The Old New Thing
Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.
Latest posts
Your debugging code can be a security hole
When you're developing your debugging code, don't forget that just because it's only for debugging doesn't mean that you can forget about security. I remember...
On the inability to support hardware that nobody makes any more
Windows Vista will not have support for really old DVD drives. (The information below was kindly provided to me by the optical storage driver team.) When PC&...
The not-entirely-unwitting victims of the Daily Show interview
NPR's On the Media covers the world of the fake news interview, the leading example of which in the United States is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Despite ...
Using a physical object as a reminder
On our team, we have a mailing list where people can report problems. Those people could be testers from our team or they could be people from elsewhere in the ...
Rory Blyth explains the difference between 720p and 1080i
720p vs. 1080i - The Great HD TV Debate EXPLAINED and SOLVED. So now you know...
Whimsical embarrassment as a gentle form of reprimand
A few months ago, I messed up a cross-component check-in and broke the build. I'm not proud of it. (In my excitement over finally having passed a few weeks' ...
Humanity’s greatest invention, according to seventh grade students
When I read that Ecologist Magazine is co-sponsoring an essay contest on the topic What is Humanity's worst Invention?, it reminded me of a related essay ...
When a token changes its meaning mid-stream
The project leader for the initial version of Internet Explorer was well-known for wearing Hawaiian shirts. I'm told that the team managers decided to take one ...
It’s always a good idea to check your sources
For a while, our cafeteria was trying to sell three-packs of bottled water. A sign proudly announced: Drink more water: What you should know about H2O Drink...