this week, at the International Broadcasting Conference (IBC) 2008 in Amsterdam, Microsoft Corp. will demonstrate an important new capability for Silverlight - playback of H.264-based video.

This is great news for content owners that are looking for greater flexibility and choice for their web delivery of video and audio.

Last year at WOTP I posted about the Web Jam and the Dystro/ Glenn stuff.

This year it was fun to head back to Queenstown and reflex on another years worth of development on our RIA platforms.

It was fantastic to team up with Michael Kordahi DG for the first time at an event.

There was a strong team representing the MS side of the house thanks to Tatham Oddie, Jose Fajardo and Chris Auld for their top notch sessions.

Surprisingly the conference was both more developer and UX focused than last year steering clear of media and interface design.

Without Matt Voerman and Scott Barnes in attendance this year the Blue v Red aspect of the Microsoft/ Adobe panel discussion didn't have quite the venom. Pip from Gruden commented on the WOTP blog...

"Great panel discussion yesterday evening, Microsoft and Adobe playing (marginally) happily together for a great session"

I'm looking forward for this to go online so I can remember what I actually said!

Michael delivered a killer keynote on the second day which should also be up on the web on the piste website shortly. He had prepared it previously for the Australia partner conference and it was the perfect fit for this conference as well.

Chris introduced the Runtime Page Optimizer that the actionthis.com team has built. RPO drops into the integrated pipeline in IIS7 to dynamically perform yslow optimizations on a web site at runtime. It does this by combining .js, css into single files and builds out css sprites. If you are hosting on Windows from New Zealand I highly recommend taking the beta for a spin as it vastly improves latency for your ASP.NET or PHP website.

Speaking of Web Servers I am also very impressed with Tatham's ability to demonstrate PHP running on IIS7 using FastCGI, then integrating with an ASP.NET application before finally load balancing the whole application between two servers in a high availability, automatic failover cluster all in less than 8 minutes, check out his screencast!

My webjam this year was to build a panoramic deepzoom of Queenstown and I only used half of the 5 minutes allocated!

Check out the screencast below of the steps involved and download the August update of deepzoom composer to try it out for yourself.

Both mine and Michael's resulting panoramic deepzooms are below.

Also I created a Queenstown Photosynth as well.

Paul Lo did a great job as roaming reporter for the event a produced the following video...

I'll also leave you with a couple of episodes of DG TV from the event.

See you at Tech.Ed next week.

Now that Photosynth has been released I couldn't resist making a halosynth powered photosister!

Hint hold down ctrl and play with the 3D model!

Social Media is not a place to conduct one-way advertising blitzes so we are trying something new for Tech.Ed this year and this is your chance to get involved.

IT IS ALL ABOUT YOU... NO REALLY IT IS!

More than five years ago Microsoft Researcher Gordon Bell started digitizing his entire life as part of his MyLifeBits project these days the concept has spread beyond oneself to include a person's life and also their network of friends. The most popular feature of Facebook is the news feed where people update their presence information.

This was the beginning of the presence network phenomenon. Twitter evolved this technique from pure broadcast to conversational.  

Twitter is a bit like "fight club" those on twitter don't talk about twitter but those using it tend to be the influencers setting the trends. 

The domain of the conversational blog post has almost shifted completely to twitter. Twitter is where "stories break".

But Twitter is not accessible to everyone so combining feeds from traditional means such as blogging and tagging to presence networks such as twitter is the start of what is being termed "Lifestreaming". If social media is to remain useful, then steps must be taken to alleviate the strain of information and provide useful means to consolidate and add-value (comment on what is being said).

One approach is to aggregate information about activities across all the networks we participate in at one location. Such locations are commonly called "lifestreaming applications." Two of these applications, FriendFeed and Swurl we are using for Tech.Ed NZ to stay on top of what you are saying about the event. I encourage you to comment on anything you read here as well.

Follow these simple steps to ensure you become part of the conversation around Tech.Ed NZ

1. Tag your content!

Whether you are using twitter, Technorati, delicious, flickr or whatever we need to be able to find you. Use the tag tenz8 and we will find you.

2. Jump on the Twitter back channel for the event.

Set up an account at http://twitter.com

Follow http://twitter.com/tenz8

Reference #tenz8 in your replies.

Tell everyone what you think about THAT speaker/session in real time.

3. Join the Mesh

In addition to traditional means we are attempting to break new ground and evolve these social concepts even further with our Tech.Ed Live Mesh experiment.

Just like a community notice board where people can add or remove what ever content they like we will be setting up mesh folders and inviting everyone who wishes to contribute to "share" content during and leading up to Tech.Ed NZ.

