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April 30, 2007

Visual Studio + JS = Pure Sweetness

I’ve raved about VS since I started using it. Nothing has changed. ;-)

I just left a session where the presenter talked about all of the upcoming VS changes. I’ll run a couple down real quick.

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Posted by John C. Bland II at 4:34 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Why Silverlight will (!!) succeed

Controls. I think that is one of the main reasons. I thought about naming this post “What Microsoft does well” but figured I’d strike a cord with the Adobe world by speaking on Silverlight succeeding. :-)

Anyways. For those that don’t know, a control is equivalent to a component in Flash/Flex. Microsoft, IMO, is the king of controls. Look at ASP.NET. The controls in there are SUPER easy to use and there are a ton of them. ColdFusion, no one uses cfgrid, etc. Microsoft owns Adobe in this arena, at this current stage.

Microsoft has taken their controls approach to Silverlight. Flash has button, textfield, etc. Anything beyond the basics, you’re on your own. Silverlight is bringing multiple controls that go way above and beyond (see the Map control when you get a chance) out of the box. There are businesses built around building ASP.NET and now WPF/Silverlight controls.

What does all of this mean? IMO, Silverlight development may become easier than Flash Platform development. Mind you, I’m not turning my back on Flash/Flex rather, as always, keeping an open mind about new technologies.

Big Flash Companies using Silverlight:
* Avenue A | Razorfish (top agency that does a ton of work with Flash) is using, and excited about, Silverlight.
* Metalliq, who is responsible for the Flash CS3 Components, is using Silverlight (and built a VERY nice app) and loving it as well. Top Banana is sweet app built by Metalliq (they just demo’d it). A full-fledge video editing swf that banks out at 50k. Whoa…that was a shocker but quite amazing (for what I just saw).

As I’ve said before, don’t sleep on Silverlight. There is a lot you can do with it, very fast, and if it fits your situation…USE IT!

Posted by John C. Bland II at 11:24 AM | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Silverlight Streaming Alpha / Silverlight Release

Silverlight Streaming is equivalent to Flash Media Server BUT…Microsoft is playing as their own Akamai and providing you a place to upload your videos and stream from their srever. I don’t know if it is true streaming, progressive, or both. Costs? I’m not sure. The site is down right now :( so there isn’t a way for me to look at more info. Try it yourself here and see if it works for you.

Silverlight is releasing this summer. I’m interested in seeing where it is this summer.

Update
Silverlight Streaming IS FREE! Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! My belief all along is that Silverlight will definitely grab some of the video market against Flash. This is a HUGE push in terms of Silverlight grabbing that market share by the horns, literally.

You can see more about Silverlight Stream here.

Site Excerpt:
SilverlightTM Streaming by Windows LiveTM offers a free streaming and application hosting solution for delivering high-quality, cross-platform, cross-browser, media-enabled rich interactive applications (RIAs). With the ability to author content in Microsoft Expression Media Encoder and other third-party editing environments, Web designers maintain complete control of the user experience.

Posted by John C. Bland II at 10:51 AM | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm late(!) but I saw something sweet!

I missed the first part of the keynote. :-( I was up quite early but forced myself back to sleep since I didn’t have to be here until 9:30. I woke up right around 8 and remembered I needed to shave/cut my hair and iron my clothes. Time was short.

I was 30 minutes late and have no idea what I missed but I do know what I saw. :-)

Netflix hired Avenue A | Razorfish to build a new media player. Wait…side bar: Expression Media Encoder just crashed. lol. Nice recovery by the speaker Wayne Smith though. :-D Back to Netflix.

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Posted by John C. Bland II at 10:31 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

April 29, 2007

I've Arrived! (@ Mix '07)

Wow, I can’t believe I’m here again. After some back and forths on the decision to come…we are here in the Venezia Tower about to go register (once the luggage comes up).

I’ve been looking at mix07.com and getting more and more excited. I don’t have big expectations for the conference because I haven’t looked over the agenda and I only know about Silverlight being a big topic. BUT…like last year…I’m sure I’ll be THOROUGHLY impressed and excited when I leave. :-)

So..keep an eye out. I’ll be blogging all the while I’m here.

Posted by John C. Bland II at 6:14 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

April 25, 2007

Adobe to Open Source Flex

Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! I just read the email from Matt Chotin with details. He added the link (below) which provides much more info on it.

Now, what do all of the OSS zealots (namely DH on RubyOnRails.org here and here) say about Flash vs Ajax now. ;-)

http://www.adobe.com/go/opensourceflex

Posted by John C. Bland II at 10:26 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

April 24, 2007

New Article: Taking Apollo Applications Offline

I wrote an article for Adobe Labs and it finally launched today. Check it out and let me know what you think.

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Apollo:Articles:Taking_Apollo_Applications_Offline

Posted by John C. Bland II at 5:17 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

April 23, 2007

Adobe CS3 - Installed and Looking Pretty

Man, it feels weird to actually have the full versions but I got’em. Adobe REALLY hooked it up this year. For beta testers, we got Design and Web premium for free. It seems only certain folks got this but I don’t know…I’m just happy I did. There are a few things I wanted to point out that I like.

Logos
At first I REALLY didn’t like them. I thought they were beta logos only. There was a long thread on the UG managers list about it, as well as some of the beta lists, and almost everyone hated them. Then one guy pointed out how easy it was for him to know which app was which by just looking at the icon (without having to think). Now that I have a full quick launch toolbar of CS3 products, I agree.

Dw, Fl, Fw, Ai, Ct, Ps, Id, Br, etc. Simple. Effective.

Interface(s)
These are so nice. I really like the way they made things common across all apps. It really makes for an easy transition from one app to another.

Integration
I haven’t used all of the integration yet but I have seen the videos and toyed with a few things. This HAS to be the best collection of integrated products out there; especially for a collection this size!

I’ve been on Flash and DW for months (due to betas) so I’m not beaming with joy due to new tools. Those are the main two I use but I do love what they’ve done with Fireworks (RIA/site builder). I haven’t played with it too much but from what I can see it is MUCH better.

Anyways…thought I’d express how the new CS3 brings joy to my life (to add a level of corny-ness to this post). ;-) Go out and get it now! You’ll love it.

Posted by John C. Bland II at 9:35 AM | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)