The Old New Thing

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). ...

Välkommen till Saerige?

November 1, 2005 Nov 1, 2005 11/1/05
Raymond Chen
Ballard is the Scandinavian neighborhood in Seattle, and they ordered some stone slabs for a new seating area in Bergen Place Park. What they didn't expect was that the Swedish stone would read S∀ERIGE. I mean, yeah, those Swedes do strange things with their A's, like put dots and circles over them, but I'm pretty sure they don't turn...

The COM interface contract rules exist for a reason

November 1, 2005 Nov 1, 2005 11/1/05
Raymond Chen
Some people believe that the COM rules on interfaces are needlessly strict. But the rules are there for a reason. Suppose you ship some interface in version N of your product. It's an internal interface, not documented to outsiders. Therefore, you are free to change it any time you want without having to worry about breaking ...

The Hallowe’en-themed lobby

October 31, 2005 Oct 31, 2005 10/31/05
Raymond Chen
During the Windows 95 project, the window manager team stayed late one night and redecorated the lobby. They suspended a variety of Hallowe'en-themed objects from fishing lines: spiders, ghosts, witches, jack-o'-lanterns, that sort of thing. The fishing line went up and over pulleys, rigged so that the objects spookily rose and fell ...

Without a doubt, the world’s worst online Swedish lessons

October 27, 2005 Oct 27, 2005 10/27/05
Raymond Chen
Lesson 3: Schomething schtranger (mp3) is part three of a series of four (so far) horrifically bad Swedish lessons. (Warning: Off-color content and copious swearing, but nevertheless very funny.) Boz has been living in Sweden since June, and two of his so-called friends have been putting together Swedish language tapes for him. Listen along ...