Digital Thoughts @ Wesstyware

Microsoft unleashed Visual Studio 2010 upon the world earlier this month and they are changing the face of .NET development.  On May 11, 2010, Anvil Digital, ImagiNET, Protegra, and Microsoft are bringing to you with the Winnipeg Launch of Visual Studio 2010 event at the Imax Theatre.

If you have not had the chance to check out some of the new features for the latest Visual Studio, this is your chance to get a first-hand look at the software. Along with the introduction to Visual Studio 2010, there will be prizes, food, presentations from some of Winnipeg’s best .NET talent, and a chance to meet your local development community.

Seating is limited so register today to reserve your spot. Feel free to download and print the poster and pass it around the office. The more the merrier.

Here is what you can expect to see:

8:00 – 9:00 Registration and Continental Breakfast
9:00 – 9:15 Welcome
9:15 – 10:30 VS.NET 2010 Team Foundation Testing Tools – Aaron Kowall
10:45 – 12:00 Architecting Applications with VS.NET 2010 – Miguel Carrasco & Dylan Smith
1:30 – 2:45 What’s New for Teams in Visual Studio 2010 – Steve Porter
3:00 – 4:15 Developing Web Applications Using ASP.NET with VS.NET 2010 – D’Arcy Lussier & Jason Klassen
4:15 – 4:30 Prize Giveaways

I will see you there Interneters. Catch you on the flip side.

This post is part three of a series posts covering my progress on the Zany Video Games Quotes (www.zanyvgquotes.com) project. For the full story about the project so far, check out the other posts in the series or the project page for an overview of the project:

• Project Kickoff

It has been a while since I have posted. A lot has happened since I was in Vancouver for the Winter Olympics, and I thought I would start with the progress that I have made with the ZVGQ project. So, here goes.

SketchFlow Version 0.1 Complete

I know that version 0.1 sounds less than impressive, but keep in mind that once the SketchFlow is “complete” (i.e. version 1.0) we will have a complete skeleton of the new ZVGQ site. In any case, I managed to complete the first iteration of the prototype for the new ZVGQ and went over it with Kev. I have posted it on my site here (requires Silverlight 3), and you are more than welcome to check it out. Right now, the pages are placeholders but the main thing this prototype covers is the way users will navigate through the site.

Once complete, I went met up with Kev to go over the prototype to get a couple of things clearly defined about the project itself:

• Confirmation of the vision for the application.
• The definition of success.
• Basic flow for the site by defining how users will navigate through the application.

Vision and Success?

I realize that you might be wondering about the first two items on the list above, but let me explain. While working with David Alpert, I have had many conversations about vision and the definition of success for software project and the importance of having those pieces properly defined. If your stakeholders agree to a definition of their vision and what they see as “success” for the project, then you always have clear way of making decisions about the project itself. With a clear vision and success defined, developers and project managers are able to make decisions about the direction of the project and how to use available resources properly.

So, how does that relate to the prototype? Well, it doesn’t really. At least not directly.

I have worked with Kev on trying to define both the vision and success for the project through many conversations or “requirements gathering sessions” as some would call them. The problem was that after these conversations, I never felt as though I had a clear understanding of vision and success for the new ZVGQ site. This is mainly due to the fact that, I couldn’t guarantee that the experience that I envision for the site is the same as the one that Kev envisions.

With the prototype, I could show Kev what I was thinking for the site and he could actually play around with it. The SketchFlow also enabled me to explain to Kev my reasons for designing the header as I did. Since my decisions were based on the understanding I had about the vision and success for the project, I was able to confirm that Kev and I were on the same page and shared the same vision for the future of the site, along with the definition for success.

Prototype Feedback

On top of ensuring I had the project vision and definition for success defined, we discussed the navigation for the site. Kev had a few comments about the ensuring that the large navigation buttons were kept the same. What does that mean? It means that the random button that I currently have will be made into one of the hyperlink buttons at the top, and liked having all the letters up at the top rather than in the corner. One thing he did notice was that the “NEW” button that is on the current site with the letters is not in my prototype.

