Nigel Parker's Outside Line : .NET 3.0

Technical Briefing Wrap and HOLIDAY!

nparker — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:38:00 GMT

First of all what does it look like to talk to nearly 2000 people?

Well here is a picture I found on flickr of 900 people... yup I'm in there #9 top row.

Think double this and we will be just about there!

It was all of you that made this event so successfull, THANKS!

Darryl did a great job of MC'ing the keynote at the events and holding it all together! The mindscape guys have done a great job bringing my backgroundmotion idea to life!

Presentation: Web Standards Compliance

Presentation: Extending Application Reach

Presentation: Building Composite Applications

In fact all the pptx decks are now online.

My presentation Building applications users love is there but without the link to the video that I promised.

Click the picture below to watch the Video!

I leave tomorrow for a trip around Europe with my wife and daughter followed by Mix in Las Vagas. The best part is that I'm not taking my laptop! See you again on the 7th of May if not a little sooner!

What is better than 1 offline newspaper to read on the Plane? 4 Offline Newspapers ;)

nparker — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 04:48:00 GMT

Tim broke the news this morning, the Daily Mail in the UK, forbes.com and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer have joined the New York Times in releasing WPF based news reading applications.

From my inital checks it looks like Forbes is the only reader that has opted not to ask you to register to use it. This is interested as I discussed in my presentation at foo camp. The web has set a precedence that you will be provided information without providing an identity and hence most newspaper websites don't require you to log in. By providing a reader with a richer user experience the papers are able to request an identity (people are used to providing this for client applications like itunes, IM and email). The advantage here is that the papers are able to deliver more targeted advertising to their readers. Forbes appears to have gone against this trend and provide the data to the reader (no identity required).

From my initial investigations it still appears like the Times Reader is the most feature rich (with advanced search, note taking, emailing and saving or articles).

That said there is a great new accessibility feature in the Daily Mail called "Speak this article"... this goes further than the news in pictures feature of the times reader.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer also released a sidebar gadget (above) to launch the articles but compare that to the TVNZ and nzherald ones... IMO it needs a bit of work!

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

WPF Ready for Win Forms Prime Time? The Xceed DataGrid for WPF.

nparker — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 01:47:00 GMT

There was an email thread going around the NZ .NET mailing list yesterday asking whether an enterprise winforms developer should be looking at doing a new development of their LOB application in WPF or if it is still a little early.

Chuck suggested that "For most mainstream line of Business applications Microsoft still recommends using Windows Forms."

He goes on to say that "Until there is a 100% superset of WPF controls to COM AND Winform controls you are looking at the answer being: Use the best technology and integrate them together. For the time being that is almost certainly hosting your application Windows forms and doing the integration to WPF through WPF controls and elementhost”.

I have a slightly different take on this...

Although we are still at the mid stage of the process of porting all the controls and releasing the final cut of our WPF design surfaces (January CTP of VS "Orcas", Blend) some companies have chosen to build entirely in WPF for new applications. Remember that the .NET 3.0 platform is now released and it is also deployed by default in Windows Vista.

If you have complete control to build from scratch, you can deal with the bleeding edge and your target audience can run .NET 3.0 then absolutely build a true “next generation WPF application” like those at http://www.thirteen23.com. Kevin’s Bag-o-Tricks adds to the WPF controls shipped out of the box and includes a number of components (content slide, search visualisation) that were used in the New York Times reader application.

I see also today that Xceed has released a FREE version 1.0 of their DataGrid component for WPF (if you have .NET 3.0 installed you can try it here). This is a great example of the ISV/ component ecosystem shipping tools that make life easier for industry developers.

There is absolutely a place for new applications completely written in WPF and right now it is front and centre! New York Times Reader, Yahoo’s new IM client and I know we will be seeing many more arriving throughout 2007.

The key difference being that in this brave new world we are separating the roles of a designer and a developer but alowing them to work together on the same code base (although a person can of course still do both roles). Testament to this is probably Lee from Frog design that built the entire UI for the Yahoo IM client without any prior knowledge of coding in .NET. Lee is sharing his experiences with other "designers" like him that are looking at this technology on his new tutorial site http://contentpresenter.com.

IMO .NET developers that are wanting to get a grasp on this technology should read Code + Markup (which I have read and is heavily developer focused) or the recently released WPF Unleashed by Adam Nathan (software design engineer at Microsoft).

