I’m proud to announce that I’ll be speaking at this years CodeStock.  The sessions were selected by a fresh and unconventional method.  All attendees, when registering, had the opportunity to vote for three sessions.  Out of 60 sessions, my session was in the top 20 of votes received.  Thanks to everyone who voted for me, I have some big plans.

Here’s the abstract for my session.  If you have any suggestions I certainly want to hear them.

Advanced Media techniques in Silverlight 3
Corey Schuman – ( Area: SilverLight / WPF Level: 200)

This session dives deep into media (Video, Audio, Images, and DeepZoom) in Silverlight 3. Choosing the correct video encoding, effectively using Adaptive Streaming, working with the Bitmap API, Pixel shaders, and tuning performance for media are topics covered in this session.

A major annoyance of mine after installing a new instance of Visual Studio is when I open a XAML document for the first time. By default, Visual Studio opens a XAML document in Preview mode (the design on the top and the code view on the bottom).  As you start adding more and more elements to XAML, Visual Studio will render the XAML in the design view, even going as far as playing video back if you have a MediaElement defined.

The option to turn this off is buried in the Options.  The below figures show how to change the default behavior.

First click Tools > Options.

Then navigate to Text Editor > XAML > Miscellaneous.  Check the box that says Always open document in full XAML view.  If you don’t see Text Editor in the options menu, check the box Show all settings in the bottom left of the Options window.

The past couple weeks have been extremely hectic work, writing, and…this: Next Monday I am joining the dev team at IQ Interactive.  It’s an exciting move because they’ve been traditionally excelled in Flash development.  Now they are venturing into the world of Silverlight.  Initially I’ll be working on an exciting, creative, and ground breaking Silverlight application (I wish I could say more, but mum is the word for right now).  Additionally, IQ is dedicated to becoming a major player in the Silverlight space.  I’m very excited to join the team and help make IQ a force to be reckoned with in Silverlight.

Every new beginning is accompanied with an end.  Leaving Schematic is my end, and I’m leaving with a heavy heart.  I can’t speak highly enough of my time with Schematic.  When I started, my goal was to learn as much as I could about Silverlight.  They provided me with all the opportunity to do so, and for that I’m eternally grateful. 

Finally, the people at Schematic are amazing.  Everyone I’ve worked with is at the top of their game producing amazing, high quality work.  I wish everyone the best of luck and hopefully we’ll work together again.

A few weeks ago at MIX there were a number of Silverlight 3 announcements.  One new component that I don’t think got enough attention was the Virtual Earth Silverlight Control.  This essentially makes GIS in Silverlight more palatable.  To be fair, this isn’t the first mapping tool for Silverlight.  ESRI, the GIS leader, has had a Silverlight control for some time. More info on ESRI’s control can be found here: http://www.esri.com/getting_started/developers/silverlight.html.  

To get started with the Virtual Earth mapping control I recommend three things:

1. Watch the presentation from MIX – http://videos.visitmix.com/MIX09/T34F.
2. Download the SDK from Connect – https://connect.microsoft.com/silverlightmapcontrolctp/
3. Check out Chris Pietschmann’s post on how to get the control up in your project.

So far, I’m very impressed on how fast the control responses and pulls data.  Do keep in mind when you’re using the control, the DLL is just under half a meg.  So you may want to consider pulling this dll in dynamically or having it be a shared library.

Virtual Earth Web Services

Tying the map control into the Virtual Earth services is where the money’s at.  The Virtual Earth Web Services in include Geocoding Services, Imagery Services, Route Services, and Search Services.  For initial prototyping I have been only interested in the Geocoding services, but if you’re looking for more go to the MSDN documentation to find out more.

In order to use these services you’ll need to register.  Out of everything so far, this was the hairiest part of getting things set up.  Once you register you’ll have to go through an approval process that can take a day or so. 

To get set up with Virtual Earch Live Services, see their page at http://dev.live.com/virtualearth/.

The past couple days I’ve been working on a data visualization application.  In doing so, I quickly mocked up unfolding a box.  This is super simple XAML all done in Blend.  Don’t forget to check out the XAML and see the demo:

Download XAML | View example