The Zone

Just when you thought Microsoft is going down with the 'failure' of Vista, the Redmond giant shows just what it's capable of online, thanks to Silverlight.

 

Silverlight is a browser plug-in which is Microsoft's answer to rival Adobe's Flash format, which enables interactive and rice media Web sites. Silverlight basically enables browsers to translate XAML code, which was generated using .NET in Vista.

 

To show how powerful Silverlight can be, Hard Rock Cafe's Memorabilia site uses Silverlight which showcases a 'Deep Zoom' technology that allows you to zoom out from this:

 

 

to this:

 

 

to this:

 

 

to this: 

 

 

and to finally this:

 

 

That's some really deep zooming technology there thanks to Silverlight! To experience it for yourself, just visit memorabilia.hardrock.com and if your browser doesn't already have Silverlight installed, the site will prompt you to install it.

 

Then, select The Beatles under the list of Featured Artists on the left menu, look for the letters image at the bottom, and start zooming in on the stamp of the left letter just like above, and you'll soon see the same signatures after the zooms!