Adam Kinney posts tagged with 'channel 10'

Silverlight Sidebar Gadgets on Windows Vista 64-bit edition

Adam Kinney — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:03:00 GMT

At this time (version 2 Beta 1), in the life of Silverlight there is no 64-bit support. I'm not certain if or when 64-bit support will appear, but I don't think Vista 64-bit users should go without Silverlight. And the good news is they don't have to.

In most cases, running Silverlight applications should not be an issue. IE7 and Firefox run in 32-bit mode by default allowing Silverlight to run as expected.

A different scenario which needs some attention is Sidebar Gadgets that use Silverlight. The Windows Sidebar application (sidebar.exe) runs by default in 64-bit mode and in order to use a Silverlight-based gadget you need to run sidebar.exe in 32-bit mode.

You can do this simply by closing the default Sidebar and navigating to C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar and double-clicking sidebar.exe. Now you can successfully run the new Channel 9 gadget or Xbox Friends Watch in your sidebar and enjoy knowing what the latest C9 video or or when your Xbox friends are online.

If you're happy with the results, you can make sure the 32-bit version of Sidebar is added to your system startup by following the step below:

If you are still running the 64-bit Sidebar, right-click the Sidebar and select Properties.
Uncheck the Start Sidebar when Windows starts option and hit OK
Open C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar in Windows Explorer
Right-click sidebar.exe and select Copy
Right-click the Windows Orb and select Explore
In Windows Explorer navigate to the folder entitled ..Programs/Startup
Right-click in the folder and select Paste Shortcut

Silverlight rehab session recorded last week

Adam Kinney — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:26:00 GMT

There are a few of us here, who really, really like Silverlight. In some cases a little bit too much. They filmed one of our group therapy sessions last week to raise awareness.

I hope this video can help bring comfort to some of you, knowing that you're not alone.

Silverlight Rehab - You're not alone

Stay in the light!

Life at Microsoft via Ch10

Adam Kinney — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:37:00 GMT

I could share the video here and use the embedded player, but I think for the full experience you should head over to the Channel 10 site and check out the latest video Life at Microsoft - The Truth Revealed.

A few of us chipped in as actors to play out the very funny script written by Tina Wood. Add in Scott Finley's awesome camera and editing work and you have an enjoyable video.

I've also uploaded my favorite screen captures to Flickr in a big part because I don't want to keep these embarrassing shots to myself.

Might be time to head to Hollywood...

CoolWall - a Silverlight 1.0 application reflection

Adam Kinney — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:48:00 GMT

[UPDATE:My video interview is now live on Channel 10]

A large amount of my time last week was spent on a little project called Microsoft CoolWall. Tim Sneath already posted about the site going live this week and provided the story on how the app came to be:

The application was originally prototyped with the Silverlight 1.1 Alpha by Dot Net Solutions, a UK-based solutions integrator firm, and as a bit of fun, Adam agreed to try back-porting it to Silverlight 1.0 to see whether everything they'd implemented in C# could be as easily accomplished in JavaScript. I've noticed a certain preconception that Silverlight 2.0 is the "one to wait for" because it's the platform that allows you to use a "proper" language like C# or Visual Basic. Of course, having .NET languages, the base class libraries and technologies like LINQ will make RIA development a ton easier, but it's impressive what you can get out of JavaScript, particularly when coupled with the client-centric Microsoft AJAX Library.

The application resulted in a great way for me to "walk the walk" and not just "talk the talk". The "talk" I am referring to is the idea that "Yes, you can build more than a Media Player in Silverlight 1.0". (Although the folks behind the MNet.com project certainly didn't need to hear me say that. Yes, it plays videos, but it has built clip editing, banner ad system and web service integration).

JavaScript-heavy applications are not a new thing obviously in the AJAX age, but they are for some of those watching SIlverlight from a .NET standpoint. Sure you don't have the luxury of the CLR or even full controls at this point, but you can still do a lot with Silverlight in its current form. This isn't a full case study, but I thought I'd review some of the concepts behind developing the CoolWall application. And first off, I may not be a JavaScript guru look some of those masters at Ajaxian, but I try.

