WPF/E is now known as Silverlight.

Just caught wind of this over at Businessweek online. So I guess Microsoft was actually serious about trying to make a run at Adobe concerning this whole rich internet application stuff. Accoriding to their website:

Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web.

Does this mean that support for the Mac is on the horizon? Not to say they won’t try but I doubt it. I can’t wait to see it not work in Safari!

UPDATE: Okay maybe this is why I’ve had a little problem using WPF/E on the Mac:

Minimum recommended hardware: Intel Core Duo 1.83-gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor 128 MB of RAM

Yikes. A little hefty for requirements and a reminder that I have to upgrade my recently ressurected 12″ Powerbook. I’ve been getting by on my 1.5 Core Solo Intel Mac Mini for a while but even that doesn’t meet the requirements.

Anyway cynacism aside, it’ll be intereting to see if Microsoft can “bring it”.

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Boston losing grip as this year’s “City of Flash”

Looks like Beantown isn’t going to be the ‘Flash hub’ this year based on a few recent developments.

First DX3 is cancelled. I first caught wind of the from Ryan Stewart’s twitterings and saw this confirmed on their website yesterday. This is a real bummer to me as I had opted to go to this instead of Flash Forward this year because of the broad range of topics. I was really looking forward to getting the skinny on WPF from some of the experts in particular. I think the folks at Lynda.com were a little bit too ambitious on scale and scope of a conference like this. I think it was a little ahead of it’s time as a concept and overpriced as well. I hope it will manifest somewhere later on down the road as Desktop RIA’s evolve and when or if Microsoft’s WPF actually becomes competition for Adobe’s Apollo. In the meantime, I guess I’m going to Flash Forward.

360Flex is also back but not in Boston as originally rumored. This time it’ll be on Seattle, the city on the other corner of the US. So I’m looking at a seven hour flight to hit that one. Can’t say I’m too bummed though as Seattle is one of the last major US cities I haven’t been to. It’s $360 to go (I see a theme here) which is still a bargain for what is offered.

So Boston will have to wait for some more of these big cons to get in their backyard. In the meantime I’ll be racking up some frequent flier miles.