Tip of the Day - What to Expect in Silverlight Help
[Updated 3/20 to fix the RSS links] 
I've received a lot of very positive feedback from the tutorials and videos and a lot of inquiries about what help will be forthcoming and how to get help right away. I thought I'd take a few minutes to provide some guidelines that are intended to optimize your experience, not to restrict your access...
First, lots of folks are producing material, both on a regular and on an ad-hoc basis. If you are creating Silverlight 2 applications, I recommend subscribing to
Silverlight Community Blogs
Silverlight Geek Blog (yah, that's me)
(these are me too 
)
Tutorials
As noted previously, the tutorials will be released at least twice monthly, beginning the end of this month, and my plan is to go through all of Silverlight 2 at an intermediate level.
Videos
The videos will not be released in "order" -- that is to say the goal of the videos is for them to stand independently, allowing developers to dip into topics of interest. The first few will cover the basics, but after that I will be moving freely among elementary topics, intermediate and advanced topics.
Tips of the Day
The tips of the day will range in size from one liners to full explorations of coding issues (with code examples attached) - often diving deeper into issues covered in the videos or the tutorials
Blog Entries
My blog entries will attempt to fill in the gaps, add a bit of a look behind the scenes and maintain some continuity in the story
Web Casts
The web casts will be a combination of deep dives and real-time HDI (How Do I) videos. The tentative schedule (soon to be finalized) looks like this:
| Date |
Topic |
| 4/16 |
Controls and event handling |
| 5/21 |
Data Binding/Routed Events |
| 6/18 |
Styles, Templates and more |
| 7/16 |
Deep Zoom |
Looking for Help
The best place to get the fastest answers is on the forum -- though I admit some questions slip through the cracks. But the forums is where everyone looks first and if your question is unanswered for a while, post a follow up. The tricks to getting a fast answer include:
a. Use a good subject that summarizes the problem so the folks who might know the answer stop and read the question. Good subject: "Urgent: Crashes when two buttons in same stack panel" - Bad subject "Help!!!!"
b. Give as much information in as few words as possible - tell more, not less, but shorter paragraphs are easier to read, and put the important information up front; write like you're a journalist, not a novelist.
c. Be very specific about versions and environment as possible - tell us how to reproduce the problem.
Writing to Me
You are always free to write to me and I love getting suggestions for improving my videos, tutorials, tips, blog entries as well as general complaints, praise, etc. (Note, you can also leave comments about videos right on the landing page for the video, which is great!)
Writing to me with specific "I can't get this to work" questions will generally get a response pointing out that you'll get a faster answer on the forum, unless you are talking about an example I wrote, in which case, please do write as I'll want to fix it right away. (Unless it is 1.1, in which case, ahhh., welll.... sorry, Mr. Liberty is out, please leave a message...)
Writing to me asking when Silverlight will be released will get my standard "We've not released a date for that yet, though we are aware of how important it is for the community to know as soon as we possibly can tell you."
Dropping By My Office In Redmond
Since so many have asked, nope, I'm not in Redmond (though I visit a lot!). I work from my home in the suburbs of Cambridge MA.
Reaching Me
The best way to reach me is via email, but there are dozens of other ways, including my blog and my personal portal.
Tip of the Day Release Schedule and Time
Tip of the Day will be released every day by 13:00 UTC-5 (Eastern) except when it isn't.