The quite popular Stargate-SG1 TV series produced by MGM has now an onlne virtual tour built with Silverlight.

Photosynth and Expression have been used as tools to build the site.

A good looking result! 

There is a case study with more background information available at the Microsoft web site.

 

Alexander

My fellow MVP and friend Maarten Struys has built some wrappers for the native API to make it available to managed coders.

Check it out at his blog and give him a tap on the shoulder for a job well done.

 

Alexander

Steadily improving.

Have a look at Micosoft's newest cross-platform develepoment technology: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/silverlight/default.aspx

Be sure to run it on a MAC, as well....

 

Alexander

 

It is one of the re-curring things in my Windows CE trainings.

Every time participants export an emulator image together with the SDK this works fine, but the emulator will not boot when the SDK is installed on an application developers machine.

The reson for this is that often KITL is included for debugging puposes when creating the image. Unfortunately this transport is not used by Visual Studio as its debugging transport layer. Visual Studio uses DMA and it seems that both technologies not really work well together (there only can be one, aka Highlander syndrom ).

Therefore, if You want to create an SDK remove KITL from the image configuration and You or respectively the application developer using the SDK will be fine.

 

Alexander

The newest version of SSC has been released. It is 3.5 SP1 now.

Check out the news as well as the download links at Steve Laskers Blog.

SSC is the only database from Microsoft that spans the whole range from embedded to desktop applications.

Check it out and get Your hands dirty. :-)

 

Alexander

 

Distributed applications on mobile devices are hard to handle as soon as You need to have a reliable and robust communication mechanism. But wait, did You ever think about using email as transport layer for Your application?

Doing this is not too hard leveraging the new WCF capabilities in .NET CF 3.5!

Have a look at Andrew Arnott's article on MSDN to find our more about the details: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc164240.aspx.

 

Alexander 

Lots of products and tools are cranked out by the product teams in Redmond every year. Therefore it is quite important to get some guidance through that wealth. The Windows Mobile Line of Business Solution accelerator is both. Great architectural guidance as well as a great implementation sample. Go and check it out!

 

Alexander

 

ClickOnce is a great technology to handle change management for applications in the field. Unfortunately its support is a bit confusing. Especially, if you are writing SQL Server Compact Edostion (SSCE) applications. SSCE claims support for ClickOnce, which is correct only for applications based on the normal .NET Framework running on desktop or tablet PCs. .NET Compact Framework apllications are unfortunately left behind. So, be awrea of this. It is, at least in my eyes, really a missing feature.

Of course, You are able to create something similar using the SSCE synchronisation features yourself, but this means to develop infrastructure code that ideally should come with the platform you are developing on.

 

Alexander

Silverlight is the new and exciting Microsoft UI technology that crosses browsers and operating systems.

My friends from INETA have prepared a uniique competition at: http://www.silverlightchallenge.eu

This is really cutting edge technology and there are great prizes to win.

Go there or be square!  

 

 

Alexander

Did You know that SSCE (SQL Server Compact Edition) aka SQL Server for Widows CE aka SQL Mobile has enlarged its reach by jumping onto the desktop? This is quite exciting, because with SSCE it is possible to develop small footprint, well-connected and mobile applications on any of the Microsoft platforms. Check it out at: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/editions/compact/downloads.mspx

 

Alexander

During one of my last .NET Micro Framework courses we ran into an interesting problem. We wanted to parse a string containing an integer such as "15" to get the integer value 15.

This normally can be done easily in the .NET Framework using the corresponding methods Int32.Parse or the Convert.ToInt32 methods of those framework classes. The bad thing is, that these methods are currently missing in the .NET Micro Framework versions of Int32 and Convert. According to Microsoft, this is kind of a mishap and will be fixed in future releases.

Until then You can use this workaround:

 

public static bool TryParseFloat(string s, out float result)
{
    bool success = true;
    int decimalDiv = 0;
    result = 0;
    try
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < s.Length; i++)
        {
            if (s[i] == '.' && decimalDiv == 0)
                decimalDiv = 1;
            else if (s[i] < '0' || s[i] > '9')
                success = false;
            else
            {
                result = result * 10;
                decimalDiv = decimalDiv * 10;
                result += (int)(s[i] - '0');
            }
        }
        if (decimalDiv > 0) result = (float) result / decimalDiv; //Avoid devision by zero
    }
    catch
    {
        success = false;
    }
    return success;
}

 

This routine will give you back a float value for your string, that can then be casted, e.g. into an integer. 

