Nigel Parker's Outside Line : mix08

MIX08: A Developers Perspective... IT'S A WRAP!

nparker — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:25:00 GMT

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.

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

Microsoft Unplugged - Come join me in May 2008 for MIX08: A Developers Perspective

nparker — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:34:00 GMT

Ah it is that time to hit the road again and come see all of you!

Now in its third year, MIX08 took place in Las Vegas from March 5-7 2008. MIX is an intimate opportunity for cutting-edge technical, creative and business strategists to engage Microsoft in a conversation about the future of the web.

Join me in a couple of weeks time in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin and Tauranga as I showcase technical aspects of Microsoft's latest web technologies including Silverlight 2, .NET 3.5 and Live Services.

Join the facebook group at http://discuss.geek.nz to discuss and stay up to date on further events.

Webstoked!

nparker — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:52:00 GMT

WARNING I'm going to break the first rule of fight club and link to tweets! Move along now if you are offended.

My involvement with the Webstock Festival started a couple of years ago. Back then the concept of bringing web celebes to en-zud was something we just had to be a part of. After a bit of arm twisting I convinced Tony to make the trip ;)

My posts from Webstock06 Post 1 & 2

Two years on I like to think as an industry the "Web" has evolved a lot. Our stand presence IMO has also come along way...

Yes that iMac is running the Silverlight content DVD that I hacked together and threw into everyone's Webstock bag.

They say good things come in pairs and Webstock08 was no exception.

Both Verb and ourselves chose to create Photo Booths with our stands something that was not lost on the expressive attendees! The irony was we took the low tech approach with Playing Cards, a camera, a Vegas backdrop and a MIX08 Valentines theme. While Verb built and entire digital, flickr enable photo booth in .NET!

The results on the day complemented each other quite well.

Although I must say some employed interesting tactics to increase the views on their photos.

Other .NET champion sponsors Provoke and Intergen were also well represented at Webstock.

[Video]

I must say I'm very impressed by the way that the majority of the international webnorati mingled with the rest of us. Amanda made the most of the opportunity that was presented! Dan from Simple bits summed it up nicely.

It was fantastic meeting Molly Holzschlag and we had some great conversations about everything Microsoft. Of course Molly was on her best behaviour ;)

Some of my favourite moments from the event were as follows:

1. Chatting with Mr Flickr Cal Henderson - Hey I didn't know we hid the location info from displaying in the EXIF data by default... that's cool.

2. Having dinner with Michael Lopp ("Don't fall in love with products .. it creates ponies!") from apple... listening to him respond to questions about what he is working on with "now I can't talk about that ;)"

3. Tom Coates talking Hardware + Software + Services, Fire Eagle and Flickr stats 2264930075 anyone?

4. Tom Coates classic quote... "Twitter is a service that presents error messages on the Internet"

5. Scott Berkun showed that people who worked on Internet Explorer are not at all evil ;) - Plugs from Felicity, Nat and Deb.

6. Jason Santa Maria - Brilliant - Design, Storytelling (later Matt formally declared his love)- great examples - http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com

7. A Kiwi winning the PowerPoint Karaoke Idol!

8. The candidness of the Trade Me story continues to entertain.

9. The Google Dinner followed by the late Friday night social event.

Of course Microsoft got the normal tongue in cheek bashing during the event (as did the new villain Google). Interesting though countless presenters and attendees mentioned Photosynth and Virtual Earth and although it is not representative of the Webstock audience you can't deny the IE stats!

Thanks to Tash, Mike and the others for once again putting on an untouchable event! I loved my 5 minutes of fame in the main theatre kicking off the 8x5's.

I'll send an update when the actual session videos go online.

Now my focus changes to MIX next week in Vegas where I'm happy to be once again joined by other webstockers Molly, Tash and Kelly. Does the circuit never end?

Remember if you are (like webstockers Verb, Intergen, Provoke, Signify, Xero and Trade Me) building a web based business on Microsoft technology in New Zealand and you want to get access to the tools of the trade check out our Web Partner program.

Also check out the Webstock - FriendFeed at http://friendfeed.com/webstock

Tags: webstock08, NZWC