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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
I have a Mac. Nothing fancy, just a small MacBook. I don't think it was a reaction to leaving Microsoft. In fact, I dual-boot it with Windows Vista. I need Vista because I am a Windows developer, after all. Having said that, I have grown to like the Mac. These days I'm doing most of my admin in the Mac partition, although I do use Microsoft Office:mac 2008.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to try my hand at development on the Mac. I should say that I was a C and C++ developer earlier in my career, which makes it easier for me to adapt to Objective-C Cocoa development than would be the case if I had only done .NET development.
There's a lot I could say by way of comparison between Mac Cocoa dev and .NET development for Windows. Maybe I will say more about it at some point. For now, let me just say that .NET developers have a much easier time of things than our Mac brethren.
Some of my time at Microsoft was spent in a marketing group, and one of the facts of life there is that, among all Microsoft's customers, developers are some of the harshest critics of the company. All I can say is, some of those developers should try building apps for the Mac. I think they might have a bit more love for Microsoft afterwards :-)
For a long time Microsoft has courted developers. I think their focus on maintaining a productive development platform has helped their success in no small part. Apple on the other hand seems to do almost nothing for developers. Their online documentation is extremely dry compared with MSDN, and their development tools are idiosyncratic, to say the least.
So, .NET developers, consider those worse off than yourself :-) And if Apple ever gets its act together and produces an online developer marketing channel* to rival MSDN then Microsoft will really have something to worry about.
I haven't given up on Mac development. It's harder, but that's not necessarily bad. It's always useful to have more strings to your bow.
*yes, MSDN is a marketing channel. You knew that, didn't you?
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
I just saw one of the latest batch of Microsoft TV adverts (I'm in the UK by the way). As usual, it's banal, and leaves me wondering what the heck it was trying to say. For such a wealthy company, Microsoft has some shockingly-bad TV commercials. When I worked there, I seem to remember that most of my colleagues agreed.
Look at the Mac vs. PC campaign run by Apple (which I guess this new Microsoft ad is playing on). They were fun. Enjoyable to watch. They made a point. People remembered them. All this Microsoft ad ("I'm a PC") did is remind me of the Apple campaign and help cement Apple's message in my mind.
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
Just noticed that the BBC is adopting Adobe AIR to create a platform-neutral download client for iPlayer. Erik Huggers says:
Today, we are announcing that in partnership with Adobe we are building a platform-neutral download client.
Using Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), we intend to make BBC iPlayer download functionality available on Mac, Linux and Windows for the first time later this year. Whatever platform you use, you'll now be able to download TV programmes from the BBC to watch later.
This follows much criticism of the BBC for its original Windows-only iPlayer.
Looks like Adobe has the BBC in its grip, technology wise, having ousted Microsoft from iPlayer completely – though I believe it is still experimenting with Silverlight’s Deep Zoom.
Technorati tags: adobe, microsoft, bbc, air, iplayer
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
Well I think most blogs already have this covered but Silverlight 2 is out!
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/10/14/silverlight-2-released.aspx
One question I asked (after I said congratulations on the release of course :D) was:
I have a question regarding a point made in the press release:
"Improved server scalability and expanded advertiser support. This includes new streaming and progressive download capabilities, superior search engine optimization techniques, and next-generation in-stream advertising support."
My question is about the "superior search engine optimization techniques" part. I am assuming you mean superior to Flash? I don't really care if it was meant to imply Flash or something else (don't want to kick that discussion off :D) but I can imagine that a lot of thought was given to what should be included in the press release and I was just wondering if there was more information about these superior search engine optimization techniques?
This is an area that interests me a lot so I was just wondering if something new has been added recently to Silverlight or if a document/whitepaper/article was published that I somehow missed?
Anyone else know if there is something I missed (I know there are ways of making Silverlight SEO friendly and I have mentioned them in the past but I was wondering if I missed something new)?
http://www.itproportal.com/articles/2008/10/14/bbc-partners-adobe-make-iplayer-platform-agnostic/
So the bbc iplayer will be a Flash/Air based implementation (The bbc got complaints that the iplayer only worked on certain operating systems). It is a shame Silverlight wasn't picked as that would have been a great win (in terms of increasing the installed base of Silverlight and in terms of a great case study on the power of Silverlight). The one thing really missing I guess is Linux support (I don't think the BBC could go with Moonlight for that side of things just yet). Who knows maybe everything isn't set in stone yet :D
John
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
For middle aged and older people at least, using the internet helps boost brain power, research suggests.
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
Microsoft have announced the availability of Silverlight 2, one of the industry’s most comprehensive and powerful solutions for the creation and delivery of applications and media experiences through a Web browser. Silverlight 2 delivers a wide range of new features and tools that enable designers and developers to better collaborate while creating more accessible, more discoverable and more secure user experiences.
Press Release
Download
Mark Harrison
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
A Canadian firm unveils software which prevents motorists using mobile phones by intercepting their calls on the road.
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
Conflict resolution for astronauts is about to go virtual
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
So I use SessionPageStatePersister in one of my project to keep ViewState to a minimum.