 

Alexander

 

 

Just a few minutes ago Ray Ozzie announced in his keynote at the MIX conference in Las Vegas, that the next version of Silverlight will include a fullsize .NET CLR.

This is a mjor step made by Microsoft to extend the .NET development technology on other platforms. Later on Scott Guthri showed how to remote debug a C# application running in a Safari browser on a MacIntosh from Visual Studio running on Windows.

This technology really is exciting because it closes the gap between true platform interoperability while leveraging the powerful Microsoft toolchain. Additionally and fitting good into this strategy, Expression Studio was released. A too that helps to decouples the work process between Designers and developers without making the the reintegration painful. It uses the new application paradigm introduced with the Windows Presentation Foundation coming as part of VISTA and the .NET 3.0 framework.

 

Alexander

 

  

Microsoft has been working on a new cross-platform, cross-browser technology named WPF/E for some time now. It can be (in a nutshell) regarded as a common language runtime with highly portable but also streamlined framework classes for UI/web development.

WPF/E now will be officially announced under its new name Silverlight at the Mix 07 conference in Las Vegas, but if you want to have an ealier look, here you are:

 

I will be in Vegas for MIX and I am looking forward to hear all about this cool new technology. I expect it to change the look and feel of modern web applications quite a bit.

 

Alexander   

Have You ever dreamed of running .NET code directly on a device without any OS?

Well, then You should have a look at this Tuesday's Windows Embedded webcast.

Frank Prengel and me will tell You all You need to know to get a good start with the beta of the .NET MicroFramework SDK and give You a good overview on the architecture and the possibilities. The .NET MicroFramework really completes the vision of having the means for creating exciting user experiences with the help of connected devices in a digital world.

Frank and me would be delighted to meet You in the virtual conference room. As always: The talk will be in German but the slides in English.

8o)

 

Alexander

 

BTW: Frank will also be on the road in Germany with the MSDN TechTalk series, presenting the .NET MicroFramework, as well, beneath other interesting stuff. If it happens to be in a town close to You, try to meet him there.

Tomorrow afternoon Frank and myself are very happy being able to tell You a lot of interesting stuff on .NET development for all kinds of embedded devices. It is my sincere pleasure that our webcast will be hosted by Frank Prengel our Microsoft Developer Evangelist for EMEA.

So, if You have a few minutes drop by and lend us one of Your ears (but we also take both, if possible).

The talk will be held in German, but I do have slides in English. It could therefore be a great start to learn a new language, as well. 

Looking forward to meet You there!

 

Alexander

Yes, I was frightened when it uninstalled the previous beta to loose all my favorites and settings.

But --- it behaved quite nicely! And although I cannot tell the difference to beta 2 by the looks, everything feels like having a smoother touch.

Curios? Well, then try and get it Yourself.

 

Alexander

The .NET Framework 2.0 component for XP embedded has been released this week.

You can download it from this location.

The new component includes the .NET Framework as well as the ASP.NET infrastructure.

Please be aware that ASP.NET requires Internet Information Server as its host. This might add some footprint to Your image.

Nevertheless the Framework and ASP.NET are seperate components. So one just can choose what is required.

 

Alexander

Maybe You have heard the rumors, there is a new version of SQL mobile in the pipe that will change quite a few things in the mobile and embedded market: SQL Server 2005 Everywhere. Yes, marketing people in Redmond like short and catchy product names. 

Nevertheless will the new db run on every Microsoft platform and this is quite interesting. Not only because it carries the very good out of the box connectivity to a SQL Server backend, but it also comes with a very low footprint that helps You e.g. squeezing Your XPe system and app on a smaller CF card.

It is said, that it even is able to synchronze with an Access DB. This could mean starting a new kind of a client server scenario between Your desktop and Your smartphone.

Well, just check it out, the CTP is ready for download!

 

Alexander 

Today I ran in a lot of trouble while trying to install the new IE 7 beta 3 and I really felt like being in the old DLL hell days again.

Thank god the blog entries from the IE team helped me out.

If You are in trouble as well, that's the place to go for a solution!

 

Alexander