Michael Knopf

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10 Most Recent Articles
Databind Options in Silverlight: Pros and Cons of each
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Author: Michael Knopf
Recently I read an article by Sean Wildermuth concering the State of Data Access in Silverlight 4. He provided an excellent chart outlining the Pros and Cons of each data access choice.
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:Silverlight :Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
What's This MVVM Thing and Why Should I Care?
Friday, March 26, 2010
Author: Michael Knopf
A frank and easy to understand overview, in straight forward language, of the latest buzz word MVVM: what it is, how to use it, and if we should even care about at all.
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:Code Camp - Orlando :Model View Controller (MVC) :MVVM :Programming :Silverlight
Rethinking the IDE: Coding with Bubbles
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Author: Michael Knopf
Developers spend significant time reading and navigating code fragments spread across multiple locations. The file-based nature of contemporary IDEs makes it prohibitively difficult to create and maintain a simultaneous view of such fragments. We propose a novel user interface metaphor for code understanding and maintanence based on collections of lightweight, editable fragments called bubbles, which form concurrently visible working sets.
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:Programming
Embrace Life - Always Wear Your Seatbelt
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Author: Michael Knopf
A brilliantly executed video that delivers a compelling and emotional message to the audience about seat belt safety.
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Its all about the development team
Friday, February 12, 2010
Author: Michael Knopf
In this fascinating talk given by Ed Catmull, a founding member of PIXAR, he provides critical insight into the success and failures of teams of people and companies as a whole. You should really watch the entire talk, it is well worth your time
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:Programming :Project Management
Growing stronger by stretching yourself
Monday, January 25, 2010
Author: Michael Knopf
Developers (good and bad) can grow stronger by stretching themselves and learning new ideas and approaches. Even if they ultimately don’t use something new directly, the act of learning it can sharpen them in positive ways.
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:Programming
There is never only “one right way” to develop something
Monday, January 25, 2010
Author: Michael Knopf
There is never only “one right way” to develop something. As an opening interview question I sometimes ask people to sort an array of numbers in the most efficient way they can. Most people don’t do well with it. This is usually not because they don’t know sort algorithms, but rather because they never think to ask the scenarios and requirements behind it – which is critical to understanding the most efficient way to do it
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:Programming
The Least I Can Do: Designing Applications People Can Actually Use
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Author: Michael Knopf
If you design applications that anyone in the world, other then yourself, will use then you really need to be thinking about usability during the entire development process. Some of you (hopefully) have heard of Steve Krug, the author of Don't Make Me Think. This is a great video of a talk Steve gave that covers The Least We Can Do to create usuable software.
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:Programming :Project Management
Creating a Weather Map using the Bing Silverlight Map SDK and WeatherBug
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Author: Michael Knopf
Bing has release a Maps SDK for use in your Silverlight projects. In this white paper we will cover how to use the SDK to display weather conditions for cities across the United States. The real-time weather data will be retrieved using the WeatherBug API and shown on the map. We will animate the weather conditions (a glowing sun for Sunny conditions, a raining cloud for Rain, etc...) and cover some core concepts along the way, specifically use of a Controller mechanism in your Silverlight projects, parsing XML into your own data model that can be returned from a Web Service, and of course getting up to speed with the Bing Maps SDK for Silverlight.
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:C# Coding :Distributed Applications :Object Relational Mapping (ORM) :Programming :Silverlight :Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
Silverlight Straight Talk: The Awesomeness, Disadvantages, and Difficulties in Silverlight
Monday, September 07, 2009
Author: Michael Knopf
Building Silverlight application takes time, effort, patients, and tools (yes, you have to have some tools). In this post we will cover: where to get the necessities and some useful additional tools, as well as straight talk about the awesomeness, disadvantages, and difficulties of building Silverlight applications. We will also cover the basics of XAML, referencing and using related assemblies, and the how Expression Blend and Visual Studio make it all happen.
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:C# Coding :Code Camp - South Florida :Code Camp - Tampa :Distributed Applications :Object Relational Mapping (ORM) :Silverlight :Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)

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