Fear and Loathing in .NET
Tablet PC MVP
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Monday, March 15, 2010 #
Inspired by Chuck Norris and SharePoint: here’s Chuck Norris and Silverlight.
If you think of any more, let me know via Twitter. (@tableteer)
posted @ 12:52 AM
The Mail Online has a story about airships possibly making a comeback, but these aren’t your grandfather’s blimps.
Standing 98ft taller than Canary Wharf, packing 330,000 cubic metres of hydrogen gas and capable of lifting 396 tonnes, the Aircruise concept features penthouse apartments, bars and even dizzying glass viewing floors. Aircruise was created as the antithesis of a hurried, crowded passenger jet. London-based design and innovation company Seymourpowell wanted to rethink transport - on the premise 'slow is the new fast'. It could ferry 100 people from London to New York in a leisurely 37 hours as opposed to the seven it takes now by airplane.
Standing 98ft taller than Canary Wharf, packing 330,000 cubic metres of hydrogen gas and capable of lifting 396 tonnes, the Aircruise concept features penthouse apartments, bars and even dizzying glass viewing floors.
Aircruise was created as the antithesis of a hurried, crowded passenger jet. London-based design and innovation company Seymourpowell wanted to rethink transport - on the premise 'slow is the new fast'. It could ferry 100 people from London to New York in a leisurely 37 hours as opposed to the seven it takes now by airplane.
Penthouse apartments? That sure beats sitting in a fetal position for hours on end.
I want to live in one of these things! :)
Check out this video to get a better idea of what they’ve got planned.
posted @ 12:33 AM
Bea Stollnitz, formerly of Microsoft, gave a talk on Advanced Features for Line-of-Business Applications in Sliverlight and WPF at Øredev and now it’s on Vimeo.
The latest versions of Silverlight and WPF make it easier than ever to create compelling user interfaces. This presentation will cover advanced topics of these frameworks, with a special focus on features relevant to business applications. You will gain a solid understanding of virtualization, data validation, and other advanced areas that are sure to increase your productivity and effectiveness.
It looks like she has video embedded disabled, so you’ll have to watch the video on this page.
posted @ 12:12 AM
Today is Pi-Day (3 – 14) and even Google is marking the occasion.
Yeah, it’s like a geeky version of, well, I can’t really think of a good comparison.
posted @ 12:05 AM
Saturday, March 13, 2010 #
You may know about chucknorrisfacts.com and how tough he is, but did you know he’s into SharePoint?
Read the full list at Blair’s blog.
posted @ 1:32 AM
Friday, March 12, 2010 #
Mike Swanson has a blog post on the MIX10 conference taking place next week. Here are some of the highlights:
Keynoters:
I’ll be in MD, but my head will be in Vegas next week. ;)
posted @ 4:50 PM
A researcher at Brown came up with an interesting twist on the UX of typical IDEs (integrated development environments.
IDEs haven’t really changed radically since the early 2000s.
Sure, there have been updates, upgrades, and enhancements, but no one has done anything radically new in a long time.
So, how long before Visual Studio has a view like this? ;)
posted @ 1:08 PM
Adam Kinney shows us a sneak peek at the .toolbox design school for Silverlight and Expression tools.
The site will be launching soon, so follow @designtoolbox to be among the first know when it does.
The animation reminds me a bit of South Park. ;)
posted @ 11:56 AM
While doing some research for my talk on the Bing Maps Silverlight control, I discovered this store near where I went to college.
I’m impressed, my son Jake, barely three months old is already an entrepreneur. ;)
I wonder if they sell t-shirts. I could get one for him. :)
posted @ 11:04 AM
Thursday, March 11, 2010 #
Arrr, Cameron Albert is cookin' up a cool Sil'erlight Game Gar, Where can I find a bottle o'rum?
Sorry, I couldn’t resist using the Pirate Translator.
Cameron shares a screencast of the pirate themed game he’s developing in Silverlight.
posted @ 5:16 PM
If you plan on picking up Silverlight 4 Business Application Development – Beginner's Guide, you might as well save money. Use the following codes when purchasing directly from Packt Publishing.
MsSilver15 – Save 15% off hard copy of the book
MsSilver30 – Save 30% off the eBook
If you are a .NET developer looking to expand your skills into Silverlight this is a great introductory book.
The book gets you involved in the code right away and we try and keep the working code philosophy throughout. If you like to learn by doing, then this is the book for you.
So, what are you waiting for? Pre-order now. ;)
posted @ 5:05 PM
To go along with the links from my talk, here is the slide deck:
I’ll be giving a similar talks in the near future in the Mid-Atlantic area, so keep an eye on my blog and Community Megaphone for more details.
posted @ 3:39 PM
In case you're wonder WTH happened to the Silverlight SIG in January and February: you may have heard the good news: I'm a dad now!
You may not have heard the bad news: I seriously injured my shoulder in January.
In fact, I’ll be doing a Deep Dive talk on Silverlight 4. [add to calendar]
If you can't wait until March 31 to get your Silverlight fix, keep a close eye on the goings on next week at MIX10. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I won’t be able to make it this year. :(
Congratulations are in order to the Leonard Van Lowe (@lvanlowe), the new vice-president of the SIG.
