March 2010 | Page 3 of 4 | The Old New Thing

Why does the OLE variant date format use 30 December 1899 as its zero point?

Raymond ChenMarch 12, 2010Mar 12, 201003/12/10

In 2006, via the suggestion box, Chris J asks why the OLE variant date format has such a strange zero point. Its zero point is 30 December 1899, as opposed to 1 January 1900 (SQL Server's zero point) or 1 January 1970 (the unix zero point). It turns out I don't have to answer this because Eric Lippert explained it three years before ...

Application compatibility layers are there for the customer, not for the program

Raymond ChenMarch 11, 2010Mar 11, 201003/11/10

Some time ago, a customer asked this curious question (paraphrased, as always): Hi, we have a program that was originally designed for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, but we found that it runs into difficulties on Windows Vista. We've found that if we set the program into Windows XP compatibility mode, then the program...

One of the consequences of accepting a job offer is that you might end up working with an interviewer who didn't like you

Raymond ChenMarch 10, 2010Mar 10, 201003/10/10

At an informal gathering, my colleagues and I started talking about our experiences being interviewed at Microsoft. One of the people there remembered how one of the pieces of feedback on the interview lo these many years ago was that although my colleague was certainly smart enough and hardworking enough, there seemed to be insufficient ...

$Why is the fine for a basic traffic infraction in the state of Washington such a random-looking number?$

Why is the fine for a basic traffic infraction in the state of Washington such a random-looking number?

Raymond ChenMarch 9, 2010Mar 9, 201003/9/10

Willy-Peter Schaub was puzzled by a sign reminding drivers that the fine for obstructing an intersection is $101 and wonders what the extra $1 is for. The laws of the State of Washington defer the monetary value of traffic fines to the Infraction Rules for Courts of Limited Jurisdiction (more commonly known as the IRLJ), specifically ...

PSM_ISDIALOGMESSAGE is to modeless property sheets as IsDialogMessage is to modeless dialog boxes

Raymond ChenMarch 9, 2010Mar 9, 201003/9/10

Dialog boxes and property sheets are similar in that most of the time, you use them modally. You call DialogBox or PropertySheet, and the function doesn't return until the user closes the dialog box or property sheet. But you can also use dialog boxes and property sheets modelessly, using CreateDialog or by including the PSH_MODELESS flag when...

The best actors in the business still lean into the microphone when they talk

Raymond ChenMarch 8, 2010Mar 8, 201003/8/10

Now let me get this straight. The Oscars honor, among other things, the best actors in Hollywood. These are people who have devoted their professional careers to reciting dialog in front of a camera and making it look spontaneous and natural. But for some reason, put them on stage at the Oscars, and instead of reciting dialog spontaneously ...

Why doesn't double-right-click bring up the Properties dialog?

Raymond ChenMarch 8, 2010Mar 8, 201003/8/10

kip asks why double-right-click isn't a shortcut for Properties. Recall the logical consequences of the way Windows converts single-clicks into double-clicks. The double-click action is an extension of the single-click action. In the case of context menus, the proposed double-right-click action is not an extension of the single-right-click...

Delegation of responsibilities within a family during pregnancy

Raymond ChenMarch 5, 2010Mar 5, 201003/5/10

When friends of mine were expecting their first child, the wife frequently received comments like "That's okay. You're eating for two now." The husband had a response ready: "If she's eating for two, I'm drinking for three...

How do I access the magic IEEE floating point values like NaN in code?

Raymond ChenMarch 5, 2010Mar 5, 201003/5/10

There are functions like _isnan, _isnanf, _finite, and _fpclass for detecting that a floating point value is one of the special values like NaN, but how do you actually generate one of these values? You can access these values from the std::numeric_limits template. Wait, where's negative infinity? The compiler folks provided these ...

Everyday is Grammer Day

Raymond ChenMarch 4, 2010Mar 4, 201003/4/10

March fourth is not just a pun on march forth, but it's also National Grammar Day, sponsored by the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar...

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