If you haven’t seen it, Xamlon is a .NET 1.1 implementation of Longhorn’s XAML. And while I was under the impression that it was just XAML, i.e. a language for declaring and defining objects, it looks like Xamlon is an attempt to implement Avalon, too. I haven’t downloaded it, but looking at the Xamlon samples and code online, it looks like a subset of Avalon. Interesting…

Here.

OK, so Producer isn’t perfect. For one thing, at least in the Longhorn PDC Presentations on which I’ve been catching up, there’s no fast forward or rewind, which is kind of annoying. Also, I’ve fallen in love with the Speed setting in WMP, so I miss that.

However, I had to reboot my machine to get VPN working today in the middle of a session, and when I starting the Producer session for CLI300: Avalon: Building Applications with Controls and Dialogs up again, it remembered where I was down to the second! That’s pretty damn cool.

Of course, I’ve wasted all the time savings telling you people about it, but still… : )

When I heard that Alexey Pajitnov, the inventor of Tetris, worked at MS, I *had* to show him Wahoo!. He said that I was violating copyright. Shhh... Nobody tell... : )

Ever since coming to Microsoft, I’ve been doing my best to be as available as I was before hand. However, what that means is that sometimes I get requests for help in areas that are way out of my purview. One such thing is when people send me ideas for products that can only be done by Microsoft, implying some kind of partnership with the originator of the idea. I know how that works — I’ve pitched my share of ideas at MS looking for funding, too. However, unless it’s funding for developer-related content (of which I have a tiny amount), I can’t help anyone fund their sure-fire startup. However, since MS gets so many such requests, they’ve set up a web site to take them all in. If you’ve got yourself the next killer app idea, save yourself the time and go directly to the Microsoft Partner Proposal Tool. I’m guessing the success rate is small, but it’s certainly better than sending me email. : )

Here. I can't believe a missed the first piece of Ian Griffiths's new column! Ian is a DevelopMentor instructor, co-author on three books with me (two still in development) and a long-time friend. Check out his opinion on WinFX and what it means for developers and please point me at the RSS feed so I don't miss the next one!

Here. FTP has posted the Design-Time Integration chapter from Windows Forms Programming in Visual Basic .NET. Enjoy.

Here. Of course, consumers won't care that the Electronic Showbox photo organization, editing and sharing software was built from the ground up using the .NET Framework (and Genghis), but I understand from the CTO that he "shudders" to think what it would have been link to develop in native code. Plus, he gives free copies to his favorite bloggers. Enjoy.

If you're overwhelmed by the huge number of PDC talks, I've split out the Longhorn-specific talks, including streaming video presentations, slides and demo source code as available.