The points that Kev mentioned will be added to the header, and it shouldn’t take longer than about 15 minutes. Then I can move onto page layout, which will help in the next step: database design.

Next Step: The Database

I realize that SketchFlow has nothing to do with database design, but it can definitely help with identifying what needs to be stored in the database. I started work on this not long ago, and kept on having to go back to Kev for details about what he expected to display.

I realized quickly that it was my job to tell Kev what he wanted to display and ask him if there is anything else. This is where SketchFlow comes into play.

If you check out a game on the current site, you will see that the majority of the data is quotes, games, and pictures of the quote in the game. Considering that we can do far more than this, I want to show Kev the data we can display to his visitors, not just talk about it.

Ultimately, the next steps for the SketchFlow and I is to build a page that will display a game and add it to the prototype. The link above shows Final Fantasy 2 for the Super Nintendo, and I plan on recreating that page in the prototype. This will give both of us reference point that we can use to compare the future site with the current one.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, the SketchFlow is going to be a very useful tool for requirements gathering on all fronts. The SketchFlow works because it allows me to show the stakeholders how I have interpreted their vision and demonstrate how I believe my design fits with their definition for success.

As we move forward with the project, the SketchFlow will slowly become more complete and we will have a skeleton of what we will be builiding over the course of the next year.

Catch you on the flip side.

Digital Thoughts Cast Member: David Alpert

My work and growth in software development would be impossible without a strong supporting cast. With that, I want to introduce you to the latest addition to the Digital Thoughts cast: David Alpert.

David Alpert (blog.spinthemoose.com) is a Web Developer and Interaction Designer at Anvil Digital and one of the creators of bundl.it. I have found that David is strong with the Force called user experience development/design, and is considered something of a UX Jedi in my books.

Update

Since writing this post, I have updated the SketchFlow for ZVGQ online. It appears that if you are viewing the SketchFlow in Google Chrome, you might have to clear your cache before it will update. I am not sure if there is a remedy to this problem, but I will do some research and see if anything is out there.

With that, if someone knows something about this issue (or if it was just me), please comment and let me know.

Wednesday was the last day for the Tech Days 2009 tour hosted by Microsoft. This year, they decided to put on the full two day show for Winnipeg, and something was different this year. Something was better. That something better can be explained with the following formula.

Be warned that if you do not have some kind of training with formal mathematics, this may blow…your…mind.

The big difference about Tech Days this year was that the Wessty wasn’t just an attendee, but a presenter. I took part in two presentations over the course of the two days. The first day, I worked with Miguel Carrasco on the presentation entitled Expression Blend for Developers (with Miguel Carrasco). The second day, I presented Building RESTful Services in WCF on my own.

Expression Blend for Developers

As you may have noticed, the topics of my two presentations were very different. The first one was about my bread and butter, that being Expression Blend 3. Considering that I am something of a User Experience person, this topic was right up my alley. Miguel started off the presentation by introducing the software and explaining how it can be useful to developers.

My work in the presentation involved demonstrating how a developer can use Expression Blend in their work. I started out by demonstrating how to use SketchFlow with WPF and giving people a quick run down on its capabilities.This was followed up by implementing the front-end of the SketchFlow application using Blend and seeing how the new features in the software can help me build something that not only works, but looks good too.

I very much enjoy the Expression Suite of software. For more details, check out the Expression website.

Building RESTful Service with WCF

The second presentation discussed how developers can use WCF to implement RESTful services. At a glance, you might thing that a UX developer has no place presenting this topic, but that is where you would be wrong.

My roots are with .NET 3.0 and 3.5, which includes the project formerly known as Indigo (a.k.a. WCF). I have always loved WCF for its simplicity to get working and have a flexible communications layer in my application, without having to write any complex communications code. Unfortunately, this fantastic tool is only fantastic thanks to the tooling that has been provided with Microsoft. It sets up everything for the developer, without the dev actually knowing what is happening under the covers.

