This meeting was great. My buddy Jared Bienz demoed Silverlight 3 Out of the Browser experience, and also made himself available to answer miscellaneous questions regarding Expression Blend, WPF, styles, etc.:
- We’ve seen a quick presentation on Silverlight 3 Out of the Browser experience
- This link has been mentioned as a good resource on Silverlight
- It was recommended watching the Silverlight “Visual Kitchen” video
- There’s a book on “Dynamic Prototyping with SketchFlow in Expression Blend” in the works. Preview chapters can be downloaded here.
- Interesting managed API for interacting with Windows 7 features (such as the taskbar) from with .NET apps
- Virtual Earth Silverlight Map control CTP: very interesting control for adding maps to Silverlight apps.
Jared also sent me an email with his own notes to links and other things he had mentioned during the meeting. Thanks a lot, Jared!
Tim Heuers’ original video that I “borrowed” from to present today:
http://silverlight.net/learn/learnvideo.aspx?video=187318
Tim’s sample code:
Application Skinning in WPF and Silverlight:
http://blogs.msdn.com/jbienz/archive/2009/06/22/application-skinning-in-wpf-and-silverlight.aspx
Virtual Earth Map Control for Silverlight
Note that you’ll need to sign in to connect and apply for access, but anyone can join.
https://connect.microsoft.com/silverlightmapcontrolctp
Below you’ll find information about the Front Runner program. If you join the Front Runner program or are interested in logo certification, please let Jared know (jbienz@microsoft.com). Jared can serve as your sponsor and can also act as a local resource here in Houston should you have any issues.
http://www.msdev.com/frontrunner
Once you’re in and answered a couple of questions you can go to the Expert Support tab:
From there you can get free e-mail support and even live phone call support from our Windows 7 / Server 2008 R2 compatibility engineers.
Front Runner provides other benefits as well, including some pretty valuable marketing resources when you’re compatible and a logo you can display to show that you’re early adopters. Front Runner is separate from the Windows Logo program, though, which has benefits of its own and is now free to complete. The Windows 7 logo program includes partner points, for example, so we’re really hoping ISVs will choose to do both.
Claudio Lassala's Blog 