Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 is out earlier than originally announced.  You'll also find a new Deep Zoom Composer available shortly (link may be broken for some as it propagates across the innertubes.  Brandon has a good writeup here including download links:

The Windows Experience Blog : Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 and Deep Zoom Composer Update

Trailer for the new X-Files movie in Silverlight here.

Fox - X-FilesT - I Want To Believe

Apparently the deal is for all US and Canadian consumer PCs.  (I hear HP ships a few of those.)  Silverlight powers the Live toolbar.  Nice work Silverlight team!

A Microsoft VP once told me, "In the world of business, there are Pioneers and there are Settlers.  Microsoft needs both."  I've always gravitated toward the startup opportunities within Microsoft.  A few years ago, I was given the opportunity to help take a fledgling technology called, "WPF/E", name it, brand it, and launch it as "Silverlight", with my team.  The response has been phenomenal, with over 1M downloads/day and a developed balance of features for RIA-focused and Media-focused features. 

A number of months ago, I learned of a new opportunity that what right in my wheelhouse of consumer-focused digital media as a steward of user experiences in the Entertainment and Devices Division as Director of Product Planning for Ad-funded Experiences.  Looking back on the most personally rewarding times of my career so far, I've most enjoyed building teams that focus on the user experience, and deliver "free stuff" for consumers. One could argue my first attempt there was developing the original XP Digital Media Fun Pack and Powertoys, many of which included a small sponsorship message.  Following the acquisitions of aQuantive, ScreenTonic, and Massive Inc., it became clear to me where opportunity intersects with my personal interests.  Put another way, working on the Silverlight platform and seeing so many cool apps developed helped me to realize I missed having a hand in building consumer products myself.  It/s hard to leave the amazing leadership of Scott Guthrie, Soma and so many friends, but I'm not going far.

So what does the job involve?   It starts with working with many of the teams in Entertainment & Devices - Zune, Mobile, Xbox, and more to identify market opportunities where the consumer wins and brand advertisers get impressions.  This is a new area and we're going to step lightly and take feedback as we did with over 10M enthusiasts on Xbox Live who regularly download free add-ons for their games - Map packs, cars, tracks, and even feature-length movies sponsored by brand-name companies like McDonald's, Frito-Lay, Nissan, Ford, Nike, and many others.  The question is can we do the same thing for more media types and devices.  In a nutshell, that's my job - to put the fun in ad-funded entertainment experiences.

And I'm hiring. More on that later :)

Ryan Stewart and Long Zheng summed it up nicely.  This kind of banter and candor is why I work at Microsoft.  A CEO who will go, "Monkey Boy" just to please his customers.  Guy had some really nice things to say about the new Microsoft culture which was great to hear.  I'll post the keynote here when available.

The show officially starts in a few hours, but the events started last night. The night started off with a great dinner off the strip at a "foodie" approved Thai restaurant, "Lotus of Siam" with Dave Wolf of Cynergy Systems. Twitter was white hot with updates from different events and ad-hoc get togethers.  Later I stopped by the Blogger Party and met up with a number of familiar faces and met some new ones. I took some grief for not blogging enough so will try and do better.  Ryan Stewart stopped by and we played Rock Band, jamming to NIN's "The Hand that Feeds".  I'm sure there's some irony in there somewhere. My performance was marred by a semi-functioning yellow button on the axe but we had a good time.

Late last night, an update mail went out internally asking most MSFTies to watch the keynote from the overflow room. Apparently attendance is packed to the gills with very few no-shows or last minute cancellations.  So I'll be in the "other" room if you want to stop by and say hello. Lots of great sessions and meetups happening today and tomorrow.  Sure to be a topic on the floor today is Job's comments about Flash on the iPhone.  It's long been rumored that Apple has been working to create their own RIA platform with Safari at the center.  With Jobs making comments such as "There's this missing product in the middle", one has to wonder if there's a connection with Apple's March 6th event?

