Dare wrote a post with the title Microsoft Missing the Boat on Programming Language Trends. Coincidentally (or not? Maybe Dare read my mind) - I was preparing to write an entry with almost exactly the same title! My topic is a bit different. Dare wrote about how Microsoft has neglected certain types of languages (scripting, VB, etc), and appears to have been inspired by Chris Anderson's post. I'm certain that they're both right. No doubt about it, Microsoft has been blindly focused on C# (and to...

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Mike Torres gave his list of 5 problems with MSN Spaces. I think all of those things could use fixing… but I have a list of my own. 1) An API. I want to be able to post entries from Outlook/Newsgator and without having to use the browser (although I do think MSN’s browser editing control is the best I’ve used). 2) Ink support. Maybe this is a bad idea for those of us with awful handwriting J But I would really like to see a posting option for Tablet PC users that uses a simple Ink-enabled...

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I love my M200. It’s very much the closest thing to the “holy grail” of laptops that I’ve ever used. For me, the future of the “convertible” Tablet PC is obvious. In a couple years, I want every laptop to be a Tablet. But really… it’s still a laptop… albeit a better one. But what about the slate design? That’s the real new kid on the block. A laptop without a keyboard. Or is it? Who says a slate laptop can’t have one of these built...

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This almost became a Dear Microsoft letter, but I decided at the last minute that most of these goals could be accomplished by just about anybody. So instead I’m going to start a new recurring column, “What I want.” This was originally supposed to be about the Tablet PC, but since I accidentally posted this before I wanted to, I've relabeled it with the more general topic of “mobility,“ since that's really the focus of this post. I'll post “part 2“ tomorrow...

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Vince has the right idea. What I REALLY want, is this: http://www.sprint.com/busin... but with a hard drive (5GB would be good. 20-40GB would be better). And WiFi would be cool too. Some hardware buttons for controlling the media player would be nice. But I’m sure a good “media mode” system could be delivered (with a low-power music-only mode). You build that… and a smaller i600 size version (no keyboard, flip phone, smaller screen)…...

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So it’s here at last, Microsoft’s entrance into the desktop search market. I’ll start this off by saying that these guys have done some excellent work. Already it has replaced Copernic and Lookout for me completely. Of course, as a user, I always want more. So here’s my Christmas list: Context-sensitive searching in more places. Context-sensitive searching in the Open File dialog (as I describe here) The ability to search down the current folder structure in Explorer. Custom...

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I don’t know if this is possible, but here’s what I want: A) A way to schedule TV recordings remotely from another PC. This might be possible just using RDP, I don’t know, I haven’t tried (yet). B) A way to change my TV recording schedule from a Smartphone, using HTTP or some other remote access method. I’d imagine this would work by having some lightweight server application on the Media Center PC, and a small client app to which you provide the Media Center’s...

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