Blogs|Nov 18, 2007

Optimizing the Silverlight Install Experience

Last night I put the finishing touches on my March 2008 Wicked Code column for MSDN Magazine. Titled “Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices for Developing Silverlight 1.0 Applications,” it offers up an assortment of—surprise!—tips, tricks, and best practices for building better, faster, and more maintainable Silverlight apps. One of the best practices documented in the article…
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wintellect-blogs|Nov 15, 2007

Letter from the AMA

It’s been a long but wonderful day. I’ve been heads down all week building Silverlight content and writing a Silverlight best practices piece for MSDN Magazine. This afternoon my wife went to the mailbox and handed me an envelope from the AMA. In it was my turbine waiver. Joy!
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wintellect-blogs|Nov 6, 2007

Jet Rally Video

I shot about an hour of video at the jet rally this weekend and condensed it into 5 minutes of pure turbine fun. I encoded the video with Expression Encoder and uploaded it to the Silverlight Streaming Web site so everyone can enjoy it. I squeezed the size down to 400 x 300 and reduced…
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Blogs|Nov 6, 2007

I’m Official!

Last Thursday morning, I got up bright and early and headed south for the Florida International Jet Rally in Lake Wales, FL. The goal was to get more stick time on my jet and to earn my turbine waiver—that magic piece of paper that allows you to fly model turbine aircraft safely and legally. I…
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wintellect-blogs|Oct 29, 2007

Hear that JetCat Scream!

I took my jet to the local flying field this weekend and performed a turbine run and taxi test. I tried to post a short video on YouTube, but despite my repeated attempts, I was unable to. The upload kept hanging midway, even though the size of the upload was well under the maximum that…
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Blogs|Oct 25, 2007

Silverlight Streaming in Action

One of the least talked about (and least understood) facets of Silverlight is Silverlight Streaming (SLS). Silverlight Streaming is a service provided by Windows Live for hosting and streaming Silverlight applications and content. The name implies that it’s all about streaming, but the name is misleading. SLS is good—very good, in fact—at streaming audio and…
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wintellect-blogs|Oct 23, 2007

Turbine Time

While John Robbins was busy this weekend writing about WiX, I was in Florida training on my new radio-control jet. It’s a Bob Violett Models (BVM) BobCat, an all-fiberglass beauty that handles gently enough to qualify as a trainer. Strapped onto the back is the JetCat P-60 turbine that I blogged about earlier. Below are a…
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Blogs|Oct 3, 2007

AJAX, Source Code, and Turbine Power

People often ask me which books I’d recommend on ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, or Silverlight. They’re sometimes taken aback when I reply that I can’t recommend one because I don’t read computer books any more. Which isn’t quite true. I do read computer books every now and then when I’m trying to get the lay of the…
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wintellect-blogs|Sep 14, 2007

Silverlight Updates and ReMIX07

As you’re no doubt aware, Silverlight 1.0 has RTMed and can be downloaded from the Silverlight Web site. I’ve updated my Silverlight MyComix viewer to run against the RTM bits. You can download the source code here. Microsoft has also published a September update to the Silverlight 1.1 Alpha Refresh. I’ve updated my SilverLife sample to…
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wintellect-blogs|Sep 2, 2007

Rainy Day in Shanghai

I landed in Shanghai yesterday to begin the second phase of my trip through China. The weather has been overcast with occasional rain showers, which is apparently typical for this time of year. The pictures below aren’t exactly stunning, but hopefully they convey some feel for what Shangahi is like. The rightmost photo shows the…
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wintellect-blogs|Aug 29, 2007

Cool Reading for the Heat of Summer

One of the keys to successful international travel is to pack lots of reading material for the planes, airports, and hotels. I typically pack a few of my favorite aviation magazines (Model Airplane News and Aviation History, among others) as well as 3 or 4 good books. On this trip, I’m working on two non-fiction…
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wintellect-blogs|Aug 29, 2007

Back in Beijing

I arrived in Beijing night before last for the front end of a two-week stint in China. Yesterday I hired a driver and went to the nearby town of Mutianyu to see another section of the Great Wall. (When I visited Beijing earlier this year, I visited the Badaling section of the Wall.) Below are a few…
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