Application model
Silverlight project templates in Visual Studio start you off with a JavaScript function with a few functions defined within the prototype of that function. This is analogous to a class in C# with an empty constructor and a few methods defined. This class, specifically the handleLoad function, is then referenced by the provided createSilverlight method which is called to instantiate your application.

CoolWall.Container = function() { } CoolWall.Container.prototype = { handleLoad: function(control, userContext) { this.control = control; ... } }

I built out my application using this model and as the complexity increased I broke out certain functionality into other "modules". While simplifying the code it also allowed me to reuse some of the classes, in the case of the button, as well as control the application initialization. The control was necessary do to some of the events fire asynchronously and I needed to ensure all elements were created by the time they were needed.

Most every class also had a physical representation on the screen and linked directly to existing XAML that was created. In some cases the XAML from the main file is handled by separate modules and in other cases the XAML is loaded dynamically along with a new instance of the class.

UserControl Pattern
The buttons defined above and the image items that you drag into place were handled via a pattern to define user controls. The XAML comes from a separate file which is downloaded by a Downloader object, which stores the XAML in a string variable when the application loads. Then when the time comes to instantiate a new control, the createFromXAML method is used passing the stored XAML string as parameter which then returns a Silverlight object, in this case they were Canvases with children of their own. Then the object is added to the children collection of a canvas which lives within the main XAML.

To provide the interaction and integration a new JavaScript class, defined using the pattern above, is instantiated and a reference to the newly created Silverlight object is passed in the constructor. In this case, the newly created JavaScript object is then added to an Array in order to maintain a reference for the application state and cleanup.

draggableImage = this.control.content.createFromXaml(this.xamlString, true); ... this.items[i] = new CoolWall.DraggableImage(this, draggableImage, imageUrl, ...);

HTML Control Integration
One of the first things you notice when investigating Silverlight for development is that there are no controls. This may seem alarming, and yes, I am really looking forward to version 2.0 and its control set, but there is hope.

The integration between the Silverlight DOM and the JavaScript DOM is so well done there is no problem traversing the trees to get to HTML-based controls (you can even make it to other rich objects on the page). Now the only other thing to think about is that by default the Silverlight instance is windowed like a combo box or most any other browser plug-in. You can change this during the creation of your Silverlight application by setting the Windowless property to true. Now the Silverlight instance is rendered within the page and can be positioned with CSS like a div element. Once the HTML textboxes are in place, you can access them with JavaScript and integrate them into your JavaScript class.

handleLoad: function(control, userContext){ this.searchTextBox = $get("searchTextBox"); this.searchTextBox.value = "Welcome to the CoolWall"; }

ASP.NET AJAX
I have used the ASP.NET AJAX library before, but not to this extent. The more I used it the more fun it was. In this application ASP.NET AJAX, helped in two major ways.

The first way was the Web Service Proxy. Using the ScriptManager, you can add a reference to .asmx page containing your services, which will then be proxied as JavaScript functions. Very easy to use and I love the fact that serialization and de-serialization is handled for you. You can pass the string "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000" as a parameter and it will happily convert to a Guid.Empty. A sample call in script looks like this:

CoolWallService.SearchMSNLive(searchTerm,Silverlight.createDelegate(this, this.onSearchCompleted));

The create delegate method is used there to handle the asynchronous completion of the web service call, but still maintaining the context of the class that calls the service.

The second way the AJAX library helped, was similar to other AJAX libraries where it extends the functionality of JavaScript. Code is easier to write once you have methods like Array.add() , String.format and the $get function used above.

Live Search and Live ID Integration
Most of the work done here came from the prototype, but it was very simple to implement using the Web Service proxies mentioned above. Both services seem very simple to write against, once you setup AppIDs with each service, you can leverage the code that comes with the respective SDK. I can envision myself using the LiveID Web Authentication model in the future as way of providing simple, even optional, personalization to an app.

Install Experience
Almost forgotten, but quickly added the optimized Silverlight install experience. And I say quickly added, because the InstallCreateSilverlight.js file that comes with Silverlight Installation Experience Guide almost does all of the work for you.

Conclusion
Even though, I wish I would have had an extra week to do this, I'm really happy to have gone through the work to benefit from the lessons learned. There are a few more features I'd like to see like a lightbox effect to view the images in a larger size, but I'm pretty happy with what got implemented. I still need to make my Christmas wish and this might just be the way to do it.

