continuum - Channel 9

Smart Search and Replace with Aggiorno

AdamKinney — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:39:00 GMT

Gilbert Corrales quickly fixes invalid and unfriendly HTML and CSS using Aggiorno, a code refactoring tool that runs as a plug-in for Visual Studio. I really like the Smart Search and Replace feature which was just added. Its like Regular Expressions made easy and using templates.

Shazzam - A Tool for Creating WPF Pixel Shader Effects

AdamKinney — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:25:00 GMT

Walt Ritscher walks us through building a custom WPF Pixel Shader Effect using Shazzam, his latest creation. Along the lines of other useful tools mentioned, Kaxaml and LINQPad, Shazzam is free to download and use. Props to Walt for generating both C# and VB code for your Shader Effect.

Dynamic 3D Charts with Telerik

AdamKinney — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:16:00 GMT

Vladimir Milev and Todd Anglin show us the new Charting and Gauge controls from Telerik. The Charts are very flexible and run in 2D and 3D mode, you can even use your own custom models for the 3D Charts.

The Gauges shown in the video are also now available in Silverlight. Same API for both WPF and Silverlight versions, which should definitely make the life of the developer easier when using them.

Smooth Scrolling Datagrids with Xceed

AdamKinney — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:02:00 GMT

Pascal Bourque demonstrates a prototype of the next Datagrid from Xceed. They've improved the datagrid by paying attention to perceived response times and adding some modern functionality like pinned headers and smooth scrolling, that handles flicks with a small amount of viscosity.

Exploring Time and Space with Infragistics

AdamKinney — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:52:00 GMT

Jason Beres takes us on a journey through time and space using the new Timeline, Map and Zoombar controls from Infragistics.

The Timeline and Zoombar make an interesting pair when combined with two sets of historical data. I also like the point Jason makes about how this all done with client-side Silverlight, so the response time is really quick without a page refresh.

Surface beats with Vectorform

AdamKinney — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:23:00 GMT

SurfaceDJ from Vectorform was one of my favorite applications shown at PDC. Not only does it involve Multi-touch, Surface and music; but it is an example of a new form of collaborative application. Joe Engalan and Markus Sheldon build up the music, keep it alive and then break it down in real-time while working together at the Surface table. I want one!

Check out Vectorform's Surface blog to see some of their other Surface applications. Yes, they are the ones behind NBC's Electoral application.

IdentityMine's multitude of Multi-touch apps

AdamKinney — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:40:00 GMT

On a whirlwind tour of the IdentityMine booth provided by Kurt Brockett and Meg McAllister, we get to see their Surface Photo Sharing app, their Photo Slideshow app using NextWindow touch screens and their AirHockey running on Windows 7.

Multi-touch was one of the big deals for me at PDC2008, because the concept brings new design opportunities and challenges. Seeing the different applications come to life was very cool and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next in this space.

UT3 Bots for .NET

AdamKinney — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:17:00 GMT

You may not be able to write Quake in .NET, but with the UT3 Bots Starter Kit you could write your Bot in .NET for Unreal Tournament 3. James Lissiak demonstrates how to write a simple Bot and the Silverlight-based visualization for real-time game information.

Conchango and the Tesco project

AdamKinney — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:06:00 GMT

On the last day of PDC, I caught up with Paul Dawson and Matthew Adams to discuss the work Conchango has done for Tesco, one of the largest online grocery retailer. The goal of the WPF-based application is to redefine the experience of ordering groceries online and the preview is so impressive it was shown during the Day Two Keynote at PDC (starts around 94:00).

Paul and Matthew walk us through the application in more depth and talk about the development cycle and the attention paid to design. Typical shopping carts online may fill up with 8 items, imagine designing a shopping cart for 88 items that remains simple enough for dear grandma to use.

QuakeLight Preview

AdamKinney — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:07:00 GMT

In this video, I'm running a preview version of QuakeLight a Silverlight-based port of Quake. Its very impressive to see an old-school classic game come to life in Silverlight 2. Stunned, along with others, I interviewed Julien Frelat about the story behind QuakeLight, coding techniques used and when there will be a public release.

