The Pinball story is explained in Raymond Chen's "The Old New Thing" as mooism2 recalls (well, before he edited with the results of his googling...): http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2012/12/18/10378...

I can't find the specific Photoshop compatibility issue you're thinking of, but there are numerous similar stories in the archives of The Old New Thing that might be of interest. He's very much still writing.