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 …

[W]hat does the inventor of Tetris do for MS?

I don't want to make any stupid assumptions, but my guess is that he designs the cubicle layouts while listening to catchy music... via [Neopoleon.com]

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p xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> Rory's witty.

::: {dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"} Jim Hugunin, of AspectJ and JPython/Jython, has made a preliminary version of Python that runs quickly on .NET. This is a very big deal big in that to date the only third-party dynamic languages for .NET have been conspicuously low-performance. At the "Alternate Languages …