Showing archive results for 2007

When you enter Terminal 6 and turn right to enter the security queue, there are two sets of security equipment. If you are directed to the far set of equipment, you will find three lines for screening. At the point at which you have to choose which line to take, you can't see how your decision is going to play out. The arrangement is effecti...

With the new Windows Vista Start menu, the keyboard shortcuts have once again been reorganized. You used to be able to hit the Windows key and then type L to call up the Log off menu, and then L again to trigger the logoff. Or you can hit the Windows key and then type I to launch Internet Explorer if you've been so careful to ensure that ...

My colleague Erin Dallin remarked, "I just installed a new toilet as part of my bathroom remodel. I was told that it is capable of flushing 20 golf balls using only 1.6 gallons of water. I'd love to know how this standard was developed." Visit the product Web site and click on Flushing system in action to watch the video. Or read Wired's covera...

Yes indeed, all Microsoft files are (or should be) digitally signed (as far as I'm aware). So I'm not quite sure what commenter Dave is getting at: The Microsoft file should have embedded vendor/product information saying it's from Microsoft and will be cryptographically signed by Microsoft. Similarly-named malware won't be signed by Microsoft, u...

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.

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 changes t...

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 Microsof...

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 the ...

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 by i...

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