The Old New Thing

November 2008 - Page 3 of 4 - The Old New Thing

Now it’s like people buy sneakers to make money out of them

November 11, 2008 Nov 11, 2008 11/11/08
Raymond Chen
Where there are sneaker addicts you will have sneaker speculators. And not all the sneakerheads appreciate it. Such trading bothers purists like Raymond Chen, 26. "People used to buy sneakers because they love them," Chen said. "Now it's like people buy sneakers to make money out of them." Chen, an engineer from Shoreline, owns about ...

You can’t fight in here; this is the War Room!

November 11, 2008 Nov 11, 2008 11/11/08
Raymond Chen
(Video clip for those who don't get the reference.) The term War Room is attributed to Winston Churchill, used to describe the underground meeting room where the war effort was directed. It is the "crucial meeting room where important decisions are made" sense of the term that is used at Microsoft. Many software products (or even just ...

What do these topics have in common?

November 10, 2008 Nov 10, 2008 11/10/08
Raymond Chen
Update: The first correct answer is from Tom Smith who correctly identified the articles as having ridiculous In Popular Culture sections which mention The Simpsons. Lazbro was right: There needs to be a bot that deletes all "In Popular Culture" sections from Wikipedia...

How slow do you have to slow-double-click for it to be a rename?

November 10, 2008 Nov 10, 2008 11/10/08
Raymond Chen
In many parts of the system, you can rename an item by first selecting it, then clicking on its name. The selection step is typically done by clicking on the item, which creates the risk that your second click will be interpreted as a double-click rather than as a rename click. How slow do you have to slow-double-click for it to be a rename...

What I don’t get about bank robbers

November 7, 2008 Nov 7, 2008 11/7/08
Raymond Chen
My reaction to the news story about the so-called Barbie Bandits wasn't disbelief or shock at the crime, but rather confusion over their over-arching plan. People rob a bank and use the money to buy stuff. Dude, cut out the federal crime; just steal the stuff directly. When I expressed this disbelief at the lunch table, one of my colleagues...

Self-esteem gone overboard: The perils of a global namespace

November 7, 2008 Nov 7, 2008 11/7/08
Raymond Chen
There are items with overly generic names. , , , , . But their functionality doesn't live up to their name. refers only to kernel handles, can only close kernel handles, only gets information about GDI objects, applies only to the numerical difference between group resources and standalone resources, and only queries information about ...

What seventh grade students want to be when they grow up, an analysis

November 6, 2008 Nov 6, 2008 11/6/08
Raymond Chen
A few years ago, I listed some of the careers seventh grade students chose for themselves. But my friend the seventh grade teacher pointed out to me that the list hides the correlation between the jobs and the students. The lower-performing students chose the high-glamour jobs: Professional athlete, model, rock star, actor. Some of these ...

Does version 6 of the common controls support ANSI or not?

November 6, 2008 Nov 6, 2008 11/6/08
Raymond Chen
I mentioned in passing a few years ago that version 6 of the common controls supports only Unicode. And then other people stepped in to say, "Well, XYZ uses ANSI and that works for me." So does it support ANSI or doesn't it? It does and doesn't. All of the controls in the common controls library are internally Unicode. But not all ...

Microspeak: Represent

November 5, 2008 Nov 5, 2008 11/5/08
Raymond Chen
The more conventional definition of represent is along the lines of "to act as a proxy for". An attorney represents his or her client in court. Your legislator represents you in the assembly. A token on a board represents your position in the game. At Microsoft, the word represent takes on a stranger meaning. Here are some usages inspired by...

Quite possibly my last in-person ballot for a long time

November 4, 2008 Nov 4, 2008 11/4/08
Raymond Chen
Most parts of the state of Washington have switched to all-mail voting. No more standing in line at the polling place and casting your vote in person. This is certainly a convenience, but to me, it dilutes the voting experience. Part of the experience is the sense that you're part of a process, and standing in a room full of voters certainly...