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November 2007 - Posts

It's like PowerToys for language geeks!

There are times that a beta comes out that I can really get behind. Like earlier today while I toiled away on my slides for that WEX presentation and then later helped my favorite pirate and strange Josh/Gretchen/Michael triangle member Gretchen Ledgard Read More...
Posted Friday, November 30, 2007 9:16 PM by Michael S. Kaplan | 1 Comments

Get the WEX out of your ears and come see us do our global 'Karate Kid' thing (WEX on, WEX off!)

Some of you may remember when I talked about the COSD presentation I was co-doing back in the beginning of August ( cite ) for internal Microsoft folks in COSD. And I mentioned that if you were a Microsoft employee in WEX we'd be doing a presentation Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 29, 2007 4:31 PM by Michael S. Kaplan | 1 Comments

The UK Extended keyboard -- over-extended? Or weirdly extended?

I have a regular reader who is kind of fond of the blog. She admits to skimming it regularly, kind of a Category B , Cliff Notes version kind of reader. Though she also admits that posts about keyboards bore the hell out of her, so once she sees a post Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 29, 2007 7:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 5 Comments
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If the problem is bad enough, we should probably look beyond the workaround

Over in the comments section of The keyboard does not do what I tell it to! ,Maria asks: I have gone through all the comments in this blog, still can not solve my problem. My problem is almost the same as Kate's. When I type / , it shows é, when I type Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 29, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 0 Comments
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There is more to being an OEM for Windows than having the coolest hardware

Some of you may have seen Joshua Allen's Our Newest Vista OEM: Apple from Monday, which caused a little stir over in Mary Jo Foley's neck of the woods in her post ( The happiest Vista customers: Mac users? ). Now I happen to love my MacBook Pro and have Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 28, 2007 12:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 0 Comments

Tracking down problems with the 102 key on an Acer Tablet with the UK Extended keyboard layout?

I wish I was given the hardware budget so that every time a bug was reported in some hardware, I could get it, bring it in house, and figure out the bug. I think that would be very cool. :-) Over in the Suggestion Box, Mike asks: For some months, the Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 28, 2007 12:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 7 Comments
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There is no E in MUI, even if you pronounce it MOO-EE

This guest blog is written by Erik Fortune, the development manager for MUI. He gave a tutorial presentation at the 31st Internationalization and Unicode Conference (IUC) entitled Writing Win32 Multilingual Applications Using the Windows Vista MUI Technology Read More...
Posted Tuesday, November 27, 2007 7:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 2 Comments

How many versions does a bug have to exist before backporting the fix can't be successfully argued?

Some people may recall the blog that represents one of my favorite bug titles, namely Romanian keyboard is wrong, Wrong, WRONG! , in the blog entitled The Romanian keyboard layout on XP is the brokenest layout of all . That keyboard, and the various changes Read More...
Posted Tuesday, November 27, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 7 Comments

When yesterday's workaround becomes tomorrow's potential solution...

From the introduction to The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide : The story grew in the most convoluted way, as many people will be surprised to learn. Writing episodically [as for a radio program - MSK] meant that when I finish one episode I had no Read More...
Posted Monday, November 26, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 6 Comments

'Funny' blogs, 'Funny' Spanish and 'Funny' standards

Overheard from a TV show that played originally on Friday: She did say that the spoke "funny" Spanish, so maybe they weren't native speakers. Not the right Law & Order former ADA, but what with Crossing Jordan off the air, Women's Murder Club is on Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 25, 2007 12:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 0 Comments

The etiquette (such as it is) of social networking -- like I would have a clue?

Perhaps not the least important blog ever posted here, but likely in the top ten; I'd recommend skipping! Kind of a follow-up to The downside to being anti-social is... . In the world of LinkedIn , it is really on the asker -- they have to put themselves Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 25, 2007 12:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 8 Comments
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I don't do dishes, GDI doesn't do supplementary characters

Everyone has a certain set of tasks that they simply do not want to perform. Even if it seems like the sort of thing that others might (right or wrong) expect them to do as a part of their job. Like some housekeepers don't do windows. And some secretaries Read More...
Posted Saturday, November 24, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 0 Comments

We didn't split up, because we were in Japan (aka They have an opening that you might fit)

No, this is not a post about a past relationship! The question that came up yesterday was: Hi. Following lines of WSF script generate script error. The character in the string is Katakana letter Pe U+30DA formatline = "first=ペ" arr1 = Split(formatline, Read More...
Posted Saturday, November 24, 2007 12:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 2 Comments

Another face of internationalization

There are a lot of different aspects of internationalization that I cover here. From the things in which I am very knowledgeable to the things in which I am interested or even curious, I cover a lot of ground. Though there is one space I generally stay Read More...
Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 10:46 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 2 Comments
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Sometimes the words are more important to the singer/songwriters, too

I had reader Tamara ask me via the Contact link whether I only was willing to handle song lyric questions from people I knew. And if not she had a song she wanted to ask about.... To be honest it had never come up before, but the song she had in mind Read More...
Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 8:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 1 Comments
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SIAO: where Shift happens (and sometimes shiksas are involved?)

