Apr(grave)es Post, les Deluge**

I would like to make one small clarification to Ilias' post here, I don't have the local WDK integrated in to Visual Studio 200n Help environment.  It's merely using the online WDK as I press F1 or do a relevant search.  As Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 default to using online MSDN for all help references, I haven't really bothered to find a way to integrate a local WDK into the new help schema.  I know a few of us internally as well as some of you have contacted the WDK and Visual Studio Teams about enabling this functionality and didn't get an encouraging response.  Rest assured, we'll keep working on it from our end.

And also after my post, and Ilias' subsequent post, I was literally inundated with one email (okay, it was two) asking how I got Intellisense for WDF / WDM working in Visual Studio.  Fear not, I will write up a post in the next few days describing how I managed to accomplish such a feat.  Really, it's just smoke and mirrors.  If you want to get a head start and try to figure it out on your own, be my guest.  My walkthrough post will probably have to wait until the weekend, but I'll get it done.

 

Editorial time - As a musician (bass player, pedestrian drummer, plunky keyboards) for well over 20 years, I find Guitar Hero and Rock Band the most disconcerting games ever.  First off, 5 fret inputs?  I only have 5 inputs?  This forced my frustration levels to 11 the other night as I attempted to actually PLAY the bass line from Stone Temple Pilots Interstate Love Song in Rock Band using only 5 buttons and the strummy bar thing-a-majig.  This ended up providing untold amounts of schadenfreude to my wife as she sat watching my hands struggle to find the other 3 strings I've grown so accustom to over the years.  And never have I been punished in such a sinister manner for attempting to actually play the correct bass or drum line either.  Seriously, on expert mode they still drop plucks, strums and beats which results in me losing consecutive note streaks.  I have still only managed to play one song on either game at any difficulty level at 100%.  The end result is after a few moments of rather off color verbage being thrown at the TV / Console area, I often just wander back to Nerdvana, adorn my beloved '83 Fender Jazz and proceed to play the REAL song.  Oh, don't ask what I think about the Rush covers in Rock Band...please.

 

*Currently playing - Rush, Subdivisions

**Nice, I try to add a è (even via HTML code) to the title and it chokes...so to my French speaking friends, please forgive me.