SOAP (which is the protocol used to send and receive messages in WCF) is quite complex, specifically with the protocol that must be followed on both the client and server to get it working. A service implemented with a RESTful architecture demonstrate a refreshingly easy way to implement a communications layer using nothing more regular web protocols.

For more information about this, check out the MSDN and get started.

Conclusion

This was a very enriching experience, and I would recommend anyone dealing with Microsoft technologies to considering coming out to the next one or checking out any of the other .NET development events happening in your area.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line on here or drop me an email.

Oh, and I will be posting some photos sooner than later. I just need to get them organized. Until then…

Catch you on the flip side.

Related Resources

Here are some other findings on the web that discuss Tech Days 2009. Check them out!

• D’Arcy Lussier Blog Post
• Canadian Developer Connection – Joey Devilla (a.k.a. Dude with the accordion)
• D’Arcy Lussier’s thoughts….

Friday was an exceptionally busy, but amazing day for me. The reason for this is because Anvil Digital is making me part of more software project, with the expectation that I will play the role of UX developer or expert, or whatever you want to call it.

In any case, that includes two software projects that have the infamous Microsoft Office Ribbon as part of the UI. After reviewing the applications at a high level, the first UX task was easy to identify: make sure the ribbon works like the ribbon should.

If you didn’t already know, Microsoft has made the ribbon available to developers to use with a royalty-free licence. The catch is that you need to make sure the ribbon in your application provides your users with the UX standard that Microsoft has set for the ribbon.

I have been doing research on this all day today and applying my knowledge to our applications. Either way, I thought I would share the resources that I have found to be the most valuable.

Ribbon Vocabulary

Breakdown of the Ribbon

You can find this image on the MSDN too, but I wanted to include it as a quick reference. When you are talking about the ribbon, you should probably know the vocabulary that describes it.

Resources

These resources discussed all the important points from either a UX person’s or a developer’s viewpoint. Considering that I am something of a hybrid (literally as Wessty’s Job Title = UX Developer), I used all of them. Take a look and have all of your ribbon questions answered.

Windows UX Interaction Guidelines: Ribbons – A very in-depth look at the user experience for ribbon controls. Very useful when trying to decide whether your application can make use of the ribbon control.

Ribbon Implementation Tutorial – This is the introduction to a series of posts that describe how to implement the MS Ribbon control in your WPF application.

Office UI Licence and FAQ – The ribbon is free to use, assuming you following their rules. If you are planning on using the ribbon, you should probably review these documents.

Windows Ribbon Framework – Introduced with Windows 7, the WRF is a way for developers to manage a ribbon within their application. The catch: only works on Vista SP2 and above. So, if you are supporting Windows XP like I do, then this might not be your best option.

Introduction to WRF – An introduction to the WRF on MSDN.

Related Resources

Okay, there is only one resource here but it is really interesting if you have the time to watch it. I strongly recommend taking a look at this if you want to know the “why?” behind Microsoft’s decision use the ribbon for Office.

The Story of the Ribbon – A history on how Microsoft created the ribbon UI. A good look into how UX development takes place.

Twitter

There aren’t any links here, but I did use Twitter as a resource. When assessing the value of a particular UX feature, I try and look at it from both sides. The first side, is the “how this makes things better” side, while the other is “how this makes things worse”.

After tweeting about diving into ribbon UX, I received a response that discussed why I shouldn’t be using it. For me, Twitter has acted as a reminder about the other side of the argument as my company already likes using it. It is good to be reminded that people have their reasons for not using it too.

Alright, that’s it. Time to apply my new found knowledge about the ribbon control.

Catch you on the flip side.

Mark your calendar everyone, because tonight marked the first meeting of the Winnipeg Silverlight User Group, and I must say that the night was an evening to remember. The group was started by D’Arcy Lussier, a well known member of the .NET community.

