Posts by this author

Nov 9, 2005
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Content owners need to review the designer art, too

The Washington State Association of County Auditors have a web site explaining steps people need to take to ensure their vote is counted properly. Unfortunately, the auditors didn't review what the web design team came up with, because their page on how to mark your ballot is illustrated with a cute graphic with a check-mark. Too bad the check m...

Non-Computer
Nov 9, 2005
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The psychology of naming your internal distribution lists

One problem that I'm sure everybody has run into is what I'm going to call the "comp.unix.wizards" problem. People who have a problem with unix are looking for someone who can help them, and given the choice between a general questions group and a wizard group, they're obviously going to choose the wizards because that's where the smart people are!...

Other
Nov 8, 2005
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Hiding from the police? Try knitting a sweater

Well, okay, it didn't work. But it was an interesting technique. Police Find Hit & Run Suspect Knitting At Curbside January 29, 2003 (Miami Beach) — Several elderly patients were injured Tuesday afternoon after a car that witnesses say was traveling more than 100 mph slammed into the van in which they were riding. Police say th...

Non-Computer
Nov 8, 2005
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Why was GlobalWire called GlobalWire?

John Elliott wondered why the function was called . First, some background for those who never had to write 16-bit Windows programs. The function was similar to the 16-bit function, except that it had the bonus feature of relocating the memory to the lowest available linear address. You used this function as a courtesy if you intended to leav...

History
Nov 7, 2005
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Take it easy on the automatic retries

When I saw a discussion of how to simulate retry via try/catch, using as inspiration a Ruby function that retried a network operation three times before finally giving up, I felt the need to caution against automatic retry. Your natural inclination when faced with a failure that has a good chance of being caused by a transient condition is to re...

Code
Nov 4, 2005
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It’s not a book, but it’s slightly closer

TechNet Magazine has picked me up as a columnist, and in their November/December 2005 issue they granted me the great honor of being on the back page. My opening salvo is an IT-ized version of one of my more popular early articles, but future issues will contain never-before-seen random musings on subjects of interest to IT professionals. And ...

Other
Nov 4, 2005
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Why is there a special PostQuitMessage function?

Why is there a special PostQuitMessage function? Because it's not really a posted message. Commenter A. Skrobov asked, "What's the difference between and ?" They are not equivalent, though they may look that way at first glance. The differences are subtle but significant. Like the , , and messages, the message is not a "real" posted mess...

Code
Nov 3, 2005
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Look what the hurricanes blew into Lafayette, LA

NPR reports that the influx of people into Lafayette has resulted in the city experiencing in one week the growth it had projected for fifteen to twenty years. It has also revived the singles scene. "Some young women say they're finding people to date for the first time in years."

Non-Computer
Nov 3, 2005
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To be a leader you must know when to follow

Many people misinterpreted my use of the term "reluctant" to describe the attitude of the designers in changing the way the Date/Time control panel functions. It was a reluctance of shame, not a reluctance of defiance. Your software is there for the users, not vice versa. If you find that your users are using the software in a manner contrary to...

History
Nov 2, 2005
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Blog design as a form of reality programming

On one of our internal blogging aliases, some people were interested in ways of making their blog look spiffier, and the Max team's blog was pointed out as an example of a "pimped out blog". This in turn led to exchange of tips and tricks and someone even proposed an informal Pimp My Blog contest. What next? Extreme Blog Makeover? Trading M...

Non-Computer