Not off to a Good Start

Since I don't have a personal license for Visual Studio, I decided to download and install Visual Studio .NET 2008 Express.  Microsoft makes it very easy to install everything you need by downloading the Microsoft Web Platform.  That was the route I took to install Visual Web Developer.

It downloaded a small "loader" application which I used to choose which options to install.  There were many more options than I really needed, so I just chose the ones I knew I needed, and a couple others that I thought sounded cool.

That overall experience was nice, but required two reboots to complete.  One reboot for .NET 3.5 and another for the Microsoft Installer.

Then I started up Visual Web Developer, chose to create a new project, chose "Silverlight Application", gave it a name and folder to put it in.

Then it terminated unexpectedly.  No warning whatsoever.

When I started it back up, my project was listed in the "Recent Projects" list, so I clicked on it.  The Silverlight application was listed, but the web site to host it was not, so I assume that the crash happened when the web site was being created.  Not sure.

Stay tuned as I dig into this problem and try to get this first Silverlight application up and running!

Silverlight Resume Project

I attended a Silverlight Firestarter event last Saturday at the local Microsoft office, and let me tell you: I'm pumped up about the possibilities.

Monday I went to work only to find out that they didn't need my services any more.

So today I'm going to try my hand at creating my resume, online, using Silverlight.  I'll post the progress as I go.

Wish me luck!

Something I Never Thought I Would See

This morning I noticed that there was a Java update available for my computer.  It had been a while since I updated, so I decided to go ahead and update.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this part of the installation:

Isn't that a little like dogs and cats living together?  Sun was recommending that I install a Microsoft product.

I think this may be a signal that we're in the "end times", never mind what the Washington politicians are doing!