In Nomine - The Lotus Land

So I have been toying with the proofing tools and input method editors (IME) from Office 2007. The issue with the single language packs is that you cannot just group the entire stuff together.

Also trying to run the MSIs from the individual directories for the proofing tools or the IMEs greets you with an ‘Error 1713′. On the other hand, if you run the MSI from the command prompt and passing along LAUNCHEDBYSETUPEXE=1 as an argument it will install. Curious.

So I was working with a Japanese .xla (Excel add-in) file. I needed to look at something in the source so I fired up the Visual Basic editor within Excel. Upon investigating the form and the various captions it turns out that the Visual Basic editor only displayed them in gibberish (typical decoding issues) or question marks (substituting the .notdef glyph for codepoints). So it seems the Visual Basic editor is either not multi-byte capable (typing directly a string in Japanese into the caption yielded question marks) or it is bound to the locale of the system.

I then remembered AppLocale and fired up Excel through it, setting it to think it is on a Japanese system. Then within Excel I proceeded to start the Visual Basic editor and, sure enough, the text was showing me the Japanese I needed.

I am not sure if I should find this lame or understandable.

Recently I have to do a lot of C# programming. It’s a quite ok language to be honest. I need to wrap certain unsafe code in C# code. Some of this unsafe code uses the old type UCHAR, which is defined as an unsigned char type with a limit of 0 to 255, inclusive. Perusing some websites to look for some marshaling information I actually find people recommending using the sbyte data type for this. This datatype (sbyte, SByte or the full System.SByte) is a signed 8-bit integer type. This means it has a range of -128 to 127. This is also extensively documented in the sbyte C# reference. So I am left wondering how well these programmers actually do understand their data types.

I was pointing out to a friend of mine that for her new PC, or in this case a laptop to be more portable, she might actually consider a Macintosh. I think the Macintosh would, at least for her, mark an increase in productivity.

Instead of focusing on maintaining her computer she could actually spend the time working on her personal coaching business.

The only downside of the entire story is that a Macintosh laptop here would be about € 2000 whereas a similar Windows-based laptop would be about € 1000 - 1500. It is hard to justify such a difference in cost when she never really screws up her computer in the first place anyway. And yes, remarkably Windows is still running without much problems. So at the end of the day people like her will probably never turn to a Macintosh environment for a number of reasons:

• they have to get adjusted to another operating system,
• they do not encounter so many problems on Windows that warrants them to consider it a pain in the proverbial butt,
• they already have established a workflow based on their current software,
• they will look at their wallet and a € 500 - 1000 price difference is hard to justify (especially for those who are not crazy about computers for more than a tool for doing their work).

So I wonder what Apple will actually do to draw in more of the normal users instead of their largely elite-based userbase still. It’s hard to sell a Macintosh based on price alone and does the price difference account for the productivity gain, however small?

Now that Microsoft allows you to download the Consolas font the question becomes how to add it to the list of choices for the command prompt properties.

In the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 247815 you can find instructions on how to add a font.

Basically on most default Windows XP installations it boils down to adding a String name '00' to the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Console\TrueTypeFont with a value of 'Consolas' (the corresponding name from HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts).

In a SIGGraph 2006 presentation by NVIDIA it shows that Microsoft has revisited its stance on how they will support OpenGL within Windows Vista. You may recall when I first wrote about this last year that Microsoft’s initial plan was to layer OpenGL through DirectX.

This time last year…

• The plan for OpenGL on Windows Vista was to layer OpenGL over Direct3D in order to obtain the Aeroglass experience

The situation today…

• OpenGL accelerated ICD now fully supported under Windows Vista
• OpenGL works fully with the Aeroglass compositing desktop
• Performance and stability will rival Windows XP by driver release

So it seems some complaining still works given sufficient pressure.

I recently installed the latest ForceWare drivers from NVIDIA, 91.31. Works great, the new control panel is also quite a nice addition.

However, my machine is a single GPU machine and every time on a fresh boot I am greeted by a popup balloon from the tasktray stating that: “[...] SLI multi-GPU rendering has been disabled.”

Of course having only one GPU that makes, but it is kind of annoying.

I encountered the following article over at NVIDIA’s customer help. The fix, for now, is to incorporate a registry change. In a newer driver this will apparently be fixed (apparently it is in the beta driver). The registry change, however, disables all balloon notifications, which is a bit drastic in my opinion.

I had issues with my Windows XP system from time to time resetting/reverting the speaker settings back from surround (4.1) to desktop speakers.

I finally found a newsgroup posting that put it in connection with my Creative Audigy 2:

Some games and other programs can change the Windows speaker-settings though, so you might want to try the second solution: stop the Audigy from using the Windows settings. Make sure you have the newest drivers installed, go to the Audigy 2 speaker settings program and uncheck ‘Synchronize with Control Panel’. That’s all - the Audigy 2 should now remember it’s own speaker settings, insteaf of resetting them to those of Windows.

Downloading the latest drivers from the soundblaster.com site also included the Creative Audio Console, which can do what the posting above points out. And sure enough, I suddenly have my surround sound in World of Warcraft again.

If you have a hard disk and after a few reinstalls of Windows XP you keep getting:

Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

Check your hard disk with your manufacturer’s test software (like PowerMax in Maxtor’s case), the hard disk might just be dying. It seems to be in my case. Best part, it is already a RMA replacement drive for my previously dying hard disk. Got to love that. Was a refurbished one they sent me. *sigh*

Might as well go Seagate by now.

From an OpenGL forum post:

Microsoft’s current plan for OpenGL on Windows Vista is to layer OpenGL over Direct3D in order to use OpenGL with a composited desktop to obtain the Aeroglass experience. If an OpenGL ICD is run - the desktop compositor will switch off - significantly degrading the user experience.

In practice this means for OpenGL under Aeroglass:

• OpenGL performance will be significantly reduced - perhaps as much as 50%
• OpenGL on Windows will be fixed at a vanilla version of OpenGL 1.4
• No extensions will be possible to expose future hardware innovations

It would be technically straightforward to provide an OpenGL ICD within the full Aeroglass experience without compromising the stability or the security of the operating system. Layering OpenGL over Direct3D is a policy more than a technical decision.

What can you do?

1. Write to your preferred ISV, hardware developer or OEM and tell them to bring this up with Microsoft (e.g. 3Dlabs, ATI, Intel, Matrox, NVIDIA, HP, Dell)
2. Bring this issue up on other developer and tech-related web sites. If you have a personal blog or podcast, talk about the issue there. Windows Vista might end up being a great product, but not if OpenGL is crippled
3. Post your comments to this message board (please no Microsoft bashing - Just make it clear that Windows needs to stay a great platform for the OpenGL API and offer any suggestions)