The Old New Thing

Other - The Old New Thing

Let the dead computer scavenging commence!

October 26, 2006 Oct 26, 2006 10/26/06
Raymond Chen
Now that my old computer is up on bricks in the virtual front yard, the scavenging has begun. I got a piece of email from one of my colleagues saying, "Say, you aren't using that PC-2100 memory any more are you?" Why no, in fact, I wasn't. Christmas comes early. (He offered to buy the memory off of me, but since I had already written the old...

Non-resolution of the dead home desktop problem

October 25, 2006 Oct 25, 2006 10/25/06
Raymond Chen
Last time, I told of attempting to upgrade my home computer and failing. I ultimately gave up and returned the parts to the store, telling them that I thought the IDE controller on the motherboard was dead. They refunded my money after a false step where they refunded me more than I paid for the components in the first place! (I bought the ...

More tales of dead computers: My home desktop

October 24, 2006 Oct 24, 2006 10/24/06
Raymond Chen
Yes, I said that my next dead computer story would be the AlphaServer, but late-breaking news has forced me to shuffle the order a bit. My home computer has been circling the drain for several months. (The Northbridge fan would buzz and sometimes spin really slowly.) When the motherboard finally stopped powering on, I knew its time was up. ...

Don't require your users to have a degree in philosophy

October 18, 2006 Oct 18, 2006 10/18/06
Raymond Chen
Help text is not the place to put logic puzzles. In Windows Vista, when you go to the System control panel, you are shown a number that describes your computer's rating. But are higher numbers better or worse? If I had a choice, would it be better to have a 1 rating or a 5 rating? In earlier betas of Windows Vista, you ...

640 x 480 is still not dead

October 16, 2006 Oct 16, 2006 10/16/06
Raymond Chen
Windows still has to worry about displays running at 640×480 resolution. Even though the default minimum resolution was bumped up to 800×600 for Windows XP, there are still 640×480 devices out there, typically tiny monitors on servers. One common set-up is to have a bank of tiny little monitors, each corresponding to one...

Proto-Microspeak: The goat rodeo

October 11, 2006 Oct 11, 2006 10/11/06
Raymond Chen
Somebody at a meeting two years ago used the term "goat rodeo" to describe a completely confused situation. The term stuck with me as a really funny folksy analogy. It's not official Microspeak, but who knows, it may someday gain currency. I certainly enjoy saying it. "Goat rodeo." "Goat rodeo." "Goat rodeo." (Some earlier Microspeak ...

There's a reason why envelopes have backs

October 3, 2006 Oct 3, 2006 10/3/06
Raymond Chen
For some reason, people are upset that I don't have hard data for the cost difference between "slow" and "fast" mode enumeration. I already did a back-of-the-envelope calculation that showed that fast mode reduces the total time to enumerate the items in a folder from five minutes to two seconds. That's what's so great about back-of-the-...

Does a dual-core processor count as one or two for licensing purposes?

October 2, 2006 Oct 2, 2006 10/2/06
Raymond Chen
Now that dual-core processors are gaining in popularity, there has been some confusion over whether a dual-core processor counts as one or two. This discussion of multicore processor licensing may clear things up. The short answer is that a dual-core processor still counts as one processor. For example, Windows XP Professional supports up to...

It’s that season again: The Microsoft Company Meeting

September 21, 2006 Sep 21, 2006 09/21/06
Raymond Chen
Today is the 2006 Microsoft Company Meeting, and with it the continuation of what I consider to be one of the most annoying Company Meeting traditions: The group that cheers wildly any time their project name is mentioned. It's never the same group year to year. Instead, a different group (or groups) independent decides to be the annoying one...