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The Costall Blog

Recent Posts

• NxtGenUG 6 - Hereford

  Posted: 18 Feb 2009 at 09:25

  One of the best things I ever did was to start NxtGenUG with Dave McMahon and John Price - To see how it's grown beyond Coventry and Birmingham is remarkable - We couldn't ask for any better coordinators running, Southampton, Cambridge and Oxford and growing the NxtGenUG brand. So it's with great pleasure we are announcing a 6th Region - Hereford headed up by Ryan O'Neill and Richard Wilde starting in March - Welcome aboard guys - good luck Press Release Below... "NxtGenUG are w

• Ireland - Silverlight

  Posted: 05 Jan 2009 at 21:15

  Silverlight Assault Course - Ireland Tour!!! 36 Sessions, 3 hotels, 2 train rides and return flights to Ireland. (plus Swaggily Fortunes). The Silverlight Assault Course is coming to Ireland on the 17th (Dublin) and 18th (Cork). Newly Minted MVP - Chris Hay and Myself will be covering 16 session between us each day with Microsoft Ireland's DPE Martha Rotter providing some additional sessions. We'll be covering many aspects of Silverlight at all levels in our own unique fun and snappy w

• Silverlight Mix 10 Challenge

  Posted: 29 Dec 2008 at 21:54

  I've entered the Silverlight Mix 10K Challenge (No, that's not a running race - I can't see me doing that). It's a coding challenge to build a Silverlight application in less than 10K - and he built a game called BlockSquash - All the Source code, including the XAML is less than 10K.Theres a community competition, so head on over an cheer me on by rating my, and the other applications to see what can be done in less than 10KRate Richard's app here...

• Costall's Disney Day

  Posted: 29 Dec 2008 at 08:44

  I've now been to Disney World 10 times, but couldn't believe it when this arrived....- I've been given my own day in DisneyWorld

• Silverlight Error Messages

  Posted: 05 Nov 2008 at 09:54

  Having worked with Silverlight quite a lot recently I've found this page of great value in debugging various scenarios. See how many you can collect!

• PDC 2009?

  Posted: 31 Oct 2008 at 08:13

  Announcing PDC2009: November 17-20, 2009 in Los Angeles, CA. After 3:00 PM PST (GMT-8), Thursday, October 30 you can add your name to the PDC2009 mailing list to receive all the latest information.http://microsoftpdc.com/View.aspx?post=http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/PDCNews/Announcing-PDC2009/

• Rock Band - MVP Rock Out

  Posted: 19 Oct 2008 at 21:13

  Gray Short has posted a great video on YouTube of the MVP Open Day - No, you won't see lots of future projects and demos - but you will see some MVP's rocking out on Rock Band, including Rich Costall on drums. Highlights for me was Mark Dryden on vocals for Run to the Hills and Guy Smith Ferrier on

• Silverlight UK User Group

  Posted: 06 Oct 2008 at 14:12

  Last week I was over at the Silverlight UK User Group at the Conchango Offices in London. We managed to fill a two hour slot with our Silverlight, XNA and Gaming talk - featuring Miner Willy the XNA/Silverlight Manic Miner Game. Thanks to Michelle and Mark  for inviting us. The feedback I saw

• Silverlight Release Candidate Available..

  Posted: 26 Sep 2008 at 09:48

  Woo Hoo.. Read Scott's Announcement here NOTE: This release is for Developers to get their Silverlight Applications ready for the Release version, and is not something you can deploy. So load it on your machine, make sure it builds and runs... and then sit tight for the release... There's even some

• The Covenant?

  Posted: 25 Sep 2008 at 21:57

  Looks like the covenant are up to their tricks again on the latest teaser video from Bungie for an, as yet, unnamed title. In the image below, before mass destruction takes place you can see the front of a spaceship enter the picture from behind a skyscraper... Looking forward to finding out more..

• Call it Snail Mail!

  Posted: 17 Sep 2008 at 15:04

  So, we all refer to the good old postal service as 'Snail Mail' - it can take days to receive something in the post, Electronic Mail almost arrives before you've even sent it! - So it came as an initial surprise when today I received two emails.. Your message   To:    

• Silverlight, XNA and Gaming

  Posted: 09 Sep 2008 at 11:03

  Following on from the great feedback we received for our Silverlight, XNA and Gaming session. I just wanted to give you a heads-up on where you can see it next. 1st October - Silverlight User Group [TBC] London22nd October - Black Marble - Leeds http://www.blackmarble.co.uk/events.aspx?event=Silver

• Silverlight Beta 1 Expired

  Posted: 03 Sep 2008 at 13:22

  A sample Silverlight site where I work, is no longer working, as the Beta 1 of Silverlight has expired. I'm sure a few people will hit this over the next few dates, whilst visiting silverlight applications built under Beta 1 (which didn't have a go-live licence), so don't blame Microsoft. The Beta

• Code along with Taulty

  Posted: 06 Aug 2008 at 22:20

  Resources... No, I'm not talking about embedding resources in your Silverlight Application. I'm talking about the excellent screencasts Mike Taulty has put up for Silverlight 2.0. Short, Snappy, fast paced and just the right length for you to code along. So it's not Paint along with Nancy, but code

• Been down the pit!

  Posted: 02 Aug 2008 at 17:25

  Here's one reason this blog has been quiet... NxtGenUG Silverlight Manic Miner http://www.nxtgenug.net/manicminer   NxtGenUG Co-Founder Richard Costall & Member Pete McGann are pleased to announce their “Silverlight” Manic Miner game Beta is now live on the NxtGenUG site. Manic Miner was origi

• Silverlight Showcase on YouTube!

  Posted: 12 May 2008 at 18:59

  So, Silverlight Showcase is on YouTube promoting DDDIreland...

• GTA IV - "Freeze Niko"

  Posted: 03 May 2008 at 22:02

  All is not well in Liberty City. Having spent around 3-4 hours playing the GTA IV, I managed to inadvertantly overwrite my saved game - This issue was caused by the fact the save game uses the 360 Date/time - I had this with BioShock and when you startup outside XBOX live my Date says 2005. Anyway

• DDDIreland May 3rd

  Posted: 19 Apr 2008 at 22:33

  DDDIreland  - May 3rd -and what a fantastic advertisment - this wasn't done by a developer :-).   Check it out at www.DDDIreland.com  

• Silverlight - Getting Started

  Posted: 07 Apr 2008 at 22:23

  Following on from my popular session  (Thanks Martha) at IMTC in Ireland, i thought i'd start to write up my demos. Part 1 - Getting Started is now on the NxtGenUG Site. Enjoy

• Fest08

  Posted: 28 Mar 2008 at 14:29

  NxtGenUG don't do conferences, they just have a good time and FEST08 which takes place at TVP Reading, promises to be in the normal vein of NxtGenUG events.  Great sessions, Pizza and Swag.  The theme this year is "Data Today, Data Tomorrow" and there are new sessions from Oliver Stu