My opinion not Microsoft’s :)

Expand Your Portfolio... it's a wrap!

nparker — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:09:00 GMT

Hey there,

Two weeks ago we met and presented to over 200 people from more than 85 companies across New Zealand!

We got some great feedback and had heaps of fun doing it!

I have got great feedback via email and I have had truck loads of people wanting to show their friends... learn more and try things out themselves!

What sites did we update/release?

http://www.microsoft.com/expression

http://www.microsoft.com/design

http://www.microsoft.com/wpfe

What did I showcase last week...

WPF

firstlook.nytimes.com

Blend (Beta 1)

thirteen23.com, harmony (itunes/Amazon desktop mashup), denounce (next gen rss/podcast reader)

Tools

SWF2XAML (v1), demo, video

AItoXAML

Expression Web (Available Now)

personifydesign.com

ASP.NET AJAX (Release Candidate)

sample sites, from NZ - http://ecobob.com

Vista Media Center

mobilewares, Media Center Extender Video

Sidebar

Building a WPF Vista Sidebar Gadget, Gadgets

WPF/E (Community Preview)

Playground, Flash/ WPF/E coexist

Windows Live

Fresh Logic Studio GPS Mashup

Queenstown 3D video, Virtual Earth 3D

Photosynth

Where are my custom demos?

Demonstrating Designer & Developer Workflow using a 3D Kiwi, code

NZ Vector Animation in XAML (requires .NET 3.0 Runtime Installed)

"experience is the product" video presentation (rough cut, includes preview of Right Hemispheres upcoming version of Deep Publish)

Rapid prototyping using XAML and Blend (requires .NET 3.0 Runtime Installed)

Where can you go to learn?

Back in June I blogged about learning WPF, after Tech.Ed I also posted a bunch of my videos (including the Tablet Montage) showcasing WPF.

The community site for Windows Presentation Foundation - http://wpf.netfx3.com

Videos for the release candidate of ASP.NET AJAX

Training for the Expresion tools

What has been released since?

Microsoft Robotics Studio Version 1

XNA Game Studio Express Version 1, Sharky (local XNA game developer)

3D Tools for the Windows Presentation Foundation - Example

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1

Show me the video of what people are using WPF for.

5 minute overview video

Where is this conversation going next?

To Vegas Baby... April 30th - May 2nd.

Who do you recognise from "Mix and Mash"?

The person next to BillG looks like someone that I met at WebStock in March... what do you think?

Take some time over Christmas to pass that Suck Threshold.

Merry Christmas

We're Gold Baby! Now we can have some real fun!

nparker — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 11:32:00 GMT

Today we announced the RTM of the .NET Framework 3.0, availability of Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office for the 2007 Microsoft Office System, ASP.NET AJAX Beta 2 and the Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for the .NET Framework 3.0 CTP and upon RTM’ing, Windows Vista and Microsoft 2007 Office System will be available for download by MSDN Premium subscribers.

Oh yeah and we also announced today the completion of the 2007 Microsoft Office system code and confirmed its release to manufacturing (RTM).

These RTM milestones mark a critical step toward worldwide business availability of the 2007 Office system, Windows Vista and Exchange Server 2007 on the 30th of this month.

I wonder if the .Net 3.0 elearning kits are still free? You better go get them today if they are!

Also check out the WCF & CardSpace virtual labs at http://labs.netfx3.com.

.NET Framework 3.0 eLearning clinics - Free Until the Launch of .NET 3.0!

nparker — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 22:27:00 GMT

This collection of 3 2-hour premium clinics teaches about the new capabilities provided by the .NET Framework 3.0. These clinics are for experienced Developers and Software Architects who are looking to adopt Microsoft's next generation technology within their solutions.

Topics covered within the collection include:
• Windows Presentation Foundation
• Windows Workflow Foundation
• Windows Communication Foundation

Don't procrastinate you don't have much time to grab these for free and once you have them they are valid for 1 year!

Quick tip... log in to eLearning first and then don't change the "Prices for the United States are shown in US Dollars." dropdown to NZ dollars as it seemed to break it for me when the price of the course was set to *FREE*

Enjoy!

*update* based on the comment below

I got that too until I followed the following steps.
This will get you all three in one go.

1) Go to https://www.microsoftelearning.com/ and sign in with your passport
2) Once signed in go to https://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/offerDetail.aspx?offerPriceId=109340
3) Click add to cart (top right)
4) Click "Check Out"
5) Click "I accept these license terms"
6) Click "Next"
7) Click "Submit"