Atmosphere

The atmosphere for the evening is shat made the event different than others I have attended in the past. The plan wasn’t to have formal presentations followed by Q & A, but to have discussions led by real Silverlight developers followed up by conversations between the attendees. Tonight there were two discussions, the first lead by me and the second by D’Arcy.

Discussions

My discussion revolved around the work I have been doing with SketchFlow with a project I plan on formally announcing on my blog and website in the upcoming week. To give you a brief summary on what I spoke about, it concerns how I use the different features of SketchFlow to gather requirements, prototype, and receive feedback from stakeholders for ASP.NET 3.5 and jQuery web applications. (Thing to note: I don’t use Silverlight in my work projects).

D’Arcy picked up the group after me showing us how Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 was supporting Silverlight 3, including the brand new designer component for Silverlight (which was unavailable up until now). This also lead into a conversation with Dylan Smith about RIA Services and what they can do for Silverlight applications.

Conclusion

All in all, it was a fantastic evening with great conversations about conferences, technology, and all sorts of fun. I strongly suggest that more people come to the next meeting whether you are a Silverlight pro or you just know a bit about it. These meetings are your chance to take part in conversations and ask your questions one-on-one with real Silverlight people.

For more information, watch the user group websiteor drop me (david dot wesst at wesstyware.com) or D’Arcy a line and we’ll be sure to send you some info.

Catch you on the flip side.

SIDE NOTE: I realize that I haven’t posted in a long time, but I have been working on some new things and I assure you that some interesting content is coming your way in the next couple of weeks.

Stay tuned! It will be worth it, I promise!

It has been quite a while since I have been able to blog about anything as I’ve been working exceptionally hard on my project at ANVIL as we are going live on Tuesday morning. As things seem to be moving smoothly, I have decided to take some time this weekend to report on something that has captivated my attention. That something is Microsoft Expression Studio 3.

A Brief Introduction

Expression Studio is a suite of applications that have been development by Microsoft for designers as opposed to developers. Over the past few weeks, Microsoft has officially released the third version of this suite of applications that include the following:

• Expression Blend 3 with SketchFlow
• Expression Web 3 with SuperPreview
• Expression Design 3
• Expression Encoder 3

I could go off and give you a detailed explanation of each application, but with its release the Expression Team has updated the Expression site and there you can find a slew of resources and explanations about all of the applications. I strongly suggest heading to the site and checking out the resources available and trying some of the applications.

My purpose for blogging today is specifically for Expression Design, the drawing software that is provided by Microsoft with Expression Blend and Web.

Why Expression Design and Not Photoshop?

This question goes back to me learning how to use designer/drawing software. Being in the UI/UX field, occasionally you need to work with image files. If you work with designers, like I do at ANVIL, then then you “obviously” need to learn Photoshop. Here’s the thing: the work I need to do with the images I get from the designers are simple edits and Photoshop provides far more functionality than I need. So, why would I go off and learn how to use this software if I don’t need it?

Well, that need came up a while ago. I have a couple of personal projects that I want to work on, but as they require some design work to create some web graphics for the project. I had learned to use the GIMP to do my minor edits, but I never really felt fully comfortable when creating graphics, not to say that it can’t live up to my expectations. I suppose the real issue is me spending the time to learn how to use the GIMP to create the design that I want.

At this point I took some time to take a look at Photoshop. I played around with it, found some resources, and talked to the Designer about it as every designer I have spoken to as said that Photoshop is pretty much the industry standard for creating UI designs. Well, if I wasn’t comfortable learning and working in the GIMP, why would I want to learn how to use a whole new application with which I have no foundation? This lead me to take a look at Expression Design.

I have worked in Silverlight and WPF since both of their releases in the past few years, and thus have worked with Expression Blend to get some of the desired UI effects. Expression Design looks and feels like Expression Blend, so I immediately felt comfortable with it. Plus, as luck may have it, Microsoft had decided to take it to the next level with version three and include with both Expression Blend and Web. In the end, the real question was: Why hadn’t I considered this earlier? I have to learn some sort of designer application, and Expression Design is able to import PSD files. Why not give it a shot?

