Sometimes when you are reading a technical book, do you ever notice a footnote or sentence that looks excessively grumpy? Something along the lines of "Obviously this code sample is not meant to demonstrate every possible use of technology X". You think - "…um, I didn't expect it to."
From my experience as an author and reviewer, these angry footnotes are a result of mounting tension between an author and tech reviewer. When you write a book you put a lot of effort into each and every chapter, and the dozens of sometimes very critical comments that a tech reviewer adds to your Word document ends up getting pretty annoyed.
So next time you see an angry footnote that reads something like "Any reasonable person can clearly see that ..." realize that it is the tech reviewer and not you that the author is flaming.
I've been playing around with the developer experience with WM5, and have found it a lot better than earlier versions. Having VS2005 as the only developer tool (compared to swapping between eVC++ and VS2003 previously) is a huge productivity gain. Looking at the new version of the Compact Framework, there are improvements, but for real device interaction, native C++ is still king. I see Mitch is experiencing the frustrations of interacting with the device through the managed APIs.
I'm converting my Home Screen plug-in for transport timetable information from eVC++ 4 to VS2005, and moving it to a Today screen plug-in so it will work on my k-jam. I'd image the old code will still work as a Home Screen plug-in on WM5 Smartphones without too many modifications - you can get the old code here.