Finally it happens!

Silverlight is released, to much fanfare. After anticipating this release in the Creativer Jar Studio for over a year, it's very exciting news!

http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Silverlight2IsOut.aspx

http://www.liveside.net/main/archive/2008/10/13/microsoft-releases-silverlight-2-on-tuesday-oct-14.aspx 

Of course - check out our own Silverlight Portfolio http://silverlight.creative-jar.com/ 

Silverlight is already installed on a quarter of PC's. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/oct08/10-13Silverlight2PR.mspx

 Just as you thought you were getting to grips with everything.. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc948977.aspx

Also take a look here http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/VisualStudio/Visual-Studio-Team-System-2010-Week-on-Channel-9/

I could list the exciting things, but you're best off checking the above links!

Microsoft recently released Live Mesh, once installed this allows you to connect to any device you have and then Remote Desktop Connect into that device (I use the term device as mobiles and macs will also be included). In other words, you can control your home PC from work and vice-versa.

Interestingly, there is also a 'Live Desktop', this basically allows you to access a desktop once signed in from any computer that has Live Mesh running. This looks like a test of the computing in the cloud technology which is all the buzz at the moment. 

You also get a 5Gig remote desktop storage, which works similar to SkyDrive 

So start playing with it - it's free at the moment, and VERY useful.

We have recently developed and released a great Carbon Offsetting website. We have put it forward to CSS Mania - as it's a great looking website, with a wicked design and great CSS build.

See what you think, and if you get the chance - rate it! http://cssmania.com/galleries/2008/09/30/carbonica.php

Stumbled across a great feature for ecommerce/portal/information websites recently.

In a nutshell, if you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer, you probably have a search box in the top right-hand side of your browser. In which case you can add your site to the list of sites that this search box will search... So instead of defaulting to live.co.uk or google.co.uk your search could also encompass a variety of websites.

A simple explanation can be found here: http://remark.wordpress.com/articles/quick-architecture-extending-reach-with-a-search-provider/ 

This functionality uses OpenSearch technology which has been pushed by Amazon/A9/Alexa for a few years - www.a9.com

[EDIT]

Combine this with the new features of the next generation of browsers, and you've got some pretty useful tools http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/09/15/what-s-new-for-ie8-search.aspx

As Internet Explorer 8 continues it's build at Microsoft. Great to see that they are really thinking of the future and CSS 3 in this release.

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/09/08/microsoft-css-vendor-extensions.aspx

The beta of IE8 is available here, though DO NOT install this on your production computer - it's a beta!

This is a great article explaining why IE is not the browser of choice for many developers. Hopefully IE8 will break the mould.

PLEASE!

Back in March I posted a blog about exciting new sofwtare - namely Microsoft Photosynth and Deepzoom. Well Microsoft released Photosynth a couple of weeks ago, and it's pretty neat!

Anyone can have a go at this. All you need to do is follow the instructions here, and then upload your photos here. This is a Synth of our Technical Room, I took 50 photos, and the Synth rate is 98%. In hindsight I would double the amount of pictures I took. You can also see a full screen version of this.

Having read alot about Photosynth - it's a very powerful tool. I would like to gain control of my Synth's once created, rather than having them stored in a Windows Live environment, but thats the only downside so far.

Get in there! 

So google have released their new browser, and it's based on a combination of Safari and Firefox. Definately worth playing with, it's lightweight which is a surprise but you quickly miss alot of features available in trusty old Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Download it now, you know it's going to have some audience and is going to have to feature in all testing that is completed. You also get a an install of google gears in the background, so make sure your happy about that before downloading! Nothing like a bit of freeware to help your computer run quickly!

Compressing Windows Server 2003 IIS logfiles is so simple. Right click on the directory that contains the logfiles Example: c:\logfiles\w32098908a select the Properties, then in the General tab select the Advanced button. Tick the Compress contents to save disk space option. Click OK and then another OK.

This will reduce disk space used to a third, so 100Mb of Logfiles will be compressed to approx 30Mb.

Very simple and very effective.

If you want to understand online advertising or simply want to understand who does what in the world of online advertising, then read the following three blog posts. A very easy to read and comprehensive guide to online advertising, relevant to Google adwords, Live Adcenter and Yahoo Advertising, and probably a load of others that exist.

Online Advertising Business 101, Part I - The Online Advertising Value Chain

Online Advertising Business 101, Part II - How does adserving actually work?

Online Ad Business 101, Part III - Ad Networks

Now having read these posts, it's time to start an online advertising campaign, or get someone who knows what they are doing to run your Pay Per Click campaign for you!