Hacking Silverlight 2.0 for designers and developers

As some of you know, I'm writing a book on silverlight titled, "Hacking Silverlight 2.0" with the help of Manning Press. As some of you may also know, I have not been able to blog too much as of late due to all the super secret stuff on campus at Microsoft. Some day that will stop and I will probably have lots of stuff to post, but in the mean time, I thought I would share the work on the cover of the book. The example of a book cover is a prototype and you can see the entire process Ariel went through to develope the painting we are using for the book cover.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=25283&l=593e3&id=721326429

Manning, the publisher, has a tradition of putting central European art on the cover... milk maids, stable boys, girls in dress's etc. I could not have something like that. Granted all the art is cool and they do have some interesting bits on the cover of some but I couldn't take the risk of getting a milk maid. So I have something manly and war like and for those that are interested in the painting, here is a little bit about it:

The soldier on the cover is a Polish Winged Hussar a type of Polish Calvary from the 16th Century to the 18th Century. This particular Hussar belongs to the Jordan Family or Domus Giordanous from southern Poland near Krakow. The Winged Hussar Calvary were the best mounted calvary at the time and won most engagements even when outnumbered by huge odds. Case in point, The Battle of Kluszyn against the Russians with 35,000 men against the Polish Crown with just over 6,000 Hussars. Key to this was the armor and heavy weapons and their most common tactic of the charge straight into enemy lines.