Acrylic Technology Preview

Looks like Microsoft is looking at tackling the graphics space with their new tool code-named Acrylic. I for one have been waiting for Microsoft to look at creating tools in this area since I’ve been a big fan of Corel in the past but its really gotten to large and bloated these days.

Its also an important step I think for user interface designers because you can bet that Microsoft is looking at using Acrylic to do things like emit XAML files that developers can then hang their code off, it’d certainly be useful for creating those vector based icons.

Anyway – here is my first attempt at using the tool! I think that if then open it up for both managed and unmanaged extensibility then they could be onto a winner here.

Dear Blog

Its been more than one week since I last wrote to thee – do not be angry, I have a really good excuse. First of all my laptop died, and  I’ve also been preoccupied with some BizTalk work which I’ve found particularly facinating, unfortunately I can’t really say more than that – what a tease!

With the laptop, the connector at the back of the laptop that I plug the AC power adapter into looks like it has broken away from the motherboard. This means that I can power it up as long as I have battery power – just enough time to get some critical files off. During the course of the week I had a couple of opportunities to charge the battery up on a docking station but I really have to concerve the power just in case.

I’ve taken this opportunity to get a new laptop since mine was due for a referesh anyway, it’ll just take a little while to arrive, even though its pegged for urgent delivery. In the meantime I have to timeshare on my wife’s computer or use machines at client sites.

I’m looking forward to catching up with some posting about topics of interest over the course of the next couple of days – so stay tuned!