I just downloaded the Silverlight 4 (beta) client for Facebook.  My first positive impression is how much more data I can see without it being too much or cluttered.  I can clearly see the advantage for viewing photos and albums.  If you are a Facebook junkie, you will want to experiment with this app!

I am a big fan of the Internet Download Manager (IDM).  It has drastically reduced my download times.  A typical installation will “hijack” the download process from any installed browser.  Usually I don’t mind.  However, my Silverlight experience started to suffer recently, and it was due to the installation of IDM.

When visiting some Silverlight sites, IDM started it’s “magic”, as seen in the following dialog box:

The bad news is that this “hijacking” of the download process diverts the .zip to a compressed folder, and the Silverlight application will not function properly.

Solution

One simple way to divert the dialog box is to hold the [Alt] key down when initially viewing a Silverlight application that would prompt for more downloads.  The downside to this is that you will not know if you need to press the [Alt] key until a download happens.  Another solution is to disable the “hijack” process in the IDM options.

In this video, I demonstrate how to start writing your first Silverlight game. I show how to create a dramatic space scene, add a soundtrack, and associate movement with the mouse wheel. This is the first part of a two-part series.

[watch the video]
[download the code]

In this video, I demonstrate how to allow your Silverlight applications to respond to mouse wheel events.  In a previous video, we learned how to create a cool “magnifying glass” effect for image viewing.  Using the mouse wheel, I will provide the additional feature of zooming in & out.

[watch the video]
[download the code]