I made it to Singapore, and after getting a few winks of sleep, I'm back doing the usual conference setup for one more event. Of course there's been weeks of planning, but it all comes down to the end, and getting all the details sorted out. In an hour I should be over at Geek Terminal, doing an evening presentation and talking to some of the more interesting locals. I thought now would be good as time as any to do a quick travels recap.

Oh, and I just went thru and figured out the distance between each stop, and the total distance in miles. I'll be traveling a total over 28,041 miles (45,128 km,) between cities, which means when I do the math I'm maintaining a constant average speed of 50.8 Mile Per Hour, or 81.8 Kilometers Per Hour!

Stop 0: San Francisco Departure - 0 miles

Friday June 8th, 2007 fly out of SFO to Budapest via Frankfurt on Lufthansa. After completing all the last minute details, like packing, I was off to the airport, and on my way, a one way trip, all the way around the world to right back where I'm starting in about 3 weeks.

Stop 1: Frankfurt Germany Flight Transfer - 5,699 miles

Landing in Germany Saturday June 9th, 2007 and cruise thru the airport for a couple hours, until I catch my connection to Budapest. The lounge made for a nice respite, after getting some sleep on the plane, the showers in the lounge made for a nice little refresh.

Stop 2: Budapest Hungary REMIX at Museum of Fine Arts - 521 miles (6,220 total)

Saturday June 9th, 2007 at 2:00pm, land in Budapest, "24 hours" after I left I'm at my first destination. I get a ride from the airport in to town and settled at the hotel. After working for a bit, and taking a long nights sleep, I'm setup to head off for the first preso's.

Stop 3: Amsterdam Netherlands DevDays/REMIX at the RAI - 728 miles (6,948 total)

As soon as things were wrapped up in Budapest, a Key Note, Design Presentation, Boat Cruise, and a Video Presentation, jumped in a cab with a few other cohorts, and headed off to Amsterdam to do it all again. Tuesday June 12th, 2007 land in Amsterdam about an hour behind schedule at 9:00pm. Gather everything up and head in to the hotel, check in, go out for dinner, and sleep. Next day crazy morning, setup for a presentation to a giant theatre of a couple thousand people and run some preso's. I had a couple days to SLEEP, and wonder around the city a bit, enough to have a really nice dinner as well, flies included.

Stop 4: Zurich Switzerland REMIX at World Trade - 375 miles (7,323 total)

Saturday morning June 16th, 2007 I head over to Zurich, and after a pretty easy flight check in to yet another hotel. Set along the bank of a river just a few blocks up from the middle of town, it's quite the place. After a couple of days of heavy rain in Amsterdam, the warm weather, cool breeze, and clear skies are absolutely fantastic, especially with the scenic backdrop of the city. Do the usual preso's, with more than usual excitement in the key note, and a FUN late night out on a party Tuesday in "Zuri".

Stop 5: Copenhagen Denmark "Lidt om Silverlight" (Little bit on Silverlight) - 591 miles (7,914 total)

Wednesday June 20th, 2007 after missing a couple of my morning flights (uh it was the traffic), I catch a hop to Copenhagen. Settle in downtown and rest up for a get together the next day at Microsoft's offices to speak to a group of local Designer's, Developer's, and Biz folks. Also managed to get a look around town and check out a few spots, namely Zoo Bar.

Stop 6: London Heathrow Transfer - 610 miles (8,524 total)

Friday June 22nd, 2007 fly in to Heathrow and switch over to a 747 on South Africa Airlines for the ride to Africa.

Stop 7: Johannesburg South Africa REMIX at Monte Casino - 5,621 miles (14,415 total)

Ok, I've been in the same time zone for a while now, but it's time for a long haul, but still in the same time zone at least, just going from Summer to Winter, and from the North end of one continent to the South end of another. Saturday June 23rd, 2007 first thing in morning touch down in Johannesburg, and head in to a nice mini-Disneyland/Vegas complete with Restaurants, Hotel, Bars, Movie Theatre, Lion King, Shops and more.

Stop 8: Arts House Singapore REMIX @ Old Parliment - 5,381 miles (19,526 total)

I'm in my final destination city, as of crack of dawn Thursday June 28th, 2007. Just finished rehearsal setup for Key Note and presentation tomorrow. Sitting at Geek Terminal finalizing post before a preso.

