So as a lot of you know, yesterday was “Reboot” day (and if you didn’t, here and here is where you can learn about it for next year

A brief summary is that a reboot is when a WHOLE lotta people redesign their websites and launch it to the world on the same day.

What I don’t get is why people would want to do this…community? be “part of the crowd”? bored?

If you are running a blog or something where you value your traffic, I would think a “reboot” or relaunch of your site would be a great talking point and a way to get people to come by for a visit. However, if you relaunch along with umpteen thousand other websites, aren’t you just lost in the crowd you want to be a part of?

Now I am not saying I have anything against it per se, or that I would never take part at some point, I am just saying I don’t get it.

Can anyone explain it to me?

Regardless of the why, there are a lot of nice sites out and about. Along with the other two links I have above, here is a best of list from Fadtastic.

Its funny what you learn when you begin to blog. I have been reading dozens of blogs for over a year, trying to keep up with the latest trends, tools, and designs…and you know what? I rarely ever clicked on any ad links. Why? Not sure exactly.

There are a lot of sites that I love and want to continue and be properous…and yet “no clicky”. I chalk it up to being like most readers, and Americans in general, who are trained to gloss over most of the ads we see. I see the ads, but somehow they get ignored over without a second thought.

Now that I am a blogger myself and have my own ads, I find myself noticing the ads on other sites and sympathizing with the owners. Most blogs exist, at least in part, to bring in some form of income. Now that is probably not the primary reason for the existance of a blog (it certainly isn’t for this one), but if a blog has any sort of advertising, then the owner obviously is hoping for a little cash.

It should be noted that the point of this article is not to get you all to click on my ads (although you are certainly welcome to). The point, rather, is to put the notion in the back of your head that if you like a blog…any blog…why not click on an ad that interests you? The owner will certainly appreciate it, and it is a little way to tell them thanks for the effort it takes to make the blog something you love.

Just a thought.

So, as I mentioned this morning, Microsoft is slowly and steadily releasing more information about their new Silverlight technology platform. Some interesting stuff has been released so far, and I thought I would share it with y’all (some of my Texas roots there).

The big announcement is about the new “Silverlight Streaming” which essentially is a place where developers can stream out their silverlight apps for free. While the product is in Alpha/Beta stages, they are giving any developers up to 4 GB of free storage space that can be used to stream video and applications up to 700 Kbps.

Once they release developers get free streaming up to “one million minutes”. After that you will have ads or have to pay a “nominal fee”…who knows what that means.

I, for one, think this is pretty sweet. One of the bad things about playing around with new web technologies is you typically had to get hosting just to play around. With this service, you can play around all you want and not have to pay a dime. If you are using more than a million minutes of streaming time, then I would think that you are getting some nice traffic which should be able to pay for any “nominal fee”.

You can find more about it here. Also, here is a link to a Microsoft blog post to help you get started.

Another big announcement is the simple fact that you can program Silverlight apps using C#. Why is this a big deal? Well, simply put, it allows non-windows developers to create Silverlight apps. I think in the coming months/years Silverlight is going to be a big deal and reaching out to the non-MS crowd will be an important part of that.

One final note for the day…if you want to see a really cool “Mix” app, you should check out mixme by thirteen23. The pictures part is a bit seizure inducing, but it gives you a great feel for what is possible with WPF and Silverlight.

This week is one of Microsoft’s big conferences called Mix07. As part of that they are making a lot of announcements regarding Silverlight and the WPF. Some really neat stuff coming. I will post about it more later today.

For now though, I thought it was worth noting that a new trial/beta version of the Blend product is out. This is the first version that allows developers to build Silverlight applications.

I am downloading it now. If you want to as well click here.