Showing archive results for 2006

If you have a synchronization object, say a semaphore, and two threads waiting on the semaphore, and you then release two semaphore tokens with a single call to , you would expect that each of the waiting threads would be woken, each obtaining one token. And in fact, that's what happens—most of the time. Recall in our discussion of why the ...

Last year, our retiring Blog Queen Betsy Aoki reminded us to wear pants.

Many people are surprised to discover that when you create a combo box (either in code via or indirectly via a dialog box template), the size you specify describes the size of the combo box including the drop-down list box, even though the drop-down list box is not visible on the screen. For example, if you say that you want the combo box to be 20...

Some people may have noticed that the is defined as the combination of and : Since includes , it is impossible to get a caption without a border. Sometimes people don't quite get this and keep asking the question over and over again, and I have to keep trying to explain the laws of logic in different ways until one of them finally sinks in...

Caught out by the FDA. I happened to be in the bug spray section of the store when I spotted a bottle of mosquito repellant that proudly proclaimed "100% DEET". But the FDA-mandated labelling tells a different story: 95% 5% Similarly, foods labeled "zero fat" are actually allowed to contain up to a half gram of fat. (Well,...

Marketing writes the big print; lawyers write the small print. I bought some portable stereo headphones. The front of the box says you can use it "while in-line skating, power walking, biking, jogging, skiing, running, weightlifting, climbing and more." (Emphasis mine.) The back of the box says that it should not be used "while driving or cyclin...

Some people have noticed that there is no message that lets you disable the Cancel button on a wizard. This is on purpose. Usability studies reveal that users find it extremely frustrating when they get partway through a wizard and then decide they don't want to perform the operation after all, but find that the wizard doesn't give them a way to ca...

Okay, so it's bad enough that I write like a girl. (And so does Betsy.) Now, Korby Parnell reported on a little get-together of some Microsoft bloggers, and in the photograph you can see that I'm doing the "peace" sign, just like young Japanese women do in photographs. Apparently, boys are supposed to strike a superhero pose, but the peace sign...

On occasion, you might notice that every window on the desktop flickers and repaints itself. One of the causes for this is a simple null handle bug. The function is one you're probably well-familiar with. It is used to indicate to the window manager that the pixels of a particular window are no longer current and should be repainted. (You can opt...

Today's theme is a quick one: Other Microsofties explain what at first appear to be puzzling decisions.