And so I did.

The Result

With a potential side project coming my way with another friend of mine, and with my want to actually do something more with Wesstyware.com than just have it forward everyone to my blog, I started working with Expression Design 3 and this is what I came up with:

I realize that a designer can do much better than I, nor would I ever challenge a designer to some sort of web design face off. But for my intents and purposes, I think I have managed to create something pretty nifty that I can use for my website.

For the time being, I will be using Expression Design for my design needs as I’m sure that when I find its limitations, it will not be in the software, but more as my skill as a graphic designer. It is important to remember that although I live and breath in the realm of UI, I’m still a developer and not a designer. I think that Microsoft has definitely shown with the Expression Design along with the rest of the Expression Studio that the bridge between developers and designers can be bridged.

Catch you on the flip side.

Side Note: The Face

One quick note. The image you see of me in the top left corner was actually a birthday present from the Designer last year. He sent me a PNG a while back, and I have decided that for the time being that will be the official logo for Wesstyware. What better image to associate with my software ramblings and developments than a digital version of my face?

Okay, I’m not an Office developer. I use Office 2007 to do the majority of my work, specifically Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. I also support the huge UI changes Microsoft made with the UX in 2007 with the additiontof the ribbon control, but that is pretty much where my expertise and interest ends.

While going through my RSS feeds this evening, I came across this video from Microsoft. It isn’t anything technical or UX related, but it certainly is amusing. Plus, I like that they mention that Visio is making a comeback. In any case, if you want a chuckle and potentially get pumped about the new version of Office, check it out.

Catch you on the flip side.

E3 has been over for a while now, and it seems like everyone is talking about Project Natal from Microsoft for the XBox 360. I was really impressed by their demonstrations. Assuming it lives up to what Microsoft was showing the world, this could really be quite the change in console gaming.

The problem I am having is the references to the movie Minority Report, where people say that Project Natal is something like the computer that John Anderton (played by Tom Cruise) uses to dissect and analyze images and video (see video here). That interface has since become an actual way to interact with computers called g-speak from Oblong Industries. To someone who didn’t study artificial intelligence and usability throughout their post-secondary education, I can see how they can make that assumption and stick with it. I did though, and that assumption is incorrect. The purpose of this post is to analyze this assumption and hopefully give some insight into why Project Natal is not g-speak.

For starters, just in case you have not see demonstrations of Project Natal or g-speak, check out these videos to see them in action:

Microsoft Promotional Video for Project Natal

The Assumptions

The way I see it, there are actually two assumptions that people could be making to come to the conclusion that Project Natal is g-speak:

1. Neither interface uses a controller to interact with the computer.
2. Both systems are gesture based.

Let me address these assumptions and clarify a couple of things of the rest of Internet.

Neither System Uses a Controller

The first assumption is being made because people have not studied the scene from Minority Report enough. Given that I wrote a paper on g-speak, prior to there being more information out there about the product, I studied that scene very thoroughly. g-speak definitely uses a controller, that being a pair of gloves with LED lights on the thumbs and some of the fingers.

Project Natal on the other hand literally uses no controller. It builds up an accurate picture of the room and analyzes it that way. So, if you have a person shaped object moving around in a certain way then the XBox can track the movement of the person shaped object.

Both Systems Are Gesture Based

This assumption isn’t really incorrect because both systems are gesture driven. The key is what types of gestures the systems are able to interpret. If you watch the demonstration of g-speak, you are going to see that all the interaction between the user and the computer is through a number of different hand gestures and motions. With Project Natal, the system tracks full body motion, not specific hand gestures.

Another point that changes the gestures that people will use with these systems is how they are setup. Project Natal is setup with a two cameras pointing out towards the room. With g-speak, cameras are positioned in different areas of the room for a more complete reading of the hand gestures from the user.

My Point

After reading through this post you might be wondering why I decided to blog about this. The reason is that I have a personal interest in human-computer interaction and I think that gesture based interaction is the next step in the evolution of computers. With that in mind, you can imagine that reading these quick comparisons of Project Natal to g-speak can be a bit frustrating.

