I just upgraded the samples to run with the Farseer Physics Engine 2.0.1. I also removed the Demo6, which were empty at the moment and added some text different places.

Get the lastest release from CodePlex.com

I plan/hope to be able to make more samples which will get a little more advanced, still simple-advanced, but I will add a little more complexity to it. I will do it in the same way as up til now by having completely seperated projects that can run on them own. Well, this is the plan, let's see how it turns out.

31-12-2008, the last day of the year. It's time to look back and make status of the year that is about to end.

What have we accomplished, what have happened, any major milestones, how does the new year look like?

Silverlight 2.0

For me, technical-wise, the release of Silverlight 2.0 have been the greatest thing this year. To me, Silverlight looks like a winner on the RIA front and I think we will see many new good Silverlight applications out there in the new year, which will increase the market penetration for Silverlight. Right now the market penetration, based on data from RiaStats.com, is about 11,12% for Silverlight 2.0. Let's see what it's like at the end of the new year. My guess, around 30 %, but let's hope for more.

Read more about what Silverlight 2.0 have done in 2008 and what we can expect from Silverlight 3.0 in 2009 at ScottGu's blog.

Working with Silverlight

Another big thing for me is that I now work fulltime on a Silverlight project at my day job. Well, it's only for a short period (some months) of time, but it's very fun, interesting and I learn alot. I were giving an one-hour brief introduction to all developers at work in November and after that I were asked to join a new project where Silverlight good be used. So thats where I'm sitting now and it's great to get some "real-world" experience with Silverlight.

Let's hope 2009 will bring more Silverlight projects in my direction - both hobby and real projects.

See you in the new year - watch the fireworks! :)

Today I saw this blog post over at Nikhil K's blog about a "jquery-like" framework for Silverlight to help developers build professional UI. Actually this "jquery-like" framework is an extension for the Silverlight.FX, which is created by Nikhil K. The "jQuery-like" framework is build by Daniel Crenna.

Here is some code from the sample that comes with the release.

 // Slide Script
 Animator.WithNew(horzSlideContainer)
.WithEasing(EffectEasing.QuadraticInOut)
.Slide(SlideMode.Left)
.For(1.Seconds())
.Play();

The code above "slides" this grid, defined in XAML.

<Grid x:Name="horzSlideContainer">
   <Image Source="/MS.net.png" />
   <Image Source="/Silverlight.png" />
</Grid>

If you want to know more about this, visit the blog listed below. You can also find download links for the release at the blogposts.

Resources:

Nikhil K's blogpost - Fluent Animations in Silverlight

Daniel Crenna - Composing animations with Silverlight.FX

Enjoy and happy coding :)

This morning I woke up at about 06:20 to my apartment shaking. My and girlfriend looked at each other and thought if was our neighbour, which usually make noises at the most wierd times of the day. So when it stopped, after about 10 sec., we went to sleep again. On my way to work a little later, I checked the news on my phone and saw that there has been a earthquake! This is VERY unusual in Denmark or in Scandinavia for that matter. I have never experienced such a thing before, a little creepy.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2008araj.php#details

I have heard about podcast for a long time and of cause knew what it was, but if you should be in doubt here goes:

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, a podcast is "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player," but the generally accepted definition has expanded to include video as well as audio. Originally derived from a combination of "broadcasting" and "iPod ™," the word was declared "word of the year" when it was added to the dictionary at the end of 2005.

I have never owned an Ipod untill I brought my iPhone 3G this summer. At that point I, sadly, HAD to install iTunes. As you all know iTunes is a virus on a PC, but if I wanted my iPhone 3G to work at all, I had no choice. Therefore iTunes got installed.

As I now were the owner of an “ipod”, formed as an iPhone, I could start look more into podcast. Actually it all started when I found the Sparkling Client – Silverlight podcast by searching for “silverlight” inside iTunes Store. I subscribed for the podcast and got them all on my iPhone 3G. On my way to work the next day, on my bike cycle, I started the first podcast. When I arrived at work 15 minutes later, I realized that I had actually learned something while doing something simple as riding my bike, which I do 25-30 min. two times a day(to and from work).

This is were it started to get very interesting for me. Instead of listening to Ozzy, Metallica, Plain White T’s etc. to and from work, I could now learn something real, while doing something trivial as riding my bike. When I say real, I mean something I can actually use at my job or on my hobby projects, and not just the “lastest news” and “weather” in the normal FM radio (which the iphone 3G actually don’t have :P).

So at this point I became wiser, times two. I learned that listening to podcast could actually give me some knowledge, while I’m doing other trivial things. I also learned something about templating in silverlight as Jesse Liberty were on this podcast :) 

Nothing new

Yes, your right, this is nothing new and you all knew it all along. I know. I just learned that now and are now listening to podcast when I do the dishes, the laundry etc. Generally task that I don’t need to think to much about is great for listening to podcasts.

Great podcasts I enjoy at the moment

As already stated, I listen to the Sparkling Client – Silverlight podcast. This is the only podcast I have been able to find which is only about Silverlight. If you know others, please let me know.

Hanselsminutes Podcast is also a podcast I enjoy alot at the moment. It not only about silverlight, but generally interesting stuff for a developer. Besides that, these podcasts is actually very funny. It’s seems that Scott Hanselman is a funny guy by nature, which just makes it all much better. See for instance his BabeSmash session at PDC2008 which shows his own “Babysmash application” but also gives an overview of the .NET framework.