The Old New Thing

February 2007 - Page 3 of 4 - The Old New Thing

Technology hypochondriacs

February 14, 2007 Feb 14, 2007 02/14/07
Raymond Chen
One phenomenon I've noticed quite a bit is something I'm going to call "technology hypochondria", the belief that you are suffering from whatever problem you just read about. It reminds me of this joke: A man goes to his doctor. "Doctor," he says, "I'm pretty sure I've got this disease here. All the symptoms match. I'm suffering from ...

Email tip: Don't add people to a thread without saying why

February 13, 2007 Feb 13, 2007 02/13/07
Raymond Chen
If you add me to an existing discussion, you have to say why. Do you have a specific question for me? Do you want my opinion on something? Are you just sharing a funny joke? Sometimes, I'll get a piece of mail that goes like this: From: Xxxxx To: Aaaaa; Bbbbb; Ccccc; Raymond Adding Raymond. --- Original Message --- ... Gee, that's very...

Performance evaluation euphemisms invading everyday speech (ironically)

February 12, 2007 Feb 12, 2007 02/12/07
Raymond Chen
There was a morning meeting event at which donuts were provided as an enticement. Someone commented on the food thus: "These donuts failed to meet expectations." Peter Sagal remarked that the phrase "emerging to standard" has entered currency in his family as a euphemism for "substandard". (Opening panel round, final question, time code 1:20...

Do I need rush processing? Beats me!

February 9, 2007 Feb 9, 2007 02/9/07
Raymond Chen
During the preparations for the 2005 PDC, I was filling out an application for a corporate credit card. (The rant behind why I was filling out this application in the first place will have to wait for another day.) One of the options was to check a box to request rush processing at an additional charge of $10. There was one key piece of ...

Who is most likely to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship?

February 8, 2007 Feb 8, 2007 02/8/07
Raymond Chen
You can count on The Annals of Improbable Research to produce groundbreaking results. One of my favorites is Who is most likely to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship?, in which researcher (and AIR editorial board member) Eric Schulman performs a careful statistical analysis of previous winners of the MacArthur Fellowship in order to ...

Why does my property sheet blink and the immediately disappear?

February 8, 2007 Feb 8, 2007 02/8/07
Raymond Chen
Occasionally, a customer will ask, "I'm trying to display a property sheet, but when I call the function, the property sheet blinks onto the screen and then immediately disappears. What is wrong?" Recall that displaying a property sheet entails filling out a structure, which in turn contains a pointer to either an array of s, or more often...

Maintaining standards of Japanese food abroad

February 7, 2007 Feb 7, 2007 02/7/07
Raymond Chen
They've been nicknamed the sushi police. In response to horror stories from Japanese travelling abroad and being shocked by what passes for Japanese food outside their borders, the Japanese agriculture ministry is developing certification standards for restaurants abroad that want to call themselves Japanese. Their results are supposed to be...