Bring on Silverlight 2 Beta 2!

Ok Silverlight fans, Silverlight 2 Beta 2 is now available for download.  It comes with a whole host of updated accessories including new versions of the Silverlight 2 Tools for Visual Studio 2008, a new version of the DeepZoom Composer and an updated version of Expression Blend 2 (June 2008 Preview).

I learned of this today as I was getting my laptop ready for a presentation at the Krakow CodeCamp when I noticed that the Hard Rock Memorabilia site was giving me a weird error message:

OMG, I thought – I’m about to go talk about Silverlight as part of my session at the Krakow CodeCamp and my favorite site to demo isn’t going to work!  When I chose to install the latest version (which I didn’t end up installing, btw – I’m about to speak for goodness sake!) it took me to the Silverlight.net web site which had an announcement that the new beta was available.  I have downloaded everything and will install as soon as my talk is done, but not a moment before :)  Luckily, the MSN Car Ad that got me so excited about Deep Zoom originally is still online and I will use that one instead.  Plus, we’ll be making our own Deep Zoom sample in the session, so there will be plenty of Deep Zoom to go around.

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: silverlight,hardrock,deepzoom,expression

Comments

• Anonymous
  June 08, 2008
  Hi Chris, I'm part of the Hard Rock Memorabilia project team at Vertigo. The Silverlight 2 Beta 2 message on the Hard Rock site is as intended. We ported and launched the site to coincide with the SL2 Beta 2 release by Microsoft on Friday evening (6/6). The site works much smoother and more reliably on Beta 2. You should definitely notice the difference from the Beta 1 version. So, hopefully it stays "your favorite site to demo". :) Please let us know what you think! -Will Allan Senior Software Engineer, Vertigo

• Anonymous
  June 11, 2008
  Hey Will - I did get SL2B2 installed and you're right:  the HardRock site does run better!  It's definitely still my favorite DeepZoom demo :)  If you're available, I'd love to chat with you about the approach you took to building this site, and some of the techniques you used.  We're planning a Silverlight DevCamp for the fall, and it would be great to share some of your best practices with the group. Cheers! Chris