Oh and plus, I was interviewed about the application an the video should be showing up soon on Channel 10. The interviewer was kind of goofy, but it was fun.

My old job is now listed on the career site

Adam Kinney — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:12:00 GMT

Official Job Listing on the career site

Well its not exactly my old job, Duncan has taken over the dev lead role (Congrats to Duncan), but it does include a lot of the client and UI work I was handling. I like the skill set description they used:

We are looking for someone who lives and breathes HTML, CSS, Javascript, AJAX and ASP.NET. The ideal candidate will have skills in all those technologies combined with a passion for design and user experience.

But here's the meat of what makes the job great:

Do you like to ship, takes chances and effect change? Do you want to build cool sites that use Silverlight and Atlas to deliver a great user experience? Then come join our group where you'll find a small dynamic team of folks and you'll swear you are part of startup.

Its part of your job to learn the latest technologies, create and innovate.

Now, to forward this link on to a few people that may be interested...

My new job

Adam Kinney — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 22:30:00 GMT

Two years ago on this very date of June 20th, I started my first day here at Microsoft. It was an exciting day, it was just new employee orientation, but it was my first job in a technical company with more than 20 employees. I was hired on to become the newest web developer on the coolest Microsoft site known as Channel 9. My manager was Jeff Sandquist and my teammates were Charles Torre and Robert Scoble.

A lot has happened since then.

In 2005:

Aug 25th - Ch9 welcomed a new design
Sep 13th - PDC2005 - debut of the inflatable 9 guy
Sep 13th - MicrosoftGadgets launches as a blog
Oct 13th - Clipster was launched on Ch9
Oct 26th - Erik Porter joins the Ch9 team
Nov 1st - MicrosoftGadgets gains forums and a gallery
Dec 2nd - Shows are added to Ch9
Dec 22nd - MicrosoftGadgets gains user tagging and Ajax interface

In 2006

Jan 18th - Duncan Mackenzie joins the team
Mar 13th - Channel 10 goes live
Mar 21st - MIX06 happens
Apr 20th - Channel 10 party in Second Life
May 4th - Channel 10 is redesigned and adds new features
Jun 1st - Starbucks Interactive Cup Brewer appears in the break room
Jun 10th - Scoble announces he's leaving Microsoft
Jun 19th - Sampy joins the team
July 19th - Channel 10 gets a major update
Sep 21st - Ch10 update and we prep the code for multiple site usage
Sep 25th - Rory joins Ch9
Nov 6th - VisitMIX goes live
Nov 13th - The great Flat vs threaded debate on Ch9 culminates
Dec 4th - 9 Guy first appears in Silverlight

In 2007

Jan 3rd - VisitMIX update
Feb - I drew a lot on the whiteboard
Mar 9th - REMIX contest goes live
Mar 19th - SCRUM happens
Apr 23rd - David Shadle joins the team
Apr 30th - MIX07 happens
Jun 7th - Ch9 v4 beta goes live
Jun 20th - I announce my job

Now that we've gone through that short highlight reel, let me continue with the news. First off, no I am not leaving Microsoft. I am actually not even going that far. Same building and most likely same office for awhile.

I will be joining the Client Platform Evangelism Team led by Tim Sneath and my focus will be Silverlight and WPF. If you know anything about me, you know that I will be in heaven spending my days engrossed in these two technologies.

I would like to thank Jeff, Tim, Steve and Ray for their help in making this move smooth and possible.

Woo hoo!

"And Along Came 10..." article in MSDN

Adam Kinney — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 08:09:00 GMT

Duncan wrote an article entitled And Along Came 10...* that talks about at a high-level how we started the codebase behind on10.net and the next version of Channel 9 some of the architectural decisions behind the scenes. This project, which has encompassed this whole year, has been a very interesting and fun ride. Two years from now, I can imagine writing a book on the wild ride of what has become of Channel 9 and 10 and how it got there.

* The title plays off the Channel9 and on10.net (which we're now just calling Channel 10) relationship of which he is a big fan :)

How to shoot video tutorial by Tina Wood

Adam Kinney — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:56:00 GMT

This is one of my favorite videos we've released on 10 lately. Tina, with the help of Scott Finley, walks through some tips and tricks on how to shoot good video. In the end, the result is a very interesting well shot and edited video about her fridge. Its a nice fridge.