Stop 9: Hong Kong Transfer - 1,588 miles (21,115 total)

I'll be hopping thru Hong Kong to catch my final flight home Saturday June 30th, 2007.

Stop 10: San Francisco BACK HOME! - 6,927 miles (28,041 total)

With any luck I'll be landing back in San Francisco Saturday June 30th, 2007 before I even leave Singapore (crossing International Date Timeline).

Part 3 - Setting up Visual Studio "Orcas"

Quick Steps

1. Download/Install: Microsoft Visual Studio codename Orcas Beta 1
2. Download/Install: Microsoft Silverlight Tools Alpha for Visual Studio codename “Orcas” Beta 1

Update

Visual Studio codename "Orcas", has now been named "Microsoft Visual Studio 2008". You will likely start to see references to both "Orcas" and VS 2008, which for all relevant purposes refer to the same thing. Also Microsoft has said that a Beta 2 will be available later in the summer.

Overview

Visual Studio 2005 makes for a great development environment, and can be used for building Silverlight applications. However, the next version of Visual Studio is available now in Pre-Release form, and code named "Orcas". This version, when used in conjunction with the Silverlight Tools Alpha, allows you to create Silverlight projects from scratch in one easy step. There are also a number of other enhancements for development, aside from the Silverlight capabilities. If you are planning to do any kind of coding, for either Silverlight 1.0 or 1.1, I highly recommend you install Orcas and the Tools. This will allow you to also manually edit your XAML files much easier, as you will have node attribute code hinting that is not available in Blend. Orcas also makes editing HTML, XML, JavaScript and C# files easy, especially with the ability to share project files between Blend seamlessly, and simultaneously. While you can compile your projects directly from Blend, I recommend using Orcas for your final output, as you have a more fine tuned control of project settings, as well as Debug functionality. You can keep Visual Studio 2005 installed in tandem with Orcas, for Silverlight development I prefer to just use Orcas running on Vista.

NOTE: Be sure to install Blend and follow the compatibility section for working with Orcas as outlined in the previous post. If you only want to work on code for Silverlight projects you can skip installing Blend all together, however it is easiest to inspect visual files and work with Timelines and Story Boards from within Blend, which even a coder will want to do from time to time.

Orcas is available as a free Pre-Release download from Microsoft as a fully functional Professional Edition version of Visual Studio. Currently the most recent version available is "Beta 1", which includes a license to use the product thru March 13th of 2008. You will want a fast connection and plenty of free hard drive space. There are complete instructions on the download page, I'm including here my recommended procedures. Keep in mind you will need somewhere around 10-20 Gig's of free disk space to download, extract and install Orcas.

1. Go to the download page: Microsoft Visual Studio codename Orcas Beta 1, review the system requirements and any other information that you may find pertinent.
2. OPTIONAL: Install Firefox and DownThemAll! a Firefox plug-in to manage the download and increase the transfer time, this will give you file resume capability if there is an interruption, and can complete the download over 10 times faster if you have enough bandwidth. You could also use MSDN Subscriptions and FTM if you have an account, otherwise I highly recommend taking the time to set up Firefox & DownThemAll!, as it can literally save you hours in download time.Go to the download page (per step 1 above), using Firefox, and click "Download" next to each of the files.
   1. If you don't have Firefox, download and install it from here www.getfirefox.com
   2. If you don't have DownThemAll!, launch Firefox and go to www.downthemall.net, follow the instructions on the page.
   3. Go to the Orcas download page listed above with Firefox after installing the plug-in and restarting the browser.
   4. Click on the "Download" link towards the bottom of the page for the first file.
   5. When the "Save" dialog appears, select the "DownThemAll!..." radial button, and press "Save File".
   6. Now you'll get a new dialog, and optionally change the "Destination Path" to a suitable location, and press "Start!"
   7. The file will now appear in a "DownThemAll!" manager window showing the progress.
   8. Click the "Download" button for each of the remaining files, this time select the "dTaOneClick!" option, and press "Save File", this will start downloading the file to the same location that you previously specified.
   9. DO NOT CLOSE THE FIREFOX DownThemAll! Window, as this needs to remain open during the duration of the download. If you need to shut down your computer or browsers you can, but to resume the download, start Firefox and go to the "Tools" menu, "DownThemAll", "dTa! Manager..." and you can monitor the remaining download.
3. If you are not using Step 2, Scroll to the bottom and download the 8 different files which make up the install. You will need over 5.5 Gig's free to download them all, and at least that much more to complete the extraction.
4. After downloading ALL files successfully, run the executable file, which has "part1" in the file name.
5. Choose where to extract the complete file set to.
6. After the extraction is complete follow Step 7 to create an installation DVD, or skip to Step 8 to directly install, provided you still have a significant amount of disk space free. You can also delete the original files that you downloaded, as the extract files are what you need to complete the installation.
7. Use a DVD Burner to create a DVD of all the extracted files. You will need a Burner capable of writing to Dual Layer DVD's in order to fit the entire contents. I've found that you can omit the MSDN help files to fit everything on a Single Layer DVD, but this will make full installs more complicated. After successfully writing the DVD, and verifying, you can delete the extract files from local disk to free up space.
8. Run the setup file and follow the directions to complete an installation of Orcas. You can change some of the install configuration options if you don't need the full set of capabilities.
9. Download and Run the Microsoft Silverlight Tools Alpha for Visual Studio codename “Orcas” Beta 1.

