Google AppEngine Syntax Errors with CRLFs under Cygwin

I've had a frustrating patch using Google App Engine lately.  Trying to use minidom under Windows was giving me an import error -- possibly I needed to find a way to install expat?  I installed python via cygwin to see if that was any better, in part because I could see that libexpat was a viable option under cygwin, and in part because I was sick of Python not understanding my Bash-style paths.

That solved the problems with Minidom, but then I suddenly started getting syntax errors on perfectly reasonable (and previously operational) import statements, which was pretty frustrating.  After a few false starts, I discovered that some Mac/Python users ran into similar errors when using GAE on Python scripts that had Windows-style CRLFs instead of simple line feeds.  I switched the line terminators in Eclipse, and voila, problem went away.

The issue report I found is closed, but i've commented in the hopes that the fix can make it into GAE for Windows for those of us using Cygwin.  i'm looking forward to replacing this half-dead laptop with something better that will run Linux or OS X in the near future.

Gartner: Windows is Collapsing

Gartner says Windows is Collapsing. While I don't believe in industry analysis for the most part, and any headline like this is oversimplified, I'll agree insofar as this:

Microsoft has survived a poorly reviewed operating system before, but they're beseiged right now. If the next version of Windows doesn't get business accolades, we may well have witnessed the beginning of the end. Microsoft isn't going anywhere now, tomorrow, or even next year or the year after, but if they don't make some ground, they're going to be increasingly marginalized as a technology has-been.

Some people would argue they're there already, and have been there for a while, but as long as Windows and Office continued to bring in the Cash, it's hard to argue. If that destabilizes, Microsoft will begin to devolve for real.

Launchy 2.0

If you're on Windows, and I can't persuade you (or your company) to switch, then I'm going to have to strongly recommend that you at least try out my favorite launcher: Launchy. Now that there's a v2.0, this might be a good time to give it a shot.

Launchy 1.25

If you're on Windows and you haven't tried Launchy yet, I'd recommend that you give it a try. My appreciation for it grows daily, and the new version adds several nice features. I'm pretty happy with the Go-y community-contributed plugin as well, although I imagine I'll only use that when I've got a lot open.

Microsoft Trips Over Own Feet: VSS and VS.NET on Vista

The left hand of Redmond doesn't seem to know what the right hand is doing. They're tripping over their own feet. Even with all the mis-steps with Windows Vista, how is it possible that recent versions of two of their primary development tools don't run on their own operating system?

A few months ago, there was a a lot of chatter about the fact that several versions of Visual Studio won't work on Vista, and that upgrading might force you to upgrade the version of the .NET framework underneath. Now it turns out you can't host Visual SourceSafe on Vista either?

Baffling.