Tag Archives: Silverlight

Software Engineering Reference Posters

Posted by Steven Swafford on June 3, 2010

I’m not sure what side of the fence you may fall on when it comes to reference posters, but while I don’t have my work space walls plastered with them they are none the less very informative and useful. More often than not if you’re looking for a quick answer many of these reference posters do exactly that. Oh and it doesn’t hurt that these posters and let you true geek shine thru and you may become the envy around your fellow geeks. Just remember to hang them in a location where you will not have the team looking over your shoulder all the time. In fact, why not point them to this post and tell them to print their own copies! So take down that silly office photo and hang up something that provides value.

Microsoft

Visual Studio

BizTalk

Windows

Silverlight

Oracle

If you’re aware of posters on the subject Software Engineering that I have not listed, please contact me or leave a comment. Check back from time to time as I hope to grow this list.

The Microsoft Community Roundup

Posted by Steven Swafford on May 24, 2010

If you’re a Microsoft end user no matter if it is as a developer, consumer, or administrator then you may find this interesting. Are you looking for resources that can increase you knowledge or looking to find an answer to a question that you may have? If so, I will present a number of resources that you may or may not be aware of. While each resource may deal with a specific topic others may pertain to Microsoft products in general.

I work as a software engineer therefore my interest mainly resides within the area of development, but I will make every effort to add other topics as well. Should you have a suggestion, please contact me and I will get it added or leave a comment. It has been my experience that many experts in the field of Microsoft technologies are more than willing to help others. Remember, a community is a place to learn and interface with your peers.

Windows

Visual Studio .NET

Silverlight

SharePoint

MSDN

Office

Patterns and Practices

General Blogs and Communities

There you have it! Should you know of something I missed, please contact me or leave a comment.

Visual Studio 2010 Released To Maintenance

Posted by Steven Swafford on April 12, 2010

Today Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2010 to maintenance which probably means if you’re anything like me you are downloading your copy from MSDN as we speak. Don’t even get me started on the download speeds or interruptions with the file transfer manager but this is to be expected on day one. Even as I sit in Auburn, Alabama Wishing I Was At The Visual Studio 2010 Launch Event this week, it simply was not to be. Thank goodness for Twitter (#VS2010) and Microsoft, I almost feel like I am at the event, almost. Microsoft also announced that Silverlight 4.0 will go RTM later this week so you may want to keep an eye out for this product as well.

Before I go into detail on this release, I want to point you to a number of wallpapers you can download and a Windows 7 Theme to show your pride on Microsoft reaching this milestone. As well if you are considering making the move to Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 then you may be interested in the draft preview of Moving to Visual Studio 2010 eBook.

The book is not a language primer, a language reference, or a single technology book. It’s a book that will help professional developers move from previous versions of Visual Studio (starting with 2003 and on up). It will cover the features of Visual Studio 2010 through an application. It will go through a lot of the exciting new language features and new versions of the most popular technologies without putting the emphasis on the technologies themselves. It will instead put the emphasis on how you would get to those new tools and features from Visual Studio 2010.

I have always been an early adopter of many software products and this especially holds true for the Visual Studio IDE and .NET framework. Before you begin making an argument of why it is bad to jump in head first, I ask you to first think about the positive aspects of early adoption. It is always easy to state the negative without considering the positive. In fact, I am considering putting together a presentation for my management leaning of course to early adoption. I am sure I will experience a number of questions and concerns as any good manager should voice. Where do you stand? Will you consider early adoption and if so why?

Visual Studio 2010 Editions

It is important to understand the various editions and the functionality that they provide. While you most likely may be able to make due with the Professional edition you may find that you need to purchase other editions based up you needs. Microsoft has put together a product comparison to assist you in this decision making process (see the image below). If you are just beginning down the path of .NET development, Learn ASP.NET is an excellent resource and have well over 750 video and may with source code.

visual studio 2010 editions

Downloads

In my opinion Microsoft has always done a great job over recent years in providing training kits, free software downloads, and community support. The news of Visual Studio 2010 is no different! Here are a list of resources to get you started:

Well as you can see a great deal of downloads are out there and there is plenty to keep you busy. If you are jumping to Visual Studio 2010 why not leave a comment about you like and dislikes? Good luck and happy coding!

Microsoft Desktop Player Provides A Method Of Learning

Posted by Steven Swafford on April 8, 2010

If you live in the world of Information Technology I am sure that you have painfully came to the conclusion that learning is a never ending activity. In fact over the last decade technology has progressed so rapidly that I find it difficult to stay on top of learning activities. All one has to do is look at the history or Microsoft .NET and the progression of the framework. In a period of eight years .NET software engineers has seen a progression of the framework to that latest release of 4.0 which most likely will be discussed in detail at the Visual Studio 2010 Global Launch in Las Vegas, Nevada later this month. Now if Microsoft or any of it’s partners want to throw me any swag please feel free to do so since I am unable to attend the launch event.

Version Version Number Release Date Visual Studio
1.0 1.0.3705.0 2002-02-13 Visual Studio .NET
1.1 1.1.4322.573 2003-04-24 Visual Studio .NET 2003
2.0 2.0.50727.42 2005-11-07 Visual Studio 2005
3.0 3.0.4506.30 2006-11-06
3.5 3.5.21022.8 2007-11-19 Visual Studio 2008
4 RC 4.0.30128.1 2010-02-10 Visual Studio 2010

Microsoft provides a high number of training opportunities both free and at cost recently I ran across the Desktop Player Beta which looks very promising. This player provides the capability to filter learning by roles, resources, and focus.

microsoft desktop player

It is important to note that this is a Silverlight application which means it can be ran inside out outside the web browser. At this time to content that is available however this is to be expected since the product is in the beta stage. If I had the opportunity to provide feedback to Microsoft I would like to see the following included:

  • Aggregate video content from the ASP.NET website and other resources.
  • Tie in learning objectives and tracking.
  • Community interaction.

I am not entirely sure the Microsoft vision on this product, but from my point of view there is a great potential for both in the form of value added capabilities and end user adoption. I must admit it would be wonderful to have a one stop shop when it comes to learning. If you’re a Twitter fan I suggest you consider following MSLearning to keep up to date with what is occurring in the area of Microsoft learning. If a certification is in your future then you may want to visit an earlier article titled Microsoft Certified Professional Training.

Other Resources

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Free Webinar on March 18th – How NBC, Microsoft and Inlet Delivered a Large-Scale Live IIS Smooth Streaming Event

Posted by Steven Swafford on March 16, 2010

The live streaming of the Olympic Winter Games presented challenges of tremendous scale and complexity, ultimately delivering more than 45 million live streams over 710 million page views! Online Olympics viewers enjoyed a vastly improved quality of experience—including the first Olympics to be streamed in HD—thanks to IIS Smooth Streaming and Silverlight. During this webcast, you will hear from Perkins Miller of NBC, Mark Ramberg of Microsoft, and John Bishop of Inlet Technologies, who will tell you: Why NBC chose Microsoft Silverlight and IIS Smooth Streaming for the Olympics and the results they realized How Silverlight and IIS Smooth Streaming were used to create the Vancouver experience How adaptive technology works in a large-scale streaming implementation The importance of time synchronization and teamed encoders How to start delivering your content with IIS Smooth Streaming.

Go here to read the rest:
Free Webinar on March 18th – How NBC, Microsoft and Inlet Delivered a Large-Scale Live IIS Smooth Streaming Event

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