@IdeaKitchn I know @justsomeguy is IxDA… I would be if I was a little more organized. in reply to IdeaKitchn #

@joshblake I wanted to create a multi touch presentation. With lasers. And ninjas. But I thought that might be TOO awesome. in reply to joshblake #

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Jason Alderman and I wrote and performed a rap battle for an Ignite presentation at Ignite Salt Lake. Jason took the side that developing web applications for mobile phones is the best way to go and I took the side that native applications are more appropriate for mobile development. The slides can be found here.

Geeky? In the extreme. But I enjoyed it.

And if you don’t like to hear people laughing over the laughable lyrics:

• "Leather stamped" Silverlight TextBox Style… must look at later http://bit.ly/bLYNEA #
• Bing Maps Data Binding ot Stroke property with work around from @bmdiaz http://bit.ly/9BaaKk #
• Silverlight 4 and Behaviors from Nigel Sampson http://bit.ly/clw1do #
• WCF Data Services and jQuery from @ShawnWildermuth http://bit.ly/9cBRkt #
• 5 Simple Steps to Commanding in Silverlight from @John_Papa http://bit.ly/9ThgpX #
• Looking for UX stuff? http://uxurls.com/ is an aggregation of almost 100 UX sites and blogs #
• Anyone know when the #MIX10 session schedule will be up? Maybe @MIXEvent? #
• RT @DavidJKelley: Checking Your Site For Visual Hierarchy http://bit.ly/aCN98t #ux #
• Johnny Holland's 10 Must-See UX Videos http://bit.ly/9cV4Wt #
• @DavidJKelley Along those lines, @lukewdesign has a post on how people share web content http://bit.ly/bw71gb in reply to DavidJKelley #
• I dislike how easy it was to reinstall Windows 7. If my box keeps working, I'll never have an excuse to upgrade. #
• Excellent! RT @TommyLee: @matthiasshapiro #MIX10 Session times will be up this week #
• RT @lukewdesign: Still thinking this list of core mobile use cases holds http://bit.ly/7PZer #
• From @MIXOnline: The Problem with Styling Silverlight Toolkit Charting http://bit.ly/aTBzO7 #
• RT @acarvin: We need a #SXSW session name generator. "How To Rawk __"; "__ Gone Wild"; "__ That Don't Suck"; "__ Twitter __"; etc. #
• RT @austingovella: srsly: name a product with a bad interface that's successful. i'm really asking cause i'm doing some research #
• Working on my MIX info viz presentation. Can't possibly cover it all in 1 hour. I'll have to talk super fast. #
• Common, Microsoft! Why do I need to add "infographic" to my Word dictionary? #
• RT @alexlundry: Step aside data visualization…make way for data auralization: http://nyti.ms/bJnuAx #Olympics #
• Speaking/rapping on mobile development this Thursday at @ignitesaltlake. You should come. #
• Bunches of WPF samples for download and learning http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/wpfsamples #
• Apple sues HTC over Android http://bit.ly/axvs1s Maybe looking to scare phone companies out of using Android? #
• Got my Canon T2i camera today. Sooooo happy! #
• Design inspiration in the form of creative resumes from (via @t3b, @smashingmag) http://bit.ly/b1djTm #
• My Silverlight info viz talk at MIX has a time slot! Wednesday (March 17), 1:30-2:30 #
• That site doesn't LOOK like The Onion. I'm confused. RT @ShawnWildermuth Pathetic: http://is.gd/9zGQE #
• @radiomaru Scott Pilgrim's Progress Bar (stealing from @rstevens) #betterscottpilgrimtitles in reply to radiomaru #
• Never do website work for family. Ever. #
• Design Inspiration: JESS3 "The State of The Internet" video http://bit.ly/ayk30d #
• RT @cschuman: RT @adkinn: Big update for the Project Rosetta site today! http://ow.ly/1dPoQ #silverlight #flash #
• Going to #MIX10 You can use the schedule planner to plan for my Info Viz session (Wed, 1:30-2:30) http://bit.ly/9jjBXa, #
• @josiahq Good ol' John Roberts. Who knew he was pro-gay marriage? in reply to josiahq #
• @josiahq You didn't know? http://tweetphoto.com/13141338 in reply to josiahq #
• Sweet RT @Pete_Brown: My newest shirt http://twitpic.com/16fhic Props to @matthiasshapiro for suggesting the shirt of http://bit.ly/aIColI #
• @Pete_Brown You're going to be really easy to find at #MIX10 in reply to Pete_Brown #
• #ShirtsThatMakeDesignersKill http://is.gd/9CWiM (via @karimhernandez) #
• RT @ikepigott: Is Apple going to file suit against IHOP for trademark infringement? | You betcha #
• Thank you @MicrosoftTag! Android tag apps, here I come! http://bit.ly/aCTfJu #
• TONIGHT is rap battle throwdown between @matthiasshapiro & @justsomeguy at @ignitesaltlake! More info: http://bit.ly/12aPd #
• From @kirillcool: A truly disturbing volume of design inspiration http://bit.ly/datamV #
• 25 Inspiring Silverlight websites, videos and stories http://bit.ly/c9B9eC (via @arturot) #
• At #ignitesaltlake getting myself psyched up for my rap confrontation with @justsomeguy #
• @LauraMoncur are you coming to #ignitesaltlake I promise an awesome surprise if you make the rap battle! in reply to LauraMoncur #
• Dude, the @djwaldow presentation at #ignitesaltlake was awesome. Dude. #
• Silverlight designers, check out SilverLaw for some terrific SL samples and design suggestions http://bit.ly/a08b5m #
• "Overnight, Silvelight devs have become Windows phone devs" http://bit.ly/94mV7A | Yay! #
• A friend of mine is looking for Silverlight des/dev talent in Atlanta. DM me or e-mail matthias(dot)shapiro(at)gmail #
• Want to use a device with two touch points? Apple says you can't call it Multi-Touch(TM) http://bit.ly/dfhRgp #
• Can't access the BLS state-by-state unemployment data I need for my talk. Getting very frustrated. #

