Wow, just wow, that's all I really need to say. MIX07 was insane, an absolute great time, and some fantastic new stuff coming out from Microsoft for the web. So what were the highlights, for me it came down to three things, first the announcements around Silverlight, second was all the great sharing we got to do about IE, and third, was meeting some fantastic people. I didn't really get a chance to blog while I was at MIX this year, which I wish I had, but we were all so busy, attending sessions, hanging out, hearing what you had to say, eating drinking and being merry. IE As Chris mentioned on the IE Blog , we didn't have anything to announce this year at MIX, we were there to listen, and provide some information. Chris's IE session was standing...(read more)

Rob Bagby – a Developer Evangelist here at Microsoft – has scheduled a series of webcasts on MS AJAX. Tune in with me !!!! ASP.NET AJAX Client Libraries: Calling Web Services (5/3 @1:00 p.m. Arizona time) http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032337914&Culture=en-US ASP.NET AJAX Client Libraries: Object-Oriented Development (5/15 @9:00 a.m. Arizona time) http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032337930&Culture=en-US ASP.NET AJAX Client Libraries: Creating Controls (5/17 @9:00 a.m. Arizona time) http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032337935&Culture=en-US ASP.NET AJAX Client Libraries: Creating Behaviors and Extenders (5/21 @10:00 a.m. Arizona time) http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032337940&Culture=en-US...(read more)

At the Mix07 conference this week, I did an overview presentation of the web development features being delivered in Visual Studio "Orcas". The folks at Mix have been kind enough to make videos of all the sessions from the conference available to the public. Click here to watch my session on Web Development using Visual Studio "Orcas". You can also check out http://sessions.visitmix.com/ to browse all the other great content presented at Mix07 this week. Enjoy! -- Omar Khan Group Program Manager Visual Studio Web Tools Read More... Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!...(read more)

Wondering why am I so much better at estimating time required for IT jobs than I am for DIY jobs...

This weekend we got a dog. A puppy actually. From the Humane Society, so she's nice and "rescued". Here's a picture:

You can just feel the love right there, can't you?

She's actually a really good dog, except for the fact that she's not quite housebroken yet. We're still trying out different names on her. I'm currently leaning toward the name: "It Shits All Over The House" -- that would be "Isaoth" for short, but it doesn't have a good ring to it. We'll see.

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I know many of you are following all the excitement here at Mix from home. I am super happy that they already have several of the sessions posted for live streaming or downloading. Here are a few that I think are worth watching first.. Mike Harsh : Deep Dive on Silverlight Media Integration Mike goes super deep on the media support in Silverlight... John Lam and Jim Hugunin : Just Glue It! Ruby and the DLR in Silverlight John and Jim are an excellent duo... They have a great interchange on the power of dynamic languages ion the platform. Anders Hejisberg: Using LINQ to Dramatically Improve Data Driven Development in Web Applications Andres + Linq. What more do I need to say. Jamie Cool and Nick Kramer : Building Silverlight Applications Using...(read more)

Wow -- less than a day after they keynote we have the source code for the "Silverlight airlines" application posted. Check out David Anson blog on it which includes a live link and of course full source code ! Check it out and build your own! I can't wait to see what folks do with this stuff... please send me your sample apps! Read More... Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!...(read more)

What better way to pull me out of an unofficial one month blogging break than for Fox Broadcasting to cancel my new favorite show: Drive.

Produced by Tim Minear (producer/co-writer of Firefly and Angel) and starring Nathan Fillion (star of Firefly), it was a show that Joss Whedon fans at least had to try -- I tried it and liked it. A lot.

After only four episodes, it got pulled off the air. Rumor has it that it got poor ratings and it was also lowering ratings for '24'.

However, that just doesn't sound right to me. There are plenty of truly lousy shows that last WAY more than 4 episodes. And if it was a ratings issue for '24', they could have just moved it to another night. There's got to be something else going on there. Here are my conspiracy theories:

• Funding problems
• Major personality problems, either within the show or between the show and Fox
• Fox/Minear is trying to build up Firefly-like underground enthusiasm for the show, and it will be back in full force this summer

I'm pretty fond of the last theory, even if it's kind of far-fetched. Firefly was hugely successful AFTER it got cancelled by Fox, and has sold a whole lot of DVD box sets. The success was largely a word-of-mouth and Internet grassroots effort. Fox will supposedly air the LAST two episodes of the show this summer, but I'm wondering if they might continue on where they left off if there's enough "underground" interest -- especially because there would be much less competition from other popular shows over the summer.

Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part too...

Oh, and if you missed the show, now's a good time to watch the first 4 episodes. You can buy the episodes for $1.99 each at the official BitTorrent site, or I've heard that the torrents are also available for download on "other" servers. I'm not sure if a Google search for "drive fox torrent" would help there or not.

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Where should you search for Search Engine Strategies New York news coverage? Greg Jarboe has some suggestions.

With many legal restrictions behind them, the search engines are enjoying their newfound freedom to share details of their click fraud-fighting efforts.

Search marketing is growing in complexity for enterprise-scale advertisers, and SEMDirector aims to help them get the most from their search efforts.

Found in the search marketing forums: Matt Cutts Goes After Paid Links; Google AdWords New Preferred Cost Bidding; Questions For SEO Copywriter Bid; and more.

Featured posts to the Search Engine Watch blog in the past week, along with recent search-related headlines from around the Web.

Search marketing, and Web marketing overall, is changing. Marketers must understand the value of trust and relationship-building to keep up.

While the actual SEO techniques between small sites and large sites do not necessarily change, the hurdles one has to clear can be worlds apart.

Changes in Search Engine Strategies over the years mirror the changes in the industry, which seems to be moving from early adopter phase into the early majority phase.

Found in the search marketing forums: Keyword Matching Options; Yahoo Before & After Panama; $100/Day Milestone: What Worked, What Didn't; and more.

Featured posts to the Search Engine Watch blog in the past week, along with recent search-related headlines from around the Web.

Had a great time at my MIX talk today - I think it went well! Here's the slides & demos! Read More......(read more)