Expression Blend & Silverlight

I am currently doing some work on digital animation at university, and the module prescribes the use of Microsoft Silverlight instead of the well known Adobe Flash. The module is based on a new syllabus designed by Philip Stirpe under instruction from Microsoft. I wonder if Microsoft is paying institutions to run their courses, to promote their software and finally make headway in beating Adobe?

More on Silverlight to come as I make my way through it ... :)

Google Wave

Just a couple of weeks ago, I recieved an invite from a dear friend of mine to test out Google Wave - an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Though there are many collaborative online and software tools around, this is the first that I have seen that is aimed at the general public. And as a student who has worked on many group projects, I know this will be very useful as it will minimise the misunderstanding caused due to various versions of the same documents flying around and the lack of real time colloboration.

The following video gives an overview of Google Wave from the Wave team itself: