July 16th, 2008 — silverlighters.org (Syndicated Content)
Corrina Barber updated Red & Black skins, Mike Snow on Isolated Storage, Tim Heuer on S3 and SL2B2 and making Video Encoder Templates, Azret Botash with IM/Chat client and server, Emil Stoychev with Pivot Table, Bart Czernicki Master Series, Part 1, and Alex Golesh: Isolated Storage, StringToPathGeometry Converter, Init Params, Communication between two objects, Treeview Control and reflecting ScriptObject content.
I want to point out to all the bloggers that there's a new blog-scraper in town. I don't want to give them a link, but there's no other way to get the word out. Tim Heuer's work is pretty well sucked in, and others will be soon I'm sure. The owner is in pakistan. You can find the info on them via whois. The site is silverlightarticles dot com.
From SilverlightCream.com: - Red and Flat Skins Updated for Beta 2
- Corrina has taken the time to update and upgrade her red and flat skins to B2 ... this is great stuff... thanks, Corrina!
- Tip of the Day #19: Using Isolated Storage
- Mike Snow follows his article from yesterday on cookies with one today on Isolated Storage... buncha code and good discussion.
- Updates to Amazon S3 and Silverlight
- Tim Heuer has an update to his S3 and SL2 article, particularly after some discussion about Cross-domain policies and best practices ... this should be required reading!
- Making SL2 Video Player an Encoder Template
- In another post, Tim shows in great detail making an expression encoder template for the Video player he's got up on CodePlex.
- Silverlight Data Grid - Creating an IM/Chat Server and Client using Sockets
- Azret Botash of Devexpress posted this very code-intensive article ... very cool... and all the code is downloadable as well :)
- Creating a simple Pivot table using LINQ and RadTreeView for Silverlight
- Using the Telerik RadTreeView, Emil Stoychev displays deploying a pivot table using LINQ, and as with most work from Emil, he has some other links listed and the source.
- Silverlight 2.0 - Concepts to become a master series (Part 1 - .NET/C#)
- Bart Czernicki is beginning a series to help make Silverlight easier to understand and get your arms around... should be a good read.. I've added Bart to the blog list in SC.
- Isolated Storage in Silverlight 2 Beta 2
- Alex Golesh tried to stuff my inbox last night :) ... I don't mind that at all.. the more submittals the better! he's been busy, and I haven't noticed, so I think we're catching up on all the goodness he has on his blog. This first one is on Isolated Storage. Good screenshots and code, plus a link out to a sample app!
- Silverlight StringToPathGeometry Converter
- In this post, Alex has a very cool converter that will produce path geometry from a string... and will also go the other way... if you've ever worked with path geometry, you're probably already out to this link to grab it :)
- Quick Silverlight Tip: Initialization Parameters
- Alex gives a nice work-up on the initialization parameters named, and not-named... good reading!
- Quick Silverlight Tip: Communicating between two Silverlight objects on a single page
- In a post from the 10th, Alex details communication between two Silverlight objects on the same page... his approach is to have the objects have information about one another, hey... how about using intialization parameters for that... see the post above :)
- Silverlight TreeView Control
- Oh hey, check this out... Alex has ported the WPF tree control over to SL2 ... how cool is that.. it looks just great!
- Silverlight Tip: How to reflect ScriptObject content in runtime
- In the last of the links Alex sent me, he demonstrates how to reflect ScriptObject content at run-time... including an example of why we might want to do so... good information!
Stay in the 'Light!
Twitter SLNews | Join me @ SilverlightCream | SL Web Articles | SL2 Web Articles | My Articles | My Tutorials | My Tooltips | My SL2 Articles | My SL2 ToolTips | SilverlightCream
July 16th, 2008 — silverlighters.org (Syndicated Content)
If you go to the Microsoft Careers site and search for "Silverlight", you'll get a bunch of hits--I got about 200 last time I tried. But three of those jobs are special, at least as far as I'm concerned, because they are for developer positions on the the Silverlight team itself. They represent a chance to join my favorite team and work on bringing the next wave of awesomeness to the web.