Remember how I said there would be some exciting announcements coming at MIX this year? ;)  Last night (Pacific time), Nokia officially announced that Silverlight is coming to their S60 and S40 mobile phones on the Symbian platform.  This has been in development for a long time now, and will dramatically increase the number of devices that support Silverlight- S60 alone ships on over 150 million devices worldwide - you can learn more about the phones here.  Congratulations to the team - more announcements coming shortly and for those of you on-location at MIX this week, you'll see this in person ;).  See you there.

The Expression Encoder team has just launched their blog here, with a video introduction hosted by Charles Finkelstein.  Charles is one of my favorite people at Microsoft - boundless energy, and a real passion for turning customer requests and insights into product and features.  This is just the beginning with I'm sure more to come next week.

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted.  A lot going on as of late so here's a quick rundown on activities and topics I'm going to write about during flights:

• Mix Update. The teams have been working incredibly heard in preparation for the MIX conference next week.  I've seen a sneak preview of some of the demos and think attendees won't be disappointed. 
• Silverlight 2 coming. ScottGu (now a newly minted VP!) provides a glimpse into Silverlight 2 on his blog.  If you can't be at MIX this year, don't fret- the videos will be posted on the Web shortly after the events thanks to Jeff Sandquist and team.
• HD-DVD is dead.  You can start buying Blu-Ray discs now or just go the digital route- my preferred method of delivery
• Apple TV Take 2.  Will I cancel my NetFlix and Comcast subscriptions?  Thoughts over the weekend and I'll explain how you can score one for $99.
• uStream as NannyCam.  Take an old IR-shot Sony DV camcorder, firewire and UStream my wife is addicted to her new Nannycam as a baby monitor.  I also hacked together a Vista Sidebar gadget for her which I may post. Now if only it was available in Silverlight...
• Dell XPS m1330. - my new and best laptop ever, despite the crapware
• New Silverlight site launches - Congrats to the team!
• MyNetflix Plugin for Media Center - Another reason why I need to put a full PC in the living room?
• Playing with CubeDesktop and loving it.  A must for any power user (thanks Chris)

I don't often blog here about the enterprise side of Microsoft though for digital media delivery it's hard to beat Windows Server in terms of cost or scalability. Then comes news that Windows Server 2008 just got a Five-Star Rating from eWeek Labs, noting even "Faster" and "Slimmer":

The new Windows Server boasts a set of networking enhancements that dramatically boost file serving performance, and the product can be deployed in a new, stripped-down Server Core configuration, which significantly reduces the attack surface of systems hosting certain Windows Server roles.

Toss in a more modular and securable Web server in IIS (Internet Information Services) 7.0, Microsoft's new hypervisor-based virtualization functionality and a host of management enhancements, and Windows Server 2008 merits eWEEK Labs' Analyst's Choice designation.

Congratulations to the Windows Server team- this is a huge feat.  And for those in the digital media biz, be sure to check out Windows Media Services 2008 and the IIS7 Media Pack, both blogged about and available from Chris Knowlton's blog here. 

Why does this all matter?  Fact is most video-serving sites are pigs when it comes to responsible use of Internet bandwidth.  The average clip is about 5 mins in length, and only 20 seconds are watched, though most users receive the entire file.  With the IIS7 Media Pack, all forms of digital audio and video - even QT, MOV, and FLV/SWF can benefit from the Intelligent Bit Rate Throttling built in.  You'll be hearing more about these features at MIX in a few short weeks.

eWeek: Windows Server 2008 Is Microsoft`s Leanest, Meanest Yet

By popular demand, Bill Gates' last day at the office video, courtesy of Channel 10.

Bonus points if you can name all the cameos and the song he's playing on Guitar Hero. ;)

Bill's Last Day: The CES Keynote video
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CBS/Paramount's Entertainment Tonight just launched their Golden Globe Awards mini-site in Silverlight.  The new mini-site is being promoted on the www.etonline.com homepage as powered by Silverlight.  Check out clips from the nominees, news and more here.

