Switching Between Input Languages

These keyboard shortcuts switch between, for example, English and Japanese input languages. This is equivalent to clicking on the language abbreviation (e.g. EN, JP) in the IME Toolbar.

Left Alt + Shift or
Ctrl + Shift or
Grave Accent (`) – switch input language (default is Left Alt + Shift)

Ctrl + Shift or
Left Alt + Shift or
Grave Accent (`) – switch keyboard layout (not assigned by default). An example of usage would be to switch between “US” and the “United States – International” keyboard layouts, assuming they have been configured in Text Services and Input Languages.

Switching Between Input Modes

Once Japanese language input is selected, the following shortcuts can be used to change the input mode between hiragana, katakana, and alphanumeric. This is equivalent to clicking on the input menu in the IME bar:

Ctrl + Caps Lock – switch to hiragana

Alt + Caps Lock – switch to katakana

Shift + Caps Lock – switch between full-width hiragana and full-width alphanumeric (romaji).

Alt + Grave Accent (`) – switch between kana and half-width alphanumeric (romaji).

String Conversion

When typing using IME, while a sequence is still underlined, these shortcuts can be used to convert the underlined portion between hiragana, katakana, romaji, both full- and half-width. Note that these conversions cannot be performed after moving on to the next input block (i.e., it is not possible to double-click and existing word and convert it).

F6 -　converts to hiragana:

ホワイト becomes ほわいと

F7 – converts to katakana:

ほわいと becomes ホワイト

F8 – converts to half-width katakana:

ホワイト becomes ﾎﾜｲﾄ

F9 – converts to full-width romaji, press again for all-capitals, then again for proper noun capitalization:

ホワイト becomes ｈｏｗａｉｔｏ, press F9 again for ＨＯＷＡＩＴＯ, and again for Ｈｏｗａｉｔｏ

F10 – convert to half-width romaji, press again for all-capitals, and again for proper noun capitalization:

ホワイト becomes howaito, press F10 again for HOWAITO, and again for Howaito

More Conversion Examples

Typing katakana, then pressing F10 and F7 alternately will convert the string back and forth between katakana and half-width romaji.

Typing hiragana, then pressing F10 and F6 alternately will convert the string back and forth between hiragana and half-width romaji.

Typing hiragana, then pressing F7 and F6 alternately will convert the string between hiragana and katakana.

Typing katakana, then pressing F6 and F7 alternately will convert the string between katakana and hiragana.

Quotes

Basic opening and closing quotes (「」), type the left and right bracket ([, ]), respectively. To access more quote styles, type the open or closing bracket, then press the space bar for the conversion menu. Another option is to type kakko (Japanese for “brackets”), press the space bar for the completion menu, and scroll down.

「」　〈〉　《》

Katakana-specific Shortcuts

These shortcuts only have meaning in the katakana input mode.

Long vowel – press the ‘minus’ key (next to equals on US keyboards):

ソーダ (soda)

Separator – type a forward slash ‘/’:

ジョン・ホワイト (John White)

Traditionally, Japanese doesn’t have a “ti” sound, so it was translated as チ (chi, e.g. ticket becomes “チケット”, “chiketo”). In order to write ‘ti’, type thi or texi. For ‘di’, type dhi or dexi.

ティ・ディ

Instead, the system-wide include paths are now located within the ‘Properties’ interface.  To access it, select View | Property Manager.  No dialog will appear yet. Instead, the Property Manager appears as a tab along with the Solution Explorer:

Note:  The Property Manager won’t contain anything unless a solution is loaded.

Now, expand one of your projects, then expand Debug | Win32 or Release | Win32:

Right click Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.user and select Properties:

This brings up the Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.User Property Pages dialog, which should look familiar enough:

Alternate Access

The properties can be accessed directly as an XML file by editing %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\MSBuild\v4.0\Microsoft.Cpp.Win32.user.props

Rant

None of this makes any sense whatsoever. Why do I have to have a solution loaded before I can edit the system-wide (technically user-wide) path settings?  The old system made sense: project-specific include paths were set in the properties of individual projects, and system include paths were set through the Tools menu. The layout is irritating, forgettable, and, most importantly, it makes absolutely no sense to access system settings by clicking through your own projects!

