The Old New Thing

May 2004 - The Old New Thing

Why is the default 8-bit codepage called "ANSI"?

May 31, 2004 May 31, 2004 05/31/04
Raymond Chen
Reader Ben Hutchings wanted to know why the 8-bit codepage is called "ANSI" when it isn't actually ANSI. But instead of saying, "Oh well, some things mortals were never meant to know," he went and dug up the answer himself. A quick Google for Windows ANSI misnomer found me exactly what I was looking for [pdf]: "The term...

Chewing gum legalized in Singapore

May 31, 2004 May 31, 2004 05/31/04
Raymond Chen
After twelve years, Singapore has relaxed its ban on chewing gum. But not so fast. Before Singaporeans think about unwrapping a pack of Wrigley's Orbit gum that's just started selling here -- and only in pharmacies -- they must submit their names and ID card numbers. If they don't, pharmacists who sell them gum could be jailed up ...

Kipping

May 28, 2004 May 28, 2004 05/28/04
Raymond Chen
Apparently that's the term for knitting in public. The New York Times covered the online knitting community. I wasn't aware of the Yahoo knitlist group; I may have to go check it out. (The NYT article also mentions the yarn Fizz, which I have used, but I much prefer Splash, a totally knock-your-socks-off novelty yarn. ...

High-performance multithreading is very hard

May 28, 2004 May 28, 2004 05/28/04
Raymond Chen
Among other things, you need to understand weak memory models. Hereby incorporating by reference Brad Abrams' discussion of volatile and MemoryBarrier(). In particular, Vance Morrison's discussion of memory models is important reading. (Though I think Brad is being too pessimistic about volatile. Ensuring release semantics at the...
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How do you undo Minimize All and Show Desktop?

May 28, 2004 May 28, 2004 05/28/04
Raymond Chen
It seems it's not well-known how to undo a Minimize All or a Show Desktop, two operations which I discussed briefly yesterday. To undo a Minimize All, you can right-click the taskbar and select "Undo Minimize All", or at least you used to be able to do that. Minimize All is no longer on the menus, presumably because it ended up ...

Meet Anton Chekhov

May 27, 2004 May 27, 2004 05/27/04
Raymond Chen
(Not to be confused with Star Trek's Pavel Chekov, who spells his name with a plain "k" instead of a "kh". Of course, since this is all transliteration from Cyrillic, of which there are multiple systems, arguing about spelling is rather dubious anyway.) The guerilla performance group Improv Everywhere stages events in public ...

Art too bad to be ignored

May 26, 2004 May 26, 2004 05/26/04
Raymond Chen
The Museum of Bad Art: Art Too Bad To Be Ignored. The Athlete Crayon and pencil on canvas by Unknown 30"x40" Acquired from trash in Boston by Scott Wilson A startling work, and one of the largest crayon on canvas pieces that most people can ever hope to see. The bulging leg muscles, the black shoes, the white socks, the pink...

How does the desktop choose the icon label color?

May 26, 2004 May 26, 2004 05/26/04
Raymond Chen
Many system colors come in pairs, one for background and one for foreground. For example, COLOR_MENU and COLOR_MENUTEXT; COLOR_WINDOW and COLOR_WINDOWTEXT; COLOR_HIGHLIGHT and COLOR_HIGHLIGHTTEXT. More on these colors in a future blog entry. But there is COLOR_DESKTOP and no COLOR_DESKTOPTEXT. How does the desktop choose the icon ...

The F*deral Bur*au of Inv*stigations

May 25, 2004 May 25, 2004 05/25/04
Raymond Chen
According to the Chicago Division, Use of the NAME, INITIALS, or SEAL of the F*I is restricted by law and may be used only with written permission of the F*I. Asterisks inserted to avoid being arrested by the F*I for using their name and initials without written permission. (I hope they don't go after me for using their ...