The Old New Thing
Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.
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What's all this stuff hanging from that utility pole?
Brain Hayes, author of Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape (another example of the "short: long" book title fad), talks us through all of the wires hanging from what we commonly call a "telephone pole".
Why do DLGC_WANTALLKEYS and DLGC_WANTMESSAGE have the same value?
From a purely theoretical point of view, there is only one "want" code you really need: . All the others are just conveniences. For example, returning means "I want this message if it is an arrow key; otherwise, I don't care." It lets you write instead of the more cumbersome (but equivalent) Similarly, is equivalent to returning if the message is a press of the tab key, and is equivalent to returning if the message is . And that leaves , which is just another name for : They mean the same thing but look at the situation through different perspectives. The value is more readable if you return it ...
Why the Fantastic 4 Human Torch ATV is the Worst Movie Tie-In Toy Ever
Columnist Wm. Steven Humphrey expounds on Why the Fantastic 4 Human Torch ATV (with Light-Up Headlights!) is the Worst Movie Tie-In Toy Ever. (Readers cautioned for strong language, but it's funny because it's true.)
There's no point improving the implementation of a bad idea
is a bad idea and you shouldn't call it. In the comments, many people proposed changes to the function to improve the implementation. But what's the point? is just a bad idea. There's no point improving the implementation of a bad idea. On the other hand, some people suggested making it clear that is a bad idea by making it worse. While this is tempting in a "I'm forcing you to do the right thing" sense, it carries with it serious compatibility problems. There's a lot of code that uses even though it's a bad idea, and making worse would risk breaking those programs that managed to get away with it up u...
Einstein the geographer? A hoax.
Perhaps you've seen this quote attributed to Albert Einstein: As a young man, my fondest dream was to become a geographer. However, while working in the Customs Office, I thought deeply about the matter and concluded that it was far too difficult a subject. With some reluctance, I then turned to physics as an alternative. Well, it's a fake. The original research and debunking came from Jerry Dobson, then was picked up (with extensive excerpts—recommended) by Sharon Burnside and then Regret the Error, which is where I found it.
Even advanced users liked the Windows XP Start menu
In addition to testing out the Windows XP Start menu on beginners, we asked advanced users (including lots of system administrators) what they thought of it, and the response was still positive. This was kind of surprising, for advanced users tend to be resistant to change. In fact, system administrators like the new Start menu so much that they asked for a special "server administrators" version of the new Start menu. Explorer decides whether you get the "normal user" version or the "server administrator" version of the Start menu based on your account permissions at the time you log on for the first time....
What is the international sign for "you left something on the roof of your car"?
Occasionally, I'll spot a car with something on its roof, the driver clearly having put it there and forgotten about it. I have just a few seconds to catch the driver's attention and make some sort of explanatory gesture. What is the international sign for "You left something on your roof"?
How does the Windows XP Start menu decide that a program is newly-installed?
Actually, I discussed this topic already, but I'm mentioning it again here since it's thematically related to the other Start menu articles. I'm told that there have been a few tweaks to the rules for Windows Vista. Some installers set the time stamps on the program to match the time stamp of the install media. This makes for pretty directory listings but means that the Start menu fails to recognize the program as new. To address this, the Start menu also takes the creation time of the directory containing the program into consideration when determining which programs are new. Second, a program that appea...
In order to serve you better: Frequent flyer miles expiring sooner
At the beginning of the year, United quietly changed its policy on frequently flyer points. Under the old rules, your account remained active provided there was some sort of account activity in the past three years. The activity could be taking a flight, redeeming points for product, or earning points through one of their partners. Anything that changes the point total resets the clock. Under the new rules, the lifetime of an inactive account has been cut in half, to 18 months. What's more, they made the change retroactive with no grace period. If your account had been inactive for two years, poof, it's gone. I...