At&t began offering their high speed cellular 3G data network today in Lincoln.  Much faster than the existing Edge data network, 3G allows wireless users to surf the web and download music and files at speeds up to 14.4 Mbits on the downlink and 5.8 Mbits on the uplink.  This new service opens up a wide range of new capabilities for iPhone users who own the latest 3G enabled version of the popular handset.  At&t had promised Lincoln and Omaha iPhone users that it would have 3G service in place by the end of 2008, effectively delivering the service in Lincoln a full month ahead of schedule.

On October 18th Microsoft officially released Silverlight 2.0.  From silverlight.net: "Microsoft Silverlight extends and amplifies your existing development skills, empowering you to build new types of applications for the Web regardless of target platform or browser."

Microsoft is hoping that Silverlight will come to market as a viable competitor to Adobe System's FLEX platform for delivering the next generation of Rich Internet Applications (RIA).  Using the power and extensibility of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Sliverlight is set to bring the flexibility and design absolutes that Windows Forms designers enjoy.  Silverlight uses the same XAML interface design language (think Application XML) that WPF applications are built on, making the transition from desktop to web a painless one.  

Stay tuned for a Tech Studio review on the new Silverlight SDK and Toolkit that was updated with this release.

For enthusiasts of the .NET framework (like me) and supporters of the Linux operating system (also like me) today is a great day for cross-platform development.  Mono, the .NET implementation for the Linux platform was just released.  This release brings a far greater scope of compatibility and libraries to the developer toolbox and allows for compilation of Visual Basic 8 and C Sharp 3.0 code that will run natively on the Linux platform.

From mono-project.com:

"Mono 2.0 is a portable and open source implementation of the .NET framework for Unix, Windows, MacOS and other operating systems.

Microsoft Compatible APIs

• ADO.NET 2.0 API for accessing databases.

• ASP.NET 2.0 API for developing Web-based applications.

• Windows.Forms 2.0 API to create desktop applications.

• System.XML 2.0: An API to manipulate XML documents.

• System.Core: Provides support for the Language Integrated Query (LINQ).

• System.Xml.Linq: Provides a LINQ provider for XML.

• System.Drawing 2.0 API: A portable graphics rendering API.

Mono APIs

• Gtk# 2.12: A binding to the Gtk+ 2.12 and GNOME libraries for creating desktop applications on Linux, Windows and MacOS X.
• Mono.Cecil: A library to manipulate ECMA CLI files (the native format used for executables and libraries).
• Mono.Cairo: A binding to the Cairo Graphics library to produce 2D graphics and render them into a variety of forms (images, windows, postscript and PDF).
• Mono's SQLite support: a library to create and consume databases created with SQLite.
• Mono.Posix: a library to access Linux and Unix specific functionality from your managed application. With both a low-level interface as well as higher level interfaces."

 

Following on the heels of major technology institutions like MIT and Harvard, Stanford University is now offering several Computer Science classes, along with the corresponding materials, for FREE via their website.

 From the site:

 "For the first time in its history, Stanford is offering some of its most popular engineering classes free of charge to students and educators around the world. Stanford Engineering Everywhere (SEE) expands the Stanford experience to students and educators online. A computer and an Internet connection are all you need. View lecture videos, access reading lists and other course handouts, take quizzes and tests, and communicate with other SEE students, all at your convenience."

This is great news for those of us who wish to get the best possible online education from some of the most talented faculty in the industry.

This our new Technology Studio blog.  We are pleased to publish articles that are relevant to our customers and their needs.  We will regulary publish articles with topics ranging from Software and Web Development to hardware and system maintenance.  Please stay tuned for our first official article!