You should be all set now, you can launch Orcas, and go to create a new project, under Visual C# you'll find Silverlight and a Silverlight Project template to start a new application. You can also open projects created from Blend, and choose to update them automatically to be compatible with Orcas.

At this point you can also install the ASP.NET Futures if you plan to work with features of the next version of ASP.NET on the back-end of your Silverlight applications.

Next Steps

Now that you have Visual Studio "Orcas" installed you can start coding for Silverlight experiences. Next I'll walk thru the available documentation and sample code. Part 4 focuses on getting started with the SDK's which provide a number of Tutorials and other Help.

Written by: Beau Ambur of Metaliq as part of a World Wide REMIX Tour.

Part 2 - Setting up Expression Blend 

Quick Steps

1. Download/Install: Expression Blend 2 May Preview

Overview

Expression Blend 2, offers the best environment for creating Silverlight based applications. While it is best used in conjunction with other tools like Expression Design and Encoder, as well as Visual Studio, it can be used on it's own to create an entire project. Expression Blend is currently available as a fully released version, targeting WPF development. For Silverlight development you will want to use Blend 2, the most current version is the May Preview. Blend is available for download as a free trial and will run for 30 days in a full functional trial mode. You can also use a product key (J9RVG-FJM6D-2Q9HC-296MR-PHC2M) available on the Blend Product Page which gives you a 180 day trial. To get started, all you need to do is download and run the installer. There are no particular preferences, or other setups that need to be done. Expression Blend is ONLY available for Windows, so if you want to develop on Mac, you need to use Bootcamp or Parallels. Parallels, does quite a good job of running Blend virtualized in Vista on the newer MacBook Pro's, I recommend using the latest Bootcamp bits with Vista for Mac development.

• Expression Blend 2 May Preview Download Page
• Expression Blend 2 May Preview Product Page

• Known Issues & Workarounds
• System Requirements

 To quickly "test drive" Blend, and validate your installation you can create a quick application. The following outlines creating a new app, make some basic changes, and testing the application.

1. Launch Blend 2
2. Click "Continue" for trial mode, or enter the 180 day key
3. Select "New Project" from the Startup Dialog
4. Select "Silverlight Application (JavaScript)"
5. Change the "Name" field for the project or leave the default
6. Change the "Location" field or use the default
7. Click "OK", and the base project will be built
8. Press "F5" or go to the Menu: "Project >> Test Project"
9. You should see a development web server start, and your browser launched with a blank Silverlight page
10. Go back to Blend, and double-click the "[T]" icon, this will insert a Text Block
11. Change "TextBlock" text to "Hello World!", if you lose focus, select the Arrow tool, and double-click the Text Block
12. Press "F5" or go to the Menu: "Project >> Test Project"
13. You should see "Hello World!" in the browser, congratulations you're a Silverlight developer

"Orcas" Compatibility

If you plan to use "Orcas", the next version of Visual Studio, which is covered in the next article, you MUST do the following. If you plan to only use the current version of Visual Studio 2005 you DO NOT need to do the following, and should SKIP this step.

Two specific problems that you may run in to, you may not be able to create a new file in the directory, and you may not be able to save the contents of the file to disk. Two ways to resolve this, create and save the XML file with the name and content described below to another directory, like your Desktop. After creating the file, inserting the XML and saving it, copy the file in to your Blend directory, and if prompted to confirm the action, do so in the Windows prompt.

