The Old New Thing

Points are earned by programs, not by shortcuts

June 12, 2007 Jun 12, 2007 06/12/07
Raymond Chen
The first subtlety of the basic principle that determines which programs show up in the Start menu is something you may not have noticed when I stated it: Each time you launch a program, it "earns a point", and the longer you don't launch a program, the more points it loses. Notice that the rule talks about programs, not shortcuts. The "...

The New York City Profit Calculator

June 11, 2007 Jun 11, 2007 06/11/07
Raymond Chen
New York Magazine has a fascinating feature in today's issue: The Profit Calculator. It covers a cross-section of New York City businesses and studies how they make their money. Chock full of interesting little details, such as...

Why does canonical order for ACEs put deny ACEs ahead of allow ACEs?

June 8, 2007 Jun 8, 2007 06/8/07
Raymond Chen
So-called canonical order for ACEs in an access control list places deny ACEs ahead of allow ACEs. Why is this the canonical order? Because it gives results that are sensible. The algorithm for determining whether a user has access to an object protected by an ACL is as follows: let access-still-needed = access-requested for each ACE...

The meaning of a red traffic light is open to interpretation

June 7, 2007 Jun 7, 2007 06/7/07
Raymond Chen
It seems a sure-fire way to get a lot of good comments is to write about traffic lights or crazy driving, so I'm going to combine the two and write about crazy driving at traffic lights. Then my comments will set a new record. My friend The Knitty Professor told me about the time the sister of one of her friends came to visit from another...

How do I inflate a bicycle tire with a potato?

June 7, 2007 Jun 7, 2007 06/7/07
Raymond Chen
I see this all the time. People have a problem and have already decided what technology they're going to use to solve it, and then they hit a roadblock: The technology they picked is unsuited to the problem! How do I put my laptop into standby mode from VBScript? How do I change the user's mouse acceleration from a batch file? I changed...

How not to prepare for the STP (2007 edition)

June 6, 2007 Jun 6, 2007 06/6/07
Raymond Chen
I signed up for the annual Seattle-to-Portland bike ride, known to Seattle-area bicycling dorks as STP. My bicycle riding is mostly just commuting to and from work, nothing even approaching the 200-mile trek that STP entails, but one of my friends who recently started bicycle-commuting inspired our little bicycle commuting group to sign up. ...

Email tip: Lay off the massive email signatures

June 6, 2007 Jun 6, 2007 06/6/07
Raymond Chen
All too often I see email like this: From: X Is there a way to turn off Q? Thanks, X Support Professional Microsoft Product Support Services Tel: +123 456 7890 Extension 1234 Email: X@microsoft.com In case I am unavailable and you need urgent assistance, you can contact the following people: My Backup: Y, Phone: +123 456 7890 ...