First a successful Bill Gates CES Keynote simulcast on the web, now the Golden Globes- Silverlight is ringing in the new year in style.  Kudos to IdentityMine and Rezn8 for putting this together, showing what designer/developer collaboration can do.

I'm watching the CES 2008 keynote right now, streaming live on the web with Microsoft Silverlight at www.microsoft.com/ces.  I'm so happy they allowed the funny video with a long cast of celebs in the simulcast.  I have four streams going right now for test purposes. Kudos to the istreamplanet team for keeping up with the crushing stream load, I understand it kept rising and rising during the keynote.

Speaking of which, I'm happy that Bill just unveiled that NBC Universal has selected Silverlight exclusively for online delivery of the 29th Olympics in Beijing, PRC in partnership with MSN.  Lots of exciting stuff to come there.   I'll write more on that later.

More pictures below:

Update: If you're unfamiliar with this whole Silverlight thing, check out Andy Plessner's Beet.TV interview where we discussed Silverlight last year. For some reason that day, I opted for the Quicksilver T-shirt instead of my "Evil Monkey" shirt.  Perhaps it was partner love.

The new Microsoft at CES site is up, and it's powered by Silverlight. There are so many projects underway now it's hard to keep track of them all and this was a great one to see.   
What's more, you'll be able to watch the keynote live in-page with Silverlight or via WMP/default browser.  Take a look, spin the wheel in LV fashion and check out the latest news from Microsoft at CES.

Hope y'all enjoy the show - Sunday night @ 6:30pm

Since yesterday, the Microsoft.com homepage has been promoting a new game for Xbox 360 called, "Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action" with a new twist- a mini-game embedded in the ad  itself.  I can recommend this game personally as it's been playtested by our family and friends at recent gatherings.   The game itself takes over the entire top panel of the MS.com homepage interactively in what I believe is a first.

Expect a lot more of these kinds of interactive experiences on the MS.com site and others to come in Silverlight. 

Microsoft Homepage

"Jackass" is the name of the hit MTV television show and two subsequent blockbuster movies starring a band of merry mischief-makers playing physical pranks on each other, themselves, and about anything with a pulse claiming to be a human.  I'll admit to renting Jackass 2 and snickering to myself one weekend when the house was quiet, my family away doing something more productive.

Then comes news that Blockbuster will premiere the third installment - Jackass 2.5 as the first full-length feature on the Web exclusively using Microsoft Silverlight  between December 19th and December 31st to audiences 17 years or older at www.blockbuster.jackassworld.com.  All you need is the one-time 1.5MB Silverlight plug-in and IE, Firefox, or Safari on Windows or Mac.

This is exciting to see as it marks another milestone in how users are shifting to consume their media online as well as through traditional outlets.   The content may not appeal to all, but definitely has a loyal following among its fans.

With this release, Blockbuster and Paramount are joining many other companies including MLB.com, BMW (Germany), Sony Ericsson (Japan), Baidu (#1 search site in PRC), NBA.com, Entertainment Tonight (CBS/Paramount) and UVNTV.com in their use of Silverlight.  Check out the latest examples being updated regularly at http://silverlight.net/Showcase/

This is a very cool example of data visualization possible with Silverlight, as developed by a Microsoft intern.  Gratuitous animation but put a smile on my face- something charts rarely do.  Nice work Richard!

Richard Z's JellyGraph

Here's a cool article on LiveSide.com talking about how to add Silverlight to Sharepoint 2007.   This is for developers or those pretending to be.

