I finally decided to set up my own site from scratch (well, sort of). You can find me at http://benmccormack.com.
WordPress was fairly easy to install. So much magic, it’s almost scary!
Dangers of Mobile E-mail
September 29, 2009A few weeks ago, my company purchased a Blackberry for me to use. This is the first time that I’ve owned a mobile device that has had a constant connection to the internet. However, I’ve been surprised at how having a connected device can actually cause me to get less work done if I’m not careful. here are a few reasons why:
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Posted by Ben McCormack
Pass the IP Address of a User to Silverlight as a Parameter
September 26, 2009In my beginning attempts to learn Silverlight, one of the first ideas for a project was to make a Silverlight video player that could change the source of the video file based on the location of the user. The goal was to reduce network congestion between the branch offices back to the main office by having the Silverlight client download the media file from their local branch. I wanted to give all users at the company the same URL to watch the video but the source of the video would actually change depending on the IP address of the user. This is the problem I had:
How do I make Silverlight aware of the IP address of the user and then make that data available during the lifecycle of the Silverlight application?
It turns out that there are quite a few ways to accomplish this task, both in how to make the Silverlight client aware of the user’s IP address as well as how to make the variable accessible during the life of the application.
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Posted by Ben McCormack
Learning Software Development and Plato’s Cave
September 22, 2009When I went to the Atlanta Silverlight Meetup Group this past Thursday, I met several people whose college degree (or lack thereof) was completely unrelated to software development. As someone who is trying to become a “professional” software developer and is beginning the tedious process of learning several new technologies, this discovery was very heartening and caused me to reflect on my own background in philosophy and a connection I made to learning new development technologies.
Learning software development technologies can be difficult. It’s as much about culture, language, and the greater community ecosystem as it is about making a bunch of lines of text do cool stuff. Sometimes it can be really difficult to understand the importance of technology without having an appreciation for where it fits in to the big picture. The following is a thought experiment to try to help you understand what I mean.
1 Comment | Philosophy, Silverlight | Permalink
Posted by Ben McCormack
Notes from the Silverlight Atlanta Firestarter
August 24, 2009UPDATE: A full list of resources from the Silverlight Atlanta Firestarter is up: http://www.silverlightatlanta.net/?p=156
Here are a few quick notes that I took during the Silverlight Atlanta Firstarter. I didn’t even attempt to take comprehensive notes, but I did jot down a few things that I found interesting. These are more for my reference than anything else. You won’t find a lot of content for each talk, but you’ll find a few things that I found important and worth jotting down.
At the very least, I put links to everyone’s blog or home page if I could find it. That way you can easily look up the person if you’re interested.
4 Comments | Silverlight | Tagged: FireStarter, Silverlight, Silverlight Atlanta | Permalink
Posted by Ben McCormack
SilverEnLightening is born!
August 19, 2009I really wish I could take credit for the title of this blog. My friend Jeff gave me the idea when he asked me “How’s the Silver-enligthening going?” I had been trying to think of a name for my blog about exploring Silverlight and in about 30 minutes after reading Jeff’s e-mail, silverenlightening.com was registered. The purpose of this blog is to keep up with my enlightening adventure of learning Silverlight.
Why blog about learning Silverlight?
I find that maintaining a weblog while learning a new technology is a great way to stay on task, document the learning process, and interact with the online community. When I was first learning SharePoint, I created a blog to document my experience. I ended up having to stop blogging because my focus at work shifted from tinkering with SharePoint to transitioning to a new ERP system, but it was good while it lasted.
2 Comments | Blogging, Silverlight, Web Development | Tagged: Blogging, Silverlight, Web Development | Permalink
Posted by Ben McCormack