You can read the postings to get the full descriptions and career-speak, but some of the thing that I like about working on the Silverlight team are (in no particular order):
-
really cool technology
-
great people
-
the opportunity to make an impact on the way the world develops for and uses the web
-
exciting pace (I like shipping relatively frequently, without having to work myself to death. It's fun. And I get these little metal thingies to stick on my "Ship It" plaque. Joel may think they're silly, but I kind of like them.)
-
working at Microsoft (this should not be underrated. Microsoft is a great company to work for.)
-
living in the Seattle area
-
I look forward to coming to work
You can apply directly by following the links below, or send me email if you have questions.
Developer Lead
Senior Developer - Graphics
Developer - Controls
July 16th, 2008 — silverlighters.org (Syndicated Content)
Short and sweet...if you are having Silvelright 2 Beta 2 issues with Firefox and media streaming, make sure you check Windows Update for a new fix. I think the OSX guys can just visit a Silverlight page to get it (using the auto-update stuff).
© 2008 Shawn Wildermuth. All Rights Reserved.
Add Comment | digg this
July 16th, 2008 — silverlighters.org (Syndicated Content)
July 16th, 2008 — silverlighters.org (Syndicated Content)
I'd have to say that my weakest area of development is probably SharePoint. I know how to build a basic SharePoint web part and that's about it. I'm pretty much a dunce when it comes to SharePoint. One of the things I've been telling myself for the last couple years is that I need to bite the bullet and "get smart" on SharePoint development. For the first time in a long time, I have some down time so I am going to try to block of some time in the coming weeks to do so. Where to start? Paul Andrew blogged about a series of 10 MSDN webcasts covering SharePoint for .NET Developers. All of the webcasts were recorded:
Web Parts
Data Lists
Silverlight
Event Handlers
Page Branding
Workflow
Web Services
Page Navigation
User Management
Content Types
There is also a fairly new resource for SharePoint development at http://MSSharePointDeveloper.com. These resources are where I am going to start!
-Marc
July 16th, 2008 — silverlighters.org (Syndicated Content)
First, let me apologize since I promised to make this recording available almost two months ago. I was trying to get the recording uploaded to the same Live Meeting servers as my other webcasts. Needless to say, I had some challenges. I decided to upload it to Silverlight Streaming. I had to split the presentation into two files since this is a 90 minute presentation and Silverlight Streaming has file size limits.
In this presentation, I show you the fundamentals of the Virtual Earth Map Control 6.1 using JavaScript. Then, I show how you can use ASP.NET AJAX and the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) to make building Virtual Earth solutions easier. Finally, I show you how you can host Virtual Earth in a desktop application.
Part I:
[Double click the video to view full screen]
Click here to download Part I wmv
Part II:
[Double click the video to view full screen]
Click here to download Part II wmv
So what's the benefit of this recording? First, it is much higher quality than the Live Meeting recording since I used Camtasia Studio. Second, the content is updated to use the Virtual Earth Map Control 6.1 and the Virtual Earth JavaScript Intellisense Helper. Finally, since it's hosted using Silverlight Streaming, you don't have to register to view it.
Here are some download links for the webcast:
Deck:
Code:
The sample demonstrating hosting Virtual Earth in a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is old. I have an updated sample. Details about the updated sample are available at http://blogs.msdn.com/devkeydet/archive/2008/06/24/wpf-and-virtual-earth-revisited.aspx. You can also watch a screencast about the updated sample at http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/keydet/Using-Virtual-Earth-in-a-WPF-Application/.
-Marc
July 15th, 2008 — silverlighters.org (Syndicated Content)
Mark Monster on SL Networking (2), Andy Beaulieu on finding XAML elements, chrishayuk with SL2 Wee Mee, and Mike Snow Animating a rotating image and setting browser cookies with SL.
If you don't know who Chad Campbell is, shame on you... and a big hint --- he's NOT my son! Chad's been working on a great Silverlight 2 book for quite a while and soon we're all going to benefit from his undertaking. Moving in that direction, Chad is going to have a Halo 3 discussion of his book, feedback, and discussion in general.
