Silverlight | Software Development in the Real World

August 5, 2009 By miguelcarrasco 82 Comments

Silverlight, Twitter, Azure, WPF Mash Up

I use twitter a lot these days (follow me here), which is why I haven’t been blogging as much these days. I was on the lookout for some cool new Twitter clients and ran into Sobees. For those that haven’t heard of it yet, its made up of a couple of different cutting edge technologies and really provides an amazingly slick user experience.

Taking a look at the Silverlight application, there are a ton of awesome features that I loved. As a software developer I was very impressed with the re-sizing ability, the way they work with Azure, and the integration between twitter and the technologies.

You can then of course install the Silverlight 3.0 application on your desktop, which leverages the Silverlight Out-of-Browser to accomplish this. And if that’s not enough, of course you can go to the Sobees.com web site and has them to download a WPF version of the application.

As you can see, the install process is really cool and easy. Within seconds you will have an application on your desktop that gives you complete control of the user experience.

Anyway, I don’t want to be too long winded, but make sure you check out the site and try out Sobees. You will love it.

Filed Under: Silverlight, Twitter

May 20, 2009 By miguelcarrasco 98 Comments

Silverlight vs. Flash SmackDown

The Silverlight vs. Flash SmackDown was a smashing success!

Thanks to everyone that made it out to the Silverlight vs. Flash SmackDown event yesterday in Winnipeg. It was a lot of fun to present the content on the Silverlight side, and have some friendly banter back and fourth with Darren Osadchuks who presented Flash.

We had nearly 200 people in attendance and completely jam packed the Carol Shields Auditorium at the Millennium Library. In fact we had to get an “overflow” room setup last minute that we streamed the event to via the new web site: TechSmackDown.com. TechSmackDown will have all the event video footage and PowerPoint’s posted shortly.

Everyone was glued to their seats for the entire 2 and a half hour event. In fact when asked if anyone wanted to take a break, nobody raised their hands. A ton of prizes were given out thanks to our sponsors: Anvil Digital, Protegra, Microsoft, redgate, Apress, O’Reilly, Wrox, and CDot Networks. The event was the first event put on by all three tech user groups in the city: Winnipeg.net User Group, Flash in the Peg, and New Media Manitoba.

If you can’t wait to play with some of the technologies that were shown last night, make sure to check out: http://www.microsoft.com/expression/ You can download trial versions of Expression Studio Tools, or even try out Expression Blend 3 Preview!

So for those that want to check out the demo’s for themselves, lets do a quick run through right now.

Sketchflow Rocks The House

I think Sketchflow is probably the single most innovative technology to come out of Microsoft in the last decade. I know it sounds crazy but its just true! After all the innovation we had done in software, 70% of all IT projects still fail! Sketchflow is going to change that! I started by showing how to draw with wiggly styles in Sketchflow and present the client with options. We then moved into creating documentation from our sketches like magic! I’m pretty sure I saw tears of happiness in most people’s eyes, followed by some crazy applause!

We then moved on to actually creating an awesome application by importing a PhotoShop file, and then making an application in Silverlight using blend that followed all the styles that were created in PhotoShop! Many thanks to Jon Harris for getting me ready to rock for this demo.

Silverligh Dominates Video

I showed how the YouTube experience of watching Big Buck Bunny was pretty bad, as was Vimeo. I then loaded up Expression Media Encoder and showed off all the amazing features it had and produced a pretty cool video. I then showed the new Big Buck Bunny video with Adaptive Streaming with Silverlight. People couldn’t believe the quality and the features it had. Skipping, rewinding, amazing quality of video… running on a Mac! On Internet at a Library!

Some other great Silverlight Examples

In closing I tried to show off some of the great implementations out there that take advantage of Silverlight! Here are some of them:

The message was clear, designers and developers need to find a way to work together better! Silverlight and the Expression tools offers something unique to the equation with Sketchflow, which will launch in Expression Studio 3.

Fun was had by all! Check out the massive crowd! And this is just one room, the other overflow room had another 30 or so people watching across the hall on a live stream!

