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”…