This is one of those apps that is so integrated into my workflow that I don’t even notice how much I use it unless I happen to not have it for some reason.  It’s a color “liftter” that sits in the system tray, waiting to tell you the color of the pixel below your cursor.  At only 6K, I think it’s the most densely useful file (measured in utility per byte) on my computer.  The only contender might be the font Verdana.

So here’s the only documentation:  1) run the executable  2) move your mouse over a pixel  3) hit F7 to copy the hex value to the clipboard  

This was created by Neil Kronlage.  The very dev that brought you such WPF delicacies such as GridSplitter, SystemDropShadowChrome, the WPF implementation of the Aero theme and countless other bits of the platform.  He created wt hen we were “lifting” the desings for the default control templates.  If you love it (and I’m sure you will) be sure the leave comments and we can pass them along to Neil!

 If you haven’t realized yet that data can be art, then Smashing Magazine’s overview of modern approaches to data visualization is a must read.  If you already believe that then it’s still a must read, but feel free to do so with less vigor.

I had a nice flight and I would attribute that primarily to Van Morrison and Feist.   Both are serious rockers with a friendly side.  So in the spirit of sharing, I did some YouTube research and came accross these videos.

The first is Van Morrison circa 1965.  When I was 14 I was into a song with the lyric “If I should die in a car wreck, may I have Van Morrison on my tape deck.”  At the time, I think the only Van Morrison song I knew was Moondance which is a great song, but left me thinking that Van was a bit of a crooner.  Needless to say, I didn’t relate to the lyric.  Watching this, though, you can understand the ethos of a Van-head.  Van’s got a serious presence.  Also, checkout the size of that guys guitar at the end of the clip.

The second set clip is from Feist’s album The Rememberance which is quickly climbing my personal charts.  My favorite song on the album is I Feel it All and somehow Jimmy Kimmel got her to play it as she drove around on a bus.  Apparently he does that a lot.  He referenced a portion of his web site specifically dedicated to the to the “Pontiac Garage.”  Okay, so it’s a little corny to play music on a bus when you’re actually on TV.  But if ever there were a song that works, it would have to be this one.  The instrumentation is so minimal and Feist’s voice so strong that if you just listen to the clip instead of watching it, you would easily think that it’s a “live” studio recording.  If this song doesn’t get you hooked then, well, stick with Van Morrison.  But just so you know, the rest of album is also this creative.

I’ll be speaking this week at MIX in London so if you happen to be in town or, even better, at the conference, be sure to say hi.  I’m really excited for the event.  I’ll be copresenting two sessions with Paul Dawson from Conchango, our “WPF Reader” producing counterparts accross the pond.  They built a reader for the Daily Mail at the same time we were working on readers for the Seattle Post Intelligencer and Forbes.

The first session (which is on Tuesday) is about reading experiences in WPF and the comic book reader that we created.  My portion of this will be similiar to the presentation that Nathan and I gave at MIX in Vegas.  Maybe a little more hands on this time though.

The second session (on Wednesday) is about user centered design and organizing a WPF super team.  In particular, I’ll be talking about the Integrator role.  This will be mostly new content and for those of you who can’t make it, I’ll make a point of posting my portion of the talk (either slides or long form) after Wednesday.  As serious readers of blog know (this means you Mom), the Integrator role is something that I’m pretty passionate about.

Today we launched our biggest Silverlight production to date!  It’s the Entertainment Tonight Emmy Mini Site.  I can’t personally take much credit for this, but the guys who worked on it did a fantastic job.  It was a monumental effort, done in a very short amount of time.  For a behind the scenes look of the development process, check out this video on Beet.tv.

We have an emerging summer tradition in our family.  It’s a simple one: go to the Evergreen Speedway Fouth of July Demolition Derby Extravaganza no matter what (because it’s awesome)!  How awesome?  Fortunately our friend Joel caught this pinnacle moment on camera.