Me about things...

I (and my colleague Ed Dunhill) are currently visiting a number of Universities in the UK delivering technology talks as part of the Inspiration Tour (more info on the planned date are available on Ed’s blog).

During the Silverlight session we show a number of really cool Silverlight sites (when we have Internet access on site and unfortunately in some cases we don’t), and I think it is a good idea to share the URLs we use…

DEEPZOOM
http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/
http://www.laguna-coupe.com/
http://www.xrez.com/yose_proj/yose_deepzoom/ClientBin/TestPage.html
http://www.kbb.com/kbb/PerfectCarFinder/PhotoEdition.aspx
http://robburke.net/images/deeplol.html

GAMES
http://linerider.com
http://www.popfly.com/users/Adam/Crayon%20Cannon

VIDEO
http://www.smoothhd.com/
http://kirill.uk.msn.com/
http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/trailers/jumper.html
http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/trailers/vegas/default.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/video/en/us/default.aspx

Do you know any other cool sites I have not listed here? let me know, and I’ll add them to the list!!!

(And if you are on Twitter follow and use the #inspirationtour hashtag!!!!)

If you are interested in IT, computing, etc. you should have heard by now that the next version of Windows will be called Windows 7  and that participants to the PDC 2008 conference this year will get their hands on a pre-beta version of the new OS.

You might also have heard that Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky launched recently a blog called “Engineering Windows 7” where they and their teams discuss about all aspect of how Windows 7 is being built.

But what about for the rest of us, who will be developing software for Windows 7? is there any place where we can learn what’s coming and how to take advantage of it to create cool applications?

Well, while I expect a lot of resources to be available soon (and keep an eye of the lots of Windows 7 content coming out from PDC), we also just launched a new blog called “The Windows 7 Blog for Developers” where the team will “mainly focus on the development aspects of Windows 7 by providing valuable content for developers”.

I am an avid reader of Engineering Windows 7 and if The Windows 7 Blog for Developers will be on the same level… it will definitely be a great resource for developers!!!

Being Italian, a Ferrari fan and working for Microsoft… I could not be happier!!!

Read the Computerworld article to find out more about this.

I’m back from a trip to Sunderland where I met about 120 students yesterday as part of the Inspiration Tour 2008/2009. I was really impressed by the campus, not just because of the quality of the building but also because of the openness of it…

The Informatics Centre has a terraced area (see photo below) where the students can go to use the PCs and all the lecture theatres as well as the staff offices have big glass windows making it feel much more like an office environment rather than a University.

I don’t know if it was a coincidence, but I also noticed that the students there have been more keen than the average to participate and debate during my session, with a lot of very pertinent questions (and some tough ones as well) that sparked a very positive debate.

Hats off to the University, the lecturers and the students, it was really a great experience for me!!

I have to say, it was indeed my very first time in the area and I found the whole surrounding to be really nice too: beautiful views, great buildings, clean air… And the lovely cab driver to told me all about the history and the sights!!!

If it was just a bit warmer I may consider living there :)

Do you have any cool idea that uses software and hardware to create your dream device? You will find this very interesting!!!

We just launched the Dare to Dream Different Challenge in which we invite you to show us what your dream device is all about and bring it to reality using the .NET Micro Framework. If your entry is one of the best you will share in the $50,000 in prizes and numerous other benefits up for grabs.

The contest is divided in two categories:

• Professional: if you are interested in converting your idea in a real product you should enter this one and the winner will automatically become a .NET Micro Framework business partner (and your submission will be judged for its commercial potential as well as is coolness)
  
• Hobbyist: if you just want to show your cool idea but have no plans to make it a real product (at least not right away) you should enter this category for a chance to win cool prizes

Last night the Silverlight team released the final version of Silverlight 2.0 (if you are interested, the official press release is here).

While I recommend you go to Tim Heuer’s post for full details about the new release, there are a few things I would like to point out:

• You will need to install Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2008
  
• If you want to use the express tools… you can now use Visual Web Developer Express and as such have a free development environment for Silverlight apps (and here as well, you will need the Service Pack 1)
  
• Blend 2.5 is no more… the official version required to design Silverligh 2 apps is called Expression Blend 2 Service Pack 1 which will install on top of the normal Expression Blend 2 and requires the .NET 3.5 Framework Service Pack 1
  
• Silverlight 2 DOES introduce some breaking changes from Beta 2 and sites developed for Beta 2 MOST LIKELY will not work with the final version

The last piece of news is that… Visual Studio is not anymore the only tool available to develop Silverlight applications. Continuing in the effort of providing support for the Open Source community, we are funding a venture to provide Silverlight Tools for Eclipse and you can find all the details on the project’s website:

http://www.eclipse4sl.org

In their own words:

Eclipse Tools for Microsoft Silverlight Project will integrate advanced Silverlight development capabilities into the Eclipse IDE and Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP).

