- Posted by christhi on December 19, 2008
I normally won't be blogging about pricing for any products but I felt a little compelled to in this case for two reasons. The level of discount Microsoft is offering for Christmas is worth noting as Expression Studio, for example is 50% off for a limited time. The second reason is I wanted to highlight Microsoft's new online store where you can directly purchase Expression and other items.
http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft/design/category/601
- Posted by christhi on December 18, 2008
We are very proud to announce one of Austin's award winning incubators, Austin Technology Incubator, has just enrolled in the BizSpark program for startups.
The ATI is a nonprofit organization that harnesses local business, government and academic resources to provide strategic counsel, operational guidance, and infrastructure support to its member companies to help them transition from early stage ventures to successful technology businesses.
The incubator has hosted technology ventures with interests and business connections in Canada, Brazil, Japan, Australia, England, Germany, China, and Israel. ATI's achievements have prompted several mayors' councils nationwide to send representatives to its facilities to learn more about how to generate business development and revitalize ailing municipal economies.
ATI was founded in 1989 by Dr. George Kozmetsky and first directed by Ms. Laura J. Kilcrease.
Potential companies are required to submit a business plan focused on a new technology-based product or service, have the potential to create jobs both locally and abroad, and have six months of working capital.
The ATI is a key program of the IC² Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. The incubator occupies university space in the MCC building in northwest Austin. The program is funded through member company fees. Member companies also grant a percentage of their equity to ATI. ATI is also supported by the University of Texas, the City of Austin, and the Austin community, and works with a variety of investors, a know-how network of professional service providers, outside industry experts, and others, for the benefit of its member companies.
IC² Institute of The University of Texas at Austin is a unique non-traditional center for research and educational excellence. The Institute is engaged in a quest for constructive forms of capitalism that will allow communities and nations to grow and prosper. To realize this vision IC² combines technology, entrepreneurship and education to improve the world by creating wealth and sharing prosperity.
For more information on ATI: http://www.ati.utexas.edu/
- Posted by christhi on December 17, 2008
I'll be presenting at the newly re-scheduled Houston TechFest on January 24th at the University of Houston. In my session I will be chatting about how to build RIA Business Applications using Blend 2 SP1, WPF, and SilverLight.
Session Abstract:
Microsoft Expression Blend 2 SP1 is the glue that brings together the designer and developer workflows (and with SP1 now produces SilverLight 2 Applications). It natively supports Visual Studio 2008 projects and allows designers and developers to work on the same files and resources allowing each to leverage their strengths in the application design process. In this session we will show how Expression Blend uses the power and flexibility of XAML to help deliver line of business applications (LOB) to both the desktop and the web via WPF and SilverLight using advanced controls such as the DataGrid and Calendar. Blend allows the designer to use their complete range of skills, leveraging libraries such as the RSS syndication feed, vector and pixel art, animations and data binding while seamlessly integrating into the developers workflow.
Register today at http://www.houstontechfest.com/dotnetnuke/default.aspx - the schedule will be updated shortly. We had to reschedule the orignal event from September 13th, 2008 due to Hurrican Ike.
- Posted by christhi on December 16, 2008
If you have some great powerpoints and would like to see them work as SilverLight applications in a few steps check out the following open source tool at
http://www.codeplex.com/pptx2silverlight
Some HightLights Include:
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PPT Convertor with WPF interface
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Presentation Gallery Control (fish-eye) to Show and Launch Converted PPT's
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Custom Web Server for Hosting Converted PPT's (No Dependency on IIS)
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Reusable PPT Viewer Component Showing Slides in familiar PowerPoint Look and Feel
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Slide Navigation Controls (backward-forward)
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Full Screen Mode in PPT Viewer
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Built with Silverlight 2.0 RTM
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Available with Installer
- Posted by christhi on December 16, 2008
MS Live Labs Releases Seadragon Mobile iPhone app
There are have been rumors of us creating solutions for the iPhone and I've had many folks approach me with questions of its validity. I think this is a great move for us and in no way invalidates the importance of the Windows Mobile platform. "Playing nicely" with other platforms is something we are doing very well as of late and this is, in my opinion, aonther giant step in that direction!
