Dreaming in Code, by Scott Rosenberg, is an outstanding look at the software development process from the perspective of a well-funded medium-size open source project that has been in development since 2003. This book is compelling from beginning to end, trying to help even the non-technical reader understand why software development is so hard. The many difficulties faced by this development team were surprisingly (and sometimes disturbingly) familiar. Highly recommended for everyone in software, and anyone else who wants to understand our world a little bit better.

The Old New Thing, by Raymond Chen, is an entertaining and enlightening collection of articles about Windows technology. It is a must-read, particularly if you're not already an avid reader of his blog of the same name.

I must confess to skipping the 88 pages that comprise chapter 10, "The Inner Workings of the Dialog Manager." It has been nearly a decade since I assembled a classic Windows dialog box, so the subject simply doesn't hold my interest like it once would have. In fact, a lot of the information in this book would have been invaluable 10 years ago...

The most important chapter in this book is "Taxes," which is a great reminder of the little things that a software application should handle properly (fast user switching, high DPI displays, etc.).

The whole book (aside from chapter 10) is a great read. Even in the brave new world of the .NET Framework, WPF, etc., much of this information is still quite relevant. Highly recommended.

I enjoyed reading (and sometimes skimming) About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design, by Alan Cooper, et al. It is full of “design principles,” all of which are neatly listed in the appendix, and most of which seem right on target. They serve as an excellent reminder of the things to be aiming at when designing a software product.

I must take some issue with the very first guideline, though – “Interaction design is not guesswork.” It is not purely guesswork, of course, but neither is it an exact science. Even with unlimited time, resources, and intelligence, I doubt that we could ever get everything “right,” if there is such a thing. Some of his examples of good interaction design are questionable, in my mind. But it is good to treat design as something that can be done right, if only to keep us from giving up altogether; we should do the best we can.