If you would like an invite to participate send us an email and start posting stuff!

See you at Tech.Ed either virtually or in person!

Tags: tenz8

Since joining the Windows Live Platform team Angus Logan has been a great advocate for not only Australia but New Zealand as well.

Last week New Zealand joined the US, UK and Australia as part of a limited technical preview of Live Mesh. If you are located in NZ you can now sign up for Live Mesh directly, with no waiting list.

Give it a try http://mesh.com today.

Today I hit the streets of Auckland camcorder in hand and produced a few mosaics created from a 4 minute video showcasing Auckland city and paying tribute to Robin Ducker (aka Light Knight).

Specifically these three images of his...

I was adequately impressed with the outcomes (click images below to view - requires Silverlight 2 Beta 2 installed).

With this one I wound up in the iphone queue in Queen Street when One News called by so I thought I drop in a few Easter eggs.

Hint: Zoom in on the red light at the top of the skytower

Also the right light to the top of the vero building (at the bottom of the toilet seat halo) will reveal Ryan Block from engadget interviewing the punters in the queue.

If you want to make your own tips on my previous post.

Donavon West has created a killer deep zoom using tens of thousands of images making up the face of Barack Obama.

It is very cool and available to view at http://www.deepzoomobama.com

The great part is that Donavon has also released a "how to" build your own mosaic and host it on us for free using Silverlight Streaming.

http://deepzoom.soulclients.com/VE/

They have Open Source'd it - http://www.codeplex.com/deepearth 

Also their mosaic of the Sydney Opera House made up of Virtual Earth images used a free mosaic generator called AndreaMosaic to generate their image.

So you have all you need go make your own Mosaic and post it in the comments below.

ENJOY!

Firefox 3 is about to be released. There is a launch party this Sunday in the US and next Thursday in Barcelona.

The original V1 Silverlight detection script Firefox 3 has a race condition that affects the way that <object is invoked, loaded and detected. This race condition in the script has always been there but didn't occur in previous versions of the Firefox browser which meant that it remained updetected until late in the FireFox 3 development cycle.

What this means is that the forthcoming Firefox 3 release will break some Silverlight 1.0 installation experiences on web sites that use the original Silverlight 1.0 SDK Silverlight.js detection file.

The Silverlight 2 SDK has an updated Silverlight.js file that not only solves this problem for all versions of Silverlight but also eliminates browser restart that was previously needed for new installs.

You can get the SDK as part of the Install Silverlight Tools Beta 2 for Visual Studio 2008 or through the download center.

Silverlight Streaming will support hosting Silverlight 2 Beta 2 later this week.

Update: Silverlight Streaming now supports Silverlight 2 Beta 2

If you want to link to the Silverlight 2 Beta 2 Silverlight.js file hosted at Silverlight Streaming the one to use is http://agappdom.net/i/silverlight.js 

In the mean time I have uploaded just the new Silverlight 2 Beta 2 Silverlight.js detection file to skydrive.

Update: Alternatively the new Silverlight.js file that works with FF3 & Silverlight 1 & Silverlight 2B2 is now at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/silverlightjs

Also you can now invoke Silverlight Streaming applications without using JavaScript at all. We support a URL syntax that directly names a self-contained web page with nothing but your Silverlight Streaming-hosted application.

You can use this URL as the source of an <iframe> tag to embed the application on sites that don’t allow JavaScript. Read more about this new feature in the SDK.

Piotr’s blog posts here and here also describe a technique that uses some simple javascript, to detect when Silverlight installation completes and launches the Silverlight content without any further user interaction or a browser restart.

Thanks,

Nigel

Silverlight 2 Beta 2 now provides everybody with a commercial go-live license.

Scott Guthrie has the lowdown as does Tim Heuer on how to get started. Scott Barnes throws in his comments as well.

Once you upgrade your browser to Silverlight 2 Beta 2 you will no longer be able to run Silverlight Beta 1 applications.  This means that if you have published a running sample on the web built with Beta 1 you will probably want to update it to Beta 2 soon.

We have published a document that details the changes between Beta 1 and Beta 2.  Also check out Shawn Wildermuth's What Changed in Silverlight 2 Beta2 and Upgrading your Silverlight 2 Projects to Beta2 posts for more details.

Best description on media enhancements including hooks to enable adaptive streaming is at http://on10.net/blogs/benwagg/Silverlight-2-Beta-2-is-out/

I'm thinking I need to slowly go out an start converting my samples as well.

This morning it was such a great "frosty" morning in Auckland that I chose to go for a photo run. We've heard of a photo walk well a photo run is the same just running.

Of course I documented it as I went... check out the photos.

