If you tried to log into SecondLife since Monday evening you already know that you need to get the new viewer to log in, whether you use the officially released viewer or the release candidate viewer. You now need version 1.20.17 of the viewer or release candidate five of viewer version 1.21 to be able to log in.

Exactly what wet wrong this time? This is what they said on the SL Grid Status Report blog:

We recently updated the Second Life server and viewers to enhance the communications code. All transfer operations are now restricted to files that the user has expressly chosen, and specific directories that the viewer uses for transferring data. For the safety of all Second Life users, we are releasing this updated viewer to all Residents.

Potential vulnerabilities had been identified in those message communications directed at a Second Life viewer over the previous protocol. By taking advantage of this vulnerability, while extremely difficult technically, a malicious user could potentially use the viewer to access files on the victim’s computer. We currently have no evidence of this vulnerability ever being exploited.

I apologize for not posting this sooner but I was away from my computer for most of yesterday. It works out well, though, because yesterday they notified the readers of the grid status blog that there is currently problems rezzing objects, and they're still working on getting the problem fixed. So if you try to rez something and can't, they already know about the problem and they're on the case.

The JIRA Public Issues Tracker was offline this morning, but they've managed to get it back online so you can once again report bugs in SecondLife and see the bugs others have reported.

While you're in SecondLife make sure you stop by DollyRock and pick up a set of their very cool Halloween Stockings as well as their Halloween Freebie. The freebie is a very cute, and very sexy, Halloween outfit, complete with a hat. The hat does come with some straight black hair, but if the hair doesn't work for your avatar (it doesn't for me) at least you'll get a sexy outfit to celebrate All Hallow's Eve in.

Bản Silverlight RC0 này hiện tại chỉ dành cho Developer, chưa có bộ runtime dành cho End-User, nhóm phát triển của Microsoft tung ra bản này nhằm mục đích để cho các Dev có thời gian để nâng cấp project của mình từ beta1, beta2 lên RC0, để sắp tới Microsoft tung ra bộ cài Silverlight release là vừa. Như vậy là hiện tại các project build trên môi trường RC0 chưa thể deploy đến cho các end-user (làm gì đã có Runtime mà chạy)
Tham khảo thêm http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2008/09/25/silveright-rc0-released-for-developers.aspx

Một số cải tiến nổi bật ở Silverlight RC0:
- Thêm 3 Controls mới:

• PasswordBox: Hồi trước có thấy một ứng dụng bán hoa bằng Silverlight, phần đăng ký ô Password nhập vào ghi nguyên text, nhìn thương vật, giờ có cái này tốt rồi, có thể tạo Form Login ngon lành rồi
• ProgressBar: cái này cũng quan trọng, viết ứng dụng upload khoai nhất khoản này, event UploadPrgressChanged của Class WebClient không fire, chả biết làm thế nào. Chưa Test nhưng đọc trên Forum của Silverlight.net thấy nói bản RC0 này vẫn chưa fix bug này
• ComboBox: Cái này ra thì tốt nhưng cũng không mong đợi lắm vì dùng tạm cái ListBox cũng okie

- Hỗ trợ MessageBox.Show(): cái này hay, dễ kiểm soát giá trị khi code, trước muốn show ra value của đối tượng nào toàn phải kéo cái TextBlock vào
- Thêm một số Control hỗ trợ Skin: cái này nhìn mấy cái image minh họa thấy cũng chả khác mấy nên ko quan tâm, với cả cái này dành cho bọn designer nhiều hơn

Tham khảo thêm http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/09/25/silverlight-2-release-candidate-now-available.aspx

Còn một số 'cải tiến' nữa, nhưng chủ yếu là ở nhân bên trong như chuyển namespace hay kế thừa, bản chi tiết những thay đổi tôi up luôn đây để tiện cho tra cứu (dành cho người lười download bản doc về), cái này sẽ giúp ích cho những ai cần upgrade từ beta2 lên RC0, làm sao để project viết trên beta2 chạy ngon trên RC0 để mấy nữa Microsoft ra bản Release là vừa

Có một chú ý là enduser sẽ không được tự động nâng cấp lên phiên bản Silverlight Runtime mới khi cái này được release, trình duyệt sẽ chỉ notify người dùng nâng cấp lên thôi

Toàn bộ phần thay đổi của beta2 và RC0 được ghi bên dưới hoặc download tại đây
Breaking Changes Since Beta 2
This topic discusses the changes made to the Silverlight runtime and Silverlight tools between the Microsoft Silverlight 2 Beta 2 and the final release of Silverlight 2. The changes discussed in this article are focused on changes that might cause your older Silverlight-based applications to now fail or behave differently, not on new features/enhancements for this release.
Note Corrections/Additions to this document (if any) are listed here.
Note Applications built with Beta 2 will not run on final runtime builds. End users will see a message informing them that the application was built with an obsolete version of Silverlight. You must rebuild your Beta 2 applications – see here for more information.
Tip Given the large number of API changes, particularly those listed in the Miscellaneous API Changes section, you may want to search this document by using CTRL+F.

