The Old New Thing

March 2008 - Page 2 of 4 - The Old New Thing

Buses and trams going to this place called Reservado

March 24, 2008 Mar 24, 2008 03/24/08
Raymond Chen
One thing I noticed in Lisbon is that I will occasionally see a bus or tram whose destination sign says Reservado. I couldn't find a place called Reservado anywhere in my guide book. It must be new. Hi, everybody. I'm back from vacation, and it's taken me a while to catch up on all that happened while I was away. In addition to deleting all ...

How to write like Raymond: What I tell you three times is true

March 21, 2008 Mar 21, 2008 03/21/08
Raymond Chen
Another installment in the extremely sporadic series on how to write like Raymond. On occasion, I'll find myself engaged in a mail thread with a customer who refuses to believe what they're being told and is under the impression that rephrasing the question will get a different answer. "My customer wants to control the name and appearance of...

Raymond's highly scientific predictions for the 2008 NCAA men's basketball tournament

March 21, 2008 Mar 21, 2008 03/21/08
Raymond Chen
It's that time again: Raymond comes up with an absurd, arbitrary criterion for filling out his NCAA bracket. This time, I studied all the games played in the NCAA men's basketball tournament since 1985 and computed how many of the games were won by the favorite and how many were upsets, broken down by the numerical difference between the ...

I try not to rely on the kindness of strangers, but it's a pleasant surprise when strangers come through

March 17, 2008 Mar 17, 2008 03/17/08
Raymond Chen
I took part in a casual bike ride last month in celebration of a friend's daughter's birthday. Our first stop was Trophy Cupcakes in Wallingford. It was there that I discovered that my wallet was missing. I checked my pockets several times, but the wallet was gone. I was pretty sure I had brought it with me, but there was an outside chance ...

Why can't you rename the Recycle Bin?

March 17, 2008 Mar 17, 2008 03/17/08
Raymond Chen
Commenter zd asks, "Why can't you rename the Recycle Bin?" This question, as do many questions, comes with implicit assumptions. In particular, the assumption that everything can be renamed by default and that somebody must have gone to the effort of blocking the rename of the Recycle Bin. Actually, reality is the reverse. Shell namespace ...

If you grant somebody SeDebugPrivilege, you gave away the farm

March 14, 2008 Mar 14, 2008 03/14/08
Raymond Chen
By default, users can debug only processes that they own. In order to debug processes owned by other users, you have to possess the SeDebugPrivilege privilege. But don't grant this privilege casually, because once you do, you gave away the farm. If you let users debug processes owned by other users, then they can debug processes owned by ...