Raymond Chen, Author at The Old New Thing

Raymond Chen: Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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At least the Danes know how to count

December 30th, 2003

Even though Danish is impossible for me to pronounce, I do appreciate their stubborn resistance to decimalization. The number 71 is (I hope I get this right) "en og halvfjerdsindstyve", literally, "one and half-four-times-twenty", or more commonly, just "en og halvfjerds". (Those familiar with other Germanic languages recognize "half-...

What's the difference between CreateMenu and CreatePopupMenu?

December 30th, 2003

CreateMenu creates a horizontal menu bar, suitable for attaching to a top-level window. This is the sort of menu that says "File, Edit", and so on. CreatePopupMenu creates a vertical popup menu, suitable for use as a submenu of another menu (either a horizontal menu bar or another popup menu) or as the root of a context menu. If you get the ...

What's with those blank taskbar buttons that go away when I click on them?

December 29th, 2003

Sometimes you'll find a blank taskbar button that goes away when you click on it. What's the deal with that? There are some basic rules on which windows go into the taskbar. In short: If the WS_EX_APPWINDOW extended style is set, then it will show (when visible). If the window is a top-level unowned window, then it will show (when visible...

"Beam me up" is not yet recognized

December 29th, 2003

How soon before this becomes standard equipment at Star Trek conventions? Vocera Communications Unveils Wearable, Instant Voice Communications Application "Enterprise environments are looking for applications that leverage their investment in wireless communication technologies and increase employee efficiency," ... Some of the ...

Another privacy policy that isn't very private

December 28th, 2003

Today I read the privacy policy for Nuveen Investment Advisors. I like this part: We do not disclose any nonpublic personal information about you to anyone, except as permitted by law. "Except as permitted by law". How reassuring. Is it really necessary to have an official policy promising that that you won't break the law? And actually ...

Danish so-called "pronunciation"

December 28th, 2003

Of course my real goal in studying German and Swedish is eventually to have all of Denmark surrounded. (After Swedish, the next most likely nearby targets are Norwegian and Dutch.) All I know about Denmark I learned from Swedes. Well, if you don't count one Danish co-worker, who moved back to Denmark several years ago. The Swedes tell me...

How to hide privacy violations in a privacy disclosure statement

December 27th, 2003

I'm looking over my Fidelity privacy disclosure statement, titled "Our commitment to privacy". Google is amazing: It found a copy online: Our Commitment to Privacy. Scroll down to How and Why We Obtain Personal Information, fourth bullet point: Information services and consumer reporting agencies (for example, to verify your identity, to ...

Famous people doing mundane things = news!

December 26th, 2003

So an actor learns a foreign language and it's news: Actor Kingsley Masters Farsi Language. Meanwhile, tens of millions of people around the world learn a foreign language without any media coverage whatsoever. (And if you read the article: He didn't master Farsi. He mastered basic Farsi. Whatever that means...

You can read a contract from the other side

December 26th, 2003

An interface is a contract, but remember that a contract applies to both parties. Most of the time, when you read an interface, you look at it from the point of view of the client side of the contract, but often it helps to read it from the server side. For example, let's look at the interface for control panel applications. Most of the ...

What order do programs in the startup group execute?

December 25th, 2003

The programs in the startup group run in an unspecified order. Some people think they execute in the order they were created. Then you upgraded from Windows 98 to Windows 2000 and found that didn't work any more. Other people think they execute in alphabetical order. Then you installed a Windows XP multilingual user interface language pack ...