Microsoft have finally revealed their plans for Expression but they are setting themselves up for a fall by encouraging direct comparisions to Adobe Photoshop when users think comparisons to MS Paint are more appropriate. Comparisons to Adobe Photoshop are particularly strange because Expression is a Vector Graphics program more like Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator. The distinction between Vector and Raster graphics matters less and less, the boundries are increasingly blurred as applications include a mix of features.
Microsoft continue to help out hardware manufacturers by requiring newer and faster computers to run their software and users complain of poor performance but it has been said before that Microsoft never gets anything right on the first release.
As if it wasn't obvious that software patents will only serve to make Patent Lawyers richer, and just in case already Microsoft had forgotten losing the Eolas patent on case on Web Browser plugins they have again lost another patent case this time related to Microsoft Excel and Access.
Nicu Buculei has started to create a beautiful new deck of cards and I hope he will continue.