1. Close any copies of Blend
2. Find your Blend install directory "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Expression\Blend 1.1"
3. Create an XML file called "Blend.exe.config" in that directory
4. Put the following in the new XML file and save it:

<?xml version ="1.0"?>
<configuration>
    <startup>
        <supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727" safemode="true"/>
        <requiredRuntime version="v2.0.50727" safemode="true"/>
    </startup>
    <runtime>
        <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
            <dependentAssembly>
                <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Build.Framework" publicKeyToken="b03f5f7f11d50a3a" culture="neutral"/>
                <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-99.9.9.9" newVersion="3.5.0.0"/>
            </dependentAssembly>
            <dependentAssembly>
                <assemblyIdentity name="Microsoft.Build.Engine" publicKeyToken="b03f5f7f11d50a3a" culture="neutral"/>
                <bindingRedirect oldVersion="0.0.0.0-99.9.9.9" newVersion="3.5.0.0"/>
            </dependentAssembly>
        </assemblyBinding>
    </runtime>
</configuration>

You can now use Blend normally, and it will function properly with "Orcas".

Next Steps

Now that you have Blend installed you can start building entire Silverlight experiences. Next you'll want to setup a code editor to do more involved development. Part 3 focuses on getting started with Visual Studio "Orcas".

Written by: Beau Ambur of Metaliq as part of a World Wide REMIX Tour.

This series will discuss how to get started with doing Silverlight Development. All of this information is available  from Microsoft in various forms, but this is a top to bottom guide of getting up to speed quickly along with notes on different options along the way. At the end of this you will be up and running to do either Silverlight 1.0 and/or 1.1 Development. This guide presumes that you are using Windows Vista on a PC, however you should be able to use the same guideline for configuring XP, Bootcamp/Parallels, or Mac OS X setups as well.

You'll notice "Quick Steps" bullets, which provide actionable items to complete the overall steps. Each section will go in to further detail with recommendations, information, and links to other information for a more exhaustive guide. I highly recommend reviewing all information to get the most appropriate configuration.

The entire series is:

1. Viewing Silverlight Content
2. Setting up Expression Blend
3. Setting up Visual Studio "Orcas"
4. Silverlight Documentation and SDK's
5. Starting, Compiling, Testing & Deploying Silverlight

Part 1 - Viewing Silverlight Content

Quick Steps

1. Download/Install: Silverlight 1.1 Alpha (Windows) OR Silverlight 1.1 Alpha (Mac)

Overview

The first step in working with Silverlight, is being able to view the applications. You need a few things to view Silverlight content.

1. Computer (Windows XP/Vista or Mac OS X)
2. Internet Connection (Dial-up/Broadband)
3. Internet Browser (Win: IE 6+, Win/Mac: Firefox 1.5.0.8+, Mac: Safari 2.0.4)
4. Silverlight Plug-in (1.1 Alpha Recommended for Developers)

You can use the links below to view details on system requirements, however most any computer you're currently using for development will be suitable. I recommend any Dual Core Intel machine, preferably with Vista, and using IE 7. Functionality and performance is comparable on a fairly wide range of machines, including Mac and other browsers, but with Alpha & Beta bits you will find some browser or platform specific issues, and it's much easier to just work in IE/Vista initially, and then test on a broader range of machines as you near a production release.

The key question is do you install 1.0 Beta, or 1.1 Alpha? Well normally you would think Beta is going to be better then Alpha, but, the Alpha gives you Silverlight 1.1, which means managed code, and support for more advanced applications. Also by installing Silverlight 1.1 Alpha, you get the entire Silverlight 1.0 Beta bundled in, and essentially have both. You DO NOT need any versions of Windows Media Player installed to run Silverlight content with video. Below are the installer links for Silverlight Runtime's, ONLY install one version, the most recent installer that you run, will be the version that is active in most cases.

Runtime Installers:

• Silverlight 1.0 Beta Installer Direct Download
• Silverlight 1.0 Beta Runtime Installer Page

OR

• Silverlight 1.1 Alpha (Windows)
• Silverlight 1.1 Alpha (Mac)

Test that your runtime installed properly by viewing a Silverlight app for the version that you installed. The "Tile Text" should work if you installed 1.0 or 1.1. The "Chess Game" will only work if you installed the 1.1 runtime.

