Showing archive results for April 2007

As I noted some time ago, it's hard to get programmers excited about power management. What's worse, programs that do take the effort to care about power management often do it rudely, hijacking your computer and preventing you from going into standby or hibernation, instead preferring to drain your battery until the computer just dies from lack ...

It is said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Consider: From: X To: Group Y Question blah blah blah. A day or two later: From: X To: Group Y Resending due to no response. ------- Original Message ------- From: X To: Group Y Question blah blah blah. You didn't get a response because ...

It depends on what you mean by default. As we saw earlier, the convention for Windows header files is that if you don't specify a particular version, then you get the most recent version. The shell common controls header file follows this convention, so if you include the Windows XP version of , you get functions, messages, and structures de...

This past weekend, a group of us attended a subscription concert performance of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis at Benaroya Hall. We collectively hold a block of seats, and it's a mix of regulars and rotating guests. Our seats are close to the stage, made even closer by the hall reconfiguration to accommodate the choir and soloists; we were effectively ...

Okay, so there are all these different ways you can specify what version of the Windows header files you want.† Let's take them in order. The symbol is the earliest one. That's the symbol that 16-bit Windows used to control the versioning of its header files, and its use carried forward into the 32-bit header files, presumably from t...

Taiwanese Bluetooth technology company Bluetake has an odd picture on their front page. It's three women drinking alcohol, with plenty more bottles in front of them. Not a single Bluetooth device in sight. Maybe Bluetooth just makes alcohol taste better. (Yes, I know it's a stock photo, but what's with the alcohol?)

It tells you which printing you have.

The general rule with Windows header files is that if you don't specify which version of the header file you want, you get the latest version. For example, if you have the Windows XP Platform SDK header files and you , you're going to get the Windows XP function prototypes, the Windows XP structures, the the Windows XP flags, a...

Commenter Gareth asked why, when the system metrics change and the taskbar changes size to match, the taskbar doesn't return to its original size when the metrics return to their previous values. Because the taskbar doesn't remember the path of changes that led to its current state. It just knows its current state. Let's say the taskbar is 30 pi...

Apropos of nothing (but perhaps filed as an addendum to the "stories from school" category), I was reminded of a story from the aftermath of the Nisqually Earthquake that struck Seattle in 2001. Mind you, this story is fourth-hand by now, but it's still cute. A young student, whom I will call "Billy", returned from school the day of the earthquak...