To summarize, Microsoft Live Labs released a demonstration of Seadragon Mobile, http://livelabs.com/seadragon-mobile for its first mobile platform, the iPhone, on Saturday Dec 13. For background, Microsoft Live Labs has been experimenting with Seadragon technology on different platforms to validate the experience for as broad an audience as possible. This technology is an experiment from Live Labs, and in the future the group intends to bring it to Windows Mobile as well. Seadragon is a way to see incredible detail from graphics and photos, regardless of the size of the screen, size of the file, or bandwidth of the network. At the core of its mission, Microsoft Live Labs is an applied research organization which advances the state of the art of Internet technologies and enables new scenarios for users. Bringing Seadragon technology to other platforms including Photosynth, Deep Zoom in Silverlight, Microsoft Surface, the recent release of Seadragon Ajax http://livelabs.com/seadragon-ajax/, and now the Seadragon Mobile viewer for the iPhone, are examples of Live Labs delivering on its mission and continuing to release and test the validity of its experiments with end users to collect feedback on the models and influence the next generation of Microsoft products and services.
While the Seadragon Deep Zoom technology used in Live Labs’ application for the iPhone has the same technological roots as Silverlight Deep Zoom, Silverlight Deep Zoom was not used for the Seadragon application for the iPhone. There is yet no comment on whether SilveLight will or will not be ported to the iPhone at this point.
FAQ
What is Seadragon Mobile? Seadragon Mobile is an experiment from Microsoft Live Labs in bringing Deep Zoom imagery to new platforms. Deep Zoom imagery is a way to see incredible detail from graphics and photos, no matter the size of the screen or size of the file—a multi-gigabyte image would display just as fast as one taken with a camera phone.
What specifically can end users do with the Seadragon Mobile viewer on the iPhone? The Seadragon Mobile iPhone app is a demonstration which will allow end users to view a collection of approximately 50 sample images using Seadragon technology zooming capabilities as well as view Photosynth collections in 2D on their iPhone.
Why is Microsoft Live Labs developing for the iPhone? As part of the Microsoft Live Labs core mission, we aim to test the validity of new technologies and models with end users. We have been experimenting with Seadragon for some time now on a variety of different platforms and have already developed versions for the PC, and for Microsoft Surface. The iPhone is just one of many platforms we are experimenting with to deliver the power of Seadragon technology to as many people as possible.
Why isn’t Microsoft Live Labs developing Seadragon Mobile apps for Windows Mobile? The Seadragon Mobile iPhone app is a demonstration from Live Labs, and the technology requires the GPU processors supported by the iPhone. This release is meant to be an experiment on Seadragon’s first mobile platform and does not mean Microsoft intends to productize this specific experiment. Since initial prototyping of GPU on the iPhone, Windows Mobile has brought popular phones to market with GPU such as the HTC Diamond. GPUs on the HTC phones represent continual innovation in the Windows Mobile space by our OEM partners. Similar to other Live Labs experiments and to demonstrate the validity of the technology on mobile platforms, in the future, Live Labs intends to bring Seadragon technology to Windows Mobile. As we’ve seen in the past, Live Labs has developed other technologies for Windows Mobile including Deepfish, a mobile browsing experience.
How do you compare Seadragon Mobile to other technologies available such as Apple’s ZUI in the iPhone or their Opera Mini browser; the zoom technology for phone interface Zumobi? Seadragon Mobile is a zooming interface which essentially solves the problem of searching and scrolling through reams of information on the Web by fluidly moving through large amounts of data as fast as possible. In contrast, other domain-specific applications and Web browsers aren’t optimized for displaying large images over slow connection or allowing for quick and intuitive manipulation that the Seadragon Mobile experience delivers.