• Silverlight 1.0 Tile Text
• Silverlight 1.1 Chess Game

Additional Runtime Information

Detailed Installation Instructions:

• Silverlight 1.0 Beta Installation Instructions (Windows)
• Silverlight 1.0 Beta Installation Instructions (Mac)
• Silverlight 1.1 Alpha Installation Instructions (Windows)
• Silverlight 1.1 Alpha Installation Instructions (Mac)

System Requirements:

• Silverlight 1.0 & 1.1 System Requirements (Windows)
• Silverlight 1.0 Beta System Requirements (Mac)
• Silverlight 1.1 Alpha System Requirements (Mac)

Feature Comparison:

• Silverlight Runtimes - Features Matrix

Pre-Release Privacy:

• Microsoft Silverlight Pre-Release Version Privacy Statement

Next Steps

Now you can start viewing actual Silverlight applications, and explore the content currently created and available. Next you'll want to setup a development environment. Part 2 focuses on getting started with Expression Blend.

Written by: Beau Ambur of Metaliq as part of a World Wide REMIX Tour.

I made the relatively short hop over to Zurich from Amsterdam. The weather is great, especially compared to the rain in Amsterdam. It's really sunny with just some high clouds, and over 70 degrees. The town is really nice to walk thru, it's beautiful along the waterfront, tons of shops and restaurants.

Feels like yesterday that was in Budapest, oh right I was, well Amsterdam has blazed by. I got in to town, checked in to the hotel, and next thing I know I'm at another REMIX. This one was a bit different though, it was a combined event, DevDays 2007 this year in Amsterdam included a REMIX track with more of a Designer focus. I started the morning off getting over to the venue, which was the RAI Conference Center, it's a hug complex for hosting meetings and events, and has some great dedicated event space. I found my way to the main theatre where the keynote would be, after some cajoling to get in, as I didn't seem to be on the list for a badge, but my name did make it in to the schedule and program, go figure. Anyhow I found myself on stage, in front of a huge auditorium with a great hi-def projection system, and pulled out my laptop to do the morning setup, and get things configured. At that point I realized I made a typical rookie mistake, as I rushed out of the hotel, I left the power cord for the laptop on the desk. I had enough power to probably make it thru the keynote, but not the whole day for my other sessions, and I didn't want to make an even bigger mistake by having my computer shut down in the middle of a presentation, which is a fantastic way to look like an idiot. So I ran out to the street to flag down a taxi, which didn't take too long surprisingly, and that was followed by a beautifully executed 180 degree U-Turn right thru the center of a giant intersection to get heading the right direction. So after grabbing up my power cord, and a quick brush of the hair, which I also forgot, I was back off and soon back at the venue. Now of course after all of that there wasn't an a single empty power slot to plug in to, so we worked up a revised plan of swapping plugs mid-way thru the demonstrations.

The event and keynote started up, with some warm up presentations, which weren't in English, but I heard a few cheers and chuckles which made it sound like the crowd was getting nicely warmed up. Scott Guthrie did an overview of what's new and some cool demonstrations, along with Wayne Smith. I followed after a brief introduction from Scott, and went in to my preso. I was a bit nervous for this one, after the last minute morning rush, and figuring what the heck I was going to say, along with speaking to a giant room that was packed along with overflow simulcast totaling well over 2,000 people. I managed to make it thru without system crashes or hickups, and hit all the points that I wanted to, and put together a run thru of the Top Banana application, as well as how we tied in to the tools. I got a nice round of applause finishing off, and was thru the first round.

After a bit of a lunch break, I had two presentations and did a talk on Designing with Silverlight, where I walked thru using Expression Design, Blend and Encoder, as well as how they work with Visual Studio. I focused on how to move thru the process from one tool to another, as well as the differences relating to the production process in working with Silverlight 1.0 and 1.1. I had a handful of dedicated designers and about an even split among the rest of Web Designer/Developers and Software Developers. Taking a poll at the end of the session I got nearly a full room of raised hands to the question "Are you going to try building a Silverlight application yourself now?".

So I after the keynote and two sessions, I'm done with my event responsibilities for Amsterdam, and looking forward to having a couple of days to check out the city and gear up for the next stop in Zurich. I'll also be posting some details on the samples and demo's I've been building and using in my presentation in some topic specific posts.