March 2009 Entries

Solving cross domain access problems (via Jon Galloway)

At my MIX09 and TechDays Belgium talk recently, I mentioned the issues that a Silverlight developer faces when trying to access a cross-domain web site. If the site has a clientaccesspolicy.xml (or crossdomain.xml) policy file in place, the call is allowed. If not, the call is rejected. The solution, I mentioned, is to put a "gateway" in place to forward the call to the cross domain site. In my talk, I said that you could do that on your own web server, the server the Silverlight application is served ...
Print | posted on Posted On Monday, March 30, 2009 11:32 AM | Comments (0)

A Tribute to the WPF Disciples

A very long time ago, I was contacted by Marlon Grech who asked me to join a new Google group he had just created called the WPF Disciples. I was quite new in WPF back then and didn't know many members of the community yet, and I must admit that it slipped my mind and I didn't register (when you blog, and your blog gets a certain visibility, you get all kind of requests. I do my best to satisfy most of them, but sometimes I am just too busy and I cannot follow up). Later, I met Josh Smith and Karl ...
Print | posted on Posted On Friday, March 27, 2009 11:22 AM | Comments (1)

Posting the source code for my #mix09 and #techdays (Belgium) talk

Note: I just updated the title for this article, sorry to all of you who were waiting for the TechDays Belgium source code and didn't realize it was here :) I just posted the source code of the demo applications I used in my MIX09 talk "Working across the client continuum". The source code is structured as follows: DotNetContinuum: This solution contains the following projects: DotNetContinuum: a WCF service configured with 2 endpoints (SOAP and JSON), as well as 3 client applications: DotNetContinuum.Mvc: ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 25, 2009 12:06 AM | Comments (0)

My #MIX09 session is available in video

MIX09 is over, people are slowly going back home. I will be flying home tomorrow, quite a long trip since I will reach Zurich only on Sunday morning. I had the great pleasure to see that the video of my talk was posted online! This is great, because I didn't have a huge crowd (what do you expect when you "compete" against and Vertigo and their Playboy talk, and the amazing Corrina Black :)) But it's OK, because the people at my talk were really great. I felt wonderful during the talk, and even the ...
Print | posted on Posted On Saturday, March 21, 2009 8:09 AM | Comments (0)

#MIX09 Book Signing: "Silverlight 2 Unleashed"

When: Today, Friday 20th of March 2009, 10:30 - 11:00 Where: MIX2009 Book store (in 3rd Place) What: I will be signing my book there. Come and bring your friends
Print | posted on Posted On Friday, March 20, 2009 4:49 PM | Comments (2)

IdentityMine releases Gesture Engine for advanced multitouch development

Multitouch is going to be the next big thing. Natural User Interfaces (NUI) are going to change the way we use client applications soon. You think it's not true? See the iPhone hype. This is not a very good phone, feature wise. It is lacking very basic features. But being able to control your phone using multiple fingers was a real killer feature. Apple is not the only one working on that, of course. Firms like Perceptive Pixel or Oblong have been exploring this space for a very long time. (watch ...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 19, 2009 5:56 PM | Comments (0)

Reminder: My talk at #MIX09

Tomorrow Thursday 19th of March 2009 Location: Delfino 4105 Working across the .NET continuum Come see how to build a continuum of client applications including HTML, AJAX, ASP.NET, Microsoft Silverlight, and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) that all consume the same Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service. Learn how to reuse as much code as possible, how to optimize the development process, and how to address key logistical issues like external servers and cross domain communication. ...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 19, 2009 1:58 AM | Comments (0)

#MIX09 Random Pictures

At the Venetian Workshop: Design fundamentals for developers Workshop: Hiking Mt Avalon My room at the Venetian Silverlight insiders tweetup at breakfast MIX 09 Keynote ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 18, 2009 8:18 PM | Comments (0)

MIX09 Keynote

Great energy in the room. Bill Buxton enters and starts talking about how lucky we are to work in Experience Design. "What do Canada and Transitions have in common? They are both dominated by the States" "It's a not a creative job, it's a negative job, because you start with a 100 great ideas, but end up throwing away 99 of them" "You cannot be anal. These things are too important to take seriously." "How can we deliver on thin client, on the web, the same rich experience as on rich devices such ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 18, 2009 5:40 PM | Comments (0)

#MIX09: Design fundamentals for developers (2)

Talks about Gestalt (shape), Swiss design in the 1950's, Bauhaus. Then moves on to shapes, color, contrasts. Visual language. A page is governed by a number of visual elements. "Figure / Ground" Background vs Message you want to show. The Ground is usually ignored while the Figure is observed. Make the Ground solid to reinforce the Figure. The Ground can be overwhelming the Figure, which gives a sense of confusion. "Closure" Visual effects used to create a link to the user. Feels like we're in an ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 18, 2009 7:25 AM | Comments (0)

#MIX09: Design fundamentals for developers

Speaker: Robby Ingebretsen Authors/Designers of reference Alex White Milton Blazer Saul Bass The difference between design and art is intent. "Creative brief" First document, interview with the client "Pitch" Presenting your best thinking. Interactive thing. Way of getting aligned with the client "Wireframe" Express the information design. Tell a story. Navigation. Shouldn't look like the final product. Ni visual design, focus on information design. "Interaction spec" Expresses how user will interact ...
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, March 17, 2009 6:45 PM | Comments (3)

Me @ MIX 2009

Well here is the time of the year again where choices, hard choices must be made. Yes, this is a crucial time, one of decisions: The MIX conference is around the corner and I need to complete my schedule. This year is slightly easier than the 3 previous editions, though. Since I will be speaking, I have less sessions to choose from (I asked, but apparently they don't let you attend other sessions while you're presenting yours, bummer). So here we go, this is Me @ MIX 2009: The red entries are sessions ...
Print | posted on Posted On Monday, March 16, 2009 9:47 PM | Comments (1)

TechDays Belgium is over

I just held two talks in Antwerp, Belgium, for TechDays and it was really nice. First the Belgian team did a fantastic work welcoming the speakers, and as far as I could say, the attendees were also taken care of in an exemplary way. We had just a small incident (there was a power breakdown about 15 minutes before my show and the whole center went black), but noone panicked and it was taken care of with a lot of care. We started the sessions only 15 minutes late on the last day. Everyone stayed calm. ...
Print | posted on Posted On Saturday, March 14, 2009 12:09 PM | Comments (0)

Back from MVP summit and heading to Tech Days Belgium

I am just back from the MVP summit in Seattle / Redmond and I had a great time there. It was fantastic catching up with old friends and making new ones. Seeing what is coming up in future releases of Silverlight and WPF (to name just those two) was electrifying. Of course I cannot talk about it because otherwise Justin Angel and the NDA police will track me down and kick my ass. If you never met Justin before, trust me, you don't want that to happen. :) Some changes for me after the MVP summit: I ...
Print | posted on Posted On Monday, March 09, 2009 11:10 PM | Comments (0)

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