Silverlight is a new cross-browser, cross-platform implementation of the .NET Framework for building and delivering the next generation of media experiences andRich Interactive Applications(RIA) for the web. It runs in all popular browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera. The plugin required to run Silverlight is very small in size hence gets installed very quickly.
It is combination of different technolgoies into a single development platform that allows you to select tools and the programming language you want to use. Silverlight integrates seamlessly with your existing Javascript and ASP.NETAJAX code to complement functionality which you have already created.
Silverlight aims to compete with Adobe Flash and the presentation components of Ajax. It also competes with Sun Microsystems' JavaFX, which was launched a few days after Silverlight.
Currently there are 2 major versions of Silverlight:
Silverlight 1.0 and Silverlight 2.0( previously referred toas version 1.1).
Silverlight 1.0 :
Silverlight 1.0 consists of the core presentation framework, which is responsible for UI, interactivity and user input, basic UI controls, graphics and animation, media playback, DRM support, and DOM integration.
Main features of Silverlight 1.0 :
1. Built-in codec support for playing VC-1 and WMV video, and MP3 and WMA audio within a browser.
2. Silverlight supports the ability to progressively download and play media content from any web-server.
3. Silverlight also optionally supports built-in media streaming.
4. Silverlight enables you to create rich UI and animations, and blend vector graphics with HTML to create compelling content experiences.
5. Silverlight makes it easy to build rich video player interactive experiences.
Silverlight 2.0 :
Silverlight 2.0 includes a version of the .NET Framework, with the full Common Language Runtime as .NET Framework 3.0; so it can execute any .NET language including VB.NETand C# code. Unlike the CLR included with .NET Framework, multiple instances of the CoreCLR included in Silverlight can be hosted in one process. With this, the XAML layout markup file (.xaml file) can be augmented by code-behind code, written in any .NET language, which contains the programming logic.
This version ships with more than 30 UI controls(including TextBox, CheckBox, Slider, ScrollViewer, and Calendar controls), for two-way databinding support, automated layout management (by means of StackPanel, Grid etc) as well as data-manipulation controls, such as DataGrid and ListBox. UI controls are skinnable using a template-based approach.
Main features of Silverlight 2.0 :
1. A built-in CLR engine that delivers a super high performance execution environment for the browser. Silverlight uses the same core CLR engine that we ship with the full .NET Framework.
2. Silverlight includes a rich framework library of built-inclasses that you can use to develop browser-based applications.
3. Silverlight includes support for a WPF UI programmingmodel. The Silverlight 1.1 Alpha enables you to program your UI with managed code/event handlers, and supports the ability to define and use encapsulated UI controls.
4. Silverlight provides a managed HTML DOM API that enables you to program the HTML of a browser using any .NET language.
5. Silverlight doesn't require ASP.NETto be used on the backend web-server (meaning you could use Silverlight with with PHP on Linux if you wanted to).
6. Silverlight 2 includes Deep Zoom, a technology derived from Microsoft Live Labs Seadragon. It allows users to zoom into, or out of, an image (or a collage of images), with smooth transitions, using the mouse wheel. The images can scale from 2 or 3 megapixels in resolution into the gigapixel range, but the user need not wait for it to be downloaded entirely; rather, Silverlight downloads only the parts in view, optimized for the zoom level being viewed.
7. Silverlight 2 also allows limited filesystem access to Silverlight applications. It can use the operating system's native file dialog box to browse to any file (to which the user has access).
How Silverlight would change the Web:
1. Highest Quality Video Experience : prepare to see someof the best quality videos you have seen in your life, all embedded in highly graphical websites. The same research and technology that was used for VC-1, the codec that powers BluRay and HD DVD, is used by Microsoft today with its streaming media technologies.
2. Cross-Platform, Cross-Browser : Finally build web applications that work on any browser, and on any operating system. At release, Silverlight will work with Mac as well as Windows! The Mono project has also already promised support for Linux!.
3. Developers and Graphic Designers can play together! : Developers familiar with Visual Studio, Microsoft.netwill be able to develop amazing Silverlight applications very quickly, and they will work on Mac'sand Windows. Developers will finally be able to strictly focus on the back end of the application core, while leaving the visuals to the Graphic Design team using the power of XAML.
