August 2007

What happens at LL Bean at three in the morning?

Raymond Chen August 24, 2007 Aug 24, 2007 08/24/07

The LL Bean flagship store in Maine is open 24 hours a day. Joshua Gleason went to see what people do there at three in the morning. There are people around, but they're not shopping...

Microspeak: Value proposition

Raymond Chen August 24, 2007 Aug 24, 2007 08/24/07

This term is used outside Microsoft as well, but it still bothers me. The value proposition is the benefit that the end-user gets from your product, the thing that convinces them to buy it. What makes it even more annoying is when it is abbreviated to value prop. Sample usage: "The main value proposition of this model is that it permits ...

Which Windows font is named after a tabloid headline?

Raymond Chen August 23, 2007 Aug 23, 2007 08/23/07

Daniel Will-Harris explains the background of several Windows fonts, including the story of where the names for some of the fonts came from. Do you know which Windows font is named after a tabloid headline about aliens? On the topic of font history, the designer of Comic Sans, Vincent Connare, has written a bit on the font's history on ...

Nested fly-out menus are a usability nightmare

Raymond Chen August 23, 2007 Aug 23, 2007 08/23/07

The Windows Vista Start menu abandoned the flyout model for the "All Programs" menu because nested fly-out menus are a usability nightmare, and not just for novices. Research has shown that once you have menus more than one level deep, you have the problem that the slightly wiggle of the mouse can take the big, complicated menu hierarchy that...

Disclaimers and such

Raymond Chen August 22, 2007 Aug 22, 2007 08/22/07

Statements made in a general sense may have exceptions even if such exceptions are not explicitly acknowledged. Example: "Dogs have four legs." There are dogs which do not have four legs, but as a general rule, dogs have four legs. Statements are not independently fact-checked. They are based on personal experience and recollection, augmented...

The Northwest Mahler Orchestra presents Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony

Raymond Chen August 22, 2007 Aug 22, 2007 08/22/07

On September 9th, the newly-renamed Northwest Mahler Orchestra will be performing the Seattle premiere of Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony at Benaroya Hall. I first heard this piece back in the 1990's in a live performance by the San Francisco Symphony. It's a large, sprawling work, and I was wise to have attended the pre-...

Windows Vista has more extended options on the context menu

Raymond Chen August 22, 2007 Aug 22, 2007 08/22/07

As we saw when we discussed context menus, holding down the shift key when opening a context menu adds so-called extended verbs to the menu. These are verbs that are less frequently used whose presence would clutter up the menu or pose an attractive nuisance. For example, the "Command Prompt Here" command is an extended command since your ...

At last you can turn off the USB 2.0 balloon

Raymond Chen August 21, 2007 Aug 21, 2007 08/21/07

One of the more annoying messages in Windows XP¹ is the "This USB device can perform faster" balloon that appears whenever you plug in a USB 2.0-capable device into a USB 1.0 port. When I click on that balooon, I get a message that says, "Sorry, you don't have any USB 2.0 ports. You'll have to install one to be able to...

When you copy a folder, why are the contents merged with the existing contents?

Raymond Chen August 20, 2007 Aug 20, 2007 08/20/07

When you use Explorer to copy a folder, and the folder already exists at the destination, Explorer merges the contents of the folder being copied with the folder that is already there. Why was this behavior chosen instead of replacing the existing folder? My colleague Bob Day explains.¹ Nitpicker's Corner ¹Although this statement...

The Old New Thing

August 2007 - Page 2 of 5 - The Old New Thing

What happens at LL Bean at three in the morning?

Microspeak: Value proposition

Which Windows font is named after a tabloid headline?

Nested fly-out menus are a usability nightmare

Disclaimers and such

The Northwest Mahler Orchestra presents Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony

Windows Vista has more extended options on the context menu

At last you can turn off the USB 2.0 balloon

When you copy a folder, why are the contents merged with the existing contents?

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