Showing archive results for 2005

A common reaction to my explanation of whether dragging a file will result in a move or copy was that there should be a setting that lets you change the algorithm by which Explorer decides whether you want to move or copy. There are a few reasons why this is a bad idea. First, if there were such a setting, then it removes some of the predictabil...

Occasionally, in a news story, the reporter will ask for comments or opinion from a passer-by (nicknamed "the man on the street"). Greg Packer has created a second career as that man. In the last 10 years, he's been quoted at least a dozen times by the New York Post. He's been quoted at least 14 times by the Daily News, most recently just last w...

Control panel programs and property sheets don't show up in the taskbar. Why not? As I recall, the explanation was that control panel programs and property sheets aren't applications. They are auxiliary helper windows that assist you with a task, but they aren't a program in their own right. Therefore, they don't get a taskbar button. I've alway...

As many people quickly figured out, the reason why the the returns immediately is that the call is failing. The reason is that the second process opened the handle with access, which grants permission to call the function, the function, and the fatally flawed function, but it doesn't include access, which is necessary if you intend to ...

Another thought experiment when thinking through a feature.

In a sidebar discussion on this week's episode of Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me, Adam Felber explains that "you can foil most motion detectors with a pair of insulated gloves, a piece of plywood, and a hat." [Windows Media] [RealPlayer]

This quick puzzle floated past one of our internal discussion groups. In Process B, the succeeds, but the returns immediately instead of waiting. Explain. [Correction: I confused the matter by passing as the third parameter, thereby creating an event that is initially signalled. Change it to so that the event is created non-signall...

It didn't forget them; it's just double-checking with you. The developer responsible for CD autoplay in Windows XP SP2 explained it to me. There were two problems with the way Windows XP handled CD autoplay. First, when you installed a new program that included CD autoplay capability, many users didn't know where in ...

Mark your calendars for the 2005 Seattle Chicken Tour, scheduled this year for July 16th. Seattle Tilths Annual City Chickens and Coop Tour July 16, 2005   10 am — 4 pm $10 per family or group of four Seattles city chickens owners invite you into their backyards for a first-hand look at raising chickens. Discover the variety of breeds...

In response to the news that is so dangerous, at least one person has called for Visual Studio to revoke support for such a dangerous function, considering the continued support for the function grounds for holding the compiler manufacturer liable for any defects in programs compiled with that compiler. Well, for one thing, while it's true that...