Mike Swanson's Blog
PDC05 Session Downloads
In response to your requests, I've compiled a list of direct download links to the 209 PDC05...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 11/16/2005
Macro Wallpaper Collection
It took me too long to do this, but I've finally created a single-page collection of my macro...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 11/12/2005
Now Shipping: PDC05 Post-Show DVD Set
If you attended PDC05 in Los Angeles earlier this year, you'll be happy to know that the 4-disc...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 11/12/2005
Wallpaper Images
Update: I've re-posted my wallpaper images. Enjoy! 9/29/2011: My last day at Microsoft is September...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 11/10/2005
Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar Beta
This is pretty cool. I haven't done serious web development for almost three years now (!), but if I...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 11/02/2005
Visual Studio 2005 RTM
After a very long product cycle, Visual Studio 2005 released to manufacturing today. This is an...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 10/28/2005
Fontblog, TrueType Hinting, and More
Thanks to Marcelo for pointing out the recently established fontblog. There are already a number of...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 10/27/2005
Introducing "Cider" - The Visual Studio Designer for WPF ("Avalon")
Via our friends at ActiveWin, a recently posted episode of MSDN TV features Mark Boulter and Mike...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 10/25/2005
WSYP Project: "We Share Your Pain"
A friend of mine pointed me to Microsoft U.K.'s very innovative WSYP Project. As someone who works...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 10/25/2005
PDC05 Sessions Online
If you were unable to attend the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2005 (PDC05) in Los...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 10/24/2005
Top 5 Show Off Videos
If you've been following my blog recently, or if you attended this year's Professional Developers...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 10/12/2005
Awesome Music Visualization and Screen Saver: G-Force
I'm always looking for great Media Player visualizations, and I ran across this one just before my...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 10/04/2005
Working on the PDC05 Post-Show DVD Set
I've spent the past few days reviewing the first-cut of the PDC05 post-show DVD set, and I have to...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 10/04/2005
PDC05 Show Off Videos Posted
Thanks to everyone who submitted a video for our first-ever Show Off event at PDC05. We had 25 total...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 09/29/2005
Illustrator to XAML Plug-In Updated for September 2005 CTP
I've updated my Adobe Illustrator to WPF ("Avalon")/XAML Export Plug-In to be compatible with the...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 09/16/2005
Attend the PDC05 Show Off Event Tonight!
If you're in Los Angeles at the PDC, be sure to attend the Show Off event tonight in room 411 (the...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 09/15/2005
Last Week for PDC05 Show Off Submissions
Whether or not you're attending the upcoming Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2005, we'd...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 09/04/2005
Submit Your Show Off Videos
If you've been following my blog recently, I've been talking a lot about the Show Off event we're...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 08/19/2005
PDC05 Buzzcast #7: Show Off
As we continue to plan for an exciting two-hour event at this year's Professional Developer's...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 08/19/2005
Adobe Blogs and PDC 2005 Show Off
I feel like I'm breaking some blog rule by covering two different topics in the same post, but both...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 08/17/2005
Acrylic August 2005 CTP Exports to XAML
The Acrylic August 2005 Community Technology Preview is now available for download (~82MB). Of...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 08/17/2005
Show Off at PDC 2005
Although I haven't had the time to blog about my experience, I attended SIGGRAPH 2005 at the Los...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 08/12/2005
SyncToy for Windows XP
If you're like me, you probably have thousands of digital photos and documents that you want to...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 08/09/2005
Visual Studio Extensions for WinFX Beta 1
If you've installed the WinFX Runtime Components Beta 1 and the associated WinFX SDK, and you're...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 08/09/2005
Windows Vista Beta 1 and WinFX Beta 1
I'm currently sitting in the Seattle airport waiting for a flight to Newark, and for some...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 07/27/2005
Adobe Illustrator to Avalon/XAML Export Plug-In
In response to my XAML By Hand? post awhile back, I became curious about what it would take to...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 07/12/2005
Transparent Window Sample
There's been some internal discussion about transparent and/or non-rectangular windows recently, and...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 07/07/2005
MOBIFORM's Aurora Running in Visual Studio 2005
This is cool! Wouldn't it be great to have an Avalon design tool that runs within Visual Studio...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 07/01/2005
ZAM 3D for Avalon Beta 1 RC
Electric Rain has updated their excellent ZAM 3D modeling and animation tool to support the recently...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 07/01/2005
Batman Begins
Wow. Overall, the reviews for Batman Begins have been good, but not out-of-this-world. Nevertheless,...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 06/17/2005
RAW Image Thumbnails for XP
As a digital photo enthusiast, I was excited to learn that we've released a RAW Image Thumbnailer...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 06/15/2005
CTP Madness Tool
Okay...here's a handy tool. Now that we're releasing Community Technology Previews (CTPs) so...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 06/15/2005
Public Beta of Acrylic Graphics Tool
Some of you may recall our 2003 acquisition of Expression, a vector-based illustration tool by...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 06/15/2005
New Avalon, Indigo, WinFX, and Speech API Beta 1 RC
We released the "Avalon" and "Indigo" Beta 1 RC to the general public earlier today (release notes)....
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 05/24/2005
Introducing the Xbox 360 (and a Cool Video)
Tonight, MTV presented Xbox: The Next Generation Revealed and gave everyone a sneak peak at the next...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 05/13/2005
Shutting Down Outlook
This is one of those things that I thought only happened to me. For years, I've been running...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 05/12/2005
XAML By Hand!?
Adam Nathan responds to Mike at Median Group (an awesome designer that I had the pleasure to work...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 05/12/2005
More PDC 2005 Information
Our PDC 2005 site has more information about the upcoming event at the Los Angeles Convention...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 05/12/2005
Chris Anderson's 11-Minute Avalon Overview
Channel 9 strikes again! They cornered Chris Anderson for an 11-minute video interview where Chris...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 05/12/2005
Component Vendors on Channel 9
I organized and ran my first developer lab at our Platform Adoption Center (otherwise known as...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 05/12/2005
XAML Playing Cards
Adam Nathan's Win32 to WinFX Blog has a good post titled XAML Playing Cards. Adam takes the playing...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 05/04/2005
Flash in the Can Avalon Presentation Video
As mentioned previously, I attended the Flash in the Can event in Toronto earlier this month with...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 04/27/2005
Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2
Although you've probably heard about this elsewhere by now, I figured I'd add my own post to the...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 04/18/2005
ZAM 3D: A 3D XAML Modeling Tool
Electric Rain has released a Community Technology Preview (CTP) build of their new 3D XAML designer...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 04/11/2005
Interesting Microsoft Insight from Javalobby
A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft hosted a Technology Summit and invited many prominent members from...
Author: Michael Swanson Date: 03/29/2005