The time of year when it is perhaps too late for T-shirts still manages to inspire fun designs, so I'll essentially give unpaid ad space to some of the funnier ones I have seen related to my interests. I found these over on bustedtees.com , after someone Read More...
Posted Friday, November 23, 2007 12:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 7 Comments

If it does [best] fit, it may be off a bit! (aka Parlez-ゔ japonais?)

So just yesterday, Kelvin Houghton had an excellent question: Hello All. I have a strange issue I would like your help on please. In a C# app if I have the line Console.WriteLine("\u3094"); I would expect to see the output of character ゔ But it instead Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 22, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 1 Comments

How bad does it need to be in order to be not good enough, anyway?

It has been at least a good 29 months since I posted Is it Macau or is it Macao? , which (among other things) pointed out how a primarily Traditional Chinese locale basically was using the Simplified Chinese sorting data provided by standardization bodies Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 22, 2007 12:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 24 Comments

Abobe knows, but someone needs to tell Skype....

You might remember blogs like Double Secret ANSI, part 2 (the brokenest one yet, sorry 'bout that!) and Sometimes when you say 'the fix is in' you mean it in a good way , where a bad bug was introduced, reported, and then fixed, in both an upcoming service Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 21, 2007 7:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 5 Comments

Michael's Keyboard Laws for Developers, Part 4

See also the first law ( VK_A is not always 'A' ), the second law ( Not every keyboard contains every VK_* value ), and the third law ( Not every keyboard contains every character ). Somehow you knew that there would be another law, didn't you? Well, Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 21, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 0 Comments

Michael's Keyboard Laws for Developers, Part 3

See also the first law ( VK_A is not always 'A' ) and the second law ( Not every keyboard contains every VK_* value ). Thought you had escaped the long arm of the law, didn't you? :-) Sorry, there is no escaping it! Like the first two laws, you might Read More...
Posted Tuesday, November 20, 2007 7:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 13 Comments

Install your language packs like you put on your socks -- ONE AT A TIME!

So it was almost a year ago that I picked up that Dell Precision Mobile Workstation that I mentioned this post . With 4gb of RAM and a 4.7 on th whole Vista Experience rating, it is a machine I felt pretty good about. Then earlier this year in this post Read More...
Posted Tuesday, November 20, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 7 Comments
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Khmer, and I'll tell you about all the text stacks

If I have to explain the title then you won't think the joke is funny anyway; if that is the case just replace Khmer with Come Here and then read on.... There was a post over on the Connect site entitled All controls in WPF Application not supporting Read More...
Posted Monday, November 19, 2007 7:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 4 Comments

The incredible missing Language Bar

Over in the Suggestion Box, IMEless in Tōkyō asked: The IME bar occasionally disappears. By disappears, I do not mean becomes transparent or hidden; it is really gone. When I click on another application, the IME is available; click back and it is gone. Read More...
Posted Monday, November 19, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 7 Comments

When the dish you want is not on the menu...

One of the strangest things I had to get used to when I first started traveling internationally was the real differences between the food served in other countries and the same-named-dishes back in the states. I was mostly struck by the fact that the Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 18, 2007 5:31 PM by Michael S. Kaplan | 3 Comments
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It's a state of application, especially when it is broken

Not every experience at Microsoft is a great one from an internationalization standpoint. Like the other day when I was running a commonly used internal tool and was greeted with the following error message: Now this did not bother me too much at first. Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 18, 2007 1:01 PM by Michael S. Kaplan | 6 Comments

Whether one is ignorant of it or ignoring it, often the result is ultimately the same

There is nothing technical in this post at all, so you really shouldn't waste your time. I mean, relationship insights from someone who has not yet had a successful relationship? Who are we kidding here? It will take me a moment to tie my point together, Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 18, 2007 10:31 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 3 Comments
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The downside to being anti-social is...

