Microsoft Silverlight Ready For Olympics Closeup

By Kevin McLaughlin, ChannelWeb

Microsoft’s Silverlight technology will get two big doses of exposure during the month of August, as the technology delivering online multimedia for both the Beijing Olympics and the Democratic National Convention later this month in Denver.

Silverlight, a subset of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) system that powers Windows Vista, is Microsoft’s attempt to trump Adobe’s Flash technology by offering better-looking, more advanced display and interactive functionality, as well as superior tooling support.

When the Olympic games kick off on Aug. 8, the Silverlight-powered NBCOlympics.com Website on MSN will go live with event coverage and features that go beyond the typical Web video experience, such as multiple camera angles, rewind, and picture-in-picture, according to Eric Schmidt, director of media and advertising evangelism at Microsoft.

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The best Flash sites ever

When the first version of Flash was launched in 1996, little did we know how it would revolutionise website design over the ensuing decade. The FWA’s Rob Ford counts down the Top 20 Flash sites of all time

FutureSplash Animator shipped in May 1996 and after being unsuccessfully pitched to Adobe was acquired by Macromedia in December 1996, becoming Macromedia Flash 1.0. Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia then saw the initial pitch go full circle and today, what was once just another small animation app has led to the creation of a whole online world that we all pretty much take for granted.

Read moooore: The best Flash sites ever

Flash 9 beta available for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Finally, the wait is over! Note that this is a “prerelease” of Flash 9.

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