January 31, 2013Jan 31, 201301/31/13A customer asked, “Which is faster for copying data from one process to another; MapViewOfFile or WriteProcessMemory?”
This is one of those “Huh?”-type questions, where the customer has solved half of a problem and is looking for help with the other half,
January 30, 2013Jan 30, 201301/30/13A customer had a program that was corrupting the managed heap by p/invoking incorrectly. The problem didn’t show up until the next garbage collection pass, at which point the CLR got all freaked-out-like. “According to Knowledge Base article 286470, the GFlags tool is supposed to catch heap corruption,
January 29, 2013Jan 29, 201301/29/13When you type a phrase into the Windows Vista Start menu’s search box and click Search the Internet, then the Start menu hands the query off to your default Internet search provider.
Or at least that’s what the Illuminati would have you believe.
January 28, 2013Jan 28, 201301/28/13I dreamed that the original Volkswagen Beetle factory was so cramped that the office workers had to move their desks to the factory floor, with heavy equipment swinging around just inches from their faces. To prevent serious injuries, a template passed through every so often to make sure nothing was out of place.
January 28, 2013Jan 28, 201301/28/13Today’s “Little Program”
does two things:
It looks for a printer in the Printers folder,
and then once it finds it, it creates a shortcut to that printer.
As is common with “Little Programs”,
I don’t bother with error checking.
I’ll leave you to do that.
January 25, 2013Jan 25, 201301/25/13A customer had a problem with SAFEARRAY,
or more specifically, with
CComSafeArray.
CComSafeArray<VARIANT> sa;
GetAwesomeArray(&sa);
LONG lb = sa.GetLowerBound();
LONG ub = sa.GetUpperBound();
for (LONG i = lb; i <= ub; i++) {
CComVariant item = sa.GetAt(i);
… use the item …
January 24, 2013Jan 24, 201301/24/13Starting with the Windows Vista PlatformSDK, defining the symbol STRICT_TYPED_ITEMIDS before including shell header files changes declarations that previously had simply used ITEMIDLIST now use one of various types which are more clear about what type of ID list is being used.
January 23, 2013Jan 23, 201301/23/13We saw some time ago that the nominal mouse wheel amount for one click (known as a “detent”) is specified by the constant WHEEL_DELTA, which has the value 120.
Why 120? Why not a much more convenient number like 100, or even 10?
January 22, 2013Jan 22, 201301/22/13Where are you really from?
January 22, 2013Jan 22, 201301/22/13Recently, a round of phone scammers have been dialing through our area with a caller-ID of (000) 000-0000, which should already raise suspicions.
When you answer, a synthesized voice says that they are calling from JPMorgan Chase MasterCard security. They claim that your credit card has been disabled due to suspicious activity,