1. Edit the console settings file at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Console2\console.xml or %APPDATA%\Console\console.xml.
2. Replace the <colors> ... </colors> section with the following:

   <colors>
      <color id="0" r="7" g="54" b="66"/>         <!-- black -->
      <color id="1" r="38" g="139" b="210"/>      <!-- blue -->
      <color id="2" r="133" g="153" b="0"/>       <!-- green -->
      <color id="3" r="42" g="161" b="152"/>      <!-- cyan -->
      <color id="4" r="220" g="50" b="47"/>       <!-- red -->
      <color id="5" r="211" g="54" b="130"/>      <!-- magenta -->
      <color id="6" r="181" g="137" b="0"/>       <!-- yellow/brown -->
      <color id="7" r="238" g="232" b="213"/>     <!-- white -->
      <color id="8" r="0" g="43" b="54"/>         <!-- brblack --> 
      <color id="9" r="131" g="148" b="150"/>     <!-- brblue -->
      <color id="10" r="88" g="110" b="117"/>     <!-- brgreen -->
      <color id="11" r="147" g="161" b="161"/>    <!-- brcyan -->
      <color id="12" r="203" g="75" b="22"/>      <!-- brred -->
      <color id="13" r="108" g="113" b="196"/>    <!-- brmagenta/violet -->
      <color id="14" r="101" g="123" b="131"/>    <!-- bryellow -->
      <color id="15" r="253" g="246" b="227"/>    <!-- brwhite  -->
   </colors>
   

3. Restart Console2.

Colors in vim look good:

Cygwin ls colors are a bit odd compared to other platforms:

1. Open a 32-bit Command Prompt (C:\Windows\SysWow64\cmd.exe).
2. Run VCVARS32.BAT
   • VS2010: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\bin\vcvars32.bat"
   • VS2008: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\bin\vcvars32.bat"
3. Set the target processor to x86 (set DETOURS_TARGET_PROCESSOR=X86).
4. Build Detours using nmake.

Simply put, BEGIN_COM_MAP implements _InternalQueryInterface. COM_INTERFACE_ENTRY indicates that your class supports the specified interface. END_COM_MAP finishes the _InternalQueryInterface implementation.

Note: A QueryInterface implementation which calls this _InternalQueryInterface method must either be hand-coded, or supplied by CComObject, CComAggObject, etc.

For example:

class MyClass :
    public CComObjectRoot,
    public ISomeInterface
{
public:
    BEGIN_COM_MAP(MyClass)
        COM_INTERFACE_ENTRY(ISomeInterface)
    END_COM_MAP()
};

CComClass myInstance = new CComClass;

The COM_INTERFACE_ENTRY line indicates that MyClass implements ISomeInterface. If QueryInterface is called to requests an ISomeInterface pointer, the call will succeed. Without the COM_INTERFACE_ENTRY line, the QueryInterface call would fail.

A temporary fix is to change the IM font to Arial Unicode MS, which may have to be enabled from the control panel. Here are the steps:

1. In the Skype menu, select Tools | Options, then click on “IM & SMS”, then “IM appearance”:
   

   

   
   

2. Click on “Change font” to bring up the font dialog:
   

   

   
   

3. If “Arial Unicode MS” is available, select it, click OK, then Save, and you’re done.

   If “Arial Unicode MS” is not available, then click “Show More Fonts” to bring up the Control Panel’s Font selector:

   

   
   

4. Locate “Arial Unicode MS”, click on it to select it, then click on “Show” in the toolbar. Close the Fonts window (click the red X). You will have to close the Font dialog as well, then reopen it, in order for the Arial Unicode MS font to be displayed.
   

   

If the #2 Google suggestion is “your product sucks”, you can take it as strong evidence that you’ve made a poor product development decision.

Personally, I’m rolling my virtual machine back to a prior snapshot.

From the main screen:

• Press the menu button
• Select Settings
• Select Wireless & Networks
• Scroll to the bottom of the menu and select Mobile Networks
• Make sure “Data Enabled” has a green check mark next to it

Virgin Mobile USA (i.e. Sprint) was unable to solve this after three phone calls over the course of a day. Their technical support script jumps straight into cellular network settings and battery removal.

I was able to successfully create an account with Virgin Mobile in the desired area code. However, the payment was rejected. One possible reason is that Virgin Mobile may not be able to process a credit card with an expiration date so far in the future. The initial payment form used a text field for expiration year, so I could enter anything I wanted. When I revised my payment method, the web form only allowed selection up to, I believe, 2016. After I changed my payment method to a different, real credit card, the account was activated (though I still had problems with the phone being activated on the network).

So, first off, I’m pretty sure you could get the Virgin Mobile phone number in any area code you want, anyway, because the first step in their registration process asks your zip code. Billing is done at a later point in the process, with its own zip code field. Second, Vanilla Visa cards claim they can be used online, but since they have expiration dates far in the future, the website you want to buy from may not be set up to process them correctly. Basically, the entire process was interesting, but a waste of time.

At some point, it might be fun to try again using a pseudonym. When the online payment fails, one could call and attempt to resolve the payment over the phone. The effort involved would quickly exceed my interest in anonymity, but it might be a fun exercise.