• Increased Interoperability: Eclipse will contain functionality that will help Java Developers build Silverlight applications that work better with Java Web Services using REST, SOAP, JSON and other standards.
  
• Silverlight Project System and Silverlight Compiler: Eclipse will contain both an advanced project system for creating Silverlight applications and media experiences as well as a compiler for packaging Silverlight applications for deployment.
  
• XAML Editor & Preview with code hinting and code completion: Eclipse will contain an advanced, standards-compliant XAML editor with code hinting and code hinting features which helps detect and correct coding errors.
  
• Full compatibility with Microsoft's Development and Design Tools: The XAML and Silverlight projects created by Eclipse will be fully supported by both Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft Expression Studio tools.

So if you are familiar with Eclipse and want to give this a try, go to the project download page for the Alpha/Community Technology Preview.

Last but not least, we are also making  available the Silverlight XAML vocabulary via our Open Specification Promise.  We’ve done this with WPF XAML already and this is a great addition to enable other tool vendors and technologies to extend their applications to read/write XAML for Silverlight.

Mike Nash just announced on the Windows Vista Team Blog that the next version of Windows will be called Windows 7.

His post is an interesting read if you are interested in why this name has been chosen and why we decided to move away from a moniker like XP or Vista.

And looks like people attending the PDC 2008 conference this year will get their hands on a pre-beta version of the new OS. Looking at the list of Windows 7 related sessions scheduled, it is obvious that quite a lot of cool stuff is coming and I will try to get a copy of it as soon as I can and report back on what is more interesting especially from a user experience point of view.

As published in my previous post, we just launched an ad campaign called Life without Walls featuring a lot of user generated content where people basically say “I am a PC”.

The main page for the campaign is http://www.windows.com

I find this campaign to be very inspiring and very clever and here is why…

Very inspiring

I love the fact that this is all about people, who and what they are and what they enjoy in their lives. It is about inclusion and sharing, not about exclusion, not about saying “I’m better than you are”.

I am a strong believer that everyone is unique and that this uniqueness should be celebrated and everybody’s passions are important in their own right and nobody should tell anybody else how to live their lives.

Very Clever

It allows people to express themselves and makes them being part of the campaign. What anybody can do is to upload a photo or a video of himself describing what they love to do and (after it has been approved to prevent inappropriate content) it will be published on the wall (and you can see my own photo here and by the way the Silverlight application that powers the wall, is really cool)

Now, what is even cooler is that the photo or video will be featured in the banners that will appear over the web and people will receive a personalised link that will ensure their own photo/video is featured when the see one of the banners!!!

For example, check out mine which today features me on the MTV.com homepage… sweet!!!!

I am now planning to upload a video and hope it will be shown on the big screens in Times Square, New York…

So, if you are a PC like us… feel free to join in if you want or just come and check us out!!!

As Steve Clayton reports today on his blog, looks like starting tomorrow we’ll roll out some more ads called “I’m a PC” to celebrate all the different people who use Windows in their work and life and are quite happy and successful (and you can read a thorough analysis of it on the New York Times).

The cool thing is that the first image that has been released is this one:

Well… I guess I really am a PC after all… check this video from my vacation in South Africa last March… and guess who was holding the camera!!!

I'm a PC Video

Shark Diving is amazing and being a PC is amazing too!!!!

And don’t I really look like the guy in the ad? Here is me just 2 weeks ago celebrating my B’day…

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between a CPU and a GPU? And why you should consider using the GPU for complex calculations?

Well the guys at NVidia wanted to find a good way of explaining that and they asked Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage to help out.

Jamie and Adam are special effects experts who became famous in the US for their Mythbusters show (if you have never seen it… try to do so, it is hilarious and available on the Discovery Channel in the UK!!!).

Since they are big fans of things that shoot and blast… you can imagine that the result is nothing short of amazing! Unfortunately there is no embed option on the NVidia site so you need to go there to see the video, but you can get HD versions (which I highly recommend).

So, don’t waste any time and go watching it… you will not regret investing the 10 minutes :)

Today the XNA team released the 3.0 Beta version of the XNA Game Studio.

This new version includes a number of important new features and works with Visual Studio 2008 (it will NOT work with Visual Studio 2005 so you will need to install Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition and higher with C# language support or Visual C# 2008 Express Edition).