Contents:
• Important! Migrating Older Code to the Newer Release
• ContentPresenter now derives from FrameworkElement instead of Control
• Layout Rendering Slightly Changed
• Cross domain hosts of Silverlight must set the right MIME type for XAP (application/x-silverlight-app)
• Exceptions now thrown in HttpWebRequest.EndGetResponse()
• Font URI is Restricted to Assembly Resource
• Browser.HtmlElementCollection replaced with by Browser.ScriptObjectCollection
• Exceptions When Changing Some Properties on an Active Animation
• System.Windows.Controls.Extended.dll renamed to System.Windows.Controls.dll
• VisualStateManager Changes
• KeyDown Sent Synchronously
• MeasureOverride/ArrangeOverride on Canvas Now Sealed
• UriTypeConverter moved to System.dll
• HtmlPage.UnregisterScriptableObject Removed
• RenderingEventArgs Changes
• ContentPresenter and ContentControl Changes
• Removal of FileDialogFileInfo Type and OpenFileDialog.SelectedFile(s) Properties
• Removal of FullAccess Option on the ExternalCallersFromCrossDomain attribute in the Silverlight 2 application manifest
• KeyFrameCollection Changes
• Request stream must be closed before calling HttpWebRequest.BeginGetResponse()
• HtmlWindow references on Safari/Mac will no longer evaluate to true
• Address property removed from all WebClient EventArg classes
• Constructors Made Internal
• Exception type change for System.Xml exception type
• Cannot create classes in XAML that do not have accessible constructors
• Get AG_E_UNKNOWN_ERROR in Silverlight 2 but not in Silverlight 1
• Platform looks for generic.xaml as a resource at themes/generic.xaml
• HTTP Polling Duplex OM Changes and Reengineering
• Breaking change to Silverlight native hosting IXcpControl COM interface
• Content-Type is allowed on cross domain request by default
• Enforcing delegate type check when two delegate objects are combined
• Miscellaneous API Changes

Important! Migrating Older Code to the Newer Release
If you are migrating Silverlight applications that were created for the Silverlight 2 Beta 2 release or earlier to the final release of Silverlight 2, you are going to need to get the newest Silverlight 2 Tools for Visual Studio 2008 and recompile your project(s).
1. Get the newest version of Silverlight 2 Tools for Visual Studio 2008. You can get these tools from the SDK or online at Getting Started. You may have to uninstall any old tools before doing this install.
2. Open your old project (e.g. .csproj file). A dialog will come up notifying you that your project was created with an older version of Silverlight tools and asks you if you want to upgrade your project. Click the Yes button.
3. Open all of the HTML files and change:
• The Silverlight MIME type from application/x-silverlight-2-b1 or application/x-silverlight-2-b2 to application/x-silverlight-2.
• The Silverlight installation URL from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=108182 or http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=115261 to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=124807.
Note: some templates replaced http://go with http://go2. Be sure to search for both.
4. Debug. Many of the breaking changes you are likely to encounter can be found in this document.

ContentPresenter now derives from FrameworkElement instead of Control
Who Is Affected: Applications that use ContentPresenter or objects derived from ContentPresenter.
Summary
Because ContentPresenter now derives from FrameworkElement, the following properties are no longer exposed by ContentPresenter:
• Background
• BorderBrush
• BorderThickness
• DefaultStyleKey
• FontFamily
• FontSize
• FontStretch
• FontStyle
• FontWeight
• Foreground
• HorizontalContentAlignment
• IsEnabled
• IsTabStop
• Padding
• TabIndex
• TabNavigation
• Template
• VerticalContentAlignment

In addition, some APIs were removed from ContentPresenter (see ContentPresenter and ContentControl Changes).

Fix Required
Remove all these obsolete properties from your ContentPresenter objects, which will likely require you to re-work some of your code to restore your previous UI rendering.

Layout Rendering Slightly Changed
Who Is Affected: All content using layout might be rendered slightly differently because layout no longer causes elements to be rendered at sub-pixel locations.

Summary
The layout system in Silverlight has been modified to round final measure and arrange values to integers when placing elements on the screen (“pixel snapping”). The result is crisper lines, more consistent rendering look, and fewer rendering artifacts.

Layout rounding will be *on* by default, but there is a new inherited property on UIElement called UseLayoutRounding that can be set to false if the old layout behavior is desired.

Note It is possible that this change will affect how your animations render, in which case you might want to set UseLayoutRounding to false.
Note This change does not affect transforms. If you apply a transform to an element, it may still be rendered at a sub-pixel location.

Cross domain hosts of Silverlight must set the right MIME type for XAP (application/x-silverlight-app)
Who Is Affected: Anyone serving Silverlight 2 apps from cross domain:
• Via a web server that is not IIS7
• Via a web server where the MIME type for .XAP files is incorrectly configured
Summary/Fix Required
When the XAP is served from a different domain than the host HTML page, Silverlight will validate that the MIME type (Content-Type response header) returned on the HTTP response is application/x-silverlight-app.

Apache (and perhaps other servers) tend to serve unrecognized content as text/plain, and therefore will be affected by this change. You are required to add an entry for the Silverlight XAP MIME type to your .htaccess file -- e.g. AddType application/x-silverlight-app xap.

Note IIS7 shipped with the right MIME type configurations for Silverlight XAPs. No action is required if you are using IIS7.
Exceptions now thrown in HttpWebRequest.EndGetResponse()
Who Is Affected: Silverlight 2 applications that use HttpWebRequest.
Summary/Fix Required
For HttpWebRequest:
Before:
• Some security exceptions (e.g. cross-scheme violations) were being raised in HttpWebRequest.BeingGetResponse()
• All other request error conditions were being returned as 404s.