Anyway, my point is nothing more than to teach people about the technology that is out there. Gesture based interfaces are the future of computing in my opinion. People use the Internet as a source for information and it is easy for bloggers to make assumptions and have readers absorb those assumptions. This blog post is up to try and clear the air around the buzz that is Project Natal and properly inform those readers to know what to expect from the different technologies that are coming out in the while.

Catch you on the flip side.

By the way, if you are interesting in learning more about either system, or want to see where I found my information, check out the resources below.

Resources

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/jun/04/microsoft-project-natal-xbox
• http://cogadget.com/2009/06/01/project-natal-xbox-360-gets-full-body-motion-control/
• http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/06/motion-sensor.html
• http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/g-speak-gestural-interface-technology
• http://oblong.com/

As everyone who listens to the Internet knows by now that Microsoft has launched Bing, their new answer on how to search the Internet without having to use Google. Now, I could sit here and discuss the new features of how Bing is better/worse than Google, but I think there is enough out there already. So, as opposed to writing another article about the same thing that everyone is discussing, I have decided to talk about something different: site design.

A Quick Canadian Note

Something you should probably note is that I am Canadian and that means I am using the Canadian version of Bing. All the features that people are writing about, such as the shopping helper and the travel helper, are not yet available to me. Keep that in mind when you say to yourself, “Wessty, you should use Bing because of all its new features”.

Internet Search: A Quick Review

I think it is fair to say that for the past many years Google has dominated the search engine market. According to Market Shareby Net Applications, as of June 1, 2009 Google owns 81.5% of the market. That is a pretty significant piece of the pie if you think about it. Even without the statistics how many companies have their company name become a unique verb to describe the service they provide? I am sure we have all heard ourselves or someone say, “Just google it” or “I will google that when I get home”. Whether you love it or hate it, the world loves Google. Plain and simple.

Microsoft has taken a kick at the search market prior to Bing, that being Live Search. Going back to the statistics provided by Market Share, Microsoft Live Search was rated fourth overall. Although that sounds pretty impressive, the unfortunate fact is that everyone below first place has to split the 19% of the search market that Google doesn’t own. In the case of Live Search, it only represents about 2.5% of the market. Although a victory to some degree, my thoughts are that Microsoft had higher expectations than that. At least I would hope so.

The Brilliance of Bing

When I heard that Microsoft was taking a second shot at Internet search with Bing, I started to think about what could anyone, including Microsoft, possibly bring to the table that would make them stand out. Search is search, plain and simple. Google’s search engine, although mysterious, works exceptionally well. Even if Microsoft comes up with their own mysterious, but amazing, search engine of their own what would make me change from Google to Bing? I mean, if I want to move over to another search engine, there will be the learning curve that I will have to overcome. Regardless of how easy it is to use, why would I bother investing my time in learning something that is going to give me the same results as the search engine I already know?

And there in lies the brilliance of Bing: there is no learning curve. Bing.com is simply the next version of Google.com. If you can use Google, then you can use Bing. Check out these screenshots:

View Full Album

You cannot deny the similarity between the screenshots. The layout of the sponsored link sections, the header, the details of the results. Bing just added the left bar that contains extra information that is useful to your search, like your previous searches, related searches, and so on. One of the great uses of the left bar is with image searches. When you select an image from the results, you are linked to the page containing the image BUT the rest of the image results appear in the left bar, allowing to you continue to browse through them without clicking the back button.

The Microsoft Advantage

The other advantage Microsoft has with the release of Bing over Google is the fact that Microsoft can make changes to their Google-esque to add new features without upsetting their entire user base as there really isn’t a user base yet.

