DreamSpark is one of those relatively-awesome-yet-equally-as-known initiatives from Microsoft. Yeah, plenty of people know about it, especially many up-and-coming developers who happen to be the intended audience, but there are also others who could easily benefit. I always manage to run into an IT or CS student who has no idea about DreamSpark until I tell the person, and once they see it, it’s like this treasure trove of lightbulbs turns on in the person’s mind.

For those who don’t know, DreamSpark throws free software at students (after verifying their student-hood, of course). I previously wrote about using DreamSpark to get and use a free OS in place of Vista over here.

Now, keeping the awesomeness of DreamSpark in mind, Expression 3 was only very recently released. A number of threads have popped up on the internet, with the most notable first result for me being this thread on Channel 8. Coupled with requests from other students I personally know as well as faculty from schools near the DC area (thanks for reading, guys!), I figured I’d look into it.

There’s good news, and there’s the news which isn’t exactly bad. I’ll spill the news which isn’t exactly bad first.

There’s no official target date on getting Expression Studio 3 up on DreamSpark, nor will it be available in July, nor is the target timeframe a certainty or guarantee. There; that’s the news which isn’t exactly bad.

The good news: the target timeframe is still before the point when classes start for many of you. The word, as given by a Microsoft spokesperson, is that a “target timeframe would be [the] end of August.”

If you can’t wait ‘til then, go grab Expression Studio 2 from DreamSpark right now. Otherwise, show some patience, be awesome, and grab Expression Studio 3 once it drops for you guys for free in a month. Cheers to dreamers at Channel 8 for holding out, and I’ll have an update for people once a specific date has been settled upon.

This is the final part in a series of two.

Yesterday, I focused on the un-selling points of the new MacBook Pro line as announced during the WWDC keynote. Today, my focus is going to be on Snow Leopard, Apple’s rather depressing tendency to bash Microsoft, and the rather nasty turn-off this all happens to be. Granted, most of Apple’s recent ad campaigns have comprised of “let’s make things up about Windows!” in order to try and gain market share. Microsoft is only avoiding suing Apple because of the potential for the world’s worst Streisand effect, which is depressing given the libelous nature of the ads themselves.

Having said this, it’s no surprise to see this mentality persist throughout this year’s WWDC keynote, so I’ll pick up from yesterday and explain just why Snow Leopard in and of itself is nothing more than hypocrisy.

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Stan Schroeder over at Mashable decided to argue in favor of Mozilla and Opera’s complaints reegarding Internet Explorer 8 becoming the default browser when the user upgrades to Windows 7 RC via Express settings. It took me a few reads to realize he was serious, so I’ll spare you the hassle of reading through his post and summarize it for you:

wwwaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!

Let’s look at a logic chain here:

1. User installs third party browser and makes it the default on Windows Vista.
2. User upgrades to Windows 7 down the road, chooses express upgrade options.
3. IE8 replaces the Vista default as the new default browser.

So, Mozilla and Opera are arguing that a new Microsoft browser which was installed onto Microsoft’s OS shouldn’t become default when the user just wants to install Windows and be done with it? Think about it this way: A user chooses to go with express configuration settings because the user doesn’t want to deal with setting anything up on his/her own. The user, therefore, consents to using Microsoft’s default settings, and Microsoft’s defaults include setting up Internet Explorer 8 as the default browser. If the user really wanted to customize any settings, the user would go ahead and do so without any problems. Keep in mind that installing Windows 7 also means, by extension, installing Internet Explorer 8.

There is no problem here; all I see is whining, and it’s getting ridiculous. Mozilla and Opera should work on creating a compelling product, and while I agree that Opera is better than Internet Explorer 8 in many ways including memory management (Mozilla’s RAM issues prevent me from considering it for anything), the point is that Windows belongs to Microsoft, and thus, Microsoft can do whatever they want with it. These “dominant market position” arguments don’t fly because Mozilla and Opera are both using the argument selectively; you don’t see them making nearly as much noise about Apple and the iPhone/iPod touch/Mac.

This topic is way too technical and/or boring to be an April Fool’s joke. Sorry. ~Devin

While researching to make sure my computer wouldn’t explode at exactly 12:00AM on Wednesday, I happened to see on that site that to check a server’s time, you can look up HTTP information via telnet (Note: This will only work on computers running Windows XP or below. Windows Vista and Windows 7 do not include telnet by default).

While examining these headers, I happened to see something very interesting with the site I tried: the very popular MSN.com.

Check after the break for an analysis along with other targets.
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Scott Guthrie and Brian Goldfarb held a conference call in the morning (Pacific time) and used their time to discuss the launch of Silverlight 2. I took part in the web conference and jotted down some quick things which are worth noting, though here are some worthy facts which you can take a quick gander at right now:

• Anyone on Silverlight 1 or Silverlight 2 Beta will be automatically upgraded to Silverlight 2.0 (as written in the EULA). I asked Scott if Windows Server Update Services can block Silverlight from auto-upgrading on a business network. Answer: Yes.
• Changes from RC0 are limited in scope, basically bug fixes and minor UI tweaks to some of the controls.
• Content can be DRM’d, which makes sense given Blockbuster’s willingness to embrace Silverlight as a platform.
• Eclipse IDE support!

To download Silverlight 2, simply head here. Catch more tidbits of Silverlight 2 goodness after the break.

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The last couple of weeks, I have been working incredibly hard on a tool to create Vista Style Builder. Vista Style Builder supports everything that is needed to create Visual Styles for Vista:

• Import and export images
• Change, add or remove properties
• Import and export STREAM images
• Compile into a totally new MsStyles-file

In this post I will highlight some details of Vista Style Builder (VSB) which show how much easier this application makes it to edit MsStyles.

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