Now:
• Error conditions are now raised as exceptions in HttpRequest.EndGetResponse().
• Request security errors (e.g. requests not allowed by cross domain policy) raise SecurityExceptions
• Non-successful requests (e.g. those that returned 404s) raise WebExceptions. The WebException.Response is set to HttpStatusCode.NotFound. This is compatible with the desktop.
Font URI is Restricted to Assembly Resource
Who Is Affected: Silverlight 2 Beta1 or Beta 2 applications (not Silverlight 1.0 applications) that reference fonts (or zip of fonts) via the URI syntax in the Control.FontFamily, TextBlock.FontFamily or Glyphs.FontUri attributes and where the fonts are not embedded within the assembly (dll) of the control or application.
Fix Required
You can specify a font (or in some cases a zip of fonts) in URI format via the Control.FontFamily, TextBlock.FontFamily and the Glyphs.FontUri attributes. If you are, you will need to ensure your font is marked as a "resource" in the project system.
Browser.HtmlElementCollection replaced with by Browser.ScriptObjectCollection
Who Is Affected: Silvlierlight 2 Beta 2 applications using HTML bridge’s HtmlElementCollection will break. The type has been replaced with a new type: ScriptObjectCollection.
Summary
The System.Windows.Browser.HtmlElementCollection type was changed to ScriptObjectCollection. All previous references to HtmlElement on the collection have been changed to instead reference ScriptObject. Other areas of the HTML bridge that previously used HtmlElementCollection (i.e. HtmlElement.Children) have been switched to instead return a ScriptObjectCollection. Note that if you retrieve an item from the new ScriptObjectCollection that actually is an HtmlElement, you can still cast the return value back to an HtmlElement.
The specific benefit from this change is that across all browsers you can now access both element, and non-element, DOM nodes contained in a node collection. We made this change because there is no consistent cross-browser implementation of an HtmlElement-specific collection type.
Fix Required
Change existing references to HtmlElementCollection to ScriptObjectCollection. If your existing code was working with HtmlElement return values you will need to explicitly cast the items returned from a ScriptObjectCollection to an HtmlElement. Since the collection type is now ScriptObjectCollection it is likely that on different browsers the ordinality of the resulting collection will also change. Any code that was relying on fixed offsets into the collection may need to be changed to account for non-element nodes (e.g. text nodes such as whitespace, etc…) in the collection.
Beta 2
[c#]
HtmlElement myHtmlElement = someOtherHtmlElement.Children[5];

Release
[c#]
HtmlElement myHtmlElement = (HtmlElement)someOtherHtmlElement.Children[5]; //assuming the desired element is still at offset 5

Exceptions When Changing Some Properties on an Active Animation
Who Is Affected: Silverlight 1.0 and 2.0 applications that change properties on active animations.
Summary
When you change one of the properties listed below on an active Storyboard, an exception is raised at runtime with this message: “Operation is not valid on an active Animation or Storyboard. Root Storyboard must be stopped first."
The list of properties that cannot be modified on an active animation or Storyboard are listed below:
Attached Properties
• Storyboard.TargetNameProperty
• Storyboard.TargetPropertyProperty
Properties on derived classes from Timeline of a collection type
• Storyboard.Children (you cannot add/remove animations from an active storyboard)
• ColorAnimationUsingKeyFrames.KeyFrames
• DoubleAnimationUsingKeyFrames.KeyFrames
• PointAnimationUsingKeyFrames.KeyFrames
• ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames.KeyFrames
Make sure you stop the Storyboard before changing one of these properties. You can do this by using the Storyboard.Stop method.
System.Windows.Controls.Extended.dll renamed to System.Windows.Controls.dll
Who Is Affected: Anyone who uses the extended controls (Calendar, DatePicker, TabControl and GridSplitter).
Fix Required
Change all references from System.Controls.Extended to System.Windows.Controls and recompile your application.
VisualStateManager Changes
Who Is Affected: Silverlight 2 applications that use VisualStateManager.
Summary
VisualTransition.Duration has changed to VisualTransition.GeneratedDuration. This value will now only affect the generated transitions, and not the VisualTransition.Storyboard.

Example:
In the below XAML, the VSM generated animations for the Pressed-> Normal transition will be created with 1 second durations. The explicit transition Storyboard with its blue ColorAnimation will still be 2 seconds.
[xaml]

...

...

VisualStateManager.CustomVisualStateManager should be set on the root visual of the ControlTemplate or UserControl, not the Control/UserControl itself. In the example below, the custom visual state manager is set on the Grid, the ControlTemplate’s root visual.
[xaml]

...

KeyDown Sent Synchronously
Who Is Affected: If you previously have been doing operations in the KeyDown event that could cause reentrancy into the Silverlight control, such as calling into the HtmlPage.Window.Alert function, this will no longer be supported.
Summary
We switched over our keyboard handling for character input to use the concept of the WM_CHAR windows message. This is used for TextBox/PasswordBox text entry to enable scenarios such as entering AltGr keystrokes. In order for us to do this, the KeyDown event had to be sent synchronously for managed code.

