Expression Blend for Programmers. This is a thought-provoking title of a post from Jesse Liberty. How many of us developers consider Expression Blend a programming tool? Not many, I'm thinking, though I'm sure we will in time. It also made me think of a recent .NET Rocks episode recorded at DevConnections with Dan Wahlin on Silverlight 2.0 and how it will become increasingly difficult to be a web developer generalist who can "do it all."
Keith Obermann reminds us why Democracy is cherished when he tells Bush to "shut the hell up" for saying he gave up golf to support the troops, or here lambasting Clinton for invoking the image of RFK's 1968 assassination to justify her continued campaign. (Not her first reference, btw, making it even more disturbing.) On a positive note, the Countdown podcast now contains the complete show of 42 minutes, and without commercials. Maybe Hardball will be next.
The Castle Project and Documentation. I checked out the Castle Project and it's got some really great documentation, yet doesn't quite take you to the point of implementation. I think an example of documentation that works is the online documentation for the brand new Microsoft Enterprise Library release for VS2008. Most patterns contain example application code under "Using [this pattern]" and "Walkthrough" sections which to me are Documentation Patterns to Live By.
The secret code is 192.168.1.1. I'm currently in Pennsylvania visiting family and have contributed to my holiday weekend's accommodations by resolving wireless setup issues for various family member home networks. If only they would have known that http://192.168.1.1 (or 2.1 when the DSL modem grabs the gateway IP) gets you to the router to set or obtain its configuration and Access Code. Had they known, my services would not have been nearly as appreciated as they were. Still, I feel good I was able to share one of my two "real world" skills with my family, the other being Casserole Preparation, which wasn't in demand this weekend.
Thank you Bob and Chris for the MSDN Road Show Vermont! Another outstanding Microsoft Developer Road Show from Chris Bowen and Bob Familiar on LINQ, Silverlight 2.0 and MVC last Thursday in Williston, Vermont. There was also a session by a new Microsoftie on .NET Office development that I didn't catch (went to Circuit City to look at PCs instead), but Chris and Bob's presentations fired me up to work with LINQ and Silverlight asap! MVC? Eh, doesn't seem to fit in my world at the moment, though I appreciated the session to increase my understanding.
Deep Zoom and the Universe. The title of this video is, appropriately, "This Technology Will Blow Your Mind..." It's a demonstration of Deep Zoom, formerly Sea Dragon, the technology behind Microsoft's amazing WorldWide Telescope. I don't like leaving you with a directive, but you really must download WorldWide Telescope if you haven't already done so.