4. Cheaper : Silverlight is now the most inexpensive way to stream video files over the internet at the best quality possible. Licensing is dead simple, all you need is IIS in Windows Server, and you’re done.
5. Support for 3rd Party Languages : Using the power of the new Dynamic Language Runtime, developers will now be able to use Ruby, Python, and EcmaScript! This means a Ruby developer can develop Silverlight applications, and leverage the .net Framework!
6. Cross-Platform, Cross-Browser Remote Debugging : If you are in the need to debug an application running on a Mac, no problem! You can now set breakpoints, step into/over code, have immediate windows, and all that other good stuff that Visual Studio provides.
7. The best development environment on the planet : Visual Studio is an award winning development platform! As it continues to constantly evolve, so will Silverlight!
8. Silverlight offers copy protection : Have you noticed how easy it is to download YouTube videos to your computer, and save them for later viewing ? Silverlight will finally have the features enabling content providers complete control over their rich media content! Streaming television, new indie broadcast stations, all will now be possible!
9. Extreme Speed : There is a dramatic improvement in speed for AJAX-enabled websites that begin to use Silverlight, leveraging the Microsoft .net framework.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
Microsoft Office 365! Whats new in it?
Product Overview
Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses is a subscription service that combines the familiar Microsoft Office Web Apps with a set of web-enabled tools that are easy to learn and use, that work with your existing hardware, and that come backed by the robust security, reliability, and control you need to run your business.
Email & Calendar
Office 365 gives you access to email, calendar, and contacts from virtually anywhere, at any time, on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices—while it helps to protect against viruses and spam.
Work from virtually anywhere
Work from almost anywhere and get automatically updated email, calendar, and contacts on the devices you use most, including PCs, Macintosh computers, iPhone, Android phones, Blackberry smartphones, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phones.
Easy-to-manage email
Get professional, easy-to-manage email. Office 365 provides each user with a 25-gigabyte (GB) mailbox and lets them send email messages up to 25 megabytes (MB). Connect with Microsoft Outlook 2010 or Outlook 2007 and use all of the rich Outlook functionality you already know and use, whether you are connected to the Internetat home or in the office or you are working offline.
Simplify scheduling
Easily schedule meetings by sharing calendars and viewing them side by side, so you can see your colleagues’ availability and suggested meeting times from your calendar. Access your email, calendar, and contacts from nearly any web browser while you keep the rich, familiar Outlook experience with Microsoft Outlook Web App.
Business-class security
Help protect your organization from spam and viruses with Microsoft Forefront Online Protection for Exchange, which includes multiple filters and virus-scanning engines.
Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses is a subscription service that combines the familiar Microsoft Office Web Apps with a set of web-enabled tools that are easy to learn and use, that work with your existing hardware, and that come backed by the robust security, reliability, and control you need to run your business.
Email & Calendar
Office 365 gives you access to email, calendar, and contacts from virtually anywhere, at any time, on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices—while it helps to protect against viruses and spam.
Work from virtually anywhere
Work from almost anywhere and get automatically updated email, calendar, and contacts on the devices you use most, including PCs, Macintosh computers, iPhone, Android phones, Blackberry smartphones, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phones.
Easy-to-manage email
Get professional, easy-to-manage email. Office 365 provides each user with a 25-gigabyte (GB) mailbox and lets them send email messages up to 25 megabytes (MB). Connect with Microsoft Outlook 2010 or Outlook 2007 and use all of the rich Outlook functionality you already know and use, whether you are connected to the Internetat home or in the office or you are working offline.
Simplify scheduling
Easily schedule meetings by sharing calendars and viewing them side by side, so you can see your colleagues’ availability and suggested meeting times from your calendar. Access your email, calendar, and contacts from nearly any web browser while you keep the rich, familiar Outlook experience with Microsoft Outlook Web App.
Business-class security
Help protect your organization from spam and viruses with Microsoft Forefront Online Protection for Exchange, which includes multiple filters and virus-scanning engines.
