I was searching with the boys this morning and found this:

I just thought I’d share. : )

My sons and I (and my 11-year old boy’s “date!!!“) all enjoyed Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. I know it didn’t have much in the way of decent dialog or acting, but when compared to the other 5 in the series (especially episodes I and II), it rocked. I’ve only seen it once, but right now it’s tied for first in my mind with A New Hope (I know some snobs like The Empire Strikes Back best, but I still love the feel of the first one).

Also, I liked Unleashed a great deal. Not only did I enjoy the fighting, but I really enjoyed the relationship between Danny and his new family.

On the other hand, in spite of being a huge Frank Miller fan in general and a Sin City comic book fan specifically, I couldn’t stand that silly movie. I wanted to see a movie version, not the comic book version projected onto the screen!

In other news, I’m still waiting for a sequel to The Matrix. I don’t count this fan-boy movie or this one. Anyone got a release date to a follow on worth the time to watch?

Today Microsoft has published the release candidate of Avalon and Indigo Beta 1. The most interesting features of this release over the CTP releases of the past is that these bits work on Visual Studio 2005 beta 2, both full and express. Enjoy!

The Avalon team is hiring. For example, here’s a software development engineer (SDE) position on the Avalon team:

“The Avalon team is developing the next generation UI, document and media platform for Longhorn (the next version of Windows). Our group’s mission is to transform the development experience and to leverage the immense power of graphics hardware to bring new and compelling features to Windows and Windows applications. We are looking for an individual contributor to help us design and implement an extensible architecture to provide rich Imaging (codecs, effects, metadata, wide-gamut color) and solutions. This individual will work with other groups across the systems division as well as cross-division that are dependent on this functionality. Strong problem solving and cross-group skills are required. Experience with C, C++, C#, and text and imaging/graphics technologies (e.g. publishing tools, Flash, SVG, etc.) are pluses. At least a BA/BS degree in Computer Science or related technical discipline preferred.”

If you’re a UI or a media person, I can’t imagine a better place for you then on the Avalon team, and this isn’t the only Avalon-related position we’ve got. In fact, I did a query today and found 25 SDE positions at MS with the keyword “Avalon” in the description. Come one, come all! We’re having an Avalon party at Microsoft and we’d love you to come and join us. : )

Apparently in Whidbey, “dumpbin” (and some other tools that were merely wrappers around link) has been dumped. To get to it now, do “link -dump -dumpbin_options” e.g. “link -dump -exports” does what “dumpbin -exports” used to do. In fact, if you just do “link -dump” the usage you get is labeled as the dumpbin usage. : )

BTW, it looks like “lib,” while still there, is also “link -lib” and “editbin” becomes “link -edit.”

[via Brent Rector]

Imagine the following C program:

// cmdio.c
#include <stdio.h>

void main() {
  char s[256] = "";
  printf(">");
  scanf("%s", s);
  printf("%s\n", s);
}

If I run this from a command shell and I enter “hi” [Enter], it looks like this:

C:\>cmdio.exe
>hi
hi

If I run it again using “lo” [Enter] this time, it would look like this:

C:\>cmdio.exe
>lo
lo

Here’s the thing that blew me away. Anytime I run it after the 1st from the same cmd shell, I get history! For example, running it a 3rd time and pressing [Up Arrow][Enter] gives me this!

C:\>cmdio.exe
>lo
lo

The up and down arrows work, F7 works, F8 works, they all work! When the heck did the shell start keeping track of per sub-command histories and why haven’t I noticed it ’til now?!?

There has been some publisher/author controversy around the length of the 2ed of Windows Forms Programming. WF2 has essentially doubled in size, so I was happy that it looks like we’re be less than twice the number of pages (700 for 1ed vs. estimated 1200 for 2ed). However, when I sent this estimate to my publisher last month, they were less than pleased. Apparently if you go above 800 pages, that tends to scare people and may cut into sales. Here are the options we wrestled with:

1. Cut 400 pages of material out of the WF2 book, leaving it on the cutting room floor
2. Ship a 1200 page WF2 book, increasing the cover price by $10
3. Move 400 pages of material out of the WF2 book, releasing them as freely available PDF files on the web (continuing to index and refer to this material in the printed book)
4. Split the book into two volumes, priced accordingly (probably $35 each)

There’s one piece of information that I’m share later that caused us to lean one way more than the other, but I’m curious what readers would choose when given this choice.

P.S. Believe me when I tell you that we’ve been diligent about cutting stuff that doesn’t belong in the book, although I admit that we’ve been unwilling to cut material that will be generally useful for WinForms programmers, even if it does decrease sales. I’m still hoping we’ll be able to get the page count below 1200, but the upshot is that option #1 has always been a non-starter for me.

P.P.S. I expect the first three reviews on Amazon to be complaints about whichever method we choose and reminising about how wonderful it was to get all of WinForms in 700 pages. Those kinds of complaints should be forwarded to the WinForms team in emails that start with “You put too much good stuff into WinForms 2.0!” : )

Sean Gerety has updated his Avalon sparklines implementation, producing good news, bad news and more good news:

• good news: the sparklines implementation fits nicely in with the other Avalon elements
• bad news: MSFT stock is dead, dead, dead
• good news: sparklines shows how dead MSFT is very nicely!