It's been close to two years since we heard a peep about "Sparkle," Microsoft's so-called "Flash killer." Sparkle may have faded, but it didn't die. Our sources are telling us that we're going to hear lots more about Sparkle at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in mid-September. Expect Sparkle to be part of the Microsoft Expression Studio graphics-tool bundle, which also will be in the PDC limelight, according to sundry tipsters. It sounds like "Acrylic" is going to be part of that Expression Studio bundle, too. Developers playing with the early Acrylic builds are finding that product to be a mixed bag.