Showing archive results for 2004

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 stor...

(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 places a...

They do almost the same thing but not quite.

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 toga...

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 label co...

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 initials...

Calc and Notepad changed. Did you notice?

Yes the "S" in NASA stands for "Space", but don't forget that the "A" stands for "Aeronautics". One of the programs that I (amateur aviation wannabe) find fascinating is the Aviation Safety Reporting System, where pilots can submit anonymous reports of "stupid things I have done" in order to teach other pilots "Don't do what I did." ...

In a comment, Darrell Norton asked for a "View in Mozilla" option for Internet Explorer. You can already do this. Internet Explorer's context menu extension mechanism has been in MSDN for years. Let me show you how you can create this extension yourself. First, create the following registry key: Of course, you need to change C:\some\pa...

Zombo has been around for many years, and yet I still find it hilarious (requires Flash). I just went back to check, and alas the introduction actually ends. But fortunately, they made it even cooler by having a text-only version. (Still requires sound.)