Zune Demo on 10

Adam Kinney — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 20:57:00 GMT

This is a cool demo of how the Zune is actually used to share songs. Watch as Duncan bridges the gap between Canada and the US by sharing a song with his friend Brian. Poetry in motion it is.

Yes, and I must point out that I did my part by providing the Zune icon for the Zune download link. I'm proud of that little icon.

Our deployment video just went live on Channel9

Adam Kinney — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 22:02:00 GMT

Sampy just posted the video he took of our team while we were posting the last update to 10. We were a bit giddy at getting this update at the door and I think that comes through in the video :)

10 gets an update

Adam Kinney — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 04:32:00 GMT

Last week we updated the Microsoft 10 site. Jeff talks about it here, mainly covering the fact that the code update was written to prepare for the conversion of Channel 9 and reach the goal of one code base running on multiple sites. We've simplified the architecture down to four major constructs - entries, links, tags and users. Tags, which run the show, acting as modifiers for every entry (Is this a blog entry or a forum entry? What is about? What language is it in? etc...) I also took some time to beef up the design a bit and add some oomph, which was noted by Long Zheng here.

Now the cool thing is that during our actual deployment, Sampy has the camera running, in true Ch9/10 style, and interviewed us while we were deploying. You can tell we're pretty giddy after completing the update, but we try and add some value while looking like crazy people. I'm hoping we'll have the video up live tomorrow on Channel 9.

"Series of Tubes" wikipedia worthy

Adam Kinney — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 03:33:00 GMT

I know this happened back in June and was covered everywhere, but I was just reading someone giving a metaphor for the Internet and this one will always be stuck in my head:

Series of tubes was a metaphor used by United States Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), to describe the Internet in a June 28, 2006 speech about network neutrality. Stevens was criticizing a proposed amendment to a bill in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation which would have prohibited ISPs from charging fees to give some companies higher priority access to the internet.

And that block of text is quoted from the wikipedia page just for the meme Series of Tubes. How lucky we are where the pros and cons of our current culture are tracked in the monster reference site known as the Wikipedia. We've been thinking of doing a piece on 10 covering Flickr spelinking. We need to add Wikipedia digging to the list.

I'll leave with a few choice words from Senator Stevens:

Ten movies streaming across that, that internet, and what happens to your own personal internet? I just the other day got...an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday, I got it yesterday. Why? [...] They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a big truck.

It's a series of tubes.

Come join the 10 team

Adam Kinney — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 01:06:00 GMT

Jeff blogged and posted a video on 10 today about the lead role for the 10 team that we are hiring for. I think it could be a really great position for someone is into what we're looking for. Below is a section from the synopsis:

We are looking for a rare bird to help start a new kind of leadership role at Microsoft. The ideal candidate will be well versed in the current wave of consumer technologies, industry trends, and competition. An active passion for connecting with customers and sharing your passion for Microsoft products is required. Strong digital video filming and production skills are required as the team shoots, edits, and produces its own video on site. You would be a member of a small team responsible for the care and feeding of this unique and growing community. You must have a passion for generating excitement in the technology enthusiast community - both in person and through online media. You will partner closely with our development team in order to deliver on an amazing online experience. Strong written, verbal and visual communication skills are also important traits of a successful candidate.

I'm really looking forward to seeing candidates start popping up and how creative they get. Jeff offers a bit of a challenge in the end of the video.

Sidebar gadget dev on Windows Vista RC1

Adam Kinney — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 20:17:00 GMT

I just noticed that the new documentation for developing Sidebar gadgets on Windows Vista RC1 is up and live on MSDN - Object Model Reference Dev Overview. I'm looking forward to working on some gadgets for Channel 9 and 10. A mini application using simple languages like JavaScript and HTML, and there are few limits to what the UI can look like (no browser chrome), should be fun.

iCup the Movie

Adam Kinney — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 17:09:00 GMT

I posted about the Starbucks Interactive Cup Brewer when it first came, but Duncan took it a step further and created this short hidden video on 10.