...the fact that social networks are so weird and unfamiliar. Well, the idea of someone asking What's up? and asking me not respond with The Sky or A Preposition certainly does take me back to a younger time, when I might have done that. So maybe I used Read More...
Posted Saturday, November 17, 2007 10:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 4 Comments
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Detecting ALTGR fails when ALTGR isn't there (Just Czech-ed out in Word 2007)

Some prior posts on this topic: 28 Dec 2004 "To start press the ALTGR key." Hmm... where's the ALTGR key? 21 Apr 2005 Intuitive is in the eye of the beholder 15 Mar 2006 Multilingual keyboards and Microsoft Word 17 Apr 2006 Get off my freaking key! 08 Read More...
Posted Friday, November 16, 2007 7:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 6 Comments

Michael's Keyboard Laws for Developers, Part 2

See also the first law ( VK_A is not always 'A' ) The next law is also simple to state and occasionally obvious though more often it does not occur to people.... Not every keyboard contains every VK_* value It is just so easy for people to attach functionality Read More...
Posted Friday, November 16, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 4 Comments

Michael's Keyboard Laws for Developers, Part 1

Another exciting series, brought to you by SiaO ! If you are a developer and you deal with the keyboard at all, there really are good rules to live by. I am going to call them laws, but as something of a Jeffersonianesque rational anarchist, my feelings Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 15, 2007 7:46 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 17 Comments

'But there's no Latins in our Divehi font, Duckman.' 'Well, they don't *speak* Latin in the Maldives, do they?'

`It was an old Duckman joke that inspired the title which might be funnier, with private detective Duckman and his partner (Cornfed Pig) talking: Cornfed : But those are English words, Duckman. Duckman : Well, we don't live in England, now do we? Or maybe Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 15, 2007 7:31 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 4 Comments

Leaving our mark on the keyboards we create

Way back when MSKLC 1.3 was created, we wanted there to be an easy way that anyone (particularly someone from Product Support) would be able to look at a keyboard layout DLL and tell that it came from MSKLC. We even imagined that if there was ever some Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 14, 2007 7:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 3 Comments
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Whither code pages 1.25012511252125E+26 and 2.50125112521253E+25 ????

Over in the microsoft.public.win32.programmer.internatiomnal newsgroup, Norman Diamond mentioned: Since Office XP is no longer supported, code pages 1.25012511252125E+26 and 2.50125112521253E+25 are obviously old ones not new ones. I wonder why I never Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 14, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 1 Comments
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I know that header file is around here somewhere

Over in the microsoft.public.win32.programmer.international newsgroup, JohnD asked: Hello all, I have an interest in calling KbdLayerDescriptor. Michaels blog here: http://blogs.msdn.com/michkap/archive/2004/12/22/329657.aspx reports that the return of Read More...
Posted Tuesday, November 13, 2007 7:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 5 Comments

Even if you aren't expecting a 51.35 pound package, you shouldn't refuse delivery

I was waiting for a few packages from Apple. Just some accessories for the Mac. (Okay, I admit it, I was waiting for the replacement AC adapter and a spare, to make up for the one that I lost three times and only found again twice at IUC 31!) Once I was Read More...
Posted Tuesday, November 13, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 10 Comments
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Apple 3, Microsoft 0 (aka Sorting Mac and Windows all Out)

This is another of those fun Mac vs. Windows user interface intuitivosity posts, like this other one from last week. Now even the most occasional of readers here know how I feel about collation. Hell, the blog is named with collation in mind -- not as Read More...
Posted Monday, November 12, 2007 7:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 5 Comments

I'm simply saying that life^H^H^H^Hcharacters, uh... find a way

Regular reader Jan Kučera asked in response to If you would wait till I *FINISHED* what I was trying to say, you punk... (aka Premature validation) in a comment : A fledgling question here.. I just wonder.. how could one enter these surrogate characters? Read More...
Posted Monday, November 12, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 5 Comments

Count of pieces of spam to SIAO in 24 hours

Spam is a problem here, as I have mentioned before, especially from splogs. (recent examples where I have talked about this before can be found here and here ) Thankfully, the blog filters (once I figured out how to set them up correctly!) are catching Read More...
Posted Monday, November 12, 2007 12:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 1 Comments
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Not invisible, though maybe you can see through it!