This really is a great class and great technique especially when dealing with developing countries.
The downside is that strange things can occur with this (especially if you use popups).
The Scenario
So lets say I do something with my page, launch a popup, within the popup, load 9 different pages, and then return to my original page.
What happens? I suddenly find my ViewState is trashed?
Why is my ViewState trashed?
If we reflect SessionPageStatePersister we will find there is a statement with the following condition:
&& (Count > 9)
Which will then dequeue and remove the viewstate item from the session, effectively trashing my viewstate for that page.
So how do I fix this?
In your web.config under system.web you need to add the following:
<sessionPageState historySize="100" /> (or whatever number you like)
The following MSDN page should help you out:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms228249.aspx
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
Rural areas are getting 3.5m euros to ensure they get access to high-speed broadband.
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
Has RTM'd ( as you might have noticed :-) ).
Tim has a great blog post here which covers it all and he links to Shawn’s post about his teams plans for controls which talks about additional controls.
Nothing that I can add right now - just in the process of moving to the released bits.
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
Today we shipped the final release of Silverlight 2. You can download Silverlight 2, as well the Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Blend 2 tool support to target it, here.
Cross Platform / Cross Browser .NET Development
Silverlight 2 is a cross-platform browser plugin that enables rich media experiences and .NET RIAs (Rich Internet Applications) within the browser.
Silverlight 2 is small in size (4.6MB) and takes only 4-10 seconds to install on a machine that doesn't already have it. It does not require the .NET Framework to be installed on a computer to run - the Silverlight setup download includes everything necessary to play video or run applications.
Developers can write Silverlight applications using any .NET language (including VB, C#, JavaScript, IronPython and IronRuby). Silverlight provides a rich set of features for development including:
- WPF UI Framework: Silverlight 2 includes a rich UI framework that makes building rich Web applications much easier. In includes a powerful graphics and animation engine, as well as rich support for higher-level UI capabilities like controls, layout management, data-binding, styles, and template skinning. The WPF UI Framework in Silverlight is a compatible subset of the WPF UI Framework features in the full .NET Framework, and enables developers to re-use skills, controls, code and content to build both rich cross browser web applications, as well as rich desktop Windows applications.
- Rich Controls: Silverlight 2 includes a rich set of built-in controls that developers and designers can use to quickly build applications. The Silverlight 2 release includes core form controls (TextBox, CheckBox, RadioButton, ComboBox, etc), built-in layout management panels (StackPanel, Grid, Panel, etc), common functionality controls (Slider, ScrollViewer, Calendar, DatePicker, etc), and data manipulation controls (DataGrid, ListBox, etc). All Silverlight controls support a rich control templating model, which enables developers and designers to collaborate together to build highly polished solutions.
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Rich Networking Support: Silverlight 2 includes rich networking support. It includes out of the box support for calling REST, WS*/SOAP, POX, RSS, and standard HTTP services. It supports cross domain network access (enabling Silverlight clients to directly access resources and data from resources on the web). It also includes built-in sockets networking support.
- Rich Base Class Library: Silverlight 2 includes a rich .NET base class library of functionality (collections, IO, generics, threading, globalization, XML, local storage, etc). It includes rich APIs that enable HTML DOM/JavaScript integration with .NET code. It includes LINQ and LINQ to XML library support (enabling easy transformation and querying of data), as well as local data caching and storage support. The .NET APIs in Silverlight are a compatible subset of the full .NET Framework.
- Rich Media Support: Silverlight 2 includes built-in video codecs for playing high definition video, as well as for streaming it over the web (including both live and on-demand support). Silverlight includes support for adaptively switching video bitrates on the fly based on network conditions (enabling users to avoid seeing the dreaded "buffering..." message), placing and metering ads within video streams, as well as enabling content protection.
The final Silverlight 2 release delivers a tremendous amount of power and flexibility that enables you to really push the boundaries of what can be done in a browser, and enable great end user experiences.
Silverlight Customers
Over the last few months a number of very high profile sites have successfully launched using the beta releases of Silverlight 2.
In August, NBC hosted the Olympics live on nbcolympics.com and served up 1.3 billion page views, 70 million video streams, and 600 million minutes of video content - making it the largest ever media event on the web. Users visiting the site spent an average of 27 minutes on the site when they watched a video - an unprecedented number for online traffic.
In August, the Democratic National Convention was streamed live using Silverlight, and broadcast a 2Mbit live video feed of the event and speeches - receiving outstanding feedback from audiences watching it.
This month a number of other high profile sites are going live with the final release of Silverlight 2. CBS College Sports Network will be streaming 20,000 hours of live games for 150+ college and university partners. AOL is launching their new AOL Mail browser version to 60 million users using Silverlight 2. Blockbuster will be launching their new MovieLink subscription service using Silverlight. Yahoo! Japan is live today enabling live streaming of Major League Baseball games. Hard Rock International will be updating their memorabilia site with new features. And companies like Toyota, HSN and hundreds of others will be live this week as well.
