thebeebs | October 2010
thebeebs
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Doing anything on the 28th or 29th - Fancy a pizza?

by thebeebs 13. October 2010 07:13

In two weeks time I’m going on my holidays… I was just packing my bucket and spade last night when I realised I was going to be missing the PDC UK Event.

Basically the UK evangelist team are getting together in Reading to watch a live stream of the PDC2010 event in Redmond and we are inviting anyone who is interested to come along.

You can find out more on Rachel Colliers blog and you can register at the links below:

Day 1 4.30PM – 12.00AM, 28th October 2010 – Reading Campus, Microsoft UK

Day 2 4.30PM – 8.00PM, 29th October 2010 – Reading Campus, Microsoft UK

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No I can’t fix your computer

by thebeebs 12. October 2010 05:01

Cartoon Frame 1. Bill:What Do you do at work. Thebeebs: Well I talk about technology Cartoon Frame 2. Thebeebs: I Show them how to use new frameworks and how to get the most from out latest technology Cartoon frame 3. Geoff: Do you know what the bees does at work. Bill: I Think he fixes computers

Now I'm used to people not understanding what I do for a living… I'm not entirely sure myself sometimes. Yesterday I got a Facebook message from a guy that really took the biscuit:

 

Facebook message from an old friend asking me to fix an Iphone

Now a few things:

  1. I work for Microsoft not Apple
  2. Even if I did work for Apple… jail breaking is against your terms and conditions.
  3. We haven’t spoken in 10 years and this is the first thing you ask me
  4. I don’t fix phones either.

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Comparing Web video Technologies, from Flash to HTML5 to Silverlight.

by thebeebs 11. October 2010 12:49

I went to Flash on the Beach in Brighton two weeks ago and attended some incredibly entertaining talks but with out a doubt the most valuable session for my Job was delivered by Robert Reinhardt when he discussed video technologies in HTML5, Flash and Silverlight it was entitled: “Comparing Web video Technologies, from Flash to HTML5 to Silverlight”.

One of the points that really resonated with me was his insistence that the Video technology that you use on your website should be determined by your analytic data. You should use analytics to figure out who your target audience is and what devices you need to target.

With the data in hand you should ask yourself the following questions and answer them honestly:

  • Does the project have budget to accommodate multiple deployment strategies
  • What personal do you have to complete the job.
  • If you are putting video into a project what sort of connection speeds are the clients going to have.
  • What are your encoding options, existing resources with the client…. Existing CDN architecture.
  • Do you need content Protection.

You should be accurate and honest with your conclusion, for example:

Accurate: I want to reach desktop browsers and iDevices

In-accurate: I want to reach HTML5 audiences

The rest of the talk focused on the various three technologies and he talked about the various pros and cons to consider when choosing a video technology

Robert discussed the various issues that we currently face with HTML5 video:

  • Full screen is sucky in HTML5
  • If we don't have browser consistency
  • We don’t have full screen consistently available in HTML5 and you want a consistent experience.
  • Cross domain access in the HTML5 spec dictates access policy in Response Header…. If you do cross domain access this is a problem if you want to host in a cloud like Amazon.
  • You cant use Alpha Channel Masking.
  • Live streaming is not going to be in the standard.

On the plus side of Flash and Silverlight he talked about the following

  • You can Embed Cue points in your video file.
  • You have Web Cam/ Mic access
  • Near uninterruptible playback.
  • Near instant seek
  • Video Slicing
  • DRM - Big companies require the use of DRM.

It was also nice to hear a little Silverlight love, he referenced the Steam Hardware surveys latest adoption statistics pointing out that Silverlight growth was amazing with overall deployment at 50%. He also pointed out the potential opportunity with Silverlight and Windows Phone 7, also suggesting that Windows Phone 7 will be successful if Microsoft can connect the platform well with the XBOX and gaming Ecosystem.

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