MeasureOverride/ArrangeOverride on Canvas Now Sealed
Who Is Affected: Silverlight 2 Beta 2 Applications that use MeasureOverride and ArrangeOverride on Canvas.
Summary
MeasureOverride and ArrangeOverride virtual methods on Canvas are sealed. These methods were already sealed for Grid and StackPanel. Any custom panel that requires its own layout logic should subclass Panel.
UriTypeConverter moved to System.dll
Who Is Affected: Silverlight 2 managed code referencing the UriTypeConverter class.
Fix Required
UriTypeConverter was moved from System.Windows.Controls.dll to System.dll where it resides on the desktop framework. Applications that reference it just need to be recompiled.
HtmlPage.UnregisterScriptableObject Removed
Who Is Affected: Those using HtmlPage.UnregisterScriptableObject.
Fix Required
Alternative to using HtmlPage.UnregisterScriptableObject, developers can now re-use the same script registration key for RegisterScriptableObject. This allows developers to change the underlying managed object associated with a scriptable entry point.
RenderingEventArgs Changes
Who Is Affected: Silverlight 2 managed code referencing the RenderingEventArgs class.
Summary
The following changes have been made to class RenderingEventArgs
• RenderingEventArgs is moved from System.Windows to System.Windows.Media
• RenderingEventArgs.ctor() is now internal
• System.Windows.RenderingEventHandler has been removed.
ContentPresenter and ContentControl Changes
Who Is Affected: Silverlight 2 managed code that uses either the ContentPresenter or ContentControl classes.
Summary
The following properties were removed from ContentPresenter and ContentControl.
• TextAlignment
• TextDecorations
• TextWrapping
Removal of FileDialogFileInfo Type and OpenFileDialog.SelectedFile(s) Properties
Who Is Affected: Silverlight 2 applications which use the OpenFileDialog.
Summary
• The System.Windows.FileDialogFileInfo type is being removed. Its functionality is now being exposed via its base System.IO.FileInfo type to transparent code within Silverlight’s sandbox.
• System.Windows.Controls.OpenFileDialog has a couple properties which consume and expose FileDialogFileInfo. They were modified to return the FileInfo type.
• In addition, the property names SelectedFile and SelectedFiles were also changed to File and Files.

Fix Required
Beta 2
[c#]
// Returns a File object for the selected file. If multiple files are selected, returns the first selected file
public FileDialogFileInfo SelectedFile { get; }

// Returns a collection of File objects for the selected files
public IEnumerable SelectedFiles { get; }

Release
[c#]
// Returns a File object for the selected file. If multiple files are
// selected, returns the first selected file
public FileInfo File { get; }

// Returns a collection of File objects for the selected files
public IEnumerable Files { get; }

Sample usage of OpenFileDialog with this change:
[c#]
openFileDialog = new System.Windows.Controls.OpenFileDialog();
openFileDialog.Multiselect = false;
openFileDialog.Filter = "Text Files (*.txt)|*.txt|All files (*.*)|*.*";

bool? retval = ofd.ShowDialog();
if (retval != null && retval == true) {

// Get the filename
string filename = openFileDialog.File.Name;
// Open the file
System.IO.Stream filestream = openFileDialog.File.OpenRead();

// Do something with the filestream

// Close it
}

Removal of FullAccess Option on the ExternalCallersFromCrossDomain attribute in the Silverlight 2 application manifest
Who Is Affected: Only Silverlight 2 applications that use this combination of features:
• XAP deployed on a different domain than the host HTML page, and
• with application manifest (AppManifest.xaml) specifying ExternalCallersFromCrossDomain=”FullAccess” on the root element are affected.
Summary
The ability for arbitrary scripts to walk the element tree, register for and get notified on events, and use the Silverlight 1.0 Downloader from script has been curtailed in a cross-domain app deployment scenario. The application manifest previously supported the ability for app author to designate the ExternalCallersFromCrossDomain attribute with the values NoAccess (default in cross-domain), ScriptableOnly and FullAccess. Support for the FullAccess option has been removed.
Many of the purposes you would have relied on the FullAccess option can now be fulfilled via the Scriptable object feature, with minor additional work on your part.

KeyFrameCollection Changes
Summary and Fix
Virtual methods Add, Contains, Indexof, Insert, Remove, get_Item, set_Item are no longer declared on the following collections:
• ColorKeyFrameCollection.
• DoubleKeyFrameCollection
• ObjectKeyFrameCollection
• PointKeyFrameCollection
• PointKeyFrameCollection
• StrokeCollection

Request stream must be closed before calling HttpWebRequest.BeginGetResponse()
Who Is Affected: Silverlight 2 applications that use HttpWebRequest.BeginGetResponse().
Summary
You must close the request stream on an HttpWebRequest before calling BeginGetResponse(). Previously BeginGetResponse() would close an open request stream.

HtmlWindow references on Safari/Mac will no longer evaluate to true
Who Is Affected: Code that uses System.Windows.Browser.HtmlWindow and that expects two HtmlWindow references pointing at the same DOM window to evaluate to true will now return false when running on Safari 2 or Safari 3 on Mac.
Summary
For example:
• Create a page with one iframe
• Use the bridge to get two references to the iframe:
HtmlWindow myWin = document.GetElementById(“myIframe”);
HtmlWindow myWin2 = document.GetElementById(“myIframe”);
• With the change the following comparison will now return false on Safari 2/3 Mac:
bool areEqual = (myWin == myWin2);

Address property removed from all WebClient EventArg classes
Fix Needed
If you were depending on the Address property, you can work around this breaking change in the following way:
Beta 2
[c#]
void Callback(object sender, DownloadStringCompletedEventArgs args)
{
DebugPrint(args.Address.ToString());
}

void MakeCall(Uri uri, object userState)
{
webClient.DownloadStringAsync(uri, userState);
}