Darren did an awesome job explaining the entire Adobe Flash Platform. As a .net guy, I must admit it was pretty impressive as well.

Here’s a wide angle shot of the crowd! Our goal was to get designer and developers in the same room and really pump them up about building awesome web applications! Silverlight vs. Flash was the title of the event, but at the end of the day, I think it was really clear that everyone is going to win in the Microsoft vs. Flash Battle of the Titans.

As a reminder to everyone that was at the event, the slides and video of the event will be posted very shortly at TechSmackDown.com.

Filed Under: Adobe, Blend, Flash, Microsoft Expression, Silverlight, User Experience Tagged With: Flash, Silverlight, Smackdown

April 16, 2009 By miguelcarrasco 117 Comments

Battle of the Titans: The Silverlight and Flash SmackDown

Silverlight-vs-Flash-Smackdown

See Adobe Flash go head to head with Microsoft Silverlight, maybe walk away with an XBOX 360.

Finally, SmackDown has come back to Winnipeg on May 19^th, 2009! For the first time under one roof, New Media Manitoba, Flash in the Peg, and the Winnipeg .net User Group bring you The Silverlight and Flash SmackDown! This is, without a doubt the most electrifying topic in web development today! We are about to shake things up and end the fall season with a bang! Developers and Designers finally under one roof! A merger of design and development, with one lucky attendee walking away with an XBOX 360! Register here today, spaces will fill up fast! We now have over $12,000 in prizes to give away!

The Silverlight Story

What is Silverlight anyway? Microsoft MVP Miguel Carrasco will walk you through 5 powerful scenarios that will leave you going “I didn’t know you could do that with Silverlight”. Learn how Sketch Flow will forever change the way you build your application prototypes. See how powerful enterprise application development tools like Visual Studio Team Systems integrate directly with Expression Blend and Silverlight. Learn how important Designer and Developer Workflow is and how Microsoft Silverlight uses the most advanced Adobe Photoshop Importer you have ever seen. If that wasn’t enough, learn how the next generation of video on the web is being powered by Microsoft’s Silverlight H.264 Video Streaming support.

The Flash Platform

Think Flash is good for just pretty animations? Think again! Adobe Flash is the heart of the Flash Platform, a set of tools and technologies that provide everything you need to create exciting Rich Internet Applications and content, from the browser to the desktop to mobile. Darren Osadchuk from Flash in the Peg, Winnipeg’s Adobe User Group, will introduce you to the Flash Platform. He’ll show you some of the new animation tools in Flash CS4, how Flash integrates with other Adobe Creative Suite 4 applications, and what the Flash Platform brings to RIA development for the web and the desktop.

This is the event of the year you won’t want to miss! Flash, Silverlight, Adobe, Microsoft. Who knows what could happen, so come out and meet your other half! After all designers need developers, and developers need designers! Two immovable objects are about to collide, and hopefully everyone will be enlightened to the Flash and Silverlight Connection! Stick around till the end, and you could win an XBOX 360!

It’s gonna be a slobberknocker! Don’t miss it! May 19^th, 2009 @ 6pm at Carol Shields Auditorium on the 2nd floor of the Millennium Library.
Register Today!

We have moved the event to the Millennium Library to accommodate the crazy response! Just go to the Carol Shields Auditorium on the 2nd floor of the Millennium Library. Parking is super easy now! Spaces are still limited!

View PDF (Floor Plans | Map of Parking & Bus Stops Near Millennium Library)

Miguel Carrasco – Anvil Digital
Miguel Carrasco is a Microsoft MVP in Expression Studio. Miguel has spoken at various technology events including recently TechDays 2008. He was also recently a judge on the Microsoft Ignite IT 2009 panel and recently selected as Web Development Track co-lead for Microsoft TechDays 2009. Miguel works with an impressive team of developers and designers at Anvil Digital that create impressive applications using ASP.net AJAX, Silverlight, WPF, Flash, and FLEX. An enthusiastic speaker, Miguel loves getting the crowd involved and creating excitement about the tools, technology, and best practices to building amazing applications.