I have been paying attention to those that are pushing the boundaries of Silverlight in the RIA space and after seeing the "web overview" of Jose Fajardo's session from REMIX in Australia I am convinced that he is one to watch.

Oh My! Tech.Ed New Zealand 2008 is at the time of writing this 96% Sold Out!
70 tickets left and counting! Get in very quick to avoid disappointment!

There 150 tickets left this morning!

UPDATE:Tech.Ed is now officially SOLD OUT!

Thanks all for coming out and participating in the conversation surrounding future web technologies and Silverlight 2 over the last week and a half.

As promised this is my post outlining the various things that I presented including source code when available and all that other good stuff!

Remember dozens of detailed session on all the cool new web stuff is available at http://sessions.visitmix.com. You can watch the "Olympic NBC Demo" as part of the MIX Keynote Video.

VIDEO

IIS 7.0 Bit Rate Throttling Module

EXPRESSION VERSION 2 - HAS LAUNCHED

http://www.microsoft.com/expression/

"ARROWHEAD"

ScottGu has the lowdown on Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 Beta and the other Scott (who is coming to Tech.Ed NZ) asks the question of whether you should fear this release? 

Scott also chips in with a 7 video Introduction to ASP.NET Dynamic Data.

Ivan Towlson, from Mindscape asked me a question during the Auckland session that I promised to publish the answer here. He asked: "Are we treating .NET 3.5 SP1 as a separate project type when it ships as part of multi-targeting in VS2008?"

Scott Guthrie responded:

No – you will still target it using the .NET 3.5 drop down in VS 2008.  There is a separate checkbox though for whether you want to target the client-profile setup (which will allow you to get compile errors if you try and reference an assembly not in the client subset).

For the next release of VS we are hoping to expand multi-targeting so that you can target not just big versions of frameworks, but also individual SPs as well.

"DEEP ZOOM"

View the Hard Rock Cafe memorabilia site.

Take a look at BigPicture.

Check out the updated Deep Zoom Composer and the PhotoZoom service.

Also the code I based my Business Card demo (view it here - try tags "silverlight", "expression", "blue" or "card" to filter) was made available by Wilfred Pinto in his Dissecting Hard Rock Memorabilia post series.

The DeepZoom Composer Forum is great place to ask q's about this stuff.

SILVERLIGHT 2 - EXAMPLES

I showed some examples of Silverlight applications in my session.

Including the Magnify Glass demo that ships with Expression Blend 2

And the Microsoft Health Common User Interface (MSCUI) Silverlight 2 sample that uses a similar technique to magnify parts of a video of the heart.

Jaime Rodriguez has the word on the Silverlight in Financial's Demonstrator including source code.

I also showed the in some centres the Silverlight 2 Surface Demo that includes DeepZoom, with source code.

DIGG SAMPLE IN SILVERLIGHT 2

The Digg Sample that I stepped through in the session (available for you to try online thanks to "free hosting" at http://silverlight.live.com) was based on ScottGu's great 8 part tutorial series. 

Dan Wahlin has taken these steps and made them available as bite sized videos.

1. Creating Hello World With Silverlight 2 and VS 2008
2. Using Layout Management
3. Using Networking to Retrieve Data and Populate a DataGrid
4. Using Style Elements to Better Encapsulate Look and Feel
5. Using the List Box and Data Binding to Display List Data
6. Using User Controls to Implement Master Details Scenarios
7. Using Templates to Customize Control Look and Feel
8. Creating a Digg Desktop Version of Our Application Using WPF

If you want to Start Learning Silverlight 2 there are tutorials, hands on labs (Swiss End-2-End example) and videos available to help you.

Also if you are interested in design and UX Arturo has made his XAML Ready Agency training and also Silverlight Bootcamp For Designers available.

Corrina Barber does a great job of "re-skinning" the Digg Sample App, and shares some great samples of control skinning as well.

Jose from Cynergy took the demo much much further and also made his code available on codeplex.

For Silverlight 1, the Silverlight learning snacks have just been made available.

CHERRY

Oh yeah and I can't leave without giving you all a cherry!

Silverlight 1 (Moonlight) first source code release for Linux and Silverlight 2 said Hello in Linux

Bill Gates Demonstrates Touch Wall
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates demonstrates Touch Wall, a new hardware technology from Microsoft that creates a touch-based “white board” interface that lets users interact more naturally with data and applications on their computer. Microsoft CEO Summit 2008, Redmond, Wash. May 14, 2008.
.wmv file (27.7 MB) | .mpg file (279 MB)

Just think of the Silverlight Surface Demo running on Touch Wall!

TechCrunch coverage Touch Wall and Plex

Tags: mix08, NZWC