Over the weekend I decided to finally take a dive into the world of Silverlight, Microsoft’s cross platform/browser plugin aimed at delivering the next generation of interactive web based applications and media experiences. I started off by getting the free trials of, and then playing around with, Expression Design and Expression Blend (I got the preview edition of Blend 2). After a very unproductive Saturday all I ended up with, well apart from a but of knowledge of the software, was this:

www.Roy.Herrod.co.uk/Silverlight/Greenball

Sunday was a bit more productive and a lot more fun as I got into programming some C# for the back end of my SilverLight app. I created a generic Button class for my two buttons (left and right) and then created a display panel, for displaying the image. I created the animations in Blend and then programmatically created multiple instances of the display panel to show the different pictures. Here’s what I had at the end of Sunday:

www.Roy.Herrod.co.uk/Silverlight/ImageDisplay1

It’s by no means impressive but I think it’s not bad for my first attempt with this new technology

(Edit: Removed embedded Silverlight apps and replaced with URLs)

On Wednesday (7th November) I was in a Manchester University (not sure which one, but it was the one pretty much next to the main train station!) representing Microsoft and promoting the Industrial Year/Internship and Graduate schemes at Microsoft UK.

The day was very quiet and a fairly disappointing turn out in general, but seen as it was the first careers fair I’ve been to (as a student or a promoter really) it was interesting. It was great talking to other potential MS interns or graduates and telling them about my experience so far at Microsoft.

If anyone who is reading this wants any more info on the Internship or Graduate opportunities at Microsoft UK then check out www.microsoft.com/uk/graduates for more details and information on how to apply. Also feel free to email me any questions you might have (Roy [at] Herrod.co.uk)

My 360 is finally back from being repaired after I got the 3 Red Lights, its taken about 3 and a half weeks which isn’t too bad I guess. According to the attached letter my 360 had a problem with its DVD-Drive and Motherboard both of which were replaced, so I can’t really complain it was Free after all.