Add Silverlight to Sharepoint 2007 - LiveSide - Developer Blog

I've written here about Silverlight 1.0's capabilities to support rich media delivery with video and audio delivery and with ScottGu's update on Silverlight 2.0, I figured it's time for an update on all the goodness that is happening

When we think about Silverlight and media, we really think about content enablement - how to deliver video, audio, animation, and interactivity in a cost-effective way from creation to distribution to experience.  The teams are continuing to innovate on all three of these fronts:

Silverlight Content Creation with Expression

Just a few months ago, we released Expression Encoder 1.0, a easy to use yet powerful tool for building interactive Silverlight media content including live events and on-demand video. Encoder solves a particularly frustrating problem of how to convert files such as QT or AVI into VC-1 for delivery in Silverlight.  Live streaming supports multiple camera angles, direct connect from Silverlight and Windows Media Player clients for PC, Mac, and Mobile, and easily supports broadcasting from Windows Media Services, a feature of Windows Server.  By providing a series of templates that can be easily modified with Expression Blend, you can host your videos on any web server (Windows, Linux, Mac whatever) with simplicity. In recent months, the Expression team released a Publishing plug-in to upload video up to HD quality  with Silverlight Streaming, a freely available service by Windows Live.  There's even a plug-in for Windows Live Writer that makes it easy to publish Silverlight video in your blog.  More on that later. 

If you're interested to get started with Expression Encoder, download the free trial  and check out the How-to videos here.  And pay attention to Mix for more to come ;)

Silverlight Content Distribution with Windows Server 2008

Today, content providers have a rapidly growing number of options for delivering media on the Web.  In particular, delivering on-demand video has never been easier. The majority of sites today choose to host video on web servers, where the average user watches under half a minute of video, but downloads nearly five minutes of content.  Video consumption is exploding online and of you ascribe to The Big Internet Slowdown Deloitte Consulting and Nemertes Consulting have predicted, we're in for a big slowdown by 2010.  "Users will experience a slow, subtle degradation, so it's back to the bad old days of dial-up," says Nemertes President Johna Till Johnson. "The cool stuff that you'll want to do will be such a pain in the rear that you won't do it."

Just as we're hearing about the importance of responsible energy use, content providers are increasingly being encouraged to do the same for Internet bandwidth.  By only delivering the data consumed by the user by using the streaming server features in Windows Media Services for Live and on-demand content and/or the upcoming IIS7 Media Pack, content providers can realize lower costs of delivery of a wide range of content types and be a more responsible, "Netizen".  One of the complaints we've heard about Windows Media Services in the past is the complexity of having to manage a separate service in a separate console for media, separate from the web server and application farm.  Windows Media Services 2008 addresses this with simplified admin, and unparalleled scalability.  In tests, WMS 2008 is twice as scalable as the release in Windows Server 2003 on the same hardware which means fewer servers, and higher performance.  Unlike some other solutions, Windows Media Services is a fully 64-bit enabled service, not a 32-bit solution running atop the platform.  There are a number of additional features here, which Harry Mower goes into on his blog here. 

But what if you want to  host your on-demand media content on your Web server or are supporting multiple file types from different vendors?  This is where the IIS7 Media Pack comes in.  This new add-on delivers intelligent bit-rate throttling for a wide range of file types - including Windows Media, QuickTime, Real, and even Flash video content.  What's more, it's configurable so that it can be used for application downloads as well.  By throttling content downloads, you ensure a more efficient and scalable delivery model.  Windows Server 2008 also supports clustering, enhanced cache/proxy support and much more that customers have come to expect in an industrial-strength content delivery platform.

HD video puts increasing strain on infrastructure, which is why we're working closely with big content delivery networks and startups alike who are looking for ways to address, and ensuring that Silverlight is a viable solution for them.  Download WS2008 and the IIS7 Media Pack Bit-rate Module today.

It's not just about stunning marketing sites and video on the Web - enterprise customers have recognized the proven reliability and scalability of Windows Media streaming and IIS for LOB applications, corporate communications, or e-learning solutions using a trusted solution broadly used for years- it's just getting better.  Experience matters as Forrester's recent RIA report notes- even in the enterprise.  It's our intent to seamlessly integrate Silverlight into existing installations and make it simple and scalable for others.

Windows Server 2008 will be released on February 27 2008, but you don't have to wait to start taking advantage of the platform already in use in some of the biggest sites on the web- you'll hear more about this come launch.

