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• Taking the market for granted - Not

  Sometimes when I'm writing a reply to a comment, I realize it deserves a new blog post. Here you go....   >>  I think that you're being optimistic in thinking that Silverlight is an automatic choice, even with SL 2.0. << Sorry, I was unclear. I meant it was an automatic choice for me . That is, for my values, for my work, with my history and needs, it is a no-brainer: and would be if I didn't work  for Microsoft. In fact, it was, before I worked for Microsoft. After I saw Silverlight at Mix 07, I went home and within a week registered Silverlight Consulting LLC.   That was my plan until I was offered the only better job in the world, the one I have now.   The point is that Silverlight fits in with my existing skills, builds on the technology I know, uses the tools I like, comes from a company I trust to get it right.  So for me it was a no-brainer. What I was trying to say is that I'm not good at (as you can see) selling it to anyone else. I see my job as coming mostly post-sales; helping those who want to learn or use Silverlight to get the most out of the experience, and helping to make sure that Silverlight.net is the place they turn to for whatever they need. I did not mean to suggest that the decision to use Silverlight is a given for everyone else. As always, there are some for whom it actually is a given,  and there are some for whom the rule may well be "anyone but Microsoft" -- for most an evaluation will be made based on their needs and the technology, though I reject the idea that lots of people come to a technology like this as babes in the woods, open to any technology solely based on its merits,  as if they have no previous investments in learning, acquired skills, legacy technology, etc. How big each group is, is outside my area of expertise. Put a gun to my head and make me guess? My gut says the world will look something like the following by end of 2009: Silverlight adopted with no alternative seriously considered: 20%. Not Silverlight, no matter what we do: 10% Explore Silverlight but decide on a competitor: 5% Explore Silverlight and its competition and choose Silverlight: 40% Decide to stay out of this space for now:  20%. Fell out of the statistical map, and never heard from again: 5% **** THIS IS NOT A MICROSOFT PREDICTION OPINION OR EVEN SPECULATION *** This is straight from my own 2 decades of being wrong every time I predict anything to you. And note... Posted Feb 25 2008, 10:54 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: silverlight 2.0, Silverlight.net, Random Ramblings, Technology

• A note on reading, technology and mental illness

  I posted yesterday about Amazon's Media Library -- which I believe could be a great back end to a very cool Silverlight project and that led to a comment on the volume of my reading. I started to write a response but once you get me started talking about reading... well I thought I'd indulge in one more blog post during the gentle moments before Mix. There have been a few amazing changes in technology that have significantly affected my reading (though I admit I was always a serious reader -- see note below on reading and mental illness.) It started with Books. Remember books? I bought 'em by the truck load, back when Barnes and Noble was a single store on 18th Street and if you wanted a book you got on the train and went and bought it. Then came Books On Tape which was great: rentals I could listen to in the car (though I still felt compelled to buy printed versions to look at later). I started listening to in the early 1990s . They went out of the retails business just as I seriously got into The Teaching Company Lectures, which has gotten better and better over the years (Click here and then on Lectures, for my recommendations). But the big break through was Audible (the Platinum deal is great; I buy 4 a year) In the past 2 years I've bought a few hundred books from Audible. I love Audible. Wish they gave green stamps. Digital is so very much better than tapes. Especially digital that remembers where you are in the book. Or books. Gotta' be able to read more than one at a time. You really want more than one book with you at a time. And who can remember where all the tapes are? Audible is one thing, but what gave it enormous power was the iPod , er, ah the Zune, yeah, the Zune. Here's a picture of my Zune. (See, it says Zune right on it) Love my Zune. Got the 80 Gig. Ran out of room on my 8. Sometimes you gotta' read. Then there's print. Now, I still like reading, but books are heavy (and I fractured my shoulder in December, which quintupled the weight of every page. And remember, I have ADD, which means I like to be reading a few different books so I can switch off every ten minutes. Long flights require at least 3 books, usually more. And a couple magazines. Heavy. Also, I hate waiting for books to arrive from Amazon. Who can wait two days? That's crazy. Thank God for the Kindle Here's my ungrateful review . (Some people are never happy). Right now I have 7 books on the Kindle (including Bleak House, which is big... Posted Feb 23 2008, 10:25 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: Shameless Self-promotion, Programmer insanity, Random Ramblings, Technology