Showing archive results for 2004

Jun 3, 2004
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My first death threat

Raymond Chen

Actual feedback submitted to the microsoft.com web site many years ago. id: 13726 Date: 1996-07-29 17:27:41.997 Name: *********** Email: ************* Area: Windows 95 Comments: PLEASE read this entire email as it is quite serious. I just discovered today that in the Windows 95 operating system, there are no switches, command line opti...

History
Jun 3, 2004
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Need to add 1.5kg and 350g?

Raymond Chen

Need to add 1.5kg and 350g? Don't take any chances. Go to a Certified Metrication Specialist.

Non-Computer
Jun 2, 2004
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Letter carriers rebel

Raymond Chen

Letter carriers in both Sweden and Scotland have taken to refusing to deliver political advertisements from parties they personally find offensive. This isn't quite the stunning synchronicity as it may appear at first glance: Europe is gearing up for a continent-wide election.

Non-Computer
Jun 1, 2004
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What does SHGFI_USEFILEATTRIBUTES mean?

Raymond Chen

One of the flags you can pass to the SHGetFileInfo function is SHGFI_USEFILEATTRIBUTES. What does this flag mean? It means, "Do not access the disk. Pretend that the file/directory exists, and that its file attributes are what I passed as the dwFileAttributes parameter. Do this regardless of whether it actually exists or not." You can ...

Code
Jun 1, 2004
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French schoolchildren invited to draw their impressions of the United States

Raymond Chen

They choose fast food, fat people, and Bush in a tank. In January, a cartoon festival was held in the town of Carquefou, just outside of Nantes in the northwest corner of France. Students of all ages competed in a contest to illustrate their vision of the United States. They drew obese Americans devouring Coca-Cola and McDonald's hamburgers...

Non-Computer
May 31, 2004
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Chewing gum legalized in Singapore

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 to tw...

Non-Computer
May 31, 2004
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Why is the default 8-bit codepage called "ANSI"?

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 "ANS...

History
May 28, 2004
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Kipping

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. Incorporate S...

Non-Computer
May 28, 2004
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How do you undo Minimize All and Show Desktop?

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 redundant w...

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