I know I saw Visual WebGui a while back, I remembered it when I watched the video today... but they've got a fully funtional Beta out that could bear watching and using! The link I used is a blog post about it, and has links out to the real stuff... videos, promos, etc.... have fun!
From SilverlightCream.com: - Silverlight Networking - Getting credentials to work, unsuccessful.
- Mark Monster sent me this link last night, and I left the house without sending it to my work address today :( ... so I waited until tonight to put out this post. Mark's relatively new to SL, but he's been digging into the networking, and has this article and another on Silverlight Threading - Getting back to the UI thread . He also has som LINQ stuff, so check out his blog... I added it to SilverlightCream, and thanks for the post, Mark!
- Finding a XAML Element by Name at Runtime
- Andy Beaulieu has a cool snippet on his blog using a lambda expression to get a child of a container... cool stuff... something to keep handy, because I'll never remember that... :)
- Silverlight 2 Wee Mee
- chrishayuk posted this over the weekend I think, but since it's on blogspot, and I can't get there from work, I keep forgetting about it... sorry! ... I will say that no matter how many times I click on the eyes, I get no video, but hey... my machine doesn't always like video, so it's probably me :)
- Tip of the Day #17: How to Animate a Rotating Image
- Mike Snow doubled up with two tips of the day... this first one is animating a rotating image... dang... reminds me of Michael Schwarz' rotating gear that we all jumped on back when it was WPF/E... only easier to do! (now). Mike's second of the day is Tip of the Day #18: How to Set Browser Cookies.
Stay in the 'Light!
Twitter SLNews | Join me @ SilverlightCream | SL Web Articles | SL2 Web Articles | My Articles | My Tutorials | My Tooltips | My SL2 Articles | My SL2 ToolTips | SilverlightCream
July 15th, 2008 — silverlighters.org (Syndicated Content)
I've been having some issues getting my VPC updated to SQL Server 2008 RC0 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta so I can record a couple screencasts on using Virtual Earth with SQL Server 2008. I swear I read through the readme docs:). However, I could not get Visual Studio 2008 SP1 to install. I'm in the process of building a new VPC. I probably should have done this in the first place since my original VPC had so much beta software installed (including the SQL Server 2008 Feb CTP). Before I tried to install either, I decided review the readme again and do some basic Internet searching before I started. Turns out I should have searched around the first time. There is a known issue related to the order in which you install the two. I found the following entry in the forums:
http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3523799&SiteID=1
which states:
"SQL Server Compact installation fails when the products are installed in the following order:
1. Install SQL Server 2008 RC0
2. Then install Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta
The workaround for the issue is as given below:
1. Install SQL Server 2008 RC0
2. Go to the Add/Remove Programs
3. Uninstall SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP1 Query Tools Beta and SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP1 Beta
4. Install Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta
5. Install SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP1 Query Tools Beta (SSCESqlWbTools.msi) from the folder - Servers\Setup on the SQL Server 2008 RC0 installation media (CD/DVD/Layout)
6. Go to the Add/remove programs and verify that the following are installed:
a. SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP1 Query Tools Beta;
b. SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP1 Beta;
c. SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP1 Design Tools Beta
The reason for the failure is that SQL Server 2008 RC0 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta install the same version of SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP1 Beta MSI's. If SQL Server Compact is already installed on the machine SQL Server 2008 or Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Setup has to skip the installation. There was a bug in the Visual Studio Setup and it has been fixed. The fix will be available in the released version of Visual Studio 2008 SP1"
Hopefully this saves some headaches for anyone who is trying to install both on the same machine.
-Marc
July 14th, 2008 — silverlighters.org (Syndicated Content)
I talk to people about programming with Virtual Earth quite often. Beyond the developer APIs, my Virtual Earth knowledge somewhat limited. I get asked all sorts of interesting questions about the technology behind Virtual Earth. My answer is usually "Good question, I don't know." If you are one of those people that love know about all the nuts and bolts, then you are going to love Mark Brown's new "Behind the Maps" series. The first in the series covers the UltraCam. Check it out here.