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• .@nathandunlap I didn’t know IdentityMine was a data visualization company… http://bit.ly/cAIZIZ #
• Advanced MVVM (Kindle edition) for WPF and Silverlight from Josh Smith http://bit.ly/dwpQqv #
• The 10 Second Usability Test #UX http://bit.ly/9oaYsX #
• The Mobile Visual Design Skills Crisis of 2010 http://bit.ly/a78aZX #
• A look at 2 Information Architecture tools: Chalkmark & Treejack http://bit.ly/9t8kCA #
• .@LukeWDesign looks at Windows Phone 7 NUI concepts of teasing & transition http://bit.ly/dwOLEi #
• .@arturot invites readers to help pick which apps he’ll design in his MIX10 talk http://bit.ly/9dSWvj #
• RT @adkinn: Gesturecons – icons for prototyping Multi-touch applications http://ow.ly/19Ya8 #silverlight #
• Nice looking HTML5 video player (via @justsomeguy) http://jilion.com/sublime/video #
• A soldering how to in comic form http://bit.ly/cTy0tw #
• from @smashingmag, Beautiful Motion Graphics w/ Programming. Cool looking stuff http://bit.ly/dbyVSc #
• Johnny Holland on creating successful style guides http://bit.ly/9IrwVa #
• 50 Useful Coding Techniques (CSS Layouts, Visual Effects and Forms) via @smashingmag http://bit.ly/94xmXQ #
• From @smashingmag: Expert Advice For Students and Young Web Designers http://bit.ly/bPMzAz #
• Interesting blog post on a “Use Case Map”… looking kind of IA-ish http://bit.ly/dtESFQ #
• RT @MossyBlog: 10 Useful Web Application Interface Techniques – http://bit.ly/aQJrsw #
• @ashbuckles Can’t wait to see people blogging from an iPad. All the frustration… but bigger! in reply to ashbuckles #
• RT @michael_meder: If you’re just getting into web design and layout I highly recommend this tutorial: http://bit.ly/9BMuQ6 (via PSD tuts) #
• Web design in Israel (including coolHebrew fonts and right-to-left type design) http://bit.ly/cxX8WD #
• Retrieving and saving images from SQL Server using RIA Services and Silverlight http://bit.ly/dvta7A #
• For all the benefits of telecommuting and cross-continent teams, there’s nothing like face-to-face team interaction #
• I’m drowning in Silverlight frameworks. I need a job where I just test new tech all day long. #
• Silverlight and Desketop .NET integration from Jeremiah Morill http://bit.ly/bMt19Y #
• Wow. Never say you want or need any kind of job on twitter. It’s like a spam-bot pheromone. #
• @ShawnWildermuth Lord of the Pings #FilmsAboutSoftware in reply to ShawnWildermuth #
• Blood Ruby on Rails #FilmsAboutSoftware #
• Introduction to Using Prism with Silverlight 3 (via @WynApse) http://bit.ly/9IQfIr #
• RT @justsomeguy: “UX professionals are some of the most professionally unhappy folks I’ve ever encountered.” http://bit.ly/5rykks #
• Three months of flogging Amazon ads, one $10 gift card. I’m so totally in the money. #
• OK… that’s really funny. RT @DavidJKelley: The Ten Command Lines #FilmsAboutSoftware #
• RT @IdeaKitchn: The #mix10 ninjas have given us oData! Behold! http://api.visitmix.com What a list of sessions? Try http://bit.ly/cDLqGyd #
• Some really cool experience map examples from Gene Smith at nForm http://bit.ly/cwYvR9 #
• Excellent @smashingmag piece on designing for business web apps http://bit.ly/9Mx2lJ #
• RT @Systim: RT @TommyLee: A #Silverlight Augmented Reality Toolkit has been released on CodePlex http://bit.ly/971o3t #mix10 #
• How am I just now finding these? Expression Blend self-study training materials http://bit.ly/agLDht #
• This should be a t-shirt. RT @Pete_Brown: screw it. used a table. #
• I’m late to the party but check out @rschu’s Matrix3DEx for more complex Silverlight semi 3D scenarios http://ow.ly/16Fdaz #
• From @lukewdesign: Mad Libs Style Form Increases Conversion 25-40% Awesome! http://bit.ly/aYH91U #
• From @richgee: Organizing resource dictionaries in WPF and Silverlight http://bit.ly/dzdj0q #
• Data Access in Silverlight – Thank you @ShawnWildermuth! This almost makes up for your blog’s creepy moving portrait http://bit.ly/dsbjVy #
• @Pete_Brown Excellent… with such a t-shirt I will impress my geek friends and confuse my wife in reply to Pete_Brown #
• Dear Adobe. Can’t install, uninstall or run any of my Adobe products. Why does your installation & licensing process suck so much? #

