The Silverlight 4 Beta does not install the System.Xml.Linq.dll assembly into C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Silverlight\4.0.41108.0 along side the rest Silverlight 4 assemblies. It’s okay, it’s a beta: “You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.”

The good news is that the assembly is installed in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Silverlight\v4.0\Libraries\Client folder. So when adding a reference to System.Xml.Linq in a Silverlight application, just browse to the assembly in this folder and you’re off to the races.

(On 32-bit systems, replace C:\Program Files (x86) with C:\Program Files. But you knew that.)

Updated 10 December 2009, new contact info.

Vertigo’s CEO, Scott Stanfield, chose last night’s Portland Silverlight User Group meeting to publicly announce that Vertigo is opening an office in Portland. The Richmond Point, California-based company is a leader in developing rich Internet applications (RIA) for some very high profile customers. Their projects include NBC Winter Olympics 2010, NBC Sunday Night Football, the 2008 Democratic National Convention, CBS 2009 Presidential Inauguration, and Hard Rock Cafe’s Memorabilia site. These RIA applications are built on the Microsoft technology stack and typically feature streaming HD video or high resolution imagery, combined with a high degree of user interaction, and exacting business requirements.

Stanfield introduced Cori Taratoot, general manager for Portland, as well as other staff from Vertigo, and explained his goal of having a team of ten developers and graphic designers in the Portland office by mid 2010. For more information on employment opportunities with Vertigo contact Jobs-Portland@vertigo.com.

Thanks for a great presentation at PSLUG last night, and welcome to the neighborhood!

The Seattle Silverlight User Group holds its first meeting tomorrow, Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 7PM. The meeting is on the Microsoft Redmond campus in the Building 40/41 cafeteria (map). The speaker will be John Stockton, senior RIA developer for Ascentium and  Microsoft Silverlight MVP, speaking on What’s New in Silverlight 4.

Scott Stanfield, CEO of Vertigo, plans to be there. How about you?

This morning I rediscovered a shortcut for creating an elevated command prompt. Press the Windows key, type “cmd” then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter. Voila!

Works on Win7, Vista, and presumably on Windows Server 2008.

Thanks to Tim Sneath who also suggests making the first command be “color 4f“ so that this window is visually distinct from non-elevated command prompts.

Here’s the extra nudge you might need to attend the Portland Silverlight User Group’s inaugural meeting tonight, Tuesday, December 8, 2009. Pizza and networking at 6PM, Vertigo CEO Scott Stanfield speaking at 6:30PM. Fiserv Cafe, 3400 NW John Olsen Place, Hillsboro, OR 97214.

Rich Interactive Beer to follow at Cornelius Pass Roadhouse.