Also available in English

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been enjoying the writings of Tim Patrick for many years. Sadly, your enjoyment has been limited to Tim’s mother tongue of English, since his publishers did not see fit to include a universal translator in each published work.

Now there is good news for foreign language readers hungry for slightly-outdated software development references. While wandering somewhat recklessly around the Internet the other day, I discovered that my Visual Basic 2005 in a Nutshell book had been published in the Polish language. It’s available for sale right now at your nearby Polish book reseller.

When you thumb through the pages, you’ll learn about essential Visual Basic 2005 programming topics such as “Zmienne i typy danych,” “Wprowadzenie do programowania obiektowego,” and of course “Dodatki.” It’s a feast for Eastern European eyes!

Last weekend, my wife and I were invited by a magician-friend to have dinner at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, California. The Castle is a private club for professional and amateur illusionists who need an escape when their I-will-now-make-my-teenagers-act-normal trick fails to work.
The “World Famous Hollywood Magic Castle” is located just behind the Kodak Theatre [...]

Last week I flew to Seattle to attend the Microsoft MVP 2009 Summit for its selected MVPs (“Most Valuable Professionals”) . Don’t let the fancy name fool you. Although those in attendance are most valuable to Microsoft, and despite what you may have heard, the MVPs are still fed buffet style, and without a team [...]

Since 1991, Visual Basic has held the hand of new and experienced programmers as they meandered their way through the minefield of Windows application development. That’s why we here at Microsoft are pleased to announce some of the exciting changes included in the upcoming release of Visual Basic 2010. These new features will simplify each [...]

When Microsoft moved Visual Basic from its version-6 roots to the new world of .NET in 2002, it endowed the language with a level of power and flexibility never before seen in a BASIC variant. But that move also brought a competitor on to the scene: C#. This new language-on-the-block is a formidable rival, especially [...]

Metered on-ramps are common fare throughout the Los Angeles freeway system. The massive influx of cars onto the highways during the five or six hours-de-rush each day requires some method to even out the rolling population. And while the unidirectional stoplights make at least some attempt to alleviate the metal density on the freeway, they [...]

Several months ago, Google announced that its mapping system would provide directions for not only cars, but for trains and community bus systems as well. Apparently, they’ve also added certain forms of watercraft. Click here for Google Maps’ directions from Seattle to Honolulu. But be careful: they forgot to add the instruction for donning your [...]