WPF Effects Library

AdamKinney — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:37:00 GMT

WPF 3.5 SP1 offers killer graphic capabilities that were demonstrated in the last video with David Teitlebaum. In this video, David has dropped by to help us announce the WPF Pixel Shader Effects Library. The library includes 23 Effects and 26 Transitions and is available with source code at http://codeplex.com/wpffx.

After shooting the video, we realized we didn't show all of the effects and any of the transitions. To see the library in action check out the WPF Effects Library Demo video.

WPF Effects Library Demo

AdamKinney — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:36:00 GMT

After shooting the WPF Effects Library interview with David Teitlebaum and realizing we didn't show all of the effects and any of the transitions, we put together this short video. Very little dialogue here to distract from the beauty of the Effects and Transitions. Cue the music...

Download the WPF Effects Library at http://codeplex.com/wpffx

3D View Controls for WPF

AdamKinney — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 04:54:00 GMT

3D functionality is becoming a more popular component in UI technologies and has been greatly improved in WPF 3.5 SP1. Upon hearing this some people (Niners even) are known to question "what is it good for?" My first answer is that the British Turning Pages application just wouldn't be the same without 3D.

Marc Laroche stopped by to talk about another use of 3D in one of Xceed's new controls 3D Views for WPF. Watching Marc move the camera to adjust the display of the data (around 5:25) can give you an idea of where 3D can really be useful. Simply adjusting the position of the camera offers a new perspective rendered dynamically. There is no need to pre-render all of the desired views.

This is great stuff but it feels like just the beginning. The more accessible we can make 3D, the more we can become creative and effective with it.

WPF Pixel Shader Parts

AdamKinney — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:29:00 GMT

Nikola Mihaylov came by the studio to explain what a WPF Pixel Shader really is and the code involved and making one. He has a great post on his blog explaining how to get started with Pixel Shaders along with a custom VS project template to make it even easier.

In his demonstration Nikola shows off his own effects along with Anders Bursjöö’s Grayscale Effect and Rakesh Ravuri's Wave Reflection Effect.

Project Rosetta

AdamKinney — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:12:00 GMT

Project Rosetta is a site dedicated to helping designers and developers build applications in Silverlight while taking advantage of skills they already know. In this interview, I caught up with Rick Barraza, the author of the first article entitled From Flash to Silverlight, to talk about the article, the world of the Interactive Media Design and reckless creativity.

Lawson Smart Office brings WPF goodness to the enterprise

AdamKinney — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:52:00 GMT

Originally noticed as "a beautiful user experience in an enterprise application", Lawson Smart Office provides a distinctive personalized experience for someone managing their "information workplace". Matthew Allbee provides a walkthrough of Lawson's first WPF application and shows how they use the are really taking advantage of the platform.

NBCOlympics.com Update

AdamKinney — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:40:00 GMT

Eric Schmidt drops by to tell stories about the NBCOlympics.com site launch and answer a few questions from the viewers.

Why is it US Only?
Where is the FullScreen mode?
How does the streaming work?
Why choose to run on a beta?
Will we see the same coverage in upcoming Olympics?

Building NBCOlympics.com with Silverlight

AdamKinney — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:37:00 GMT

NBCOlympics.com is one of the most ambitious projects on the web and one of the largest Silverlight applications today. Eric Schmidt takes us on a technical tour of how the site works and how it was built with Silverlight 2 and Windows Media.

MVC Preview 4 with Phil Haack

AdamKinney — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Phil Haack, one of the driving forces behind ASP.NET MVC, provides the lowdown on what MVC is, what's new in Preview 4 and how you can help shape the next version. He also takes a call from his wife, but its worth the wait.

Links mentioned in this video:

Hello World

AdamKinney — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 06:27:00 GMT

This is the beginning of a new show on Channel 9 focused on the world of UI technologies available from Microsoft. This includes some of your favorites like WPF, Silverlight, ASP.NET, Expression, IE8 and more. We'll be showing new features, patterns and practices from experts and samples of inspirational applications.

If you have suggestions for topics or applications you would like see covered, leave a comment.

Links mentioned in this video: