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* Posts by John Swainston

3 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Mar 2007

Silverlight 2 beta 2 - Go Live if you dare

John Swainston
Gates Halo

Silverlight - Not perfect, but a huge potential developer base

I've just got back from TechEd in Orlando, and whilst I agree with the author that Silverlight does need ironing out in its current form, I wouldn't be as quick as some here have done to condem it to failure.

At TechEd Microsoft put in a HUGE amount of effort promoting Silverlight and XAML, whether it was using it with mobile devices, standard web, or integrating it with sharepoint etc. etc. I think at any one one of the sessions there was a choice to do something Silverlight related, and in the sponsors area Silverlight was being pushed by the component vendors.

Whether it is as "good" as Flash or not, the fact will be that in future service packs to visual studio every MS developer will end up with a development platform for Silverlight, in a famliar .Net programming environment. I don't know what size this user base is, but I'd bet that the avalability of the tools to such a large user base will go a long way to getting traction for Silverlight.

Undoubtedly there will also be some clever marketing/promotion to gain adoption of Silverlight (such as some high quality streaming Olympic coverage if I can remember correctly), and I wouldn't be surprised if MSN and Hotmail start using it at some point (as have MSDN in beta).

Whether it's another ActiveX remains to be seen, but I wouldn't be so hasty to write off Silverlight so soon given the backing and the developer base.

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Heaviest Virgin Media downloaders face new daytime go-slow

John Swainston

@Bandwidth Monitoring

If your router supports SNMP, and you want something easy to use:

http://www.paessler.com/prtg/download/

Very good for a freebie for home use.

If you are feeling a bit more techie,and want to monitor more stuff then try

http://oss.oetiker.ch/mrtg/

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Sony PlayStation 3

John Swainston

Overpriced or Overstocked?

A quick check today shows that I can still walk into most of the major retailers and pick up a PS3 off the shelf. A slight difference to the launch of the XBox/PS2/Xbox 360/PSP and still the Nintendo Wii.

Either Sony have managed a massive reversal in fortune regarding production of the elusive laser for the Blu-Ray, or the things really aren't selling that well.

Given the price of the unit they currently only really target the Sony fanboys, and the must have early adopters. The recent announcement of reducing the functionality and compatibility of the UK version seems to have alienated the former (myself included), and the latter have yet to fill the void.

Hopefully this apparent slow start will be a kick up the proverbial for Sony, who have treat EMEA as a second class priority, but want to charge first class prices.

Under the circumstances it seems difficult to justify the 95% rating given by El Reg. Personally I'll wait for the inevitable damage recovery cost cuts to kick in before buying one, or alternatively will turn to the import market.

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