So it’s been hyped for the past few weeks that we were going to see many new things announced by Microsoft this morning. The hype didn’t keep up with reality.
It was WAY better than sold.
THe biggest highlight of this conference is the combination of Silverlight with the .NET framework.
We can actually write C# code to function like you would normally expect Javascript to do.
We can create vector based animations to run in a cross-browser, cross platform environment, with all of the instructions stored in XAML.
Designers can completely control the look and actions of these elements in a graphical interface, but that design is then translated down to XAML, which can be edited, updated, etc as a file on the server. This allows the designer to control the looks, and the developer to control the functionality.
Two demos during the keynote were flooring, however.
First, the CEO from a company named Metaliq demoed a new AJAX/Silverlight/.NET application they call Top Banana. It is basically a content editing application, all within a browser. The URL is http://silverlight.metaliq.com/topbanana
It appears they have taken their demo down, but as soon as I can get access to it again. I will post it. It was truly unbelieveable.
The other struck close to home. I’m a huge baseball fan. Mondo big. And having grown up in Cleveland, I’ve been forced to suffer with the Indians my entire life. THe C-something-something from MLB.oom was here demoing their new MLB.TV application. It acted as I expected. Showed every possible statistic available in an interface that also shows the live games streamed over the internet. All great, all what I would expect. It include a feature that allowed you to add your favorite players (think fantasy baseball) and it would alert you every time your player did something in any of the games. It would also serve up the specific video clip of that notable performance. (On a sidenote, thsi guy said that they generate 10 DVDs worth of data with every pitch of every game. That seems like a little bit. :))
Anyways, even the fantasy player list wasn’t the coolest part of this demo. Oh no. He then pulled out his cell phone, and showed us a Silverlight application running there. It showed stats, game scores, even live score updates, and runners on base. Think about the graphics that show up during a TV broadcast. Minus the actual game video. Well, with Silverlight, it appears they are going to be successful in streaming actually live video to your phone, and remember that fantasy player list, statistics, and video feeds? That was all demonstrated as well.
Man, this has been amazing thus far. Thanks again to Quick Solutions for sending me here.
JEFF BLANKENBURG 
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