Don Box, in a comment, clarified that it's "that having to define a new type just to write a program [is] the daunting part," for casual programmers. Absolutely. There's a certain amount of bookkeeping that takes the casual programmer out of the task-solving "flow." This is a perfectly legitimate beef …

Danny Boyd has written an open letter to Microsoft challenging them on the subject of scripting languages. More specifically, he worries about the "need to produce simple, procedural, functional web-based database applications. I'm talking here about HTML forms that post or retrieve data for editing."

Don Box, where I got …

I normally like to be quite specific when reviewing software, and I'm still under NDA regarding Lonestar, but I can make some general comments safely: the handwriting recognition in Lonestar is transforming the way I write. It's a combination of three things: dramatic improvements in handwriting recognition (I doubt many …

These code samples show you how to build VSMacros projects, add–ins, and wizards to make your teams more productive and to bend Visual Studio .NET 2003 to the ways you like to work. via [Microsoft Download Center]

The download is all well and good, but what I love is …

Way back in October of 2002 we predicted that Smart Display, Microsoft's operating system for wireless monitor that can detach and double as dumb tablets,... via [Gizmodo]

Okay, I'm just going to say it: I was a little disappointed by Return of the King. Maybe it was just that I held my expectations so low for The Fellowship of the Ring while my expectations were sky-high for RotK, but c'mon, once the ring is destroyed, put the …

RealMerit? RealNetworks allege that "From October 2001 to March 2003, for example, Microsoft's 'tying' ensured that Windows Media Player was preinstalled on about 95 percent of PCs shipped...RealNetworks' digital media player was preinstalled on less than 2 percent....Microsoft used contractual restrictions and financial incentives to 'force PC makers …

Scoble's learning to program in C#. Next year I'm going to be writing a book for people learning to program. Lately I've been thinking a lot that it might be based on manipulating Office from C#. The gap between "Hello, World!" and "controlling my computer to do cool things" is …

Jeroen Frijters wrote a C# program that displays an artificial horizon on his new Thinkpad T41p by reverse-engineering the [IOCTL]{.caps} that corresponds to the data provided by the built-in accelerometer in his T41p.  via [iunknown.com]

I think he should "take it to the next level" and write a …

InfoPath and XAML

The scales fell off my eyes this morning when I was answering an email to my recent SD Times article discussing InfoPath. I wrote that column before the PDC and hadn't really thought about it since (it's mostly a criticism of InfoPath's licensing model). But now I …