Release
[c#]
class DownloadState
{
public DownloadState() {}
public Uri Address;
public object ActualUserState;
}

void Callback(object sender, DownloadStringCompletedEventArgs args)
{
DownloadState userState = (DownloadState)args.UserState;

DebugPrint(userState.Address.ToString());
}

void MakeCall(Uri uri, object userState)
{
Uri absoluteUri = uri;
if (absoluteUri.IsAbsoluteUri == false)
{
absoluteUri = new Uri(new Uri(webClient.BaseAddress), absoluteUri);
}

DownloadState downloadState = new DownloadState();
downloadState.Address = absoluteUri;
downloadState.ActualUserState = userState;

webClient.DownloadStringAsync(uri, downloadState);
}

Constructors Made Internal
Summary
You can no longer create the objects listed below because their associated constructors have been made internal:
• SizeChangedEventArgs
• TextChangedEventArgs
• DownloadProgressEventArgs
• ExceptionRoutedEventArgs
• KeyEventArgs
• MouseButtonEventArgs
• MouseEventArgs
• StartupEventArgs
• Expression
• GeneralTransform
• Geometry
• ImageSource
• PathSegment
• SetterBase
• Transform
• BindingExpressionBase
• InputMethod

Exception type change for System.Xml exception type
Summary
In the methods/constructors shown below, we will no longer be checking for null arguments. As a result, the usage of null arguments will result in a NullReferenceException. In previous builds of Silverlight, use of a null argument would result in an ArgumentNullException being thrown. There is no change in functionality, just the type of exception that is being thrown.
• XmlReader.IsName method
• XmlReader constructor
• XmlReader.MoveToAttribute method
• XmlReader:IsNameToken method
• XmlNamespaceManager constructor
• XmlReader.Nametable.Add method
• XmlReader.Nametable.Get method
• XmlCharCheckingWriter.WriteQualifiedName method
• XmlCharCheckingWriter.WriteDocType method
• XmlConvert.ToBoolean method
• XmlConvert.ToDouble method
• XmlConvert.ToSingle method
• XmlConvert.ToDateTime method

Cannot create classes in XAML that do not have accessible constructors
Summary
Certain classes that were defined by the Silverlight runtime were creatable in XAML, even though they did not have an accessible constructor. With this change, you can no longer instantiate those classes in XAML.
These classes (which only have internal constructors) can no longer be created in XAML:
• TriggerCollection
• InlineCollection
• RowDefinitionCollection
• ColumnDefinitionCollection
• RoutedEventARgs
• MouseButtonEventArgs
• KeyEventARgs
• ErrorEventArgs
• UIElementCollection
• Downloader
• InternalWebRequest
• MultiScaleSubImageCollection
• MediaAttribute
• MediaAttributeCollection
• ExceptionROutedEventArgs
• DownloadProgressEventArgs
• StartupEventArgs
• TextBoxBase
• TextBoxView
• TextChangedEventArgs
• RuntimeHostEventArgs
• SizeChangedEventArgs
• RenderingEventArgs
• ItemCollection
• CorePropertyChangedEventArgs
• IsEndabledChangedEventARgs
• TypeProxy
• ManagedObjectReference
• AutomationPropertiesEnum
• DependencyPropertyProxy

Get AG_E_UNKNOWN_ERROR in Silverlight 2 but not in Silverlight 1
Summary
In previous versions of Silverlight, when media failed because a media file was not available, a MediaFailed event was fired but if the MediaFailed event was not handled by the developer, the end user would not be notified of the failure. Now when a handler is not hooked up to the MediaFailed event, the error bubbles up to the default OnError handler of the plug-in and AG_E_UNKNOWN_ERROR is displayed to the user.
Fix Required
Attach the MediaFailed event to your MediaElement objects and handle errors as appropriate.

Platform looks for generic.xaml as a resource at themes/generic.xaml
Summary
The platform now looks for the generic.xaml resource dictionary as an assembly resource in the "themes" directory rather than the root directory.
Fix Required
Move your generic.xaml resource underneath the "themes" folder under ControlLib in Solutions Explorer in Visual Studio.

HTTP Polling Duplex OM Changes and Reengineering
Who Is Affected: This will impact anyone using the HTTP Polling Duplex channel.
Summary
• PollTimeout setting on the server side (PollingDuplexHttpBinding and PollingDuplexBindingElement) has been renamed to ServerPollTimeout
• PollTimeout setting on the PollingDuplexBindingElement (client side) has been renamed to ClientPollTimeout.
• PollTimeout setting on the PollingDuplexHttpBinding (client side) has been cut. In most scenarios, it should not be necessary to change this. If a change is necessary, it can be achieved through the ClientPollTimeout on the PollingDuplexBindingElement.
• Client-side support has been cut from the non-Silverlight (server-side) polling duplex assembly (i.e. BuildChannelFactory will throw a NotSupportedException). That is, in RTM, the client side for polling duplex must be Silverlight (and the server side must be the regular .NET Framework, but this restriction was already in place in Beta2).
• Default timeouts have been changed for the Duplex channel. For most common scenarios, the new out-of-the-box defaults should be appropriate and there is no need to change them.
• An error (404) on a polling request will cause the duplex channel to fault.
• Various invalid messages used to be ignored by the Duplex stack but will now be rejected.
• If any HTTP error (404,500,…) is encountered during a SOAP call, a CommunicationException is now thrown instead of a ProtocolException.