Silverlight Control Pack
Silverlight 2 ships with dozens of built-in UI controls that can be used to build applications. Below is a screen-shot of the Silverlight DataGrid, RadioButton, CheckBox and DatePicker controls in the final release:
Today we are also announcing the "Silverlight Control Pack" - which will deliver dozens of more controls that you can use with Silverlight 2. We will continually add new controls to the control pack over the next few months (we expect to ultimately have more than 100 controls total). The first release of the control pack will include controls like TreeView, DockPanel, WrapPanel, ViewBox, Expander, NumericUpDown, AutoComplete and more. All controls will ship with full source, and with a OSI license that allows you to modify and use the source for any purpose.
Interoperability
Today we are also announcing that Microsoft is partnering with Soyatec to sponsor additional tools for developing Silverlight applications using the cross platform Eclipse development platform. Click here to learn more about this and download the free Silverlight Eclipse plugin. Click here for a step-by-step tutorial that walks-through how to use their Eclipse tools today to build a Silverlight 2 application.
We are also announcing today that we are releasing the Silverlight XAML vocabulary and schema under the Open Specification Promise (OSP), which enables anyone to create products that read and write XAML for Silverlight.
Learning Silverlight 2
The best way to learn Silverlight 2 is to visit the www.silverlight.net web-site. You can find free online tutorials, videos and training available there. The site also hosts an online forum system where MVPs and Microsoft Silverlight team members will be able to help answer technical questions. Also make sure to subscribe to the Silverlight Community RSS Feed, Jesse Liberty's Blog, and Tim Heuer's Blog for a daily dose of great Silverlight content.
I've recently updated my Digg-client tutorial for the final Silverlight 2 release. This provides an end to end walkthrough of a Silverlight 2 application, and helps explain the different programming concepts behind it (controls, layout management, networking, data-binding, styles, user controls, control templates, etc). If you are brand new to Silverlight or WPF development I recommend walking through it to understand the basics:
You can develop Silverlight 2 applications using any version of Visual Studio 2008. Simply install the Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 download to get Silverlight tooling support within it.
If you do not have VS 2008, you can alternatively install the free Visual Web Developer 2008 Express SP1 Edition. This free tool provides great ASP.NET development tool support, and starting today also now supports Silverlight 2 development. You can follow all of the steps in my tutorial above using the Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition - and get full intellisense, debugging, and deployment support.
Upgrading from the Beta
If you have the Beta2 or RC versions of the VS Tools for Silverlight, or the Silverlight 2 Beta SDK or Developer Editions of Silverlight 2, please make sure to uninstall these completely before downloading and installing today's release.
End users who have Silverlight 1, or Silverlight 2 Beta1 or Beta2 will be automatically upgraded to the final Silverlight 2 release starting later this month. Until then, if they visit a Silverlight 2 (final release) site, they will see the standard install prompt that a machine that does not have Silverlight installed would see. Clicking it will upgrade their machines to the final release of Silverlight 2 (there is no need for them to uninstall anything - Silverlight 2 will cleanly install over Silverlight 1 or the previous betas).
Because there are some breaking changes between Silverlight 2 Beta2 and the final Silverlight 2 release, end users who have the final Silverlight 2 release installed will not be able to run applications that are still targeting Silverlight Beta2. Most major Silverlight 2 sites plan to upgrade to the final release in the next 24 hours (which will fix this issue) - if you hit a site built with Beta2 before then you might experience trouble with it. That should go away within about a day once all sites are updated though (this was one reason why we released the public release candidate last month - to help developers get their sites ready for the final release).
Summary
Silverlight 2 is a major release that enables some great new application and media experiences to be built, and allows developers to use .NET within any browser to create them.
Thank you for all your support and feedback the last year as we've worked on it. All of us on the Silverlight team are really excited to see what you build with it. :-)
Scott
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
In the post Import/Export to Excel , I showed how to export data to EXCEL The problem that most users find it is it wont include column names in the file and file should exists already with headings This procedure would solve that problem create procedure proc_generate_excel_with_columns ( @db_name varchar ( 100 ), @table_name varchar ( 100 ), @file_name varchar ( 100 ) ) as --Generate column names as a recordset declare @columns varchar ( 8000 ), @sql varchar ( 8000 ), @data_file varchar ( 100 )...(read more)
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
A spacecraft carrying a new crew for the International Space Station (ISS) docks with the orbiting outpost.
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
In a previous post I mentioned that phishing and spoofing were still very much in the mainstream. There are many tricks that scammers use in order to convince the unsuspecting Internet user to part with their financial details. One such trick is to send fake e-mails inviting users to click on an “eCard”. [...]
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
Today is the 200th Edition of The Morning Brew - many thanks to all of you who read daily. I’d like to claim that the release of Silverlight 2 later today was timed to coincide with this publishing milestone, but I suspect that its unrelated really
Software
FileMap now on GitHub - Tomas Restrepo [...]
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Published on 14 Oct 2008 from
The first trials of high-speed broadband based around fibre-optics will take place in Muswell Hill, London and Whitchurch, South Glamorgan.