While surfing the web, I found this blog post by Chuck Freedman that points an article talking about the announcement that the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) will be (proudly) using Silverlight to stream the inauguration.  Here's the press release from Microsoft.  It's a little funny because, with a little searching, you'll find a bunch of blog posts that wonder what they were thinking.  I don't doubt that the donations from Microsoft execs had something to do with it, as Serge Jespers elludes.

From a strategy standpoint, if Microsoft did pay to have the PIC site stream with Silverlight, it would be some of the best money they could have spent.  Not that the only place to watch the inauguration is on the PIC site (far from it) but it's a prime chance to get silverlight installed on more browsers and push the penetration a little deeper.

I love this little RIA that shows the installation of Silverlight and Flash on browsers that visit the site.  It's not a completely objective illustration since the application is built in Flash, but it definitely paints a picture.

Microsoft employees swear by Silverlight, as they should, but from where I'm sitting, everyone else is using Flash.  It's a good time to be a Flash/Flex developer.

At the last Seattle Flex User Group meeting, I presented a brief demonstration on skinning using Fireworks CS4 and Flex Builder 3.  Because it's so easy to do, it went by pretty quick so I thought I'd post the steps here to give people a reference if they want to try it themselves.

Before you skin, there's a couple of things you need to know:

1. How to use Fireworks.  It's really not that hard.  Maybe easier than Photoshop if you're starting out, and because it's built for web graphics (vs. photo editing) it's got some features that make styling buttons and stuff a breeze.
2. How to read.  See, the labels on the buttons are mostly words, not pictures.  The good news is, if you're reading this, you've already got this one covered.

Ok, let's get started.

Well, it's official.  I'll be at MAX 2008 in San Francisco this year.  I will be a TA at a few sessions so maybe I'll see you there.  Here's the sessions I'll be a TA for:

I'm looking forward to helping some of you get started with Flex and improving your skills!

The Flex Guy site has completed it's make-over and now is completely running on Joomla!  With a slick new look and feel, I'll be using it to show off work I've done and provide a more straight forward interface to those who want to download and use the finished products.

I'm always open to suggestions so if you see something that really annoys you, let me know.  If there's something you really want to see or know, please share!