Cloud computing could lead to billions in energy savings
Another study out this week has found that if companies adopt cloud computing, they can reduce the energy consumption of their IT and save money on energy bills. The report, created by research firm Verdantix and sponsored by AT&T, estimates that cloud computing could enable companies to save $12.3 billion off their energy bills. That translates into carbon emission savingsof 85.7 million metric tons per year by 2020.
The Verdantix report isn’t the first one to deliver such a finding. Last year Pike Research found that cloud computing could lead to a 38 percent reduction in worldwide data center energy use by 2020, compared to what the growth of data center energy consumption would be without cloud computing. Another study from Microsoft, Accenture and WSP Environment and Energy last year found that moving business applications to the cloud could cut the associated per-user carbon footprint by 30 percent for large, already-efficient companies and as much as 90 percent for the smallest and least efficient businesses.
All of that is good news. Cloud computing is one of the most disruptive Internet infrastructure shifts to happen in recent years. Web companies have been embracing cloud computing in order to buy flexible, lower cost, on-demand computing power from companies like Amazon. And these cloud computing services generally replace the computing that would have been done by companies’ own in-house computing resources.
However, it’s always good to take these studies with a grain of salt. There’s a reason AT&T and Microsoft are looking into the energy efficiency of cloud computing: they sell cloud computing services.
Other studies have also found that cloud computing isn’t always the most energy efficient computing option, and in certain instances the cloud can be more energy intensive than traditional in-office computing. A report from University of Melbourne researcher Rod Tucker and his team, which I wrote about for GigaOM Pro (subscription required), found that cloud computing can indeed save energy when it leads simply to the consolidation of servers, but looking at three different applications of cloud computing — storage, software andprocessing — energy efficiency savings are negated in some scenarios.
For example, one such instance when the cloud isn’t moreefficient, according to Tucker’s research, is when companies are using cloud computing for storing data. Tucker found that when the number of downloaded and accessed files becomes larger (more than one download per hour for a public cloud storage service), those energy efficiency gains are erased.
There’s enough research out there by now that shows that cloud computing is overall more energy efficient than traditional in-house computing. Which is great newsfor Internet companies and cloud computing providers. The growing energy consumption of the Internet, data centers and our always-on connected devices will only continue to grow, so efficiency trends will only to continue to become important.
The Verdantix report isn’t the first one to deliver such a finding. Last year Pike Research found that cloud computing could lead to a 38 percent reduction in worldwide data center energy use by 2020, compared to what the growth of data center energy consumption would be without cloud computing. Another study from Microsoft, Accenture and WSP Environment and Energy last year found that moving business applications to the cloud could cut the associated per-user carbon footprint by 30 percent for large, already-efficient companies and as much as 90 percent for the smallest and least efficient businesses.
All of that is good news. Cloud computing is one of the most disruptive Internet infrastructure shifts to happen in recent years. Web companies have been embracing cloud computing in order to buy flexible, lower cost, on-demand computing power from companies like Amazon. And these cloud computing services generally replace the computing that would have been done by companies’ own in-house computing resources.
However, it’s always good to take these studies with a grain of salt. There’s a reason AT&T and Microsoft are looking into the energy efficiency of cloud computing: they sell cloud computing services.
Other studies have also found that cloud computing isn’t always the most energy efficient computing option, and in certain instances the cloud can be more energy intensive than traditional in-office computing. A report from University of Melbourne researcher Rod Tucker and his team, which I wrote about for GigaOM Pro (subscription required), found that cloud computing can indeed save energy when it leads simply to the consolidation of servers, but looking at three different applications of cloud computing — storage, software andprocessing — energy efficiency savings are negated in some scenarios.
For example, one such instance when the cloud isn’t moreefficient, according to Tucker’s research, is when companies are using cloud computing for storing data. Tucker found that when the number of downloaded and accessed files becomes larger (more than one download per hour for a public cloud storage service), those energy efficiency gains are erased.
There’s enough research out there by now that shows that cloud computing is overall more energy efficient than traditional in-house computing. Which is great newsfor Internet companies and cloud computing providers. The growing energy consumption of the Internet, data centers and our always-on connected devices will only continue to grow, so efficiency trends will only to continue to become important.
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