Showing archive results for 2012

Friday asks whether OANOCACHE can be used for non-debug purposes, say to improve stability and/or speed. You can try, but it's not recommended. For one thing, it probably damages stability, because there are many applications out there which unwittingly rely on the BSTR cache to protect them from heap corruption bugs. The Windows team has for yea...

Exclusively sequential, nonsequential, and then there's sort-of-sequential.

It used to be something worse.

I have an ongoing conflict with my in-laws. Their concept of the correct amount of food to have in the refrigerator is "more than will comfortably fit." Whenever they come to visit (which is quite often), they make sure to bring enough food so that my refrigerator bursts at the seams, with vegetables and eggs and other foodstuffs crammed into every...

Reader laonianren wanted to know more about this game Walls and Ladders. "Walls and Ladders" is not a game. It's just a metaphor for a conflict in which one side wants to perform some action and the other side wants to prevent it. The defending side builds a wall, and the attacking side builds a taller ladder. In response, the defending side bui...

While I was at a group dinner at a Chinese restaurant, a whole fish was brought to our table. One of the other people at the table told a story of another time a whole fish was brought to the table. He attended the wedding rehearsal dinner of a family member. The bride is Chinese, but the groom is not. (Or maybe it was the other way around. Doesn'...

Nice and scalable.

There was a report some time ago that researchers have developed a way to duplicate keys given only a photograph. When I read this story, I was reminded of an incident that occurred to a colleague of mine. He accidentally locked his keys in his car and called a locksmith. Frustratingly, the keys were sitting right there on the driver's seat. The ...

Commenter Worf remarked, "My one wish is that would be supported." I always find it interesting when people say "I wish that Microsoft would stop following standards," since the directive is nonstandard. The Microsoft C/C++ compiler implements the feature in a method compatible with the standard, namely via a directive. If you want ...

As I noted before, many grocery stores in the United States have a printer next to the cash register which prints out coupons customized to your purchases. Here's a purchase and the accompanying coupon. What is the story behind this pairing? Purchased: Diapers for newborn baby. Coupon: Save 75 cents on ice cream. Bonus chatter: While waiting in ...