A new update for 10

Adam Kinney — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 07:32:00 GMT

Check it out! Jeff has some more info and links here. Very excited to get this out there :)

Compiling Web Projects faster

Adam Kinney — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 05:00:00 GMT

We've been feverishly working on the new update to 10. No, its just an update its version 1.0. Its exciting, man, I go to the current site now and it just hurts my eyes, I can't wait to share the new site. BUT, its not ready yet, very close though (after I finish up the other half of the UI tonight!, it will be extremely close :p)

Up until recently though the process has been troublesome. Its been like this: code, code, code, code, compile ................., look at modifed results, test scripts. Ok, back to source, code, code, code, code, coffee sip, code, ignore phone, code, code, compile ............. close eyes .........

Compilation was taking forever! It was one of those ignoring problems that you want to take the time to fix, but instead you use the compile time to go to the bathroom (the one 5 feet away at home).

But praise the calendar! This week was Sampy's first week on the team. So we talked a bit, tried to find some tasks for him to do to get familiar with the 10 code base. We figured out a 1st level task (talking WoW or any RPG terms now, its like a quest you get in Anvilmar to go out and kill 4 bunnies with broken legs). His first mighty task was to get the solution to compile faster. Now remember Sampy comes from a team that developed parts of Visual Studio, so thus, it should be simple. And it was.

To compile solutions using project references with web projects (the new ASP.net 2.0 crazy kind), don't Build the Web Project when you build the solution. There's no need to anyways. My compile time went from around 90 to 240 seconds to around 20 seconds. That's very noticiable when you compile and view as much as I do when rendering HTML.

Thanks Sampy!

Battle for Middle Earth 2 interview with Louis Castle

Adam Kinney — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 02:52:00 GMT

Laura and Duncan caught up with Louis Castle to talk about Battle for Middle-Earth II. Looks like a sweet game and huge step in graphics and interaction from playing old RTS games like Myth.

As a sidenote, this was my first attempt at advanced video editing (beyond the cut and paste stuff). It was a lot of fun and I look forward to doing more. If I keep practicing video editing along with the 3D graphics, I should be able to hole up in Alaska for a few months and create my own digital movie.

on10.net login in Atlas

Adam Kinney — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 05:17:00 GMT

Laurent Kempe has created a sample of the on10.net login modal screen using Atlas controls. I actually haven't tried it but it looks similiar in the screenshot.

Its interesting to me because currently in the 10 codebase we are using custom controls where we define every bit of html and JavaScript. Since the launch of 10, a new version of Atlas has been released and we're looking towards leveraging the existing controls available. I'm really looking forward to digging deeper into Atlas controls, behaviors along with CSS adapters. I think that may save us a bit of time in the future writing custom controls.

Vide Game Theatre on 10

Adam Kinney — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 20:51:00 GMT

I like Fridays on 10, you never know what you're going to get. Today a video on Video Game Theatre was posted. Yes, that is Pac-man with a cigarette in his mouth below...

Modern Medical Technology on 10

Adam Kinney — Thu, 25 May 2006 20:34:00 GMT

Tina and Laura have posted two very interesting videos on the training provided by the University of Washington School of Medicine. Part one covers a breathing robot with a heartbeat who's prone to heart attacks (that its the trainee's job to fix), and part two covers the training tools used for laproscopic surgery. This was a fun walkthrough of the training facility and watching them use the training tools for laproscopy made me want to play, too.

Icon aid from the 10 community

Adam Kinney — Tue, 23 May 2006 04:14:00 GMT

This is very cool. emkaydubu, a member of the 10 community who's been working on entries for the Custom PC contest asked for a copy of the 10 logo in eps format to work with for creating new designs. I passed it along and in return I get this nice email including new icons for 10. In his own words:

I made an updated icon + favicon for on10.net using the vector file.
I noticed that the current favicon for on10.net the color is different from the logo alot more darker, also I downloaded the current favicon and notice it includes the size 16, 32, 48, what i noticed is that the favicon should only have the size 16x16px icon version because in Firefox the favicon wont appear in menus and bookmark toolbars, only in tabs and address bar unless the icon only has the 16x16 size then it will appear in the menus and bookmark toolbars. I also made an icon with the 16, 32, 48 sizes for application use.

