Xperimentality

Looks like things have started moving forward with the next Alabama Code Camp.  The site has been updated with a new look.  It asks the question, "Do you believe in magic".  Interesting!  And the site is using Silverlight 1.0 RC!  The date is apparently Saturday October 6th.  No mention of venue yet.  A Silverlight contest has been announced and it looks like the winner is going to get a Zune!  Cool!

I will post more as the site gets updated.  I will be interested to see what the Silverlight contest is going to be.  If you want to watch the progress yourself, go to www.alabamacodecamp.com.

I am trying to get some things caught up...including some posts I have been wanting to make...so I am a little late with this news.   Unless you live under a rock, you have probably already heard this.  But for you rock dwellers, Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 Beta 2 has been released.

There are a couple of extra installation tasks that must be performed post installation.  Scott Guthrie has a nice post on some of the new features and the post installation tasks that must be performed.

It is time, my friends!  Silverlight RC 1.0 has been released.  Silverlight periodically checks for updates, but why wait....go and install it now.  Just remember a couple things:

If you develop Silverlight apps, take note of my previous blog post about the breaking changes in the RC.

If you just enjoy Silverlight apps as a user, please keep in mind that it may take some developers a short while to make modifications to their existing apps to accommodate some of the changes in this release.

ENJOY!

On July 13th, Tim Sneath posted that Silverlight 1.0 Release Candidate would be posted soon.  While that is great news, there is more to this post than just spreading that word!

There are some breaking changes that will be introduced in the release candidate.  But after this release, there should not be any further breaking changes once it is finally released.  Of course it could always happen, but it is nice to hear that the Silverlight team thinks this is a stable API release.

Tim includes a download link in his post that contains:

• a new silverlight.js file that detects both the beta and the RC version of the plug-in,
• a document that lists differences between the Beta and the RC releases,
• an updated Visual Studio template that can be used to correctly embed the new plug-in,
• and a EULA that governs the legal usage of the items in the above bullets.

Although we don't have access to the new plug-in yet, these items will allow us to get a head start on making our Silverlight programs compatible with the new RC prior to its release.  If you have been working with Silverlight 1.0 and/or doing presentations on it, I encourage you to be proactive and update your apps to be compatible with both the Beta and the RC.  That way, when it is released, you will be ready!

A couple of good resources of information on the RC and some of the breaking changes can be found at:
Tim Sneath's blog post on the upcoming RC release
Joe Stegman's blog post on the breaking changes

I found out today that I have been awarded the 2007 Microsoft MVP Award!  I got an email that started like this:

Dear Todd Miranda,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2007 Microsoft® MVP Award!
The Microsoft MVP Award is our way of saying thank you and to honor and support the significant contributions you make to communities worldwide. As a recipient of Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional award, you join an elite group of technical community leaders from around the world who foster the free and objective exchange of knowledge by actively sharing your real world expertise with users and Microsoft.  Microsoft salutes all MVPs for promoting the spirit of community and enhancing people’s lives and the industry’s success everyday.  To learn more about the MVP Program, visit: www.microsoft.com/mvp.

Your extraordinary efforts in Visual Developer - ASP/ASP.NET technical communities during the past year are greatly appreciated.

I am extremely honored (not to mention excited) to have been given this award and to be placed in the company of many of the other MVPs I have come to respect!  I truly enjoy being deeply involved in the technology community and look forward to continuing that involvement (and doing all I can to increase it).

If you do not know what the MVP Award is, below is a short description from the MVP Award site:

The Microsoft MVP Award recognizes exceptional technical community leaders from around the world who voluntarily share their high quality, real world expertise with others. Microsoft MVPs are a highly select group of experts representing technology's best and brightest who share a deep commitment to community and a willingness to help others. Worldwide, there are over 100 million participants in technical communities; of these participants, there are fewer than 4,000 active Microsoft MVPs.
Read More...

Someone brought to my attention that I had not mentioned some of the WPF videos I have put together.  Two of them are posted out on the WindowsClient.net site.

• Building Standard WPF Windows Applications
Building Navigation Based WPF Windows Applications

There are more that will be posted out there soon.  I'll post when they go live.

Well a few more Expression Web Videos are available on the Expression Knowledge Base page.  The videos that are out there now are:

• Work with Images in Expression Web
• Work With Hyperlinks in Expression Web
• Create a Template-based Web Site Web
• Create a Standard Web Site With Expression Web
• Use CSS Layout in Expression Web
• Using CSS Style Sheets in Expression Web

Go to the Expression Site to view the videos.

Two more of my videos on Expression Web have been posted to the Expression site.

Well on June 6th, my wife gave birth to our second little girl!  It was a great day.  For those of you with kids, you know what a joy it is to add a new child to your family.  For those of you who don't have kids, let me tell you, it is a very special thing!  Mom and baby are doing really well and the nights have not been too bad so far!