He's a local Silverlight expert and all around great guy. He'll be there to help run the group and make sure I am no longer a single point of failure.
We're looking for sponsors to help support the group. Seriously, we need sponsors. Our pizza fund is in jeopardy.
see more dog and puppy pictures
I'll bring cake to a meeting in the near future to celebrate the publication of my Silverlight 4 book, but unless more sponsors step up, that'll be all the food we'll get for a while. Contact us for details. (frank@franksworld.com or scott@caparea.net)
There are a lot of great things coming down the pipe this year: Windows Phone 7, Silverlight 4, etc..
Here's to a great 2010, even if we have to start it in March. ;)
Follow us on Twitter => @SilverlightDC
posted @ 3:29 PM
Thanks to everyone who attended my Bing Maps & Silverlight talk the other night at the North Jersey .NET User Group.
It was good to be home, even if just virtually.
As promised here are some links I mentioned in my talk.
Paul (@moon) was kind enough to record the session on video and post it to his site, so you can relive the entire experience. ;)
posted @ 3:06 PM
Despite my best efforts, MIX10 was just not in the cards for me. I think the hardest part of not going will be telling the dogs: I think they were looking forward to the buffets.
While I may be stuck in Maryland, my head will be in Vegas next week. I’ll keep a close watch on all the live video feeds, recorded sessions and breaking news coming out next week.
posted @ 2:53 PM
Star Wars + Lego = Pure Awesome.
posted @ 2:50 PM
Friday, March 05, 2010 #
I’ll be speaking via web-conference at the North Jersey .NET User Group (aka N3UG) on Tuesday, March 9.
Session Abstract The Silverlight Bing Maps control is one of the coolest and most practical uses for Silverlight ever. Learn how to make your site geographically aware, provide directions, get traffic data and more. Bio Frank La Vigne has been hooked on software development since he was 12 when he got his own Commodore 64 computer. Since then, he's worked as developer for financial firms on Wall Street and in Europe. He has worked on various Tablet PC solutions and building advanced user experiences in Silverlight and WPF. He lives in the suburbs of Washington, DC. He founded the CapArea.NET User Group Silverlight Special Interest Group. Once upon a time, he lived in North Jersey and attended N3UG regularly. He blogs regularly at www.FranksWorld.com.
Session Abstract
The Silverlight Bing Maps control is one of the coolest and most practical uses for Silverlight ever. Learn how to make your site geographically aware, provide directions, get traffic data and more.
Bio
Frank La Vigne has been hooked on software development since he was 12 when he got his own Commodore 64 computer. Since then, he's worked as developer for financial firms on Wall Street and in Europe. He has worked on various Tablet PC solutions and building advanced user experiences in Silverlight and WPF. He lives in the suburbs of Washington, DC. He founded the CapArea.NET User Group Silverlight Special Interest Group. Once upon a time, he lived in North Jersey and attended N3UG regularly. He blogs regularly at www.FranksWorld.com.
N3UG was the first user group I ever attended and I’m excited to speak there again.
Here’s a sneak peek of what we’ll be building, though I’ll re-factor it to focus in on NJ. :)
posted @ 11:59 AM
Thursday, March 04, 2010 #
Charlie Kindle blogs about some of the details of Windows Phone 7 development, taking the wraps off many mobile geeks have been eagerly awaiting:
In just over a week we (finally!) get to pull the cover off of the Windows Phone application & game developer experience at MIX10. There, through keynotes and more than 12 technical sessions over 3 days, we will “tell all” about the what and how of the new developer platform for Windows Phones. [. .. .] The Windows Phone 7 Series developer platform is as different as the new user experience. It’s fresh. It’s pure. And it’s powerful. We took the feedback we gathered from developers, looked at the full potential of Windows Phone 7 Series and landed on 3 basic goals for the platform we’re delivering; Enable end users to be able to personalize their phone experience through a large library of innovative, compelling, games and applications. Enable developers to profit. Advance the “3 screen plus cloud” vision The first one is pretty obvious: A key value proposition for Windows Phone is personal. We believe consumers will use games and applications to make their phone experience their own.
In just over a week we (finally!) get to pull the cover off of the Windows Phone application & game developer experience at MIX10. There, through keynotes and more than 12 technical sessions over 3 days, we will “tell all” about the what and how of the new developer platform for Windows Phones.
[. .. .]
The Windows Phone 7 Series developer platform is as different as the new user experience. It’s fresh. It’s pure. And it’s powerful.
We took the feedback we gathered from developers, looked at the full potential of Windows Phone 7 Series and landed on 3 basic goals for the platform we’re delivering;
The first one is pretty obvious: A key value proposition for Windows Phone is personal. We believe consumers will use games and applications to make their phone experience their own.
The bottom line is that you’ll be able to use Silverlight and XNA to develop for the new Windows Phone.
