The Old New Thing

July 2007 - The Old New Thing

I just discovered that the Scandinavian Gift Shop in Ballard is closing

July 31, 2007 Jul 31, 2007 07/31/07
Raymond Chen
When in Ballard for SeafoodFest, I was saddened to discover that one of the last remaining Scandinavian businesses in Ballard, the Scandinavian Gift Shop, is closing. They were in their final stages of "everything must go!", and I picked up a small number of Glad Påsk greeting cards, some pretty napkins (including a set that would be ...

What is the lpdwHandle parameter in GetFileVersionInfoSize used for?

July 31, 2007 Jul 31, 2007 07/31/07
Raymond Chen
The GetFileVersionInfoSize function returns two pieces of information. The return value is the amount of memory needed to record the version information of a file, and the DWORD pointed to by the lpdwHandle parameter is set to zero. What's the deal with this strange lpdwHandle parameter? That parameter used to do something. The documentation...

Stuart Stevens takes performance-enhancing drugs in order to see what they do

July 30, 2007 Jul 30, 2007 07/30/07
Raymond Chen
It's an old story, but once again timely thanks to the drug scandal that rocked this year's Tour de France. Not to be confused with the drug scandal that rocked last year's Tour de France. (But that's okay, because it's all cleaned up now. Tipster.) Amateur cyclist Stuart Stevens takes performance-enhancing drugs for six months in order ...

There's a whole Internet out there, folks, you might want to check it out

July 30, 2007 Jul 30, 2007 07/30/07
Raymond Chen
If you're going to add a topic to the Suggestion Box,¹ at least do the courtesy of researching the question before asking it. It takes me an hour to answer each question; it's only fair that you spend ten minutes making it a good question. For example, one entry in the Suggestion Box asked for the story behind the ...

Seattle to Portland (STP) 2007 trip report, part 4 of 4: St. Helens to Portland and beyond

July 27, 2007 Jul 27, 2007 07/27/07
Raymond Chen
Note: You probably want to start with Part 1. 1:33pm: S and I arrive at the St. Helens High School food stop (mile 175) just as J, M, and A are on their way out. S is pretty wiped out by this point and heads over to the nearby McDonalds for a cup of Coke and an order of French fries. "What I need is fat," she explains. (And she was ...

Don't just grab the foreground window and host UI on it

July 27, 2007 Jul 27, 2007 07/27/07
Raymond Chen
I was asked to look at an application compatibility bug in a program from a major vendor. But that's actually irrelevant; what I'm writing about today has nothing to do with application compatibility. That's just what drew my attention to the program in the first place. At some point during the install, the setup program encountered an error ...
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How do the names in the file security dialog map to access control masks?

July 26, 2007 Jul 26, 2007 07/26/07
Raymond Chen
When you call up the file security dialog, you'll see options like "Full Control" and "Read and Execute". That's really nice as friendly names go, but when you're digging into the security descriptor, you may need to know what those permissions really map to when it comes down to bits. First, the summary attributes: Friendly name Access ...

Seattle to Portland (STP) 2007 trip report, part 3 of 4: Toledo to St. Helens

July 26, 2007 Jul 26, 2007 07/26/07
Raymond Chen
Note: You probably want to start with Part 1. Sidebar: There are a lot of groups that wore matching jerseys to build team spirit. Here are a few riders that caught my eye that I haven't already mentioned: The Something Something Team in Training with bright green jerseys and shark fins on top of their helmets. (John Westerfield ...

Seattle to Portland (STP) 2007 trip report, part 2 of 4: Spanaway to Toledo

July 25, 2007 Jul 25, 2007 07/25/07
Raymond Chen
Note: This story makes much more sense if you read Part 1 first. It won't be any more interesting, but at least it'll be a coherent sort of boring. 12:20pm: We arrive in Spanaway for the lunch break (54 miles) [pic]. The consensus among seasoned riders appears to be that the Saturday lunch is pretty lame this year. It consists of a...

What is Dave's frame class?

July 25, 2007 Jul 25, 2007 07/25/07
Raymond Chen
Back in 2004, we lost Dave's frame class. Dave's frame class, or more accurately, DavesFrameClass, was the window class that drew the CPU meter on the Performance page of Task Manager. As you might have guessed, Dave was the name of the original author of Task Manager. (If the checked version of Task Manager from NT 4 encountered an ...