Darren Osadchuks – Ludicrous Software
Darren Osadchuk owns and operates Ludicrous Software. In business since 2005, Ludicrous Software develops games and interactive content for the web and mobile platforms. Until recently, Darren was a civil servant for the Manitoba government, but is much, much happier now. Darren is an Adobe Certified Expert in Flash Lite, and was a speaker at Adobe MAX 2008. Darren also manages Flash in the Peg, Winnipeg, Manitoba’s Adobe User Group.

Event Sponsors

Technorati Tags: Silverlight,Flash,Adobe,Microsoft

Filed Under: Adobe, Events, Flash, Microsoft, Silverlight Tagged With: .net User Group, Flash, Silverlight, Smackdown

February 17, 2009 By miguelcarrasco 64 Comments

NCAA March Madness Streaming with Silverlight

Ever tried watching a popular sporting event online only to be disappointed at the poor quality? Well this year CBS will be streaming the NCAA Men’s Basketball March Madness Tournament with Microsoft Silverlight. With the Silverlight player, CBS will be able to send streams of up to 1.5 mpbs to millions at home (or at work) watching! For those that think this is just a publicity stunt, please remember that last year the NCAA March Madness On Demand had 4.8 million viewers and generated $23 million in advertising revenue.

In previous years CBS had to build “waiting rooms” for people that were too late to in line to watch the games. This year will be very different. With Facebook integration, expect this viewing experience to be unlike any other you have experienced to date.

Silverlight has been gaining ground in the last year, despite some comments from Adobe that Silverlight has “fizzled”. There are now over 100 million installations of Silverlight. Some high profile events have been brought to you exclusively via Silverlight. Obama’s Inauguration, Olympics in Beijing, and many other sporting events. However, where Silverlight will truly take off is when business’s start to realize that the User Interface is an integral aspect of what makes software successful. Since I can remember, businesses around the world have mainly focused on the “back-end” to software applications. The User Interface and User Experience has always been an afterthought. Is it a surprise that nearly 80% of Software Development projects can be considered failures?

When businesses realize that the User Experience is important enough to have talented designers and user experience experts work on them instead of your typical software developer, you will see technologies that enable the imagination to run wild take over. Buildings don’t use the same architect that designs structure and support, to design the aesthetics of a building. That would be disastrous. Why then do we expect software developers that don’t like design, to design user interfaces? You either need UX experts, or you need your developers to become UX experts. And they will need new technologies to make their ideas reality!

These technologies include Silverlight, WPF, and other Adobe competitors. But when it comes to business applications, Microsoft tends to have the edge. In the next few years Flash will become more of a web toy and Silverlight will become a real development platform. That’s my prediction anyway.

Filed Under: Microsoft Expression, Silverlight Tagged With: NCAA March Madness, Silverlight

January 20, 2009 By miguelcarrasco 60 Comments

Watch Obama’s Inauguration

Barack Obama - Change we can beleive in The eyes of the world will be on Barack Obama today as he takes the oath of the office to become the 44th President of the United States. Over a million people will be at the event. With the advances in technology in the last few years, Barack Obama’s inauguration will be the most well documented inauguration in history. Social Networking sites and tools will all be a buzz for the entire day. Cell phone networks will be working overtime. What is the best way to watch Obama’s Inauguration?

The Moment will be a pretty cool site to check out over the next few hours. Photosynth allows a series of two-dimensional pictures to be stitched and interpolated into a three-dimensional representation of a moment in time. The more angles and photos, the more complete the rendering. I’ve made a few myself in the past and the output is very impressive!

Also if you want to just watch the live stream on the official Presidential Inauguration Committee stream, make sure you go to their live Barack Obama Inauguration Live Feed. The stream is powered by Microsoft Silverlight technologies.

Filed Under: Imaging, Microsoft Research, Real World News, Silverlight Tagged With: Barack Obama, Silverlight