A lot of this will be revealed at MIX10, but in the meantime, Charlie lists out the following resources:
If you like blogs, I suggest you follow these guys as well; they are all part of the extended team of people at Microsoft who are helping to deliver the new platform. Andre Vrignaud: www.ozymandias.com / @ozymandias Christian Schormann: electricbeach.org / @christianschormann Shawn Hargreaves: blogs.msdn.com/shawnhar / @shawnhargreaves Todd Brix: windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsphone / @toddbrix Anand Iyer: www.artificialignorance.net/blog / @ai Michael Klucher: klucher.com / @mklucher
If you like blogs, I suggest you follow these guys as well; they are all part of the extended team of people at Microsoft who are helping to deliver the new platform.
Andre Vrignaud: www.ozymandias.com / @ozymandias
Christian Schormann: electricbeach.org / @christianschormann
Shawn Hargreaves: blogs.msdn.com/shawnhar / @shawnhargreaves
Todd Brix: windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsphone / @toddbrix
Anand Iyer: www.artificialignorance.net/blog / @ai
Michael Klucher: klucher.com / @mklucher
posted @ 10:01 PM
I’ll be speaking at the next meeting of the CapArea.NET Silverlight SIG. At the risk of overdoing the self-promotion thing: here’s the Asbstract/Speaker bio:
Silverlight 4 Deep Dive Wednesday, March 31, 2010 at 7:00 PM [Add to Calendar] The ink on Silverlight 3 books were barely dry when Microsoft announced Silverlight 4. Come to this talk and get up to speed quickly on the must know features of Silverlight 4. Web Cam/Mic access, Fully trusted applications, COM access and more! Speaker Bio: Frank La Vigne has been hooked on software development since he was 12 when he got his own Commodore 64 computer. Since then, he's worked as developer for financial firms on Wall Street and in Europe. He has worked on various Tablet PC solutions and building advanced user experiences in Silverlight and WPF. He lives in the suburbs of Washington, DC. He founded the CapArea.NET User Group Silverlight Special Interest Group. He blogs regularly at www.FranksWorld.com.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010 at 7:00 PM [Add to Calendar]
The ink on Silverlight 3 books were barely dry when Microsoft announced Silverlight 4. Come to this talk and get up to speed quickly on the must know features of Silverlight 4. Web Cam/Mic access, Fully trusted applications, COM access and more!
Speaker Bio:
Frank La Vigne has been hooked on software development since he was 12 when he got his own Commodore 64 computer. Since then, he's worked as developer for financial firms on Wall Street and in Europe. He has worked on various Tablet PC solutions and building advanced user experiences in Silverlight and WPF. He lives in the suburbs of Washington, DC. He founded the CapArea.NET User Group Silverlight Special Interest Group. He blogs regularly at www.FranksWorld.com.
posted @ 9:35 PM
PocketNow has a bunch of “retro” commercials for Windows Mobile.
This one is my favorite: the “we have some catching up to do” line has a nice prophetic ring to it.
posted @ 9:27 PM
I’ve made some updates to the meeting detail widget for the CapArea.NET Silverlight SIG.
<br /></p>
If you’d like to place it on your site, simply use the following code:
1: <iframe src="http://www.franksworld.com/silverlight/meeting/"
2: frameborder="0"
3: style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; width: 492px; height: 290px; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px">
4: <br />
5: </iframe>
6:
If you’re feeling really industrious, here’s the data file I am using for the both this and the countdown widget:
http://www.franksworld.com/Silverlight/Meeting/ClientBin/MeetingData.xml
Keep in mind that I may replace this with a WCF service and this endpoint might change.
posted @ 9:18 PM
Monday, March 01, 2010 #
I had some fun posting some funny headlines to Twitter that were generated by the Link Bait Generator. Despite what I may have posted from the @SilverlightDC account, the user group has never appeared in a music video.
At least not yet.
One of the other “uses” of the Link Bait Generator is to inspire actual blog posts and so here it is:
The 8 Insane but True Things About Frank’s World
Looking back, it’s interesting to see how the site has evolved and grown over time. I wonder where it’ll go next. :)
posted @ 12:10 PM
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 #
Some SysAdmins take their job very seriously.
posted @ 4:38 PM
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 #
In case you’re wondering what’s been going on in Frank’s World in the longer than average gaps between blog posts, I severely hurt my shoulder last month.
Since then, I’ve been doing physical therapy and healing. I’m out of the sling now and (mostly) out of pain. The doctors say I’ve made great progress.
When you hurt any part of your body, you quickly realize how often you use it and rely on it. This injury makes holding my son an excruciating experience. I still do it anyways, because he’s worth the trouble. :)
posted @ 1:39 PM
Monday, February 22, 2010 #
I came across these great screencasts by Mike Taulty on the networking stack in Silverlight 4.
A must watch for anyone interested in Silverlight development.
Part 1 - WebClient and HTTP GET, XMLPart 2 - WebClient and HTTP GET, RSS, ATOM, JSONPart 3 - WebClient, HttWebpRequest and HTTP POSTPart 4 - Cross Domain and Cross SchemePart 5 - HTTP Methods and StacksPart 6 - HTTP and Basic AuthenticationPart 7 - HTTP and Forms AuthenticationPart 8 - TCP SocketsPart 9 – UDP Multicasting
Tags: en-GB, Silverlight 4, SL4Networking
posted @ 9:19 PM
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