OK... so here comes my Mix07 Keynote recap.

A few BIG announcements

1.       Silverlight as of beta 1 (released today with a Go Live License) has .NET framework support. This support is cross browser (IE and Firefox) and cross platform (Safari on the Mac). This is huge.

2.       Microsoft announced Silverlight Streaming. http://silverlight.live.com . This allows developers to store up to 4GB of sub 10 minute videos and associated Silverlight applications into the Microsoft supported Content Distribution Network (think Akamai). This is FREE!

3.       Microsoft announced IronRuby for .NET. This will compile down to IL like anything else and the Dynamic Language IL will run on both Mac and PC inside Silverlight. ScottGu did a great demo with everything happening on the mac. From writing XAML to writing Ruby code. Compilation happening inside Silverlight.

4.       Expression Studio shipped today... I’m coming back to NZ with a special commemorative copy- the Expression team had 1500 completely unique designs put together for the boxes J

Here is some more detail gleamed from the Keynote and some other connections within DevDiv@ Microsoft.

Sililverlight Beta 1 incl Go Live. Final release will ship this summer.

 Silverlight includes cross platform .NET in the browser. Uses the same CLR that ships with full framework-  it has the same JIT, GC and type-system that you have with desktop .NET apps today.  It means that it loads and can run the same compiled assemblies that are used with the .NET Framework today- subject to it not quite having the full framework at its disposal- i.e. som namespaces are missing.

Seeing performance of up to 1000 times faster than Javascript- showed a great Demo with a Chess AI algorithm compared in Javascript and C#. 8 to 20 times faster than ActionScript.

Silverlight includes a subset of WPF from desktop.

Silverlight supports HTML DOM Integration- you can use any .NET language to build AJAX stuff rather than having to use Javascript. So basically you can wire up VB/C#/Ruby/Python event handlers to HTML elements like you would do with Javascript.

We FINALLY have debugging of browser code to rival (read spank the pants off) Mozilla....Not only is there support for running CLR stuff on the Mac.... Also support for debugging applications on the mac- you can remotely attach the debugger to the Macintosh over the network and step through the code!

Still a little unclear on the SOAP support. I know it doesn’t support WS* or WCF. I didn’t thnk it supported soap (only REST/POX/JSON) but I’m still digging on whether it will support  SOAP.

Silverlight has full LINQ (it includes System.Core so it will support all the .NET 3.5 stuff in that) support and an offline data cache.

Silverlight plugn is a 4MB download. Install is a 2 second task.

While not announced they showed a version of Silverlight running on Windows Mobile- may well see this announced @ MEDC later this week.... I’m trying to find out more about this RIGHT NOW. If it is true then I have a great application to put together right now.

There is no Audio or Video capture in Silverlight v1.

There is currently lack of support for a number of key WPF features... These sould be available and baked into the final version.... Definitely missing are: databinding, layout manager, styles and templating.

Codec support includes WMV, MP3, VC-1 and H263 video. Silverlight will NOT support additional Codecs that users might have installed.

So y'all know that MSFTs FlashKiller is called Silverlight...

But

You don't know quite how cool it's actually going to be. I know.... but if I told you I'd have to kill you.

So. Come Monday the Kimono Shall Be Opened @ the Mix Keynote.

I shall be blogging live and telling you all about it.... suffice to say.... YOU WILL HAVE KITTENS!

[Update]

Just found out more great stuff.... Tommorows announcements will cover not only developer platform but some all new developer service offerings....

So I'm rapidly running out of space on my Media Drive....

Think I'm going to buy an old rack from Work and then rack mount my media centre and get some XBox 360s as extenders...

This looks good for a storage device

http://www.excaliberpc.com/Norco_12-bay_Hot-swap_3U_Rackmount/DS-1210/partinfo-id-568570.html

Might try and get one when I'm in the US next week.....

So WPF/E has a new name.

Silverlight.

Install is under 2MB.

Currently not supporting .NET languages but I'd expect to see that change pretty quickly.

“Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web. Silverlight integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight media capabilities include fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality audio and video to all major browsers including Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Windows Internet Explorer running on the Macintosh or on Microsoft Windows. By using Microsoft Expression Studio and Microsoft Visual Studio, designers and developers can collaborate more effectively by using the skills they have today to light up the Web of tomorrow.”

The biggest thing for me in the whole Expression push from Microsoft is in closing the chasm between designers and developers. Yes, there have always been people who sit pretty well in between, but round tripping betwen creative and development types has always been a really hard problem. With WPF I think they've come pretty close to cracking this nut.

I'll be sure to be posting more on this Live From Mix in a couple of weeks.... I'm gonna try and use my time at Mix to get back into bloging

I got myself a nice new yellow trail bike...

Frame Mojo Large Custom Pantone P109 Yellow Paintjob by Roy Hassler Autohaus in AKL RP23 rear shock
Fork Pace RC41 Custom Pantone P109 Paintjob by Roy Hassler Autohaus in AKL
Stem Thomsom Elite 90mm x 5deg
Seatpost Thomsom Elite 31.6 x 367 (Trail setup) and Easton EC90 (Race Setup)
Brakes 07 XTR 185/160mm
Race wheelset (DT Swiss 4.2d, Hope ProII Silver, Silver Wheelsmith Spokes, Nobby Nics 2.25/2.15)
Shifters and Ft/Rr Mech 07 XTR
Cassette SRAM PG-990
Cranks XTR 07
Seat Selle Italia Tri 2 Matic Yellow
Grips Syncros Deep Relief Yellow
Skewer Hope Red
Bars LP Composites Carbon/Kevlar Yellow/Black Weave
Cables Nokon Anodised Red Cablepearls
Chain SRAM 991 Hollowpin (I have an XTR chain in my bag as well... which may be a better choice given my larger stature....)
Pedals Crank Candy Yellow

SO I'm sitting in the penultimte session @ the Dot Net Architecture Camp @ Auckland University.

It's been one of the most engaging events that I've ever been to. The quality of the speakers has been top notch.

But... more importantly... the quality of the audience has been top notch with some great discussions going on. I set out (as one of the organisers of the event) was to try and have a more discussive type of event- I'd been watching the Beyond Belief event videos at the time.... I think we've done a pretty good job.

So late last week Microsoft published the Windows Workflow Foundation Web Workflow Approvals Starter Kit or WFWWASK

This is the culmination of a lot of hard work by the Dunedin office of Intergen who put together this sample for the .NET 3 team @ Microsoft in Redmond.

It's a great demonstration of how you can use WF to achieve a multiuser task management and assignment system. It uses roles to determine the routing of tasks.

If WF interests you I encurage you to go and grab this sample kit to have a play. Feel free to post comments in here if you have any questions.... I must get the rest of our Dunedin team blogging!

Bored of red.....

Time to try yellow....

Ready, Steady, Go!