There are a number of important improvements in this version such as:

• Enumerate and play back media on your Windows computer or Xbox 360.
• Simple sound effect support on Windows computers and Xbox 360.
• Support for Rich Presence (lets friends know what’s going on in your game).
• Support for Invites (ask your friends to join you in a multiplayer game) and Join Session In Progress (after you see what your friends are doing, you can join their current session with just a couple of button presses, even if that’s a different game to the one you are currently playing)
• Compress your content and save space with the new content compression features!
• ClickOnce packaging support for distributing your XNA Framework games on Windows.
• Upgrade your project from XNA Game Studio 2.0 using the Project Upgrade Wizard!
• Take screen captures of your game running on Zune through the XNA Game Studio Device Center.
• Support for .NET language features like Linq
• Create multiple content projects and leverage cross project synchronization in Visual Studio
• FBX importer improvements: read materials containing multiple textures, and export custom shader materials directly out of Max or Maya

XNA 3.0 Beta also supports creation of games for the Zune (3.0 firmware version). Unfortunately the devices are currently only available in the US and Canada and hopefully we’ll see them in the rest of the world soon.

It is worth noting that “You will not be able to develop on the Xbox 360 until our final release”, which means that you can use this beta version to test the conversion of 2.0 project but will not be able to run the games yet!

If you are already making an Xbox 360 game using XNA Game Studio 2.0, you may either:

• Convert the game to a Windows game project in XNA Game Studio 3.0, continue development, and then convert it to an Xbox 360 project when XNA Game Studio 3.0 reaches its final release.
• Continue using XNA Game Studio 2.0.

Why downloading the new version then? Xbox LIVE Community Games will require that your game be created in XNA Game Studio 3.0 so you need to download it to test this out.

In any case, XNA Game Studio 3.0 and Visual Studio 2008 do not interfere with XNA Game Studio 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005, so even if you decide to continue your project in XNA Game Studio 2.0, you may safely install this Beta and try it out without interfering with your work in progress.

Find all the details in the XNA team’s blog and download it from the creators club site. Once you have done it, use Microsoft Connect to send us any feedback and bug reports to help us make it a great release.

Do you use TortoiseSVN or the SVNBridge (or any of the Subversion client tools) for source control?

Do you use codeplex and want to contribute to projects there?

You will be delighted that starting today, TortoiseSVN will just work as illustrated below, no extra software is necessary to work with CodePlex.

If you are interested, you can find all details on the codeplex blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/codeplex/archive/2008/09/14/codeplex-launches-support-for-tortoisesvn.aspx

I think this is really great news and one more step forward in the right direction in our effort to better support the great community of developers who work with the Microsoft technologies!!!!

A few weeks ago I did a Live Mesh Session for the Vista Squad user group which the guys recorded.

The recording is now available here in HD quality or using the embedded player below.

Let me know what you think about it :)

On Wednesday 1st of October, join us at the Royal Festival Hall in London for the Microsoft Student Technology Day an event organised to discuss the next generation of computer science innovation with students and lecturers from across the UK.

We lined up a number of very cool sessions:

• The Power of Students
  Joe Wilson, Director of Worldwide Academic Relations - Microsoft Corporation
  
• Lessons from starting a software company
  Andy McLoughlin, Co-founder – Huddle
  
• Science behind Live Search
  Jay Girotto, Principal Group Program Manager, Windows Live Search - Microsoft Corporation
  
• MS Research talk on CS inside Halo 3 True Ranking system
  Thore Graepel, Joaquin Quiñonero Candela and Ralf Herbrich, Researcher - Microsoft Research Limited, Cambridge

But the real highlight of the day will be the Keynote by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Steve will address the UK's leading computing students to discuss the challenges of the software industry and how an organisation like Microsoft focuses on innovation to embrace disruption. This candid discussion with the audience will give unique insight into Microsoft and demonstrate why Computer Science talent and research is critical to the industry's success

Or, some may argue, the session which will follow Steve's where I myself will talk about how the interaction between users and computers is likely to evolve in the next future and the impact this is going to have on Computer Science and how developers will build their application on top of this .

On stage right after Steve… now that IS truly exciting!!!

Hurry up and register yourself as there are only 300 places available we expect the place to be fully booked soon!!!!

I just stumbled on the microspotting site which is a blog run by Ariel Meadow Stallings who basically… goes around the Microsoft Campus, meets cool people, takes pictures of them and blogs about it!!

Definitely worth checking it out to learn about the *people* who work at Microsoft!!!! Who knows if we can manage to get Ariel over to the UK sometimes…

Really cool stuff and definitely one more reason to say… I’m glad I work for Microsoft.

PS In case you are wondering why I posted this… check this out… and wait for my photo with the nice t-shirt :)