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You may also be interested in my blog archives, the articles section, or some of my lab projects such as the C64 emulator written in Silverlight.

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Monthly Archives:

  • WPF Ribbon October Release

    The WPF Ribbon team has been busy since the first release in August. Today we released an update to the ribbon that addresses a number of issues with the first release, and enables support for the ribbon under the Visual Studio Express SKUs. Your feedback on my blog, the forums, and other places was critical to determining what would go into this release. Thank you! Download the ...

    Published Friday, October 22, 2010 | Tagged: , , | 15 comments

  • Windows Client Developer Roundup 046 for 10/18/2010

    This is Windows Client Developer roundup #46. The Windows Client Developer Roundup aggregates information of interest to Windows Client Developers, including WPF, Silverlight, Visual C++, XNA, Expression Blend, Surface, Windows 7, Windows Forms, Windows Phone, Visual Studio, WCF RIA Services, sometimes even a little jQuery and HTML5. I also include fun non-Windows client tech like th...

    Published Monday, October 18, 2010 | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 2 comments

  • Creating an Office Communicator Application for Do Not Disturb

    When meeting with other people at Microsoft, my computer is also my phone. I rely on Office Communicator 2007 R2 more than many other applications. Family members wandering into my home office can't really tell I'm on a call unless I happen to be talking right then. I normally have my headphones on anyway, and I use my Samson mic for voice. Usually my wife stands out of camera range a...

    Published Sunday, October 17, 2010 | Tagged: , , , , | 10 comments

  • Windows Client Developer Roundup 045 for 10/11/2010

    This is Windows Client Developer roundup #45. The Windows Client Developer Roundup aggregates information of interest to Windows Client Developers, including WPF, Silverlight, Visual C++, XNA, Expression Blend, Surface, Windows 7, Windows Forms, Windows Phone, Visual Studio, WCF RIA Services, sometimes even a little jQuery and HTML5. I also include fun non-Windows client tech like th...

    Published Monday, October 11, 2010 | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave comment

  • My First Couple Weeks with the Amazon Kindle 3

    Melissa recently purchased an Amazon Kindle 3 (WiFi). After messing with it for a few minutes, I just had to have one myself. My wife and I are both avid readers, mostly of sci-fi, fantasy, and other fiction. We have so many shelves and boxes of books we've read, that we bring a box or two of books to the big yard sale every October. My tech books end up hitting the recycle bin ev...

    Published Thursday, October 7, 2010 | Tagged: , | 10 comments

  • Speaking at Tech Ed Europe 2010: Berlin

    Next month, I'll be speaking at Tech Ed Europe 2010 in Berlin. I'm really excited, as I haven't been further east than Lille, France. I've always heard Germany was a great place to visit. I'm presenting three sessions, covering WPF and Silverlight, plus some time on the Silverlight Experts Roundtable: DEV205 - 10 Things Every Silverlight and WPF Developer Must Know If you're a c...

    Published Wednesday, October 6, 2010 | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave comment

  • My Team in Developer Guidance at Microsoft

    It's hard to believe, but I'm 6 days away from having been at Microsoft a full year. Time flies! I had a great first year at Microsoft, thanks in no small part to the mentoring and guidance from great folks like Scott Hanselman and Cyra Richardson. Check out the first half of this podcast to meet Cyra (and Scott, of course) As is the nature of things at Microsoft, we started off thi...

    Published Wednesday, October 6, 2010 | Tagged: , , , , | 1 comment

  • Prism v4 – Drop 9 Coming Wednesday Morning

    You'll find Prism v4 Drop 9 tomorrow morning (Wednesday). Prism is the composite application guidance for WPF and Silverlight. It provides guidance and samples which make architecting robust extensible applications easy. Shamelessly pasted from the Prism CodePlex site, here's what's included in v4: The Prism Library for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight ...

    Published Tuesday, October 5, 2010 | Tagged: , , , , | 1 comment

  • Want a Windows Phone 7? Here’s your chance!

    You've heard the news by now: we're launching Windows Phone 7 on October 12th. We have a free full day MSDN Simulcast event you can sign up for; definitely worth it for developers interested in the platform. In the US, there are also a lot of live in-person Free Events to learn Windows Phone 7 Development listed at http://www.msdnevents.com/wp7devlaunch. I encourage you to register no...

    Published Monday, October 4, 2010 | Tagged: , , | Leave comment

  • Windows Client Developer Roundup 044 for 10/4/2010

    This is Windows Client Developer roundup #44. The Windows Client Developer Roundup aggregates information of interest to Windows Client Developers, including WPF, Silverlight, Visual C++, XNA, Expression Blend, Surface, Windows 7, Windows Forms, Windows Phone, Visual Studio, WCF RIA Services, sometimes even a little jQuery and HTML5. I also include fun non-Windows client tech like the ....

    Published Monday, October 4, 2010 | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave comment

  • Netduino, Netduino Plus, Fez Panda, Arduino Deumilanove

    We have tons of choices in the Arduino-pin-compatible market these days. Plus, if you're a .NET programmer like me, there are several Arduino-compatible options for you. Below are a couple pictures of the four boards I have. I no longer have a photo booth set up so what follows are two shots: one with flash and one without. From the top left, clockwise, we have the Fez Panda, the Netd...

