Friday, May 04, 2007

Morning Coffee 73

• The MSDN folks have a utility for creating custom help files from the online MSDN library. I didn't realize MSDN even had a content service. This is tres useful.
• Jeff Atwood explains how error-filled the web is and how error-tolerant modern web browsers are. I've often argued that one of the keys to the rise of Visual Basic was because it was tolerant of sloppiness. It's hard to argue with Jeff's conclusion that "forgiveness by default is what works".
• BizTalk Labs shipped an update to the Connectivity Service. It "now supports simple publish and subscribe eventing. This allows multiple clients to subscribe to a service and receive notifications." Steve Maine has some details and a link to the MIX session he did with Don.
• Larry O'Brein is happy about IronRuby, but was hoping to see a new Ruby/C# hybrid language. Even though it's his "#1 administrative programming language", he specifically hopes for a new language so would "have the flexibility to evolve the language." But Larry, MSFT already had an dynamic administrative language that it can evolve! It's called PowerShell...
• The XNA folks have shipped a bunch of new content, including the Racing Game Starter Kit.
• Machinima is growing up fast. I just discovered iClone, a real-time 3D animation filmmaking tool. You know, my birthday is coming up later this month...