Breaking change to Silverlight native hosting IXcpControl COM interface
Who Is Affected: Applications that host Silverlight 2 natively via its COM APIs.
Summary
• The following splash screen related properties added to IXcpControl interface are being broken out and being moved to a new IXcpControl2 interface:
• get_OnSourceDownloadComplete
• get_OnSourceDownloadProgressChanged
• get_SplashScreenSource
• put_OnSourceDownloadComplete
• put_OnSourceDownloadProgressChanged
• put_SplashScreenSource

In addition, the LoadRuntime function is also being moved to IXcpControl2.

Content-Type is allowed on cross domain request by default
Summary
Both supported cross domain policy files (crossdomain.xml, clientaccesspolicy.xml) no longer need to explicitly allow the Content-Type request header. The Content-Type header is always settable on POST xdomain requests, as long as the request itself is allowed by a cross domain policy file.
In addition, the LoadRuntime function is also being moved to IXcpControl2.

Fix Required
Previously you needed to specify Content-Type in the headers whitelist. Now, Content-Type is always allowed, so the bolded “Content-Type” attribute value is no longer required just for setting the Content-Type (see below).
clientaccesspolicy.xml
Old version that explicitly listed Content-Type as settable. (This file still works in SL2 RTM.)
[xaml]

New version that still allows Content-Type to be set
[xaml]

crossdomain.xml
Old version that explicitly listed Content-Type as settable. (This file still works in SL2 RTM.):
[xaml]

New version that still allows Content-Type to be set:
[xaml]

Enforcing delegate type check when two delegate objects are combined
Who Is Affected: Code that bypass the delegate type check in Delegate.Combine by calling MulticastDelegate.CombineImpl directly.
Fix Required
If you want to combine two delegate objects they should be of the exact same delegate type.

Miscellaneous API Changes
• UIElement.HitTest method has moved to the VisualTreeHelper class and renamed to VisualTreeHelper.FindElementsInHostCoordinates.
• Moved DependencyPropertyChangedEventHandler delegate type from System.Windows.Controls to System.Windows namespace.
• Control.IsTabStop defaults to true. Now, all Control derived classes (directly or indirectly) have IsTabStop set to true except, UserControl, HyperlinkButton, ScrollViewer and ListBox.
• WebHeaderCollection.Keys property was replaced with the AllKeys property.
• WebHeaderCollection.Headers property was renamed to Keys.
• WebRequest.RegisterPrefix() now returns false in failure cases per the interface contract from the desktop framework rather than throwing an exception.
• WebResponse.Dispose(bool explicitDisposing) was removed.
• Deployment.PartProperty is now read only.
• Deployment.EntryPointAssemblyProperty is now read only.
• Deployment.EntryPointTypeProperty is now read only.
• Deployment.RuntimeVersionProperty is now read only.
• Deployment.ExternalCallersFromCrossDomainProperty is now read only.
• Thumb.IsDragging is now read only.
• Slider.IsFocused is now read only.
• ButtonBase.IsFocused is now read only.
• ButtonBase.IsMouseOver is now read only.
• ButtonBase.IsPressed is now read only.
• ToolTipService.GetToolTip is now private.
• IRawElementProviderSimple is now sealed and has a private default constructor.
• Setter.PropertyProperty is now internal. Please use the CLR property instead of the DependencyProperty.
• Slider.UpdateTrackLayout() is now internal.
• Slider.OnOrientationChanged() is now internal.
• Slider.OnIsFocusChanged(DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e) is now internal.
• ComboBox.get_IsSelectionActive() is now internal.
• ComboBox.ScrollIntoView(Int32 index) is now internal.
• ComboBox.get_SelectionBoxItemTemplate() now returns System.Windows.DataTemplate.
• PasswordBox.SelectionChanged is now private.
• MouseEventArgs.Handled was moved to MouseButtonEventArgs.
• RenderTargetBitmap was renamed to HostingRenderTargetBitmap and moved from System.Windows.Media.Imaging to namespace System.Windows.Interop.
• AutomationPeer constructor is now protected.
• TriggerActionCollection.Item now takes System.Windows.TriggerAction instead of System.Windows.Media.Animation.BeginStoryboard.
• TriggerCollection.Item now takes System.Windows.TriggerBase instead of System.Windows.EventTrigger.
• RoutedEventArgs.Source was renamed to OriginalSource and is now read-only.
• ITableItemProvider and ITableProvider are now derived from IGridItemProvider and IGridProvider.
• The KeyboardNavigation class is now internal.
• ColumnDefinitionCollection constructor was made internal.
• InlineCollection constructor was made internal.
• ItemCollection constructor was made internal.
• RowDefinitionCollection constructor was made internal.
• UIElementCollection constructor was made internal.
• TriggerCollection constructor was made internal.
• Listbox field ListBoxItem._itemsControl is now internal.
• Ink.Stroke constructor changed to ctor(System.Windows.Input.StylusPointCollection).
• CanConvertFrom(Type sourceType) changed its signature to CanConvertFrom(ITypeDescriptorContext context, Type sourceType).
• CanConvertTo(Type destinationType) changed its signature to CanConvertTo(ITypeDescriptorContext context, Type destinationType).
• ConvertFrom(object value) changed its signature to ConvertFrom(ITypeDescriptorContext context, CultureInfo culture, object value).
• ConvertFromString(string text) now is ConvertFrom(ITypeDescriptorContext context, CultureInfo culture, object value) where value of type string.
• ConvertTo(object value, Type destinationType) changed its signature to ConvertTo(ITypeDescriptorContext context, CultureInfo culture, object value, Type destinationType).
• ConvertToString(object value) now is ConvertTo(ITypeDescriptorContext context, CultureInfo culture, object value, Type destinationType) with destinationType of type string.
• ItemCollection constructor is no longer available so any code that tries to instantiate an ItemCollection directly will no longer compile. This class is supposed to be instantiated only within ItemsControl.
• ContentPresenter now derives from FrameworkElement instead of Control.
• Control.OnIsEnabledChanged was removed. Now use IsEnabledChanged for extended controls.
• DownloadProgressEventHandler was removed.
• The following converters were removed:
• TextDecorationCollectionConverter
• FontStretchConverter
• FontStyleConverter
• FontWeightConverter
• FontFamilyConverter

