The Old New Thing

Very late remarks on the original Chinese dictionary series

March 3, 2006 Mar 3, 2006 03/3/06
Raymond Chen
I have not forgotten about the Chinese/English dictionary series, but I simply haven't had the motivation to sit down and write up descriptions and discussion for the code that I wrote along the way, so instead of adding to the program, I'm going to answer some questions that were asked back when I started the series but which I didn't respond...

Martha, Martha, Martha!

March 2, 2006 Mar 2, 2006 03/2/06
Raymond Chen
Martha Stewart was in town this past weekend signing her book on baking. Although I'm a Martha fan, I didn't attend the signing because I already have a really awesome book on baking. I've listed below some of the ground rules for the book signing, mixed in with some stuff I just plain made up. Your mission is to pick out which of these ...

Restating the obvious about the WM_COMMAND message

March 2, 2006 Mar 2, 2006 03/2/06
Raymond Chen
I'm satisfied with the MSDN documentation for the message, but for the sake of mind-numbing completeness, I'm going to state the obvious in the hope that you, dear readers, can use this technique to fill in the obvious in other parts of MSDN. The one-line summary of the message says, "The WM_COMMAND message is sent when the user selects ...

Keep your eye on the code page, practical exam

March 1, 2006 Mar 1, 2006 03/1/06
Raymond Chen
The instructions that came with my new monitor are printed in several languages. One of those languages is Polish, or at least it would be Polish if... well, you'll see. UWAGA: Szczegó³owe informacje dla u¿ytkownika znajduj¹ siê na do³¹czonej p³ycie CD. This is garbage. What they meant to write was...

Changing a window class affects all windows which belong to that class

February 27, 2006 Feb 27, 2006 02/27/06
Raymond Chen
Sometimes you need to state the obvious, and that's fine. You can learn a lot from the obvious. For example, the first topic in my PDC talk consisted of simply stating the obvious. Occasionally, when you state the obvious, you have to follow up by stating the obvious. When I pointed out that the effect of lasts only until the next , one ...

The Top Gear Winter Olympics 2006

February 24, 2006 Feb 24, 2006 02/24/06
Raymond Chen
I know nothing about cars. Driving fast scares me. But I still enjoy the British car show Top Gear. The hosts clearly enjoy driving, and they don't hold back in their commentary. ("This was the first seven-seat 4×4 designed by someone who had children, not by an engineer who read about them in a book.") Last week was their Winter ...

Why can't I disable the Cancel button in a wizard?

February 24, 2006 Feb 24, 2006 02/24/06
Raymond Chen
The macro lets you manipulate many of the buttons on a wizard, but the Cancel button remains elusive. Why can't you disable the Cancel button or the "X" button? Because our users tell us they don't like it. Observation of users in our labs and interviews with them reveal that wizards that disable the Cancel button cause them stress and ...

That $9 you got from the PayPal settlement? Taxable income.

February 23, 2006 Feb 23, 2006 02/23/06
Raymond Chen
If you're like many people, you signed up for the PayPal class action lawsuit and got around $9 for filing a claim against the Statutory Damage Fund. My read of IRS publication 4345 says that this constitutes taxable income. Note: This is just my personal opinion. Consult with your tax advisor before taking action. As for me, I reported it...