That's awesome. Thanks man! Now I've looked at the channel 9 favicon and realize I have a little cleanup work to do.

Recreating the 10 logo

Adam Kinney — Tue, 16 May 2006 08:58:00 GMT

Man, I just found these thanks to my Feedster search for on10.net. emkaydubu has been busy recreating the 10 logo presumably for the Custom PC Contest. Very nice work!

Launched supporting Firefox

Adam Kinney — Sat, 06 May 2006 07:26:00 GMT

Scoble brought up the issue of Firefox support not always making it as a requirement for the launch of Microsoft websites. He even suggests automatic low review scores for teams that ship without it. Luckily with 10 we cleared the bar and launched with Firefox support (on the Mac as well), so hopefully no bad recommendations from Scoble :)

But this isn't just a "hey, we're cool too" post. I feel lucky to have joined Microsoft around this time, when they have started saying "We care about standards and the web." I came as a Firefox guy, but now IE7 has taken its place as my browser of choice. I feel very lucky to be on a team where standards and working n the web is valued. When we were planning goals for the 10 launch a few big ones were XHTML validation, same browsing experience in IE and Firefox the same media offered in different formats (shelling out mp4s as well as wmvs, mp3s and wmas). This is mirrored across Microsoft with the Windows Live efforts to compatibility, the release of ASP.NET 2.0 (much better html output and css support), MIX06 and the IE7 update. The ideas are catching on though, what's that Scoble said before? Its a like an aircraft carrier turning. Not sure if its applicable, but I'll be watching.

10 Site Redesign Notice

Adam Kinney — Thu, 04 May 2006 08:22:00 GMT

This is not my actual commentary about the redesign this is just a notice that it's happened. 10 has been given a design refresh! Its late and I'm tired but I had to get it out. Notice my previous blog entry was about a week ago, when do you think we started getting heavy on coding the redesign...about a week ago :)

I have some compartive screenshots to post with notes showing changes we've made to make the blogs and media content more discoverability and overall giving the site some new energy.

And now to catch up on emails and reports and such...but sleep first I will. but for now if you get the chance, check out 10 and tell us what you think. Feedback is good...

Post SL meetup thoughts

Adam Kinney — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 07:49:00 GMT

So around 7pm PDT tonight I jumped into Second Life for the planned 10 party. We had some of the team there Laura, Tina, Erik and a little late due to technical difficulties Jeff.We had some fans of 10 show up and even some who had not heard of 10. At the peak I'd say we had about 10 people there (fitting total), but it was a good learning experience. We need a better place to dance. We need to update the video every day. Its actually pretty interesting watching a 10 video from inside a virtual world. Your avatar is sitting there on the couch watching real people on the big screen. The world flipped inside out.

It was fun getting to meet those who came, although we may have to meet earlier next time for those who came from the east coast and UK. I didn't even think to take snapshots, I was trying to figure out how to share and use the dang spaceship I brought (I figured out afterwards, very cool), but luckily Chris did. Here's a quick snapshot and he said he'll have more tomorrow. Hopefully along with a new Geometry Wars wallpaper, too.

Actually you should check out his site 360Style.net. Lots of nice Xbox360 wallpapers on there. Nice gallery UI as well.

A virtual meetup for the 10 team

Adam Kinney — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 08:15:00 GMT

Tomorrow night (Thurs. Apr 20th) at 7pm PDT, we're having our first planned event on the 10 island. The 10 island exists in the virtual world of Second Life. Laura and Tina are going to be there. Scoble said he'd even try stop by. Should be a fun time and offer us as the 10 team to virtually meetup with fans of the show and others who are just interested in what's we're doing.

But a meetup in Second Life? What's that all about? I've another entry coming up just on games and playing habits, but for this case Second Life works perfectly. Everyone can login for free, we've setup our own island (props to Eric Rice) and its pretty simple move around in and get started. The most difficult beginner task is changing your avatar to look a little different than the standard cookie cutter beginner body. But if you come to the party, we'll help you get started by giving you a free 10 shirt :)

Go to Your Moog!

Adam Kinney — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 03:12:00 GMT

Ok, so after MIX06 and the launch of 10, I was ready for some relaxation and thought time. My blog has been dead, although not much difference than the regular entries. I've decided to do more with my blog, a little more effort into it. So I've been working on it and I thought keep silent until the site was updated, but I've got a few things to get out there.

