Friday, February 29, 2008

What makes me laugh.

That the video hosted on Microsoft Research's World Wide Telescope site is hosted with a Flash media player.

Can't somebody on the Silverlight team help them out a bit?

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space telescopes in the world for a seamless, guided exploration of the universe.

WWTelescope

Sounds impressive though... can't wait to see it.

The best part about it.  The dedication.

Q. What will WorldWide Telescope cost?

A. Microsoft Research is dedicating WorldWide Telescope to the memory of Jim Gray and is releasing WWT as a free resource to the astronomy and education communities with the hope that it will inspire and empower people to explore and understand the universe as never before.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Even a chimp can write code : Ashish Shetty's weblog

Pageturn v2.0?

The British Library's Turning The Pages project is currently featuring 5 treasures from across the United Kingdom. In addition to the Windows Vista version (specifically a WPF browser app a.k.a. XBAP) of the app, there's now a new Silverlight version for broader browser and platform reach.

Even a chimp can write code : Ashish Shetty's weblog

Sharepoint & Silverlight Web Part

 

A SharePoint Silverlight Web Part which displays SharePoint Documents and Pictures in a rich Silverlight flow control.
See SharePoint Silverlight Browser in action Silverlight Browser Video or read more on Ian's Blog

Features

Read More
Silverlight Flow Control

- Rich Silverlight user interface
- Change background colour etc.
- Silverlight 1.1 Alpha(September Refresh)

Read More
Custom SharePoint Query Filter

- Customise which Documents and Images are displayed
- Filter by Current Site
- Filter by Sub-Sites
- Filter by Site Collection
- Filter by Content Type
- Filter by File Extension
- Filter by individual SharePoint lists

System Requirements

Server: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0)

Client: Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 Alpha September Refresh.

Download WebPart

SharePoint Silverlight Browser supports both Microsoft SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007).
Triplewood.Silverlight.Browser.Beta1.zip

Triplewood - Sharepoint Portal Server Software and Consulting

Crash Course in Next-Gen RIA: AIR, Silverlight, and JavaFX

Good intro to 3 technologies vying for attention.

Crash Course in Next-Gen RIA: AIR, Silverlight, and JavaFX

Get a hands-on introduction to the newest RIA technologies from Adobe, Microsoft, and Sun by building demo applications using AIR (Flex), Silverlight (CLR), and JavaFX.

Crash Course in Next-Gen RIA: AIR, Silverlight, and JavaFX

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

VectorMagic | Precision Bitmap to Vector Conversion Online

If you want to convert your images into vector graphics for use in Silverlight, here is step 1.

VectorMagic | Precision Bitmap to Vector Conversion Online

Uca Blog - A Second Attempt at Exporting XAML from Visio 2007

Another Visio to XAML converter...

Some times ago, I developped a svg to xaml converter based on SharpVector library. I mainly use this tool for working on silverlight projects. It reads svg input convert it to xaml and can manipulate xaml objects. (Replace rectangle geometries with Rectangle, set canvas as a bounding box of inner elements, remove default values,...).
After reading this post, I've just plug my convert library and here are the results :

Uca Blog - A Second Attempt at Exporting XAML from Visio 2007

Visio to XAML Conversion

I'm currently studying for the Visio exam 70-545.  It will be interesting to see where this "Visio to Silverlight" conversion tool leads us.

This opens up a whole new world for Silverlight and WPF developers. 

Think of the possibilities of converting network diagrams/flow charts/etc to add to Silverlight and WPF apps.

It'll be nice to avoid the old “convert to EPS, load in Illustrator, then export to XAML“ workflow.

Visio to XAML Conversion

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Make Your .NET Data More Useful with Treemap Visualization

Someday someone will port this to Silverlight...  

The Microsoft Treemap control requires your XML to be formatted in a particular way in order to successfully parse and render the data. An example of this XML is seen in the following code:


<Nodes EmptySizeMetric="0">
<Node Text="Americas" SizeMetric="50" ColorMetric="-40.1" ToolTip="Americas">
<Nodes EmptySizeMetric="0">
<Node Text="USA" SizeMetric="100" ColorMetric="0" ToolTip="USA">
<Nodes EmptySizeMetric="0">
<Node Text="Texas" SizeMetric="20" ColorMetric="40" ToolTip="Texas">
<Nodes EmptySizeMetric="0"/>
</Node>
<Node Text="California" SizeMetric="60" ColorMetric="0" ToolTip="California">
<Nodes EmptySizeMetric="0"/>
</Node>
</Nodes>
</Node>
<Node Text="Canada" SizeMetric="20" ColorMetric="200" ToolTip="Canada">
<Nodes EmptySizeMetric="0"/>
</Node>
</Nodes>
</Node>
<Node Text="Europe" SizeMetric="25" ColorMetric="100" ToolTip="Europe">
<Nodes EmptySizeMetric="0"/>
</Node>
</Nodes>

Source: Make Your .NET Data More Useful with Treemap Visualization

Monday, February 11, 2008

Microsoft has no sense for fashion?

Interesting story on Silverlight & the future of the web.

This all happened before in the land before the web

This story is a story about Silverlight, and how what you are about to see with Silverlight, happened already.

Software Development in the Real World: The Silverlight Strategy, this will be a great movie

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Julie Lerman Blog - Silverlight

Saving ink in silverlight 1.0

In the TabletPC SDKs and in WPF it's very easy to take an ink image and save it to an image format - BMP, JPG, etc.

Then came Silverlight and the InkPresenter and naturally I wanted to do the same. But it wasn't so easy.

Silverlight itself isn't bogged down with that functionality. So you first need to get the XAML representation of the Ink and send it to a service where either the TabletPC SDK or the WPF APIs are available. Even then you are not home free because the Silverlight ink is not quite the same as either of the other two. So you then need to extract data from the XAML representation of the Silverlight ink and create a new object for whichever API you choose.

This was all done in Silverlight 1.0. I haven't pulled this into Silverlight 1.1/2.0 yet, but it should all be the same and you still have to do the conversion on the server side. THe only difference of course, is the javascript needs to be converted to .NET code on the client side.

Julie Lerman Blog - Silverlight

Magnet/Scribbler - Windows Sideshow

Ok so where can I get one of these for under $50?

The MK140 FM Magnet/Scribbler is a portable device that functions like an electronic note pad with Windows SideShow capability. It combines the convenience of sticky notes with wireless access to Windows Vista. It can be easily attached to a refrigerator or wherever it is needed for maximum convenience.

Magnet/Scribbler

They also have a Sideshow e-Reader and a Blackberry-style wireless chatting tool under development

Monday, February 4, 2008

IR / Infrared LED keychain flashlights - Specialty IR / Infrared LED flashlights & IR illuminators

You'll need this for a wiimote whiteboard.

World's smallest, brightest Infrared Keychain Flashlights & IR Illuminators! Used by members of the Secret Service, these special-purpose Photons produce a powerful infrared beam invisible to the naked eye. Ideal for use with infrared night vision equipment and IR-sensitive video cameras.

IR / Infrared LED keychain flashlights - Specialty IR / Infrared LED flashlights & IR illuminators