    Published Sunday, October 3, 2010 | Tagged: , , , , | 5 comments

  • What were your top 5 Pain Points in Learning WP7 Development?

    For my readers who have built something in Windows Phone 7: what were the top 5 pain points you hit when learning WP7? We're planning some great content and samples for WP7 dev, and want to make sure we hit all the things you wish you had known when you were starting out. Let me know in the comments below, and also note if you were a Silverlight developer before you started working wi...

    Published Friday, October 1, 2010 | Tagged: , , | 18 comments

  • Netduino Basics: Using Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)

    Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is the process of alternating a signal between two extreme values with little to no intermediate steps. On the Netduino, these values are 0v and 3.3v. In its most basic form, the output resembles a square wave, where both the min and max values have the same duration. The square wave (which can be created with PWM) is the second down. The others, from ...

    Published Monday, September 27, 2010 | Tagged: , , , , , | 20 comments

  • Windows Client Developer Roundup 043 for 9/27/2010

    This is Windows Client Developer roundup #43. The Windows Client Developer Roundup aggregates information of interest to Windows Client Developers, including WPF, Silverlight, Visual C++, XNA, Expression Blend, Surface, Windows 7, Windows Forms, Windows Phone and Visual Studio, WCF RIA Services, sometimes even a little jQuery and HTML5. If you have something interesting you've done or ...

    Published Monday, September 27, 2010 | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave comment

  • The Commodore 64c

    I'm doing the unthinkable: I've bought a couple Commodore 64c computers to take apart for parts for experiments. In particular, I'm after the late-model SID chip for some Netduino projects. The early model chip was 12v and ran really hot. The late model MOS 8580 sounds a bit different, but was also more reliable and ran cooler at a lower voltage. I need a bunch of these, and they are get...

    Published Friday, September 24, 2010 | Tagged: , , , | 2 comments

  • Using a 4x20 HD44780-controlled LCD Display with the Netduino

    Not too long ago, I got my hands on a Netduino (an Arduino-compatible board you program using the .NET Micro Framework and Visual Studio 2010), and did the obligatory BlinkenLight application. Afterwards, Scott way one-upped me and built an awesome morse code app. The stakes were getting higher, so I had to do something that seemed cooler than morse code. Hard to top, I know. I bet H...

    Published Friday, September 24, 2010 | Tagged: , , , , , | 18 comments

  • Windows Client Developer Roundup 042 for 9/20/2010

    This is Windows Client Developer roundup #42: the answer to life, the universe, and everything. The Windows Client Developer Roundup aggregates information of interest to Windows Client Developers, including WPF, Silverlight, Visual C++, XNA, Expression Blend, Surface, Windows 7, Windows Forms, Windows Phone and Visual Studio, WCF RIA Services, sometimes even a little jQuery and HTML5....

    Published Monday, September 20, 2010 | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 comment

  • Custom Placement within an ItemsControl in WPF

    I've been tripped up on a problem in Shoebox Scan for several weeks now. I'll pick it up for an hour or two on a Friday, get nowhere, and put it down until later the next week. Today, I finally figured out what the problem is. (Yes, I have been piddling with this application since early this year. I'm pretty sure Scott has a special ulcer just for me and Shoebox scan <g>) Backgr...

    Published Thursday, September 16, 2010 | Tagged: , , , | 4 comments

  • Announcing the Windows Phone 7 Release, WP7 Silverlight Toolkit and XNA 4.0!

    Today is a great release day. We've launched everything you need to write Windows Phone 7 applications. Not only that, but we've also released XNA 4.0 not only for phone, but for all supported XNA platforms. Visual Studio Tools for Windows Phone 7 Today, we released the production version of the Visual Studio Tools for Windows Phone 7. These are the only tools you'll need for build...

    Published Thursday, September 16, 2010 | Tagged: , , | 6 comments

  • Ultimate PC 2010: New Power Supply

    So, while messing around in the case, I did what is easily the worst thing I've done to a PC: I overstressed and pulled-out one of the wires in the power supply. Unfortunately, that's one of the three cables that is hard-wired to the power supply, so I couldn't simply order/fine a new cable. I spent about 2 hours trying to repair it in a way that would make me comfortable using the PC, b...

    Published Wednesday, September 15, 2010 | Tagged: , | 2 comments

  • Windows Client Developer Roundup 041 for 9/13/2010

    This is Windows Client Developer roundup #41. The Windows Client Developer Roundup aggregates information of interest to Windows Client Developers, including WPF, Silverlight, Visual C++, XNA, Expression Blend, Surface, Windows 7, Windows Forms, Windows Phone and Visual Studio, WCF RIA Services, sometimes even a little jQuery and HTML5. If you have something interesting you've done or ...

    Published Monday, September 13, 2010 | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 comment

  • Woot! Silverlight 4 in Action is Out!

    My new Silverlight book, Silverlight 4 in Action is now out in paper, published by Manning. Several folks received their copies today, including me The eBook was made available last week for people who ordered it from Manning. MEAP (early access) customers also received their eBook editions on the same day. Source code is coming this week. I have half of it uploaded to the inte...

    Published Tuesday, September 7, 2010 | Tagged: , , , | 26 comments