Before I hit the Publish button on this post I wanted to join Matthew Helmke in urging everyone in the United States who are eligible to vote but haven't yet registered, check out this very comprehensive list of info on voter registration in the USA. Being a republic, the voters here don't actually make the decisions, we elect people who will make them for us. Do you really want someone else to pick who's going to make decisions that affect so many areas of your life, especially with the current economic crisis? If you're a convicted felon you may want to see if you're eligible to vote again. Some states, including Virginia and Florida, have decided that some felons are eligible to vote again. You may be able to vote again, too, so check with your local Registrar of Voters to see if you are.

Our hero Torley Linden has ridden to the rescue once again, telling us about a new setting in the new 1.21 Release Candidate will let you completely disable facelights, as well as "particle-emitting attachments."

Thank you, Torley!

/me hopes Torley's wife won't mind my walking up and placing a big, wet kiss on his avatar. ;)

Ya está disponible la primera release candidate de OpenOffice 3.0, la suite de ofimática libre más popular. Esta versión ha ido mejorando e incorporando nuevas funcionalidades, lo cual ha conseguido levantar mucha expectación entre los usuarios: un intenso lavado de cara, compatibilidad con multitud de formatos (entre ellos los de Office 2007), soporte para edición de documentos PDF, extensiones, versiones nativas para Windows y Mac… Recordemos que además de estar disponible en muchos lenguajes, OpenOffice tiene versiones para Windows, Linux, Solaris y Mac.

No tenemos una versión estable de la suite desde marzo de este mismo año, y está previsto el lanzamiento de la versión 3.0 final para el 24 de septiembre. Antes (el 12 de septiembre) volverá a liberarse una segunda RC disponible en todos los idiomas soportados por la aplicación. Aunque esta release candidate ya comienza a ser muy parecida a la que será la versión final de la aplicación, lo cierto es que sigue siendo un software en fase de pruebas y no se recomienda su instalación en entornos que requieran estabilidad.

Mas información: OpenOffice 3: las novedades
Descarga: OpenOffice 3.0 RC1

In addition he has put out a Release Candidate for Mac4Lin 1.0. It's been in the works for quite some time, and it isn't 100% complete yet as the installation script still forces some manual installation of components and the documentation isn't complete yet. In the announcement he says

This is the version 1.0 Release Candidate. Some components are still under development. Currently the shell script is not able to set the GDM theme, cursor theme, sounds, emerald theme. They need to be manually set.

Also components like Firefox3, Thunderbird theme, awn theme/plugins etc. are still under development. The Mozilla themes may not be stable. Hence use the non-core components of Mac4Lin at your own risk. Documentation is still in the pipeline. I decided to release the RC anyway so that patrons can start using it and update to the stable version when development is complete.

Here's a list of the improvements and additions awaiting users in Mac4Lin version 1.0.

• New! Automated Installer in the form of a shell script
• New GDM theme
• Supports the newest version of GNOME and Xfce
• New Mozilla themes specifically built for Mac4Lin
• Adium style AWN status icons for Pidgin
• Mac style scrollbars, menus
• Other tweaks in GTK theme
• Adium sounds for Pidgin
• New usplash

The install instructions are pretty simple now.

Download the Mac4Lin_v1.0_RC.tar.gz archive to any folder. Extract the archive and run Mac4Lin_Install_v1.0_RC.sh file.

Earlier this year Mac4Lin 0.4 was selected as a recipient of the 2008 FOSS India Award and is available from UptoDown.com. Version 1.0 looks even better from the beta releases. (Yes, I've been a beta tester but Anirudh asked me to keep that to myself until it was released. I'm hoping the release of the RC is close enough.) You can get the RC from SourceForge, and look for a final release in the near future.

This Release Candidate will also contain scripts that will allow OpenClinica to run on the Oracle 10g database for the first time as part of a downloadable package.

As you can see below in another post about the release of 2.5, I mentioned it would be on August 29th.  Mea culpa. Clearly, however, it is more important to issue a software product that has been fully tested (and retested) rather then putting a marginal product out just to meet a date. If only Microsoft realized this :)

The release candidate will be available to the general public on Wednesday morning, 9/10/2008, and we will be targeting a full production release within the coming weeks.

As we get closer to the production release, please check back for more updates. In the meantime here's some Final Countdown inspiration from Europe.

