check out the beta of the microsoft download site.  it is built on silverlight...some media streaming happening as well as some of the subtle interactions done in silverlight.

if you click on the browse downloads link you can see some of it as well as other new navigation areas...

good to see microsoft starting to implement it in broader sites.

i'm twittering some of my thoughts on the silverlight firestarter event.  also as people are answering questions i'm trying to provide direct pointers...so if you are interested, follow me on twitter.

also the event is being filmed so subscribe to my blog for updates on when that information is available.

ever wonder what the heck a microsoft certified architect was?  think it is a test you can take at prometric and add MCA to your business card?  think again.  i've often wondered the process, what it is and how it works.  i've heard stories, but never bothered to investigate.

well, here it is, distilled for you in some reading.  my colleague, joe shirey, has just posted some very good information on what is a certified architect and what the process is.  if you are interested, these are must read information.

he's organized it for us non-architects to better read it ;-)

• Intro
• Why do you want to get the MCA?
• Preparing the documentation
• Putting together your presentation
• What else can you do to prepare for the board?
• The competencies
• Going in front of the board
• What to do with your results

thanks joe for putting this out there!

i found this very interesting site at ny times today which titles itself as 'analyzing the details' of the republican debate (the recent youtube one).

aside from the video transcript interface (being able to select a topic and have the video and text jump immediately), there is the transcript analyzer which presents this visualization below:

very cool experience.  i'm able to visualize the time blocks and highlight the large blocks to see the topic/text that is taking that area.  additionally, you can see how much time each candidate actually talked.  it looked like guliani and romney capitalized the time...interesting.

anyhow, a pretty cool/different view on looking at information that is primarily media and presenting it in a different way.

this morning, scottgu posted details on the roadmap for the .net web platform.  it is an exciting roadmap to me, so let me hit some of the highlights:

• ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions - this will include the MVC framework, AJAX improvements, dynamic data support, asp.net and silverlight support, and ado.net data services (entity framework).  this release is expected to be available for download on the web next week in the first preview mode.
• silverlight: because of the significant effort being made and features building in to the vNext version, we are changing the name going forward to reflect that effort -- thus silverlight 1.1 --> silverlight 2.0.  we plan on releasing a beta of silverlight 2.0 in the first quarter of CY08 with a "go-live" license in limited scale.  this silverlight 2.0 will include:
  • WPF UI framework
  • rich controls: core+some good stuff
  • networking support
  • rich base class library support
• final release of IIS7 will be shipped as part of win2008 release early next year...for .net this is awesome as we (developers) will be able to better write code that sits closer to the pipe

i think all of these are great news.  of course i'm particularly excited about silverlight 2.0 changes/additions as i'll be finally able to start talking/showing things i've been holding back on because of the impending changes.  stay tuned to this blog for more tutorials that will encompass silverlight 2.0 features -- and of course, The Code Trip will feature silverlight and all of the above!