It's been awhile since I posted about the many local events being offered by Microsoft in this part of the country and, frankly, they've kind of piled up on me.

ArcReady
The topic for this quarter's ArcReady is Professional Patterns on the Job and will focus on soft skills that good architects need everyday on the job. Here is an excerpt from the event description:

You're smart. You deliver. What more could your company want from you?  Why don’t they come to you for the big technical decisions? Why won’t they listen to your proposals? It seems like everyone has an agenda and they’re doing everything they can to kill your great ideas.

Join us this quarter as we focus on the soft skills that architects need to master. Learning these skills will boost your emotional intelligence and help you become a more professional, well rounded contributor. You’ll gain insight into the architect’s role as leader, influencer, and business professional and learn how to leverage your position to become a positive force within your organization.

ArcReady is offered throughout the central part of the country by the Microsoft DPE team. You can register for your local event at www.arcready.com. The following lists the cities and dates for ArcReady this quarter, with cities in the North-Central district in bold red:

MSDN Unleashed
On this current tour, MSDN Unleashed will be focusing on what's new in SQL Server 2008 for developers and building applications with the newly released Silverlight 2.0 RTW. Here is the schedule for this event over the next month:

With all the video editing and publishing I find myself doing these days, I have to tell you that Expression Encoder is becoming one of my favorite applications. I actually use Sony Vegas Pro to edit and construct my videos, but then I use Expression Encoder to convert the raw video output into HD streaming format and, using an awesome plug-in available from the Expression web site, I can publish my content directly to my Silverlight Streaming account in the cloud. It's quick (possibly the fastest encoder I've used) and super easy to use -- exactly the way it should be.

The product group announced Tuesday on their team blog that Expression Encoder 2 SP1 would soon be available for download and laid out the key capabilities available via SP1, namely:

• Full support for Silverlight 2 applications
• New Silverlight 2 templates which include rich functionality such as DVD-style chapter navigation, subtitles and metadata
• Encoding support for H.264/AAC video
• Publish content to IIS and other servers that support the WebDAV protocol for use with IIS Smooth Streaming

To this last point, IIS Smooth Streaming is the new name for what had previously been called "adaptive streaming" for Silverlight. Essentially, Smooth Streaming enables video playback to dynamically assess changing network and PC load conditions during streaming and make adjustments to the bitrate on the fly, creating a seamless viewing experience for the user. IIS Smooth Streaming will be included in the upcoming IIS Media Pack.

Expression Encoder 2 SP1 became available for download yesterday from here. If you're a frequent user of Encoder like I am, I encourage you to pull it down and install it today. The new Silverlight 2 templates are very cool and worth the installation alone.