Strategy and Architecture Council : customer

Netflix uses Silverlight & Smooth Streaming to stream the Wizard of Oz to America

dpeuswr — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:42:21 GMT

Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of The Wizard of Oz, and the re-release by Warner Brothers of an HD version of the movie, Netflix has launched a website to stream the movie for FREE to anyone in America on October 3rd.

Netflix also hosted a free, live concert and outdoor movie screening on Tuesday, September 29th, in New York City’s Central Park at Rumsey Playfield. The concert featured songs from “The Wizard of Oz” performed by Jennifer Hudson, Julianne Hough and Guestlove.

View the full article on John Stame’s blog at http://jcstame.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/netflix-uses-silverlight-smooth-streaming-to-stream-the-wizard-of-oz-to-america/

ARCast – Interview with Ward Bell on Silverlight for RIA at UFC Gyms

dpeuswr — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:33:15 GMT

I interviewed Ward Bell recently and we discussed using Silverlight for building Rich Internet Applications (RIA’s) for UFC Gyms and New Evolution Fitness.

Read the full post on John Stame’s blog at http://jcstame.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/arcast-interview-with-ward-bell-on-silverlight-for-ria-at-ufc-gyms/

Silverlight and Photosynth at Stargate Universe

dpeuswr — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:59:00 GMT

MGM and Microsoft partnered to build an application intended to give old and new fans of Stargate a first look at the main location of the new Stargate Universe show, an ancient starship called the Destiny. The sets for the Destiny are amongst the most sophisticated ever built for a TV show, accurately capturing the spirit of a spaceship that has been abandoned for millennia.

MGM wanted to give fans an accurate experience of what it would be like to walk around and explore the Destiny, and using Microsoft Silverlight and Photosynth were able to deliver an immersive 3-D experience.

Read the full post on David Chou’s blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/dachou/archive/2009/07/13/silverlight-and-photosynth-at-stargate-universe.aspx

UPDATE 2009.09.04 – a Microsoft Case Study and video has been published for this project. You can view the Case Study at http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000005102, and the video at http://www.microsoft.com/video/en/us/details/c0387435-dd01-4c5a-87c9-6e87cedeee15.

Silverlight and Live Messenger at Photobucket

dpeuswr — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:30:05 GMT

Photobucket has collaborated with Microsoft to build Photobucket Visual Search (http://photobucket.com/visualsearch), making use of Silverlight, Windows Live Services and Photobucket's Open API platform. Photobucket Visual Search uses Silverlight to provide a rich and entertaining search experience, by displaying photos and videos in an easy-to-browse interface. The experience shows up search results, as well as related terms, helping users to find images they might not have in the past.

Recognizing that photos are about sharing a social experience, Photobucket decided to use Microsoft's new Windows Live Messenger Web Toolkit to socially enable this Visual Search experience. Windows Live Messenger has over 320 Million active users, with over 32 billion social relationships between them. Sharing an image with friends on Windows Live is as easy as a click of a button with Photobucket Visual Search.

Read the full post at David Chou’s blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/dachou/archive/2009/07/12/silverlight-and-live-messenger-at-photobucket.aspx

Embedded Database Engine for Silverlight Applications

dpeuswr — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:10:52 GMT

So far, rich Internet applications (RIA) don’t have to be concerned with data management on the client side, as most connected implementations are designed to be simply a visualization and interaction layer to data and services on the server side. In these cases, data is retrieved from the server as JSON or XML data types (or serialized binary objects for some platforms), then cached in-memory as objects and collections, part of the application, and eventually discarded as part of the application lifecycle.

But for relatively more complex applications that require larger and more distributed data sets, lower application latency, reduced chattiness, data relationships (even basic ones), the implementation starts to get a little complicated, and becomes more difficult with procedural languages like JavaScript. In that case, a simple and light-weight in-memory embedded database may become quite useful.

Read the full post on David Chou’s blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/dachou/archive/2009/07/11/embedded-database-engine-for-silverlight-applications.aspx

Photobucket Visual Search Launches!

dpeuswr — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:21:48 GMT

One of the reasons why I love being an evangelist is figuring out how we get great projects done on our platform – this one has me particularly excited. I’ve been leading the project for the last 6 or so months, coordinating between our great clients at Photobucket and our fantastic design partner, EffectiveUI. Photobucket, the world’s largest photo website, is launching Photobucket Visual Search today, powered by Silverlight and Windows Live.

From the very beginning, Photobucket recognized that images are almost always social – it’s why they became the defacto standard for image hosting on MySpace and other social networking sites. Photobucket is always looking for ways to make the social experience more rewarding – in this case, they turned to Microsoft for help.

Read the full post on Will Tschumy’s blog at http://ux-strategy.com/2009/06/18/photobucket-visual-search-launches/

MGM Studios – Silverlight enables fans to explore the Stargate Universe and generates incremental Ad revenue for the Studio

dpeuswr — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:18:53 GMT

Stargate.MGM.com is the official site for the Stargate TV and Movie franchise. The Stargate franchise includes the TV Show ‘Stargate SG-1’, the longest running science-fiction series in US TV history.

On July 8th, the site will re-launch to promote its new TV show, ‘Stargate Universe’ (coming to the Sci-Fi channel in the Fall of 2009). Using Microsoft Silverlight and Photosynth technology, MGM and Microsoft brought the incredible detail of the sets from the show to the fans - using 3D and high-resolution photography.

The application innovates on traditional advertising by triggering Ads when the user moves from Synth to Synth. MGM embedded five-second spots that get the message across without pushing the user away. The first release of the site contains three advertisements on a rotating cycle. This first-of-its-kind formula enables incremental revenue without being obtrusive.

