I didn’t expect handwriting recognition to be a major selling point of Microsoft’s new Tablet PC, but I did expect them to make it a little more intelligent and flexible. But according to David Coursey, their recognizer doesn’t train itself to your writing, so it won’t get better over time and learn how you write. Also, it is designed for cursive writing! So if you decide to print legibly, you are out of luck, though there is an input mechanism akin to Palm’s Graffiti. Well, as Coursey discovered, the mantra from Microsoft is “Handwriting recognition doesn’t matter.” True perhaps, but it would be interesting to see what would happen if someone made it good enough to matter. When would we prefer to write? Sending a handwritten note to someone via instant messenger or email is an intriguing concept, though. Just think, you can draw your very own smiley faces.