Showing results for November 2008 - The Old New Thing

Nov 28, 2008
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The Ballard Locks will be empty this week

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (more commonly known as the Ballard Locks) are a common attraction in Seattle. But if you pay a visit for the next week, you'll find that the large set of locks will be empty. And not just empty of boats. Empty of water. The chamber has been emptied of water for annual maintenance, and if you stop by, you can take p...

Non-Computer
Nov 28, 2008
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Just because a method is called Refresh doesn’t mean that it refreshes what you want

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Here's a question from a customer: I made some changes related to my shell extension [details omitted], but the changes don't show up in the Explorer window when I refresh it. Any suggestions on how to solve this problem? When we asked how they were refreshing the Explorer window, we were expecting something like pressing F5 or calling with ,...

Code
Nov 27, 2008
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Welcome to the 2008 holiday shopping season

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Yes, maybe you're one of those crazy people who camps out in front of a store so you can be the first person in line to get this year's hot toy, or so you can snag one of the doorbuster deals. But be judicious in your rush, because the police are out there too, and they're shopping for something else.

Non-Computer
Nov 27, 2008
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Not my finest hour: Getting instructions on doing something I’ve already done

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Last year, I sent some email to the people who run our team's check-in validation tool asking how I could add a new rule to the validation tests. One of the members wrote back, "You do it just like this guy," and sent me a reference to another check-in that added a validation rule. That other check-in was made by me. But wait, it gets better. ...

Other
Nov 25, 2008
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Yes, I filed an expense report for a hair dryer, why do you ask?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Back in the late 1990's one of my colleagues (who is now in Office Labs—check it out, they've got some pretty cool stuff) filed an expense report for a hair dryer, and it was accepted. But what valid business purpose would there be for a tester to buy a hair dryer? At the time, my colleague worked as a tester for Windows power management. ...

History
Nov 24, 2008
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When you’re walking around a city, you usually forget to look up

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

When you're walking around a city, you usually forget to look up. It takes a landmark building to prompt you to admire anything above the ground floor. For those in the Seattle area, the Seattle Times included a brief walking tour of Seattle architecture. The article doesn't mention one of my favorites: The roll-on deodorant building on the co...

Non-Computer
Nov 21, 2008
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Rachmaninov had big hands: An illustration

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Rachmaninov's Prelude in C# minor, Op. 3, No. 2, performed as it is written, by classical music comedy duo Igudesman & Joo. I tried to learn that piece once. I didn't last long.

Non-Computer
Nov 21, 2008
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The great thing about priorities is that you can always go one higher

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The phenomenon I call priority inflation has spread to product planning documents as well. Back in the old days, there were three priority levels: Over the past few years, I've seen a shift in the labelling of priorities in planning documents. A new priority has been introduced: Priority Zero. Nobody has explained to me what Priority 0 m...

Other