Free Content Distribution with Silverlight Streaming

If you aren't interested in setting up your own server, you can host on the MS network via Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live.  Currently available in test form, you can host up to 4GB of Silverlight applications on Microsoft's geo-distributed network. Primarily created as a simple way to host video-based applications for developers, Silverlight Streaming has been adopted by Solution Providers and even ISVs such as Roxio for simple video publishing.  To fully prove out the network, we've been hosting applications including the Halo3 Interactive Manual.  You can expect even more great things from the Silverlight Streaming team in the new year.

Content Playback in Silverlight

Silverlight 1.0 today offers great media delivery options, addressing cross-platform support with Mac and Windows (Linux support coming), and cross-browser support for IE, Firefox, and Safari. Thanks to the efficiencies offered by the SMPTE-standardized VC-1 video format, Silverlight can deliver HD-quality without hardware acceleration as can be see here.  (It's important to note that two formats were selected for next-generation video experiences in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD - VC-1 and H.264. Today over 90% of all HD-DVD titles are presented in VC-1). No pre-requisite version of Windows Media Player or any other player is required with Silverlight, just a small browser plug-in.  What's more, with Silverlight, your HD content can play off of any web server or take advantage of the Windows Server efficiencies covered above.

There's a lot more happening by way of media support in Silverlight- more details to come in the following months. Scott detailed the developer-focused roadmap here. One thing I can saw we're working on across the stack is performance - at MIX last year, folks saw what .NET could do, with a 1000x improvement in performance over script-based solutions.  The teams are thinking about performance across the stack as seen with Windows Server, and you'll see with Silverlight 2.0

Michael Scherotter has written a great overview of his workflow for adding Silverlight-based video to his site.  I also hadn't seen the video of actor/rapper Ice Cube talking about Silverlight and their latest venture, UVNTV.com and all demoed on a Mac.  Pretty wild.

Synergist : Encoding Formats for Silverlight Video

Learn to Fly--Foo Fighters

Things Have Changed--Dylan

This Is How a Heart Breaks--Rob Thomas

Runnin' Down a Dream--Petty

Someday Baby--Dylan

LA Woman--Doors

Locomotive Breath--Jethro Tull

Won't Get Fooled Again--The Who

You Can't Catch Me--Stones

Freebird--Skynard

China Grove--Doobie Bros.

Don't Fear the Reaper--Blue Oyster Cult

We're an American Band--Grand Funk Railroad

Sometimes there's just so much good stuff happening that I miss out.  I was browsing the Facebook community for Silverlight (nearly 1000 strong now) and a picture caught my eye.  There was  Adam Kinney's Xbox Friends Watch gadget.  Designed for Windows Vista Sidebar and built with Silverlight, pick the friends you want to track (by gamertag) and you can see online status, browse through latest games and more. 

Adam is one of my favorite inventors in our Developer & Platform Evangelism group.  Simple, yet functional.  Kudos Adam, kudos.

Sorry- this is geek humor.  Jeff has the details here.

Hot on the heels of their latest release, the MSN Video and the Soapbox teams recently announced their plans to move to Silverlight.  In their latest blog post:

What about the future?  One topic we’re talking a lot about is offering MSN Video and Soapbox with Microsoft Silverlight.  Silverlight just shipped a few weeks ago with a lot of benefits, such as offering - up to HD quality video on the Web for Mac and Windows today, and will support Linux later this year.  We’re excited to move to Silverlight in the future and are working closely with the Silverlight team, stay tuned for more details. ;) 

You may have also noticed that Microsoft's flagship homepage, www.microsoft.com has started delivering interactive content exclusively in Silverlight as well.  This is just the beginning.  Moving forward, interactive content across the site will be presented in Silverlight.  This has been a concerted effort by all teams, and our hats off to our creative agencies, McCann Worldwide, and Wunderman (among so many others) for helping to make this happen.