Check out Manuel Clement's new music blog. Manuel came on the 10 show this week to show his basement transformed into a sound stage, very cool, I dig the music. And his blog he's offering it for free. Thanks Mano!
Its been mentioned before, but we're looking for a few good teammates. Our team, which runs Channel9, MicrosoftGadgets and 10 needs some more players. Mainly a UI person and/or a web/db person. I'm very excited about our upcoming schedule, but we're looking for some help to get us there.
Check out the 10 news blog. The project is still very new and we've got a bazillion ideas on features we'd like to add and make better. We'll be talking about new features, changes and just news on the 10 team. I keep thinking of it equal to the Howard 100 news on Howard 100 on Sirius.

Steve Garfield talks with Scoble about 10

Adam Kinney — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 21:59:00 GMT

Here's the video. My favorite quote is when Scoble is asked about possible Creative Commons license for the videos on 10.

You know, we got to break one rule a day. You know we broke like 15 the first day.fdsfds

What makes 10 technically cool?

Adam Kinney — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 19:35:00 GMT

I was on IM with a friend and proudly I said "Hey, have you seen http://on10.net/?"

In a very direct way, he says "What makes this cool?"

Great answer. Time is one of the most valuable things, so you tell me why you think its cool. So my answer was:

"Technically its cool, because it was built by three devs in 5 weeks from scratch using ASP.NET 2.0, SQL2k5 and Atlas. Its a mashup of blogs, forums, local.live.com, Xbox Live and user blogs. We spent a lot of time on the UI with the goals being simple, responsive and smart. And we've got loads of feature ideas to add in the future."

And if you're interested there's a video up on channel9 of Scoble interviewing us on how the project came together. And yes, we are excited to, in the future, bring some 10 love to the Channel9 site.

on10.net is live

Adam Kinney — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:43:00 GMT

Awesome, the day has come! 10 is alive and kicking.

Last week we launched a series of preview videos (first vignette one here) which provided some context to who the hosts of our show were going to be (Laura and Tina) and some additional clues and even a few riddles. I'm glad to see someone got the wallpaper riddle, but there were a few others that were left unsolved (or not talked about).

So then Saturday, we launch into our "live testing" campaign. We switch the domain to point away from our preview site to our live site and we're up and running. Invite a few IM buddies, see who comes in on their own via rss or links and we're off. Live content, live people. Smash bugs.

And now its Sunday, or early Monday and we've had another day of "live testing". The team blogs a bit more, others blog, Scoble blogs (nice compliments by the way) and we get "dugg".

Our goal is to create a kick-ass community site with original and interesting content. We put a lot of effort into this project and I hope its well received. So check it out, and send feedback.

Actually you can start right here. If you visit the site, you can click the Share dropdown and click "Blog it". Up will pop up a script that you can then copy on to your blog or web page and share an episode of the show.

More info to follow, see ya on 10!

Previewing on10.net

Adam Kinney — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 23:40:00 GMT

Jeff explained a bit about what we're doing, but right now we're still keeping the full story under wraps. on10 has been an awesome project to work on and I'm very excited to see it come to life. Next monday will be cool, but this week you can enjoy the preview videos and get to know Laura and Tina, two new additions to our kick-ass team.

Favorite comments so far:

KevinB: Quicktime video on a Microsoft website?

I don't believe I have ever seen a Microsoft website not use WMV.

Haacked: ...it looks like they are producing some sort of television show (for developers?) hosted by some woman and Clay Aiken.

Actually, upon further review of the video, I don't think that is Clay after all

Have your development team over for Xbox and pizza

Adam Kinney — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 07:10:00 GMT

Scoble responds to Guy's bozo explosion entry with a few items of his own. I keyed in on item #2 on how to prevent a company bozo explosion, "Have your development team over for Xbox and pizza". Thanks Scoble for the comment on our latest project. Its fun to watch as the hype comes. Now our goal as the development and content team is to deliver on the hype and offer something of value. After lots of hard work in the recent weeks, I believe we've got something worth sharing. Looking forward to it. Maybe we could start a count down or something...