December 2008

2008 year-end link clearance

Raymond Chen December 31, 2008 Dec 31, 2008 12/31/08

Time for the semi-annual link clearance. Finally, we have the traditional plug for my column in TechNet Magazine...

Crazy or cell phone?

Raymond Chen December 30, 2008 Dec 30, 2008 12/30/08

You've seen it, I'm sure. People walking down the street talking to themselves. Crazy or cellphone? What really gets me are the people who wear the headsets even when they aren't talking on the telephone, but rather in anticipation of receiving a telephone call. To those people, I have this to say to you: You're not that important. Get...

Every crash is a potential security vulnerability

Raymond Chen December 30, 2008 Dec 30, 2008 12/30/08

Whenever I post about a programming error that can lead to crashes, the security team gets all excited and starts looking for ways to exploit it. For example, when I wrote about the fundamentally flawed DONT_RESOLVE_DLL_REFERENCES flag, the security folks went scouring through the Windows source code looking for anybody who passed that flag...

Undecorating names to see why a function can’t be found

Raymond Chen December 29, 2008 Dec 29, 2008 12/29/08

Here's a problem inspired by actual events. When I build my project, it compiles fine, but it fails during the link step with an unresolved external: program.obj : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "public: virtual wchar_t const * __thiscall UILibrary::PushButton::GetName(class UILibrary::StringHolder * *)" (?GetName@PushButton@...

Why are all computers shown with a Printers folder even if printer sharing is disabled?

Raymond Chen December 26, 2008 Dec 26, 2008 12/26/08

When you visited a computer on the network by typing \\computername into the address bar, Explorer showed you a Printers folder if the computer had printer sharing enabled. But starting in Windows Vista, the Printers folder is shown regardless of whether the remote computer is sharing any printers. Why did this change? Communicating ...

Then again, sometimes the improvement is merely incremental

Raymond Chen December 25, 2008 Dec 25, 2008 12/25/08

Several years ago, the security department sent out a company-wide memo: Over the next few months, we will be upgrading the card readers on all of our major campuses. The old card readers show a solid red light when the door is locked, whereas the new card readers show a blinking red light. Aw-right, a blinking light. Now we're cookin' with...

Foiled by my withered hand

Raymond Chen December 24, 2008 Dec 24, 2008 12/24/08

A few years ago, some email was sent out to the product team asking for a volunteer hand model to demonstrate how to open the Windows Vista box. Alas, I withdrew myself from consideration due to my withered hand...

Misheard lyrics as applied to Christmas songs

Raymond Chen December 23, 2008 Dec 23, 2008 12/23/08

While visiting my young nieces, we sang some Christmas songs, and when it came to sing Toyland, the four-year-old sang it with misheard lyrics: "Toi-let! Toi-let...

Why isn’t there a SendThreadMessage function?

Raymond Chen December 23, 2008 Dec 23, 2008 12/23/08

Here's an interesting customer question: Windows has PostMessage and SendMessage. It also has PostThreadMessage but no SendThreadMessage. Why isn't there a SendThreadMessage function? Am I forced to simulate it with an event? What would this imaginary SendThreadMessage function do? Recall that SendMessage delivers the message directly to ...

The Old New Thing

December 2008 - The Old New Thing