The Old New Thing

Why was GlobalWire called GlobalWire?

November 8, 2005 Nov 8, 2005 11/8/05
Raymond Chen
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...

Take it easy on the automatic retries

November 7, 2005 Nov 7, 2005 11/7/05
Raymond Chen
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 ...

It’s not a book, but it’s slightly closer

November 4, 2005 Nov 4, 2005 11/4/05
Raymond Chen
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...

Why is there a special PostQuitMessage function?

November 4, 2005 Nov 4, 2005 11/4/05
Raymond Chen
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...

Look what the hurricanes blew into Lafayette, LA

November 3, 2005 Nov 3, 2005 11/3/05
Raymond Chen
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...

To be a leader you must know when to follow

November 3, 2005 Nov 3, 2005 11/3/05
Raymond Chen
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 ...

Blog design as a form of reality programming

November 2, 2005 Nov 2, 2005 11/2/05
Raymond Chen
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? ...

Found blog: The Piehole

November 2, 2005 Nov 2, 2005 11/2/05
Raymond Chen
I have no idea who this person is, but she's all attitude all the time. Like this entry from October 18, 2005 when Jennifer was recovering from a foot injury: Men love a girl who can't run away quickly I got "wooey!"-ed by a garbage man on my way back to the office from lunch today... Because I'm so HAWT hobbling down the street. He ...

Why is inline autocomplete disabled by default?

November 2, 2005 Nov 2, 2005 11/2/05
Raymond Chen
Earlier versions of Internet Explorer used inline autocomplete, but newer versions use drop-down autocomplete that requires you to press the down-arrow key to select an item from the drop-down. Why the change? Because it interferes with normal keyboard operation. Suppose is in your history, but you want to go to . As you type the desired...

Bicycling from Mercer Island to Microsoft main campus

November 1, 2005 Nov 1, 2005 11/1/05
Raymond Chen
I asked four people who commute by bicycle eastbound over the I-90 bridge to Microsoft main campus what route they take, and they gave three different answers. I've given them meaningless names just to tell them apart. The yellow route First half (markers A1 through A5) | Second half (markers B1 through B5). ...