The Old New Thing

Other - The Old New Thing

2005 end-of-year link blowout sale

January 3, 2006 Jan 3, 2006 01/3/06
Raymond Chen
A quick list of links amassed over the past year. Not quite worth a posting on their own, but together they might mean something. [While Raymond was on vacation, the autopilot stopped working due to a power outage. This entry has been backdated...

If one certification is good, more must be better

January 3, 2006 Jan 3, 2006 01/3/06
Raymond Chen
In the discussion of driver signing, commenter ATZ Man suggested: Further, Microsoft should allow orgs that are peers of WHQL [to] certify drivers and allow drivers to obtain certs from any such org or set of such orgs as they choose. Over time users would know which orgs were on the ball and which had agendas. Would they? Let's take a ...

On the “Days without a pony” web page

December 23, 2005 Dec 23, 2005 12/23/05
Raymond Chen
Reader Mark Eichin was curious about the "Days with a pony" web page. Here's what it would look (suitably redacted) if it were still operating: December 23, 2005: Still no pony From: Raymond Chen To: Xxxx Xxxxxx Subject: Laptop order Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 09:47:19 -0800 I want a pony and a train set and an NEC Versa SX laptop (...

Why does Windows setup lay down a new boot sector?

December 20, 2005 Dec 20, 2005 12/20/05
Raymond Chen
Why does Windows setup lay down a new boot sector? Because the alternative is worse. You would expect that after installing an operating system, the operating system should boot. If your boot sector is damaged, say because this is a brand new hard drive with no boot sector, or because it was infected with a boot sector virus, you expect the ...

Beware the Image File Execution Options key

December 19, 2005 Dec 19, 2005 12/19/05
Raymond Chen
Beware the Image File Execution Options key (more). Its power can be used for evil as well as for good. Its intended use is to force a program to run under a debugger regardless of how it is launched (and secondarily to alter how the system treats the program). It's handy if you need to debug a program "in the wild" rather than under the ...

When hyperthreading is enabled, all the processors are virtual

December 16, 2005 Dec 16, 2005 12/16/05
Raymond Chen
A common problem when answering technical questions is that people sometimes ask a question that can't or shouldn't be answered because it is based upon a misunderstanding. What's particularly frustrating is when they insist that you answer their question as posed, even when you try to explain to them that their question is itself flawed. It...

A note to headhunters: Check your links

December 15, 2005 Dec 15, 2005 12/15/05
Raymond Chen
If you're going to try to recruit me, you might want to check that the links in your email actually work. Just sayin'. I'm going to mock you regardless, but you should at least make me have to work for it...

You probably don’t want to run programs directly off your USB memory drive

December 15, 2005 Dec 15, 2005 12/15/05
Raymond Chen
You probably wouldn't want to run Windows or applications directly off your USB memory drive, even if you could. The reason is that the solid-state memory used by these drives support only a limited number of write cycles per block. (Originally measured in the thousands, though I'm led to believe that it's gone up since then.) Most software ...

We Microsoft bloggers do talk to each other occasionally, y’know

December 13, 2005 Dec 13, 2005 12/13/05
Raymond Chen
Every so often, somebody will spam all the Microsoft blogs with a survey or a plea for a job or some other boilerplate message. Don't think you're fooling anyone. It's not like each blogger lives in a separate world and never talks to anyone else. In reality, we exchange information quite freely and even occasionally get together—usually...