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Dear Gmail,

Hi.  I like mail.  I like you.  Can you please fix your POP interface?  You see, because I'm starting to want to use it and started investigating the process.  I like that Gmail gives me an awesome spam filter that I would trade my vintage 1980 yoda figurine for.  I also like the filter capabilities that I can set up.  It gives me a clean Inbox...you even call it an Inbox.

But when I use the POP services, my Inbox got bigger.  All my filtered mail is in there.  What gives?  Why don't you honor my Inbox the same way you do through the web.

Please Gmail, can you fix this problem with you.  I would really appreciate it.

K, thanks.

xoxoxoxo

-th

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ahh, eula's -- you know the thing you click 'next' on to get your software installed? :-)  well, for silverlight, one little note may bite some tomorrow (or today for some of you) -- well, whatever, 01 AUG 2007.  that is when silverlight beta expires (and thus the initial alpha as well).  so even if you have the plugin and working apps, it won't work.

now is the time...update to the silverlight release candidate.  the release candidate also has an expiration, but now includes self-updating technology within the plugin.  check out this post to ensure you get the latest sdk's and bits to get your samples up and running for your visitors!

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richardz found a place for his awesome silverlight 'jelly' samples...and added another one -- overload.

check out the jelly overload!

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if it looks like a red bull can, would you assume it is an equivalent energy drink?  i did.  damn marketers. :-)

here's what i'm talking about:

  

red bull is obviously the first can.  while in costco the other day i saw this 'bloom energy' drink.  i fell for it.  looked like an energy drink can (silver/skinny), and wild berry sounded intriguing (more than taurine energy drink flavor).  i didn't bother looking at the ingredients and figured i'd give this energy drink a try.

guess what.  carbonated grape juice (with white tea extract which is the source of caffeine).  yeah, not what i expected.  tasty, but not energy-y.  i was fooled by clever marketing.  i saw another one the other day -- the flavor was "blood orange" -- i don't care what you say, anything that says blood orange, i'm buying.

oh the heineken one?  saw that on a billboard driving downtown one day.  same thing: skinny, silver can.  but it's beer.  i wonder if it sells better.

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as you might suspect, if you are hosting applications via , you may have to make some modifications there as well to support the release candidate.  when hosting the python cube for mark, i had to make a few updates and thought i'd give some quick pointers to information that already exists as well as walk through a simple example.

if you have a streaming sample, you might be seeing it running and showing the "Get Silverlight" banner:

this, of course, assumes that the user has the updated silverlight plugin installed (either 1.0 RC or 1.1 alpha refresh).  this is because of two things.  first, your code might be specifically looking for a version and, perhaps more importantly, the page you have hosting the silverlight streaming application is still referencing an older silverlight.js script.  let's walk through what is needed to change my sample.

first, i have a simple sample, it is a button that when you click does an alert().  this is a v1.0 sample, but the same steps apply for v1.1 samples.  the first step is to update my code in silverlight.  you can view my screencast on how to do this as i won't re-iterate that here.  let's assume you have your code working (updated the silverlight.js file, reviewed the breaking changes documentation to fix other things, etc.).

okay the next thing we have to do is modify our zip file that we'll be submitting to the silverlight streaming service.  the zip file is simply a packaging mechanism that you wrap all your code up into and specify certain parameters.  there is one file in the zip file that is the manifest (appropriately named manifest.xml) that defines the parameters, and some other features.  my initial manifest file for my simple button looks like this:

<SilverlightApp>
    <source>Scene.xaml</source>
    <width>400</width>
    <height>50</height>
    <jsOrder>
        <js>Silverlight.js</js>
        <js>Scene.xaml.js</js>
        <js>Default.html.js</js>
    </jsOrder>
    <version>0.9</version>
</SilverlightApp>

note the <version> node.  here is where another update needs to be made.  this needs to be changed to the appropriate version you are using.  so i'll change mine to <version>1.0</version>.  done.  for my sample, not much else actually needs to be updated in the code, so i can package up my sample and upload it.  here you'll want to login to your silverlight streaming account and choose the manage applications link on the left:

once successfully updated, you'll be presented with the manage applications page again that gives you instructions on how to host your streaming application in a page (3 steps).  here's where you'll want to start making some alterations.  in step one it indicates the reference to the silverlight.js file as:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://agappdom.net/g/silverlight.js"></script>

for the release candidate you'll want it to be:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://agappdom.net/h/silverlight.js"></script>

note the subtle change in the "h" path reference.  in step 3 it indicates the code as:

function CreateSilverlight(){
  Sys.Silverlight.createHostedObjectEx({

when for the release candidate it should be:

function CreateSilverlight(){
  Silverlight.createHostedObjectEx({

note just removing the "Sys." as indicated in the breaking changes document in the SDKs.  making these two changes with an updated/uploaded application that works with the release candidate will make your streaming sample work again.

of course, these changes are documented in the news item on the silverlight streaming site posted here.  the online sdk for the silverlight streaming service will be updated shortly to reflect these changes as well.

so rather than host my stream in this blog post, i figure the proof is in the pudding and i updated my previous post where this exact sample was previously hosted.  go there and you'll see a button near the bottom...click it :-).

also, did you know you can stream your app via an iframe...use the following pattern:

http://silverlight.services.live.com/invoke/{accountId}/{fileset}/iframe.html

pretty cool.  if you have any questions about the silverlight streaming, check out the forums!  this was a very simple sample of course, but at least it should get you started in the right direction.