I can always rely on a mail from Simon Daniels meaning one of two things: Something funny that is worth blogging about, or Something incredible that I am instructed I should not blog about. Pretty funny in light of this post , if you ask me. Though on Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 11, 2007 7:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 1 Comments

Doing the right deed for the wrong reason doesn't always suck

Feeling philosophical over here.... I was re-reading T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral yesterday and got to a particular bit: Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain: Temptation shall not come in this kind again. The last temptation is the greatest Read More...
Posted Sunday, November 11, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 2 Comments
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What would they call a Black and White milkshake at Jackrabbit Slim's?

For reasons of safety and fun, and since I am pretty sure almost every person who reads this blog has seen Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction , I will choose to feel comfortable making references to the movie. If you haven't seen it yet, please do so now Read More...
Posted Saturday, November 10, 2007 7:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 8 Comments
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I'd call it the end of an era, myself

Nothing technical whatsoever. Last night was another night out with Annette, Marla, and Dan. Though not just any night. It is [in all likelihood] our last night. Annette is moving back east, and Marla and Dan, lacking their third roommate, have decided Read More...
Posted Saturday, November 10, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 5 Comments
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If you get a yen for something a bit wider you might be out of luck

It was just yesterday that former colleague from way back in the 20th century Scott McMaster asked me a question via email. He and I got back in touch recently via LinkedIn (which I think we both use in a passive mode 1 ). Anyway, his question: Why doesn’t Read More...
Posted Friday, November 09, 2007 7:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 2 Comments

Respect the power of Limonata and Cap'n Crunch's Crunch Berries

So non-technical that it's staggering -- stop reading now before you get sucked into it! Very little respect I get. Like a phone conversation last night with a friend who called me during dinner: "What on earth are you doing?" "I'm eating dinner. You Read More...
Posted Friday, November 09, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 2 Comments
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The [non-]progress of the über-fixed width fonts

I got email from Mark Crispin 1 via the Contact form several months back 2 that said: Hi Michael - Larry Osterman pointed me at your blog some time ago. Great reading, even though you're way ahead of me in the i18n game. In case you don't recognize my Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 08, 2007 7:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 7 Comments

Is it a 7:01 post, or a 7:16 post?

Yet another metablog post -- were they not so pathetic I'd start a category for them.... So I am basically posting every day, usually at 7:01 AM and 07:16 AM. It is sometimes hard to know which should come first, though. Usually it is the post that I'm Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 08, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 1 Comments
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Font don't have none, Uniscribe won't be none (aka Garbage in, exception out)

Donovan Smith asked: How do I troubleshoot ScriptShape returning 80040200? I am having problems with Telugu consonants in the Arial Unicode MS font. The glyphs I am attempting to shape are present in the font. Sample code is below. Thank you. Donovan Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 07, 2007 7:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 1 Comments

Often 'X doesn't work' in the docs actually implies 'We couldn't get X to work' :-)

It is often the case that code does even more than the developers of the code describe, so much so that by the time they are done describing the limitations that the documentation writers lay out and someone else finds out how much more is possible, there Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 07, 2007 7:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 2 Comments

Like a mattress tag, the rule is DO NOT REMOVE

Allan provided me with my daily scare back in the end of September with a note to me via the Contact link: I would so appreciate a little advice and wisdom on the font situation in vista, if you are ready, willing and able. I wonder if all those foreign Read More...
Posted Tuesday, November 06, 2007 7:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 3 Comments

The more you understand, the more cynical you may become

Sometimes the problem is understanding -- the more one knows, the more cynical one becomes. Last night was one of those odd music nights. Somewhere between Real Bad News and Deathly and It's Not and Wise Up and Invisible Ink and Stupid Thing , all good Read More...
Posted Tuesday, November 06, 2007 7:06 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 3 Comments

23 Oct 2007: Nothing important happened today (other than the release of a huge horking bug fix, that is!)

The X-Files and others have cited the text in the personal diary of King George III from July 4, 1776 Nothing important happened today to show that revolutions can start that will change the world forever and even kings can fail to notice. Not the fairest Read More...
Posted Monday, November 05, 2007 5:16 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 9 Comments

Keyboards: plug-and-play, not plug-and-communicate-what-they-look-like

I have talked a whole bunch of times about the disconnect between the hardware side of keyboards and the software "layout" side of them. Like in Keyboards: hardware vs. software , for example. If I am in Windows and I am looking at the device manager, Read More...
Posted Monday, November 05, 2007 12:01 AM by Michael S. Kaplan | 32 Comments
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Clarification on the singer/songwriter catgeory over on the sidebar

I had someone suggest that I notice that you have a Singer / Songwriters section in your right sidebar, with various links. I like to write song lyrics and like to dream or rather romance about being a singer-songwriter and maybe dream with just a little R