You may have heard this week that Popfly, the innovative GUI for building web apps built on Silverlight, came out of private beta. Anyone can now try it out without needing an invite. I haven't done a lot with it since early in the private beta but was impressed with how easy it was to mash various data sources into Virtual Earth. I'd go so far as to say that the VE map control may have had better support in the private beta than any other component. Here's a Facebook mashup tutorial with Popfly that further illustrates how easy it is to build on Virtual Earth. Click here to see it in action if you don't want to build your own.

Milwaukee got a major upgrade in Virtual Earth recently, with thousands of beautifully textured buildings coming online. Each month the automated modeling techniques used by our Boulder, CO office get better and better blurring the line between the aerial Birds eye Photos in Live Search maps and the 3D virtual representation of the world. I'm not sure where this will end, but its a great ride! below is a screenshot of Birds Eye Photos and the Virtual Earth around the Water Street / Riverwalk neighborhood.

I got to see one of my all time favorite musicians perform last night in Seattle. Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth is out on a mini west coast 'solo' tour supporting his new album. Solo in quotes as he has a really excellent band along for the ride featuring Steve Shelly of SY plus 3 others that I didn't recognize but were collectively just amazing. Thurston's contributions to the world of music are endless and his passion for his art is so obvious when he's on stage. I made this Collection highlighting the rest of the tour down the west coast, ending around LA. I can't imagine what life is like if you've had to deal with the tragic fires in the SoCal region, but if you're like me and music lifts your spirits getting out to a show might be just what you need.