Really interesting article, sounds like a fun adventure. Couple of points:

1.) "0x12b9b0a5. This equals 314159269 in decimal. Yep, that’s the first 8 digits of pi right there" -- actually, it's not. The first 8 digits of pi are 3.14159265, it's not clear why the Microsoft developers ended with a 9 instead of a 5, perhaps a mistake? perhaps to help with coprime-ness?

2.) The "ANSI C" version uses mbstowcs which isn't any kind of ANSI C function I've ever heard of.

Fantastic article, really enjoyed reading, many thanks.