Does this mean that Microsoft Live Labs will continue to look for ways to develop apps for the iPhone in the future? Live Labs has no commitments at this time to develop future iPhone apps. For this specific iPhone app release, bringing Seadragon technology to a variety of other platforms including Photosynth, Deep Zoom in Silverlight, Microsoft Surface, the recent release of Seadragon Ajax http://livelabs.com/seadragon-ajax/, and now the Seadragon Mobile viewer for the iPhone, are examples of Live Labs continuing to release and test the validity of experiments and demonstrations with end users to collect feedback on the models and influence the next generation of Microsoft products and services.
How can I get Seadragon Mobile? You can install Seadragon Mobile two ways, either by accessing the App Store on the iPhone or on your computer through iTunes at http://www.itunes.com/app/seadragonmobile.
Does Microsoft’s efforts to build an application for the iPhone over Windows Mobile mean the company does not believe in future success of the platform?
We’re very excited about where we’re at today; several anticipated Windows Mobile phones hit the market in Q3 and Q4, including the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 and Samsung Omnia, and we expect them to drive strong sales across the holiday season and into 2009.
Windows Mobile has launched 30 new phones this year alone from different handset makers, mobile operators featuring various form factors, including the Samsung BlackJack II, HTC Touch Diamond, and Palm Treo 800w.
Live Labs is a research organization that has always experimented on multiple platforms. Their offering for a competitor to Microsoft does not represent a shift in their strategy or the company’s.
- Posted by christhi on December 5, 2008
SpringStage is a network of community catalysts who are in tune with their local entrepreneurship and startup scenes. The network will formally launch in early 2009 as a blog network. This is the first step in ensuring that there is a visible resource in every community for early stage entrepreneurs. Today, if you’re new to a city and you want to be involved in the startup scene there, there is no clear cut way to get involved. Springstage hopes to fix that by identifying and promoting credible catalysts in each community. We are providing the infrastructure for those catalysts to begin promoting their location entrepreneurship scene immediately. David Cohen and Alexander Muse are the founders of SpringStage. Both have been blogging for years and both are natural catalysts in their respective communities (Boulder, CO and Dallas, TX). Their blogs are read by thousands in their community and are considered go to resources on entrepreneurial events and news in their area. Both are experienced angel investors and entrepreneurs. Springstage was formed to take what we’ve learned and apply it nationwide to foster entrepreneurship. Every local community that hopes to improve the startup activity in their community can learn from those who have been successful doing so in the past. They can follow in our footsteps. 20 other bloggers are already doing so, and we’re just getting started. Our vision for Springstage is to be a beacon for entrepreneurial activities in local communities across the country. When someone enters a community and wants to get involved with the local startup scene, we want them to think about the local Springstage catalyst as the perfect starting point.
You can folllow them at http://www.texasstartupblog.com
- Posted by christhi on December 5, 2008
When building desktop applications one of the first things you should spend time on is how you would like to compose the application and ask a few questions such as the following:
- Will the application be developed by more than one person?
- Do you want to shell of the application to be loosely coupled from its components or modules (and of each other)?
- Do you want your modules to survive the shell?
- Do you need a seemless means of updating the desktop application to experience a web-like deployment environment?
- Do you want to support online deployments (browser based) as well as installed?
- Do you need to talk to multiple backend components that may speak other languages integrated at the client tier (e.g. portal-like)?
- Do you want a single "pane of glass" to represent one view of the system?
If you answer at least two of these questions with a yes then you should consider Prism 2.0: http://www.codeplex.com/CompositeWPF. I'm always relunctant to call this a framework for building composite applications because of the mental association composite applications get due to some of the perceived compliexities of former technologies. However, Prism is solving this problem in a much cleaner way now and I would not hesitate to suggest that any smart client application at least consider this as a starting point. Too many times I have been approached by customers with rearchitecture challenges such as having to migrate a desktop application to the web or vice versa. Now you can do both and at the same time! Building desktop applications has always been pretty straight forward so jumping to a composite framework was sometimes like pulling teeth. However compare that to the thought you must give to building true RIA applications and I think it is no less difficult to now consider how to build both at the same time. Fortunately Prism provides this and with technologies you care about; WPF and SilverLight.
