WPF Provides the Best of Times

New York Times publisher Pinchy Suzberger recently told Haaretz Daily Newspaper Israel, "I don't know if we will be printing in five years, and you know what, I don't care." My dad was in the newspaper business for many decades and worked for a few very large papers. I have a little experience with the publishers of these papers, and I wouldn't prop them up as technical visionaries, but in this case, Pinchy might just be right!

If you haven't already checked out the beta of the Times Reader, you should. It uses Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) to display the Times in a very readable format. WPF is part of the 3.0 version of the .NET Framework, and it's darned impressive!

When you install the Times Reader on Windows XP SP2, you'll have to install the .NET Framework 3.0 as well. If you're on Vista, you're set and the download will be small. When you run the Times Reader, it downloads all of the content to your machine, so you can read offline if you want. However, if you stay online, the Times Reader will run in your system tray and keep your news updated on the fly.

While the Times Reader is in beta, you'll be able to read the paper free of charge.