Silverlight Examples

I have a couple silverlight examples here. I created these prior to having a blog and like the full control I get from my own website

One is a Bezier curve and the other is a filmstrip written in Silverlight

Hot Wings BBQ Style

I love a good hot wing, but good ones are hard to find. When I lived in Columbus Roosters had the best. BW3 had good ones, but they were too small. When I moved to DC, I couldn't find good ones, and now in Raleigh the same thing happened.

I've made them before at home with good success, but it always invoved tons of oil and the mess was incredible. I stopped making them because of this.

That is until now. I've discoverd and equally if not better way to make wings.

Prep the wings

1. Get a bag of wings, They usually come frozen in 4 pound bags
2. Defrost the wings
3. Wash and semi dry them
4. Put them in a bowl and mix with salt, pepper and olive oil.

Prep the Grill

1. Fill a chimney starter to the top with charcoal and light
2. Wait until most of the coals are burning
3. Empty into one side of the grill for indirect grilling
4. Pre heat the grill to 350

The goal is to have the grill get very hot anywhere from 350 - 500 is good. We are not slow cooking these, The grill should be hot enough to start crisping up the wings

Put the chicken wings on the other side of the grill and cook for 1 hours. Don't worry about over cooking.

Get another chimney read and dump in the grill. Direct grill the wings until crispy.

Shake in your favorite sause and service

Blue Cheese and Ranch Dressing make a perfect dipping sause for Buffalo style wings.

Bookself Theater

We had a basically useless room in our house that we used for a playroom. It had no lighting, storage, or any entertainment value. The goal was to provide all three by installing a small simple theater that had high WAF (wife acceptance factor). storage for the toy collection, and simple lighting. The new houses in Raleigh are missing overhead lighting because the builders charge $1000 to put them in.

Here are the plans.

The first step was to build the base. This leveled everything. All the 5.1 wiring and electrical was run prior to starting. This made finishing the project simple

The then built the cabinets in the garage and started to assemble them. I got the wood from Lowe's and 84 Lumber. I'll never go to 84 Lumber again, there market is mass builders and they sell crap wood. there was a 2x4 there with most of the wood missing. I asked the guy "who would buy this"? He said builders do, and that's probable what the studs in your house look like. No wonder I can't find them sometimes, and my walls are bowed.

This is the first level. It's 18" deep on the sides and 22" in the middle. You can see the wiring patchwork in the upper left of the pic. I had to turn the corner with the wire to hang the overhead light.

Ayda loves to climb on things. The trim is installed
The yellow ball demonstrates how level the shelves are.
Crown molding on the top
Lots of sanding and wood fill. If I did it again I would insist on better tolerance, but this was my first job. 1 coat of primer, and 2 coats of finish. What a pain.
Ceiling, crown, and walls painted. I painted for ~20 in this room.

Here is with the stereo installed. That's a 27" LCD. Just enough sound and screen to meet the WAF

• Polk Audio R150 Black Pair Bookshelf Speakers
• Polk Audio PSW111 Black 8" 150-watt Powered Subwoofer (I will build my own next time, but this one works pretty good)
• Polk Audio RM202 Center Channel Speaker
• Dayton CS620W 6-1/2" 2-Way In-Wall Speaker Pair (These went into outside walls and I didn't know what the environment would be like so didn't want to risk ruining good equipment)
  

Here it is with the doors on. I got them from rockler and they installed perfectly. I did use longer screw to mount them to the frame, as I expect they will be abused by the kids. The sub is hidden in the cabinets. not optimal for sound, but a high WAF

Angie's decorations. This is a kids room

Notice the sub in the top of the pic. To increase the WAF I had to hide the sub. It's a little sub, but it adds just enough for this room. Besides I'm bumpin 900 watts in the main theater.

First Post Ever!!!

This is my first post on my first blog. My colleague Pete suggested that I start blogging, especially since I just had a baby and can’t get out to user groups.

I live in Raleigh with my wife and two kids. We’ve lived here for one year and love it.

I’ve worked for AIS for 3.5 years as a developer/designer and have been programming for 9 years . Some of the recent technologies that I’ve used include Silverlight, LINQ, MOSS, K2, InfoPath, Visual Studio 2008, Smart Client Software factory. I know VB, C#, t-SQL and a host of other technologies that make me fairly well rounded. (At least in the Microsoft domain)

Some of my interests outside of work include home theater, woodworking, home improvements, exercise, and hanging with the family. I’ve found that when you do something 3 hours a day during the week and all weekend it is a legit hobby, and that’s how much time I spend with my family.

I hope to write technical articles as well as updates on home projects which are never ending.