Read the full post on Kevin Boyle’s blog at http://blog.boilerproductions.com/2009/07/08/mgm-studios--silverlight-enables-fans-to-explore-the-stargate-universe-and-generates-incremental-ad-revenue-for-the-studio.aspx

Linerider.com – physics-engine powered game on Silverlight and Windows Live Services

dpeuswr — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:16:29 GMT

InXile Entertainment has collaborated with Microsoft to build a new version of the Line Rider game, making use of Microsoft's Silverlight technology and Windows Live Services. The new Line Rider uses Silverlight to provide a robust and intuitive game editing environment, and integrated Live Messenger provides a way for users to chat while editing tracks, and to share them.

Read the full post on Kevin Boyle’s blog at http://blog.boilerproductions.com/2009/06/22/lineridercom--physicsengine-powered-game-on-silverlight-and-windows-live-services.aspx

Over 30 Million Pages a day on ASP.NET, Windows, and SQL – Break.com

dpeuswr — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:12:14 GMT

As a popular entertainment site with an advertising-based revenue model, Break.com must support high traffic volumes while enticing Web site visitors to spend time on the site. The company handles up to 35 million page views per day with only two Web server computers.

"That's the thing that I don't think a lot of people on the LAMP stack realize. [...] I think you'll find that Microsoft technologies compare very well individually. But that misses the big picture: Microsoft has created a platform that simply lets me architect and build applications in a way that I can't on LAMP.”

Read the full post on Kevin Boyle’s blog at http://blog.boilerproductions.com/2009/06/22/30m-pages-a-day-on-net-windows-and-sql--breakcom.aspx

Kelley Blue Book embraces Software plus Services

dpeuswr — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:10:21 GMT

Kelley Blue Book leveraged .NET 3.5 SP1 to cut the head off their .NET Web Solution. They now leverage a mode-view-controller architecture so that they can get direct access to the necessary logic.

This enables them to serve new experiences on mobile devices and through Silverlight 2. With the use of SL2, deeper user engagement will sell more Ads. Users want data when they’re on the lot looking at cars – on their mobile devices.

Read the full post on Kevin Boyle’s blog at http://blog.boilerproductions.com/2009/06/17/kelley-blue-book-embraces-software-plus-services.aspx

Silverlight 2 DeepZoom Technical Preview by Newegg.com

dpeuswr — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:07:57 GMT

Newegg built a DeepZoom catalog built on Silverlight 2. A power search function was added, so when a customer is browsing they just need to enter a keyword, select “Go” and the results are presented in a much richer way. The application has a slider bar that adjusts the search results by allowing the customer to drag the bar or each end separately which narrows or widens the search. The results are updated and displayed as the bar is adjusted. If the customer wants to look at a product more closely, a deep zoom feature is available which can zoom into the surface details of products in the HD clarity.

Read the full post on Kevin Boyle’s blog at http://blog.boilerproductions.com/2009/06/17/silverlight-2-deepzoom-technical-preview-by-newegg.aspx

Silverlight and Bing Maps Used at Grubb & Ellis

dpeuswr — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:01:00 GMT

Today is a time in history where there are more economic factors disrupting the real estate market and operations than ever before. To mitigate this trend and ensure real estate and financial professionals have all the information necessary to make critical decisions, more and more data is being provided to help improve business intelligence. However, this resulted in creating mountains of charts, graphs and documents that need to be reviewed from multiple systems, in order to present a clear perspective of assets, locations, and their operations. This sheer volume of information adds significant overhead to the users and professionals that depend on them.

To address this issue, Grubb & Ellis Company worked with Microsoft and speakTECH, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, leveraging Microsoft Silverlight and Bing Maps for Enterprise, to create a new tool called Spotlight.

Read the full post on David Chou’s blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/dachou/archive/2009/07/07/silverlight-and-bing-maps-used-at-grubb-ellis.aspx

Ancestry.com Uses Silverlight for Genealogy Browser

dpeuswr — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:04:29 GMT

The Generations Network runs one of the most popular genealogy websites in the world – ancestry.com. One of the things they wanted to provide their users was a simplified way to browse and edit their family tree. Even smaller trees can become a bit unwieldy and very large trees can become nearly impossible to navigate – particularly when you talk about using html based technologies. The team at TGN decided to leverage a Rich Internet Application platform and after surveying the existing technologies decided that Silverlight was the best technology to use in this situation.

Read the full article on Joe Shirey’s blog at http://www.joeshirey.com/2009/06/17/AncestrycomUsesSilverlightForGenealogyBrowser.aspx

Digg Accelerator for Internet Explorer 8

dpeuswr — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:51:08 GMT

I have blogged a bit about Internet Explorer 8 (previous posts are here) and some of the really cool features that it comes, making your web discovery and usability experience really great. Specifically, accelerators and web slices bring a whole new set of IE tools to some great web services. You can find some accelerator and web slices from popular web services like Bing, LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, and many more here.

Read the full article on John Stame’s blog at http://jcstame.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/digg-accelerator-for-internet-explorer-8/

PING Uses Visualization Technologies to Help Golfers

dpeuswr — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 07:27:31 GMT

Almost everyone in the golf world is familiar with Karsten Solheim, the founder of PING Golf. Karsten and PING pioneered many of the innovations in club fitting and has long been the key player in the market for custom clubs. Recently, PING embarked on an ambitious effort to radically improve the process of club fitting and to give the consumer a more scientifically accurate and visually compelling fitting experience. Enter nFlight®.

Read the full article on Dan Willis’ blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/danlistens/archive/2009/06/10/ping-uses-visualization-technologies-to-help-golfers.aspx