I will later blog on the details of Prism 2.0 (which now supports leverage assests for building SilverLight and WPF desktop applications at the same time) so for now I just want to get on my soapbox because frankly I'm a little tired of hearing the same old fodder about how composite apps are too difficult or how the composite application block was too slow. After spending several years working with several CAB customers at the Microsoft Technology Center in Austin as "lab rat" I'm very confident on where we are today with "integrating desktop frameworks" such as Prism so I encourage you to check it out. When approached by a customer to build anything that touches the desktop it is the first framework I consider. The same benefits you see from portals such as Sharepoint you can get from integrated desktops or composite applications and portals are here to stay. Remember if done correctly any modules you build can be used independently of the framework and as such good patterns and practices will give you a little insurance policy as well as give you a good night sleep (see MVP for details on what I'm talking about).
For a little history on where integrated desktop applications have come from feel free to check out my previous MSDN article at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/magazine/cc301266.aspx and good luck.
- Posted by christhi on December 4, 2008
Technorati Profile
- Posted by christhi on December 3, 2008
Just updated a past blog entry on BizSpark our new program for Startups.
http://blogs.flyover18.com/christhi/post/2008/11/05/Announcing-BizSpark-Microsofts-Program-to-get-Startups-off-the-Ground.aspx
Also I keep getting ask what software is included in the program so here it is. For those also asking is Azure part of the program the guidance is all cloud services will be but Azure is still in CTP so those wanting to work with Azure need to enlist in that service directly until pricing is released. After that it should be included in the program like any other cloud service at Microsoft.
- Posted by christhi on December 1, 2008
In the coming months I will be blogging about how one can incorporate ALM or Application Lifecycle Management practices to world of User Experience design and development. Until now there really has not been a windfall of material on this topic so I thought I would address it a bit given the fact I just spent the past year completely focused in this world. I will also be speaking about it at Mix 2009 in Vegas alongside Chris Bernard so I hope you will join us (http://2009.visitmix.com) in person or online.
ALM means different things to different people so I will be addressing UX and ALM from several angles, from human process implementation to workflow to its manifestations in tooling. ALM's benefits are just becoming clear as the tools mature alongside that of software engineering practices. With UX becoming so important in software development we have now reached an empass where we must also include those processes specfically geared towards producing better user experiences into the overall lifecycle. Afterall, UX is as important as implementing and testing the software itself.
For my first passage in this series, I am briefly introducing a solution to one of the reasons ALM has not been as accessible in the UX world: change management or at its most basic level source control. Although Visual Studio and its IDE extensions have allowed almost any third party source control software to play nicely in the interface what has been missing is source control for Microsoft's UX tools. Not until Expression version 3.0 will source control extensions be added to Expression Studio and thus the general concensus has been to either only use Visual Studio or use something like the Team Foundation Server Explorer as a stand alone tool to get your SilverLight solutions into the source control repository. SilverLight and WPF designers and developers had to first launch TFS explorer or go to VStudio if they wanted to check-in any source or do any form of "work item management" or "task/bug management". Well I have good news! Now with the updated release of the TFS 2008 Power Tools for October you can now get source control and work item access straight from Expression Studio. In fact any common dialog provides the context menu to do so! The new power tool provides a windows shell extension that will allow to you check-in/check-out and even manage work items right from common dialogs and ergo right from Expression Blend itself for example.
To download the power tools simply go to: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/tfs2008/bb980963.aspx - NOTE: make sure and select custom install and select the shell extension otherwise it won't get installed and you won't see the following context menu from Expression Studio. Enjoy. Later I will go into more detail on how this can be leveraged in your day to day UX design and development activities. UX can now take a front seat in the world of ALM!!
