August 2007

Why is the blog's subtitle "Not actually a .NET blog"?

Raymond Chen August 13, 2007 Aug 13, 2007 08/13/07

Based on the feedback from my last CLR week, I think one CLR week a year is about right, Welcome to CLR Week 2007. I'll kick off the week with something not actually technical, but which might be puzzling to the newcomers: Why is the blog's subtitle "Not actually a .NET blog"? When I started, the blog hosting site for Microsoft technical ...

Things I've written that have amused other people, Episode 4

Raymond Chen August 10, 2007 Aug 10, 2007 08/10/07

One of my colleagues pointed out that my web site is listed in the references section of this whitepaper. It scares me that I'm being used as formal documentation because that is explicitly what this web site isn't. I wrote back, I really need to put a disclaimer on my web site. FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY Remember, this is a blog. ...

Martina Navratilova's final Wimbledon appearance, and this time she means it

Raymond Chen August 9, 2007 Aug 9, 2007 08/9/07

When I was growing up, our family followed professional tennis on television, and Wimbledon was of course the tennis tournament of the year. During those years, it seemed always to boil down to Martina Navratilova against Chris Evert in the final, and the family's loyalties were split. (I sided with the old guard and pulled for Chris Evert.) ...

How do I get the handle of the primary monitor?

Raymond Chen August 9, 2007 Aug 9, 2007 08/9/07

The primary monitor by definition has its upper left corner at (0, 0). Therefore, you can use this function: To make double extra sure (belt and suspenders), we also tell it, "If you're not sure what monitor to return, give us the primary." Sure, this sounds obviously simple, but I actually found somebody who fumbled around in the dark ...

Bowling coming to Bellevue, and given the location, it's naturally upscale

Raymond Chen August 8, 2007 Aug 8, 2007 08/8/07

The Lincoln Square mall in Bellevue will have a new tenant: An upscale bowling all^H^H^Hlounge. Expected to open before the Christmas holiday season, there will be two bars, full-service dining, lots of big plasma screens, all the stuff that makes bowling better. The lounge be positioned on the second floor, beneath Parlor Billiards, a ...

Email tip: I don't have my bug numbers memorized

Raymond Chen August 8, 2007 Aug 8, 2007 08/8/07

Far too often I'll get email like this: From: X Subject: 27183 Have you started looking at this one yet? It may surprise you to learn that I do not memorize all my bug numbers. Please include a brief description of the bug in your message so I have a clue what you're talking about. The bug title is a good start. It's like going to a ...

One would be hard pressed to find a group of characters more in need of a lawyer

Raymond Chen August 7, 2007 Aug 7, 2007 08/7/07

When all you have is a law degree, everything looks like a legal question: The legal issues that arise on Gilligan's Island...

It rather involved being on the other side of this airtight hatchway: Executable corruption

Raymond Chen August 7, 2007 Aug 7, 2007 08/7/07

In the category of dubious vulnerability, I submit the following (paraphrased) report: I discovered that if I take an EXE file and corrupt its header, then when I try to run the EXE file, the process starts up and then crashes. I used the information in the crash dialog to direct further investigations, noting that the specific crash ...

The truth about 4/29 the government doesn't want you to know

Raymond Chen August 6, 2007 Aug 6, 2007 08/6/07

With the loss of the Weekly World News, I'll have to rely on the trustworthy Internet to keep me informed of government conspiracies. I happen to be partial to 4/29truth.com, which uncovers the strange coincidences and inconsistencies in the "official" explanation of the tanker crash and fire on April 29, 2007 that destroyed a highway ...

Freudian typo: Enchanced metafiles

Raymond Chen August 6, 2007 Aug 6, 2007 08/6/07

Back in 1993, there was an internal presentation discussing the various new features that were being added to that fancy new version of Windows that ultimately came to be known as Windows 95. In the GDI section, one of the new features was listed as "Enchanced metafiles". When the slide went up, you could hear the scattered titters of ...

The Old New Thing

August 2007 - Page 4 of 5 - The Old New Thing