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I’m trying something a little new… I’m going to post all future Silverlight tutorials on CodeRun, an online IDE. Basically, just follow the link below and click “Run” and you’ll see this in action. You can change the XAML at CodeRun to test it out, which I find exceptionally cool. Let me know if you a) like this or b) hate this.

Open this project on CodeRun.

This is just a little trick to get a nice flexible striped gradient in Silverlight or WPF. Our end product will look like this

Zoomed in:

Just adds some nice texture to the app.

First, go to the element you want to apply the gradient to and go to the (you guessed it!) gradient section in the background.

This will pull up the default black-to-white gradient that we all know and love. Give it two more gradient stops as close to the center as you can by clicking on the gradient twice. Make the two left stops the color of your stripe. For this example, I’m using a nice blue gradient with some transparency. I think it fits nice with the background. Also make the two right stops fully transparent. Should look something like this:

Dandy. Now click on the arrow to expand our options (seen at the bottom of the image above) and a new set of options open up for us to futz with. Let’s go ahead and set the following options:

• StartPoint = 0,0
• EndPoint = 1.5, 1.5
• MappingMode = Absolute
• SpreadMethod = Repeat

And that’s it! We can change the visible color to get something a little more appropriate to our background or we can change the EndPoint to make the stripes wider or at a different angle. But that’s all we need.

Here’s the XAML for reference.

<LinearGradientBrush
EndPoint=”1.5,1.5″
MappingMode=”Absolute”
SpreadMethod=”Repeat”
StartPoint=”0,0″>
<GradientStop Color=”#BF125881″/>
<GradientStop Color=”#BE6C9AE0″ Offset=”0.526″/>
<GradientStop Color=”Transparent” Offset=”0.544″/>
<GradientStop Color=”Transparent” Offset=”1″/>
</LinearGradientBrush>

If you think this is an engaging way to look at the Open Call sessions, I ask that you include my session “Creating Effective Info Viz in Silverlight” on your ballot.

If you have any problems with this project, please let me know! I’ve already had one person point out a parsing error that was depriving him of a properly attributed session.

This visualization is basically a set of word clouds for the titles, abstracts and speakers of the submitted proposals. Clicking on the words or names brings up a list of related sessions with links so that users can either go to the session or directly vote for it (although you’d still need to click  “Submit Your Ballot” in order to make the vote count).

So, now I’d like to talk about problems with this project.

There’s a weird problem with the animation when the panels flip from front (the word cloud) to back (the detail view). I think this is because I’m building the detail view dynamically, which makes it mostly a performance issue. I spent a couple hours fighting with this problem and tried several possible solutions. Ultimately, I couldn’t fix it, so I decided not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

I decided to use a wrapping ListBox for displaying all the words and names rather than try to squish them onto a single screen for a couple reasons.

