The causes of macular edema are numerous and different causes may be inter-related. It is commonly associated with diabetes. Chronic or uncontrolled diabetes type 2 can affect peripheral blood vessels including those of the retina which may leak fluid, blood and occasionally fats into the retina causing it to swell.
Visual C++. Visual C++ is known as a native development language, as it talks directly to the hardware for the Windows Mobile device, with no intervening layers (unlike Visual C#, for example). Programming using C++ can be challenging, as it is not a trivial language to learn.
I'm curious what languages/tools Microsoft uses. Check out Inside Windows 2000 or Inside Windows NT 4.0 from Microsoft Press. The architect was grabbed from Digital Electronics Corporation(merged to compaq which then merged to HP) (the same guy who did VMS).