Silverline? Serious?

I'm not installing Silverline to watch a video. Can you please make it available on YouTube?

Thank you!

I mean Silverlight, of course :)

Andreas, believe me, we'd love to offer you the video through the format of the choice.

Unfortunately, it is hosted by (and the property of) a little company called Microsoft. Apparently they have a thing for using their own technology on stuff like this.

Other formats are available from the Channel 9 part of MSDN. Direct link: http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/VisualStudioDocumentary/The-Visual-Studio-Documentary-Alan-Cooper-the-Father-of-Visual-Basic/

The irony is pungent. A leader in design and user experience posts a video in a format many won't go through the trouble to watch. My trust in Cooper as a brand and a leader has been diminished. I just heard about Cooper through the Adaptive Path blog and read most of the Nov 13th post with interest. Cooper seemed totally in the know... up til now. Thanks for the lesson!

I should clarify that I totally understand that you weren't able to choose your own format, but I'd say it's better to leave a Silverlight video unposted.

Alan,

You're certainly entitled to your opinion about MSFT, Silverlight, and Cooper (and you'll note that we're even willing to publish it), but it feels a bit harsh for you to indict us as designers just because we choose to pass along some potentially interesting content that is distributed with a particular UI technology.

But then again, maybe I'm not as "in the know" as I should be. Tell me, what is so reprehensible about Silverlight that it's better to not share the video than to share with a Silverlight plug-in?

What an incredible insight, yet all these post are bashing Silverlight! Being an Adobe evangelist I am by no means a fan of Silverlight but this video is well worth the download.

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It is interesting to see that not only is Alan the Godfather of Interaction Design principles he is/was a programmer that helped create Visual Basic.

After reading About Face, and then watching this video I find it really fascinating that Alan was able to break away from a programmers mentality to give so much insight on how applications should be made for users, and that users don't come at software like programmers do.

I had so much respect and admiration for Alan, now I have even more.

I do find it interesting though how much praise he gives to some of these languages. I am by no means a programmer, rather I am an interaction designers yet my limited experience with visual basic and .net left me hating it. I found it very limiting and constantly leaving me wanting it to more.

On a slightly different note, I would be curious what he thinks of some advances in client side languages like JS/AJAX, and MXML/Action Script/Flex.

I would also be curious to tap into his thoughts of what software would be capable of if it didn't have these underlying issues that he described?

What I would give to have lunch with such a powerful mind.

Thanks for posting this!

Yes, Alan... I too would like to hear your answer to Dave Cronin's Nov 29th question.

Btw, thanks for posting this video.

I found Alan's comments about "staying on the blacktop" and how corporate culture isn't conducive to innovation particularly poignant.

I'm left salivating over the idea of an Adobe solution.

Last time I checked Alan Ashbaugh, *Silverline* (err...), I mean Silverlight is a technology, not a format. Now that we’re clear on video formats and encoders, I’d just like to add that Silverlight dwarfs Adobe’s flash player with their ability to stream/distribute advanced HD media and network-based interactivity using Silverlight’s movie player.

The only reason Adobe’s flash player is on 90% of computers today is because it’s been around a lot longer, so long, that the only thing anyone could do with FLV 1 was to create banners and dancing monkeys; remember?. That being said, Silverlight still has to make up for its long absence as a competitor to Flash, and it’s pathetic attempt with its first release did nothing to help its cause. It’s important to note that SL1 still did more than Adobe’s FLV1 banners and dancing monkeys. So, Silverlight has come a long, LONG way in a very short time span, and if Silverlight's improvements continue at current velocity (past 36 months), I can’t wait to see what SL5 has to offer.

(ahem, cough) My Jonny Carson prediction is, 3 months after SL4 is released, we will see FLV 11.0, then SL5, then FLV 12.0, etc…, etc…. The point is, it took millions of dollars to perfect the Flash player over a very long period of time, with the last release of SL3, Microsoft finally has opportunity to grab some Adobe’s market share. It’s really quite simple, If Adobe’s flash player version matched the current version of Silverlight, then I’d say Adobe wins, but since there’s been 3 major Silverlight releases, all with many if not more features than Flash, I’m betting on Micro$oft this time. I suppose a big “thank you” to Adobe is in order for clearing the way (so to speak).

Programmatically speaking, after dabbling with SL4 a bit, it makes no sense to me why anyone would want to waste their time developing solutions for Adobe’s flash player using ActionScript when compared to SL4. Programming with ActionScript is about as much fun (sarcasm) as watching my grass grow or watching paint dry.

.... almost forgot, the video was awesome, thanks for posting it!!

And... Sorry Scott, :-), we're already on a *top secret* SL solution. Please don't make me code ActionScript again. =) Ha!