1. Dumping all the sized items into a ListBox was WAY easier that constructing a beautiful Wordle type word cloud and gave me most of the value. Since there was a very short window in which this project would be valuable, I decided in favor of the faster method.
2. If the user is trying to play around with this and doesn’t want their browser to fill the screen, they can still see everything. Allowing scrolling means that the user doesn’t have to feel like I DEMAND their full attention. The application becomes a casual application rather than a consuming one.
3. People love to see their names in lights. Over on the “Speaker” section, I wanted the names to be big enough so that every person who submitted a session could see their name in the “Speaker” panel. That was probably the most important part of this project to me (hey, I do user design… it’s all about the people), so that’s what I did.

Given more time, I probably would have worked a little more on the visual design and the motion design (animations and what not). I probably also would have sped up the application by taking some of the processing procedures out of the application and turned them into static data files. The fact of the matter was that this project evolved from testing to prototype to final project very quickly because of the time constraints.

But, hey, that’s life.

I’ll post more videos as I create them for CNN. I’m also working on a chapter for an O’Reilly book called “Beautiful Visualization” that will be out next year.

All of this to say that I’m trying to get back into the WPF/Silverlight blogging as soon as I can, but I need to clear my plate a little first.

• Florida Crime Rate Visualization – My attempts to use Silverlight for information visualizations are going pretty well. In this post, I visualize the Florida crime rate by county over almost 20 years. There are project files availalbe for anyone who wants to dig into how I did it a little more.
• Adobe Illustrator to XAML Conversion Options – This post walks through the pros and cons of two methods for taking an SVG file (or Adobe Illustrator) file and pulling it into Blend as a XAML file. It also has a XAML copy of a vector map of the US by county for download.
• Create A Snapping Slider In Blend Using Behaviors – This provides a downloadable behavior for getting a slider to snap to integers (or an integer multiple based on certain settings). I’ve provided project files as well as a tutorial for how to do it.
• How To Create a PART in Your Silverlight Custom Control – Because there are about a dozen tutorials on building a custom control, but I keep forgetting exactly how to do this part of it.
• How To Animate a Changing Property in a Custom Control in Silverlight – Have you ever wanted your property to animation automatically when it changes in your Silverlight Custom Control. I say, “Who hasn’t!?” at which point my wife forces me out into the fresh air and sunshine (or, as I call it, the Blinding Day Star). After I scurry back inside, I wrote this blog post.
• How To Build a Storyboard Animation for Silverlight in C# – Because sometimes you want to enjoy the benefits of the Silverlight animation engine but you really need to build the animation in the code instead of the XAML.

• Carsonified » 5 Advanced Photoshop Techniques for Web Designers
• Carsonified » Advanced Photoshop Techniques for Web Designers – Part 2
• Source code for “WPF Control Development Unleashed” – From Pavan Podila, control development in WPF is pretty powerful… might be a good idea to check out his book.
• A SilverLight TreeMap control – I can’t believe I missed this for so long. I need to dig into this a little more, but if this really works the way it looks, everyone should be worshiping Pavan Podila over at Pixel in Gene. This is an info vis dream come true.
• Implicit Styles, Templates, Controls and FrameworkElements – From the Windows Presentation Foundation SDK team, Carole Snyder has a post on implicit styles… definately an under-appreciated topic in WPF
• Expression Studio Tutorials Starter Kit – Jaime Rodriguez continues to be awesome
• Mastering CSS, Part 2: Advanced Techniques and Tools – From Smashing Magazine and includes a section on iPhone CSS techniques
• How to Create Your First iPhone Application – Yet another “Make an iPhone app” guide
• How To Effectively Communicate With Developers – The graphic is hilarious.
• Typographic Design Patterns and Best Practices – Good for people who want to start digging into the typographic world
• 50 Useful New jQuery Techniques and Tutorials – 50 is kind of a lot, but this is from Smashing Magazine, whose motto is “The most compelling link dumps in the design community”

Veracity Solutions is the software consulting firm where I work and we’ve decided that it would be a good idea to do some sponsored posting there.

Blog posts up so far are:

• Styling a ComboBox in Silverlight 3
• How To Wrap Text In a Silverlight 3 ComboBox
• How To Get a Silverlight 3 AutoCompleteBox to Show Sample Data In Blend 3
• How To Create A ListBox with CheckBoxes (or RadioButtons) In Silverlight 3

More are coming, including tutorials on behaviors and paths.