You may not think that it is a big deal, but I’m sure we have all heard of the issues that Facebook has been dealing with over their UI changes. At eBay, they have an entire usability department that is dedicated to studying how they can make changes to their UI to make it more efficient while not upsetting their user base. These changes aren’t dramatic ones, but more like things you may not even consider to be important like resizing or repositioning a button. These small changes effect millions of people instantly. If they are not exceptionally careful with their changes, then they can upset millions of users instantly.

Going back to Google and Bing, if Google were to make drastic UI changes to utilize the left side of the page, then users may not like it, or feel that it was implemented incorrectly and thus change their default search engine.

My Point

Here it is: Bing is a great search engine not just because of all the features everyone is talking about right now, but because of its similarity to the world’s most popular search engine. I think the real brilliance in Bing is that Microsoft took what worked and made it better. Sure, some are going to look at this and say that Microsoft cheated or something like that. The reality is that Microsoft took did the smart thing: they chose not to reinvent the wheel, but to make it better.

Although I am a huge supporter of innovation, developers should remember that it isn’t the only way. When you are working on a project, make sure you know what is out there, what works, and what needs to be fixed up. That knowledge might be what makes your application the next Google….or Bing.

Catch you on the flip side.

If you haven’t been following Mix 2009 that went down in Las Vegas last week, then you haven’t heard that the Silverlight 3 beta has been officially released to the public. Although your "standard" Internet user may not have a serious interest in the new version of Silverlight, as an RIA developer I am exceptionally excited. The features that are to be included in this release finally give Silverlight the power it needs to take on the powerhouse of Flash/Flex. I have missed working in Silverlight 2 for the past many months at work, but with Silverlight 3 finally being available for me to play with, it has awoken Silverlight beast that rested dormant inside of my digital soul.

If you are interested in getting started on learning about this technology, or even better, start a little software development you should start at the source which is the Microsoft community site, Silverlight.NET. I haven’t been visiting as much as I once did, but be sure that you will probably see me wondering the forums a little more often in the upcoming weeks.

With the Silverlight coming alive inside of me and spring creeping up, I have decided to update my personal development environment on my laptop where I author the amazing content you find in my blog. I figure as I will be talking about software development some of the time, it makes sense to share my development environment with the all of you. This list covers all the development software and tools that I will have installed by tomorrow morning.

• Windows 7 Ultimate (Beta)
• Visual Studio 2008 Professional SP1
• Expression
  • Blend 2 SP1
  • Web 2
• Silverlight 3 Beta
  • Silverlight 3 Beta Tools for Visual Studio
  • Silverlight Toolkit March 2009
  • Blend 3 Preview
  • .NET RIA Services (very cool RIA development component)
• Gimp 2.6

I realize that using Windows 7 might be a bit of a risk in terms of development as it is only in beta. I have heard good things about the stability of the Windows 7 beta, so I figure why not. The plan is to clean off the laptop and see if I can get all my hardware drivers working properly before I start installing the rest of the software. If this fails then I will just return to using my good old Vista Business with SP1.

With Silverlight 3 being released, Microsoft has also released a preview of .NET RIA Services which, I admit, had a very interesting sounding name but as I hadn’t heard anything of the sort prior to Mix, I wasn’t overly excited. After reading a bit of the lab posted at Silverlight.NET, my feelings changed drastically. From what I can gather, all the difficulties our team needed to overcome in Silverlight 2 seem to be resolved thanks to .NET RIA Services. I think this can really round out Silverlight as a solid development platform, and would suggest that any and all Silverlight developers utilize it ASAP.

The last tool you might be wondering about is the Gimp 2.6. For anyone that has worked with UI development, or with a design team, you should know that you will need to play around with graphics at some point when you are building that UI. As I do not require all the features that comes with Adobe CS4, or Microsoft Design, I use the Gimp because it is free and it has all the tools I need for the image manipulation that I do in my projects. For anyone who likes to play around with images, whether it be for UI development or just playing around with digital photos, I would recommend giving it a try.

I am exceptionally excited to get everything working and to get myself back into the Silverlight stream of things. There is more work to be done before I can start creating partitions, which is what I am going to do right now.

Catch you on the flip side.