Microsoft, MIX 07 and the F word

May 2, 2007 at 9:59 am · Filed under Events

Not that F word. The other F word: FREE! So what was Microsoft giving out in its bag of goodies at the MIX 07 Conference that is noteworthy (noteworthy means I’m not counting free pens and whatnot-this is just the ‘good stuff’)?

Microsoft Expression Suite (4 programs in the suite)
Visual Studio Orcas Beta 1
Windows Vista Ultimate Edition

There’s much more to talk about than the freebies, and I’ll pull my thoughts together and provide some additional conference insight shortly.

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Silverlight streaming video quality

May 2, 2007 at 9:35 am · Filed under Video

WOW. I was very, very surprised by how high the quality of streamed video is that I’m seeing in Silverlight. I downloaded the latest plug-in (the 1.0, not the 1.1 Alpha) and navigated over to the FOX Video Browser example. The video quality is unbelievable. Go to the demo, install the plug-in (if you need to), start a video, and then double click in the video to go full-screen. It’s impressive.

I’ve also been using Joost for several weeks now, and have been giving the quality the benefit of the doubt because I felt it was reasonable that quality be constrained by bandwidth and codec limitations. Well, the Silverlight streaming example utilizing Microsoft’s codec is far better at this point.

Full disclosure: I am having a problem with the plug-in and Safari (I’m viewing the samples in Firefox). I’m not sure what the issue is and am going to see if anyone here from Microsoft can provide some advice.

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Joost invites - come and get it

May 1, 2007 at 11:03 am · Filed under Video, Beta, Applications

Well, if you hadn’t heard yet, and you’re looking for a Beta invite to Joost, the latest Beta client allows unlimited invites to existing Joost testers.

There’s more content (available now or by the end of the month) on Joost now also, including:

• Anderson Cooper (CNN) and Aqua Teen Hunger Force (Cartoon Network)
• National Hockey League
• Sports Illustrated
• and, wait for it: GI Joe

If you’re still in need of a Joost invite, just ask (please provide your email address-several people have asked for a Beta invite, but haven’t left their email address… I will not publish it if you leave it as a comment to this post).

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MIX 07 Conference

May 1, 2007 at 8:05 am · Filed under RIA, Web Applications, Events, User Experience

I was lucky enough to head up to the MIX07 Conference is Vegas thanks to some help from a good Microsoft friend, Tim Heuer. It would have been great to have made day 1, but there are a lot of good sessions Tuesday and Wednesday also. Here’s the one’s I’m looking to check out:

Tuesday
Using Windows Live Services in Your Own Web Applications
Design Rich Client Experiences with Expression Blend and WPF
PANEL DISCUSSION: Social Networking: Enabling the Two-Way Street
Creating a Domain Communication Experience on Windows Live

Wednesday
Fumbling towards AGENCY 2.0
Interactive Advertising on the Windows Media Center Platform
Building Rich, Interactive E-commerce Applications Using ASP.NET and Silverlight

I’m also hoping to run into some of our clients that are there as well as some Microsoft people I was lucky enough to work with in DPE (Developer and Platform Evangelism) during my short time there including Craig Jaris (now at IdentityMine), Darren McCormick, Forest Key, Ray Winninger, Sean Alexander, Chris Bernard and Steve Cellini.

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