Happy Halloween

Thought I’d post a quick Happy Halloween message on my blog as it’s the one day of the year when my theme actually seems relevant!

We just got word of a very cool Silverlight 3 app running entirely in the cloud under Windows Azure. Check out Archetype Pumpkin Carver

Have fun on the streets, and as Sgt Esterhaus would say, “Let’s be careful out there…”

Billy Mays

At the time of Billy May’s passing, I really wanted to post something, but couldn’t find the right thing to say – nor can I now, come to that.

I was however reminded by this excellent article on who he was and why he succeeded. Like so many, I was in the “love” Billy Mays camp for so many reasons, mainly because I learned so much of my trade from having seen many like him at places like Blackbushe Market and Wembley Market. The first time I saw the man himself though, I instantly recognized the best of all the pitchmen I’d even see, all rolled into this larger than life character.

And my trade? Well I was one of the first software pitchmen, I believe I was the first user of a headset microphone repurposed from its main use as a drummer’s mic. Here I am at Wembley in 1988 pitching a “Powerpoint” forerunner complete with 37” Mitsubishi monitor – they weren’t too easy to hire in those days!

Rest in peace Billy. From an admirer you never knew you had…

Expression Studio 3 - Come and get it!

The trial version of Expression Studio 3 is now live and although it's not quite available to purchase yet, the trials are a full 60 days this time, so that's plenty of time to put all the new features through their paces. You can checkout SketchFlow and behaviors in Expression Blend, SuperPreview in Expression Web, the screen capture feature of Expression Encoder (and they're just my personal favorites!) We're working hard to get the applications available on MSDN too - won't be long... Don't forget to let us know what you're building with them, we're always looking for content for the community site and case studies for the main Expression site.

Expression Studio 3

We’re just days away from releasing the trial versions of Expression Studio 3 and the new Web pages are live. My particular part of the overall launch effort was to be the producer of a “TV show” called The Visual Kitchen which is now featured on our launch site at seethelight.com

The show is a lighthearted attempt at providing a glimpse into the new Expression products, together with the power of the new version of Silverlight. It features Expression Blend and SketchFlow of course, along with Expression Web and Encoder.

We’d love you to join us “in the kitchen”…

MIX09 starts with a bang

I strongly encourage you to take a look at the recording of the Scott Guthrie keynote and take a look at the amazing stuff we have in the works. From SuperPreview in Expression Web 3 to Sketchflow and behaviors in Expression Blend 3, we will be delivering some amazing, game changing features later this year. And the Silverlight 3 features that lit up the Twitter feeds are available to use in the Blend 3 Preview announced. Please feel free to grab them today!

The Bob Rivers Show

Spent the early part of today watching a Seattle institution - and I mean that in the nicest possible way. I was fortunate to have been the backstage pass guest for the show - basically got to sit next to Bob in the studio and watching him and the crew put out the amazing morning show. I was struck by how easy they made it look, but seeing it in action for yourself showed what an amazing team effort it really was. A fascinating glimpse into Seattle life for sure. Thanks to everyone for making me feel at home, to Bob, Spike and Joe, Maura in the newsroom, Mike for arranging the invite and Arik for being host. Check out their all new Website at The Bob Rivers Show

New month, new version, new site, new way to buy!

So it's all change in the land of Microsoft Expression. We're delighted to announce the availability of version 2 of Expression Studio, that's five new versions of Microsoft's design tools all featuring support for Silverlight.

You can read about all the new features, checkout video snippets and of course, download trial versions from the brand new Expression Website that went live this morning, featuring a new look that matches the recently launched Community Website.

And there's a new way to buy this new version, the Expression Professional Subscription, which offers a range of benefits including operating systems, tools and a license for Parallels Desktop for Mac so designers with Apple hardware can run the tools with ease using either Windows Vista or Windows XP, both of which are included in the subscription.

Congratulations from me to the entire development team on this major release, and to my colleagues responsible for the new Website!

Eric Meyer’s CSS Sculptor™

An interesting new add-in for Expression Web is now available to try for free from our friends at WebAssist. Eric Meyer’s CSS Sculptor takes a huge slab out of the CSS learning curve to provide a collection of very useable and customizable CSS page layouts - all Web standards compliant of course! Eric also talks extensively about this on his site here and here. WebAssist are currently working to make it compliant with the newly announced Expression Web 2.

Microsoft Expression 2 is announced

In an absolutely jam packed keynote here at MIX08 in Las Vegas in the midst of a raft of announcements, Expression 2 was shown for the first time by my colleague Jon Harris. There's lots to say about it, but more importantly there's bits to try! Your first stop? Why not try the new Website first...Checkout the new PHP support in Expression Web, the new animation features in Blend and of course, the Silverlight features throughout. I was stunned at some of the demos we showed in the keynote - if you didn't get a chance to see it, you can watch it online now - Jon's section starts about an hour into the session. It's so nice to see how integrated Expression is becoming to so many scenarios that Microsoft is now involved with - in this case advertising. This is such an exciting time to be involved with the evolution of Expression.

Microsoft Expression Community Home

Hello - I've not been around for a while, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to say that we have a brand new Community Web Site for Microsoft Expression. There's already a ton of content and links to our new discussion forums too with product team staff on hand to help. With Mix08 next week in Las Vegas, this marks the start of an exciting couple of weeks. If any of you are going to be there, please come find me and say hello.