Brent Simmons has some thoughts on managing shared code . Those ideas are a good start, the most important being that this code needs to be under some kind of source code management tool, preferably one with good branching/merging facilities. There are a couple of other ideas to keep in mind.  Brent...

MacWorld has a decent review of BBEdit 8.5 , but it fails to mention a new feature that is of particular use to programmers. One of the features of CodeWarrior that I'd missed was the syntax highlighting that the IDE applied to symbols that were defined within the project. In fact, I hadn't realized...

The buzz around the bloggosphere is about Scoble's New Adventure . Robert adds his own words on the subject . I've had a chance to meet Robert over the past couple of years, and I'll miss his presence in the area. He threw some fun parties, and nights at Robert's house were always interesting. You...

Last July, pigs flew through Hyde Park , and yesterday they flew through Cupertino . The only thing I want to know is, of those who've installed Boot Camp, how many of them have dragged their task bar to the top of the screen? Rick Currently playing in iTunes: Land of Make Believe by Chuck...

The list of Win Office 12 bloggers is growing. The latest addition is Will Kennedy , who is the general manager of the Outlook team. Will's a former Word developer. Before that, Will was an intern on the Mac Word 5.0 project. Back in those days, we would occasionally "name" some of our testing releases...

November 11 is my birthday. As a kid, I used to think it was cool that people would put flags out on my birthday. In that self-centered, woefully uninformed, way that kids view the world, I'd mistakenly thought people were putting them out for me. By the time I was six or seven, though, I knew it...

No, I'm not talking about a swing around the wing . Over the past several weeks, a handful of Office 12 related blogs have started up. While these are dedicated to the work that's happening in Windows Office, I expect quite a few people who read my blog will be interested in at least some of the subjects...

When Win Office 2003 shipped, there was a great deal of debate as to the “openness” of Microsoft’s use of XML. The debate resurfaced with the announcement of the new Office 12 XML-based file formats, and it’s been further brought to the fore in recent days with Massachusetts’ recent decision regarding...

And some are already here. Microsoft's global summit of Most Valued Professionals is this week. The official kick-off is tomorrow, and ends on Saturday. Scoble says he's looking forward to seeing what the MVPs learn from us, but I get excited about what I'm going to learn from the MVPs. I'm...

Dan Manrique tells part of the story of katrinasafe.com , with more to come. I thought you might like to know that Rebecca Harris is currently a tester in Mac BU. Gil Gordon, Steve Friesen and Omar Shahine are former Mac BU people who've moved to hotmail. In any crisis situation, there is a need...

With all the political wrangling and the coulda-shoulda-woulda flotsam bobbing to the surface in Katrina's wake, it's all too easy to forget the unique role that New Orleans played in the development of a uniquely American art form. Were it not for New Orleans' unique cultural mix--a mix that owes itself...

...through Hyde Park. Way cool!   Rick Currently playing in iTunes: Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) by Pink Floyd

Today's theme seems to be names. Dave Winer and Kosso are wondering about Robert Scoble's middle initial . Sorry, Robert, but I've already staked a claim to having all the relevant initials . On almost related note of vanity, having a last name that happens to be a common verb in some other language...

Dave Winer is looking for a Mac developer with knowledge of Frontier and MacBird to work on his latest project: an OPML editor. According to Dave, the Mac version is stalled. If I didn't just get a load of work heaped on me, I'd be sorely tempted to toss my hat in. It'd be a great, and really fun...

Dave Winer provided this link to an article posted by Dave Luebbert. Dave Luebbert was the development manager for Mac Word 5.0, and was my first boss at Microsoft. Dave (L) is an incredible guy. He's a musician, and a very big fan of Jazz. He's been working on a music composition program ( Song...

I've seen quite a few people comment in blogs that the endian issue I mentioned yesterday won't turn out to be much of an issue. Well, you can't say I didn't warn you about drinking the Kool-Aid, but it you still have some lingering doubts that there isn't a significant number of developers out there...

OK, so I have a smart play list that I call "Random LRP". Basically, it's like the party shuffle, except that it limits itself to songs that I haven't heard in the past two weeks. My library is large enough, that the list is always full at 100 songs. So, just now, it cued up Stevie Ray Vaughn's...

Over the past couple of days, I've received some e-mail messages purporting to be from PayPal. Each message claims that I've added an e-mail address (a different e-mail address in each message) to my account, and gives a link that I can follow to verify that I did, indeed, add the given e-mail address...

The MSDN blogs have moved to new digs. We're no longer running on .Text. We're now running on Community Server 1.0 . Special kudos go to Betsy Aoki , Scott Watermasysk and their minions. I know you're singin' the got dot net blues, Betsy, but I think the community will be happier once the minor kinks...

I think Roz got tired of doing the twice-weekly commute between San Jose and Redmond. In any case, I am not moving to California! Know anyone who's willing to hire an over-the-hill Mac geek? Rick Currently playing in iTunes: Wherever You Go by Pat Metheny Group Update: I'd included a mocked-up press...

When I first started this blog, I said I'd talk about music from time to time. I've been searching for the right opportunity to do so, but, until now, none have presented themselves. This morning, however, NPR's Morning Edition had a piece on Wes Montgomery . The big news is that Verve have reissued...

Martin Sevior wonders how one talks to me . Well, you come over to my blog, and you leave a comment. I'd have answered Martin's question by leaving a comment there, but his blog doesn't have comments turned on.   Rick Currently playing in iTunes: Whipping Post by The Allman Brothers Band

Due to a combination of server issues and a wetware problem on my part, a couple of my posts from early Friday got deleted. Unfortunately, any comments people made on those posts got deleted too. If you had anything to say about OSS and Deaf Developers or Selection Behavior , then you'll have to say...

I came across this rant about feature requests in Gnome. I have to confess a sense of siding with the OSS developers on this one. The author of the editorial doesn't get into full swing until she quotes the following statement from the Gnome web site: A feature will be implemented if and only if there...

Jason Matusow, Microsoft's director of open source licensing, has started blogging. His first post wasn't more than the classic "Hello World" thing. So, his second post on the subject, More Open Than Open , is his first substantive post. He certainly comes out swinging. This is a first-rate rundown on...