July 14th, 2008 — silverlighters.org (Syndicated Content)
Fons Sonnemans with RollMenu, Frank LaVigne with Community Megaphone SL Map, Martin Mihaylov on LINQ to XML in SL2, John Stockton with What is Silverlight, and How to Learn it, Felix Corke on Designing a SL2B2 skin, Michael Washington with Silverlight Notepad, Michael Scherotter with IE8 Forward/back in SL2, Expression Blend Team resource links for VSM, and Tamir Khason on Actual Width/Height.
Yes boys and girls, this is what happens when you take a weekend off from blogging ... so I'm posting this during lunch to be able to catch the late work this evening.
Jesse Liberty has a couple good posts about his Over the Top Twittering and how to drive yourself crazy or out of time with Web 2.0 Run Amok ... both good reads, and insight into the world Jesse lives in on his road to helping all of us :)
At first I wasn't going to post Shawn Wildermuth's Experimenting with Adobe AIR, but then I read it to see what he was really up to and realized this was about Silverlight and AIR, so go check out what he's up to!
I've not been missing Cameron Albert's postings about his new games, but it wasn't until the one this weekend that I thought I had something someone would be interested in: Perenthia Pre-Alpha Registration. Go check this out... it looks seriously interesting. I'm afraid I have plenty of things to keep me from doing what I should be doing already, so I stifled the urge to sign up :)
From SilverlightCream.com: - Silverlight2 RollMenu
- Fons Sonnemans sent me this link, and I like the concept and the way the menu works... and he's got all the source up there including the website... so go grab that... thanks Fons!
- Community Megaphone Silverlight Map
- I haven't posted about Community Megaphone, but you can all read about it in the references Frank has... Andrew Duthie is responsible for the Megaphone concept, but Frank LaVigne took the event data and linked it to a map of the US ... how cool is that?? And Frank says he's going to be putting up a 'heat' map as well... good stuff!
- Using LINQ to XML in Silverlight 2
- Martin Mihaylov has an article up on SilverlightShow about LINQ to XML ... I think the title says it all, and it's done in Martin's great tutorial style with a bunch of links to other references ... a good post, Martin!
- What is Silverlight
- John Stockton wrote a very nice post on What is Silverlight ... funny, I had someone just ask me that about 2 weeks ago... I think I'll send him this link :) John follwed that up with How to Learn Silverlight , and I'm showing that here, even though he didn't include SilverlightCream as a resource... or my other site :)
- Designing a Silverlight 2 Beta 2 Skin with Blend - Free download (with source files!)
- Felix Corke sent me this link from his blog. He's produced a very nice subdued-color skin, and talks through how he did it in Blend, plus has the source, and links out to other resources. Need to see what else he has on his blog :)
- Intermediate Level - Creating a "Silverlight Notepad" module
- Michael Washington added another piece to the SilverlightDesktop with this great detailed tutorial on building a new module for his SilverlightDesktop project... maybe you should go install SilverlightDesktop :)
- IE8 Forward/Back in a Silverlight 2 (Beta 2) Application
- Michael Scherotter revisited the IE8 back/forward code from a few days ago with this one in SL2B2... I'm a tad late posting it... he actually only took a day to get it going in B2! ... and all the code is available!
- More articles on Visual State Manager
- The Expression Blend Team Blog posted a nice list of VSM links ... it's nice having these together, but the only one that's not already in the SC database is the one from Steven White ... and wow... they've got a bunch of videos out there... I'm adding that to the SC blog list and will be posting some links to them myself :)
- Quick Silverlight tip: Why my ActualWidth and ActualHeight equal 0?
- Tamir Khason posted this short and to the point article that will help you figure out why ActualWidth and ActualHeight are not, well, actual... :)
Stay in the 'Light!
Twitter SLNews | Join me @ SilverlightCream | SL Web Articles | SL2 Web Articles | My Articles | My Tutorials | My Tooltips | My SL2 Articles | My SL2 ToolTips | SilverlightCream