Last Saturday I installed the new SL® Release Candidate 1.21.0 Client, and although I quickly spotted the improved features of the Snapshot window, I only spotted that the Edit Terrain window has a small new slide bar last night when I wanted to make the water a bit deeper for the little port area underneath my new house (more on that in the next post).

Ok, so, you now know there's a new slidebar in the Edit Terrain window in the RC 1.21.0 Client.
But what does it do? Only one single thing: it sets the strenght of your selected terraform action.

In short: you now can speed up things, or do better precision terraforming.

Personally, I only see the benefits of the "low strength" setting you can have now, which might help you do more precision work and minor terrain modifications.
I tried the "high strength" aswell, and I don't really see a difference compared to when you would select an area and then would choose your desired terraform action and pressed the "apply on selection" button, cuz it results in pretty much the same... but this is just my personal opinion.

All in all: it's a handy new feature!
(but I think that -perhaps- a slidebar where it went from "low strength" to "default strenght" would have made more sense)

It doesn't look really different, but there's 2 new features, features I'm sure people will be very happy about!

First, the "save" button now has a tiny arrow that'll open a small drop-down menu.

Basically, it still saves as "Snapshot_###" when you simply press the button. This still opens up that window where you can enter a new name for your picture. But here's where the new feature gets in. Before, all pictures you took and saved would be saved under the name you saved your 1st picture, right? Well, now, the drop-down offers a "save as" function, where you will have the chance to save pictures under a different name!
This is handy if (for example) you're doing a photoshoot of several people, and you want to save the pics of person A under 1 name, and the pics of person B under an other name!

I'm a fan so far!

The 2nd new feature I'm sure will please many people, and is all to do with having the choice of file format.
Second Life® snapshots have always been BMP files, which sometimes could give pics of over 10 or 15 MB in size (and if you're a photography freak like me who takes 20 pics of something in one angle, and 20 more of that same thing in an other angle, your hard drive will get stuffed with SL® snapshots fast!).
But, ladies and gentlemen, the snapshot window offers the brandspanking new feature of saving your pics not only in BMP, but also JPEG and (photographers will love this) PNG!!!

*applauds whoever worked on this*

• Tiago Faria: UbuntuWeblogs. Tiago's added new sources to Planet Ubuntu Users (PUU), but he's also looking for authors who write about Ubuntu or any of it's derivatives to add to the Planet. (Full Disclosure: My Ubuntu-related posts are syndicated on PUU.)
• Derek Buranen: Flash 10 RC: at least it doesn't crash? Adobe Flash 10 is even closer to getting officially released, and they finally seem to have fixed the fullscreen performance issues. I'm not entirely sure about that yet since I haven't had a chance to grab the RC yet, but if someone can verify that for me I'd love to get your comment for others to see.
• Aaron Toponce: Dear Sprint. After reading Aaron's open letter I'm really glad I have a cell phone with AT&T rather than Sprint.
• Fabrizio Balliano: 5 + 1 beautiful designs for Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex". It looks like Ubuntu Intrepid is going to have some great new themes we can select from. I'm loving Personification and Wall-light. I've actually seen someone use that wallpaper on the August 2008 Desktop Screenshot Thread over on the Ubuntu Forums and I think I may have to add it to my wallpaper rotation once I get it.
• Frank Taylor/Google Earth Blog: 3D Driving Directions and Driving Simulator. If you're running Windows you can now use Google Earth to get not only 3D driving directions but also a view with a 3D car. Linux and OSX compatible code for this is in the works and should hopefully be here soon. -ish. ;)
• Aaron Toponce: Using GnuPGv2. Gnu Privacy Guard has been updated and it's not only in the Ubuntu repos, Aaron has instructions for making it the default GPG tool for all the apps that may be on your computer. Info on what changed can be read in the release announcement.
• LinuxDevices.com: Motorola Linux phone ships in U.S. Woot! The Linux Mobile-compliant Moto U9 can now be purchased in the States! Now to find a cell phone company that has it in the greater Boston area.
• Kevin DuBois: Freewins Hardy Package for Compiz! Ok, with the ability to rotate your windows on any axis this is 100% eye candy. And I wish the hell I could use it on my Linux box, but I tried and the screen just sat there like a log's bump. :(
• Daniel Holbach: Global Bug Jam - Retrospective. People in twelve nations and over 20 locations processed 834 bugs in Saturday's Global Bug Jam. It may be under the goal of a thousand bugs, but it's still a lot of bugs. Daniel also has links to reports from some of the participating groups. And I promise next time they have something like this I'll try to blog it much sooner so more people have a chance to get it on their schedules.

Para los usuarios de Kubuntu es posible realizar la actualización siguiendo las instrucciones que aparecen en el anuncio oficial, pero los procedimientos son muy similares a los que existían para la instalación de las versiones Beta 1 y Beta 2.

Tras leer el anuncio de Kubuntu observo que el paquete kdeplasma-addons contiene divertidas novedades. Desgraciadamente, por inexplicables motivos, aún no puedo probarlo, pero espero que un par de días lo descubra, salvo que algún alma caritativa me desvele la intriga.

Por cierto, antes de proceder a la instalación de esta versión, desde KDE avisan a los usuarios de Nvidia que tengan instalado el binario proporcionado por la propia Nvidia que pueden sufrir problemas de rendimiento a la hora de redimensionar y alternar ventanas. A pesar de que Nvidia es conocedora del problema aún no dispone de un controlador que solucione el problemas.

Puedes leer más sobre el anuncio oficial en la página de KDE.