February 2017

Great moments in journalism: “Confirmed Microsoft Surface Pro 5 launch date”

Raymond Chen February 28, 2017 Feb 28, 2017 02/28/17

Today I wish to draw your attention to this article: Confirmed: Microsoft Surface Pro 5 to be launched in June [2016]. I added the "2016" because the article didn't give a year in its headline, but it was posted in May 2016, so it was clearly referring to June 2016. Even though the headline says "Confirmed", if you actually read the article, ...

Baking soda has hundreds of uses, but what about what it says on the tin?

Raymond Chen February 27, 2017 Feb 27, 2017 02/27/17

My mother bought a giant bag of baking soda in order to deodorize some carpet. She had some left over and wondered if it was food grade. The bag said, "Hundreds of uses!" and listed all sorts of uses for baking soda. "Baking" was not on the list. Follow-up: She called the manufacturer. It is safe for baking, too...

How do I disable the press-and-hold gesture for my window?

Raymond Chen February 27, 2017 Feb 27, 2017 02/27/17

A customer had a program which responded to left mouse clicks, but they found that when used with a touch screen, when users touched the screen, the WM_LBUTTONDOWN message didn't arrive until the users lifted their fingers from the screen. They wanted to know whether this was by design, and also whether there was a way to get the ...

Eventually you reach a critical mass of LEGO pieces where you can build most things from what you already have

Raymond Chen February 24, 2017 Feb 24, 2017 02/24/17

My kids are fascinated by camper vans and recreational vehicles. (They keep asking to go camping, but not for the purpose of experiencing nature. It's because they want to travel in a camper.) They wanted a camper van LEGO set, but instead of buying one, we went online and found the instructions for an existing camper van set and built it from...

The system manages the system image lists; don’t go changing the art on the walls

Raymond Chen February 24, 2017 Feb 24, 2017 02/24/17

A customer reported that their program ran on Windows XP just fine, but on Windows 7, its icons are all black boxes. They included a code fragment to demonstrate: Okay, there are multiple things wrong here, but they all boil down to the same root cause: Modifying the system image list. The system image lists are managed by the system. It ...

How am I supposed to print my print-at-home tickets if I can’t reproduce them?

Raymond Chen February 23, 2017 Feb 23, 2017 02/23/17

I ordered some tickets online and was sent to a Web page which displayed the tickets (with bar codes and stuff), with instructions to print them out. The Web page also had this big warning on it: IT IS UNLAWFUL TO REPRODUCE THIS TICKET IN ANY FORM. Um, this is a print-at-home ticket. The entire reason for its existence is to be reproduced ...

How to create a folder that inherits its parent’s ACL, and then overrides part of it

Raymond Chen February 23, 2017 Feb 23, 2017 02/23/17

A customer wants to create a folder that inherits its parent's ACL but then overrides part of it. Specifically, the customer wanted to disallow the creation of subfolders. The customer reported that when they used the SHCreateDirectory function to create the folder, the folder did not inherit any ACLs at all from its parent. The only...

Those Year 2000 disaster preparedness trucks were originally there for a different reason

Raymond Chen February 22, 2017 Feb 22, 2017 02/22/17

I mentioned some time ago the trucks filled with computers and backup generators parked outside Building 26 on the evening of December 31, 1999, standing by to assist with operations should a worldwide disaster strike during the change to the year 2000. (Spoiler: Nothing major happened.) A now-retired colleague of mine¹ told me that ...

What little kids think of lifeguards

Raymond Chen February 21, 2017 Feb 21, 2017 02/21/17

We had extended family over for a visit, and we decided to take everybody to the public swimming pool. While waiting in line, the kids (ages 4 through 7) somehow got onto the topic of lifeguards. Six-year-old: "I hate lifeguards. Whenever you do something fun, they tell you to stop." Four-year-old: "I hate lifeguards, too. They made me stop ...

Psychic debugging: Why does opening a command prompt always print a weird error message?

Raymond Chen February 21, 2017 Feb 21, 2017 02/21/17

Every so often, somebody reports that whenever they open a command prompt, they get a weird error message between the version banner and the prompt. Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393](c) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.C:\> Where is that message "The ...

The Old New Thing

February 2017 - The Old New Thing