The Old New Thing

Things to do at Microsoft when the power goes out

September 20, 2005 Sep 20, 2005 09/20/05

Raymond Chen

When the power goes out, the first thing you notice is how quiet everything becomes. The hum of the computers in the building stops. You hear... nothing. Bask in its peaceful silence. The next thing you do is turn off all the machines in your office, because you don't want to stress the power grid and network when the power eventually ...

Corrections to the answers I gave at the end of my PDC talk

September 19, 2005 Sep 19, 2005 09/19/05

Raymond Chen

I guess one advantage of having a web site is that I can publish errata. I haven't watched the Channel9 video (and probably never will; it's hard to watch yourself), but I do remember some of the questions at the end that I wasn't able to answer off the top of my head, but after a few days' research I think I can do it now. The person who ...

Why doesn’t Microsoft give every employee a UPS?

September 19, 2005 Sep 19, 2005 09/19/05

Raymond Chen

One reaction to my story about the oldest computer at Microsoft still doing useful work was shock (shock!) that Microsoft suffers from power outages. In the Pacific Northwest, winter windstorms are quite common, and it is not unexpected that a windstorm blow down tall trees (which are also quite common) which in turn take out power lines. ...

Typo patrol at the PDC

September 14, 2005 Sep 14, 2005 09/14/05

Raymond Chen

You can find the following typographical errors in the Big Room at the PDC: If you can locate all three of them and catch me at the PDC (say at the Fundamentals Lounge or at the Ask the Experts table), I'll award you a prize of um (rummaging through my bag) how about a retractable network cable? (Or an autographed business card? But then ...

The double-Ctrl+Alt+Del feature is really a kludge

September 14, 2005 Sep 14, 2005 09/14/05

Raymond Chen

Most people who care about such things know that you can press Ctrl+Alt+Del twice from the Welcome screen and sometimes you will get a classic logon dialog. (Note: "Sometimes". It works only if the last operation was a restart or log-off, for complicated reasons that are irrelevant to this discussion.) The ability to do the double-Ctrl+Alt+...

Sorry I missed you all this morning

September 13, 2005 Sep 13, 2005 09/13/05

Raymond Chen

Sorry to all you PDCers who stopped by the Fundamentals Lounge to see me. The scheduling software that the PDC organizers cooked up is, um, "suboptimal" and listed me for Tuesday 11.30a–2.30p instead of 2.30p–5.30p. During the early afternoon shift, I was actually in the Hands-On Lab. But I'll be in the Lounge on Thursday after my ...

Why is there no all-encompassing superset version of Windows?

September 13, 2005 Sep 13, 2005 09/13/05

Raymond Chen

Sometimes, I am asked why there is no single version of Windows that contains everything. Instead, as you move up the ladder, say, from Windows XP Professional to Windows Server 2003, you gain server features and lose workstation features. Why lose features when you add others? Because it turns out no actual customer wants to keep ...

I won’t be signing books but don’t let that stop you

September 8, 2005 Sep 8, 2005 09/8/05

Raymond Chen

Whereas Eric Carter will be signing his book (co-authored with another Eric) at the PDC. I have no book of my own to sign, but will be happy to sign the Erics' book if you ask me to! You can catch me in the Fundamentals Lounge pretty much the whole time. There have been some changes to my talk since I wrote about it last time. The ...

Spider Solitaire unseats the reigning champion

September 5, 2005 Sep 5, 2005 09/5/05

Raymond Chen

A few months ago, the usability research team summarized some statistics they had been collecting on the subject of what people spend most of their time doing on the computer at home. Not surprisingly, surfing the Internet was number one. Number two was playing games, and in particular, I found it notable that the number one game is no longer ...

Precision is not the same as accuracy

September 2, 2005 Sep 2, 2005 09/2/05

Raymond Chen

Accuracy is how close you are to the correct answer; precision is how much resolution you have for that answer. Suppose you ask me, "What time is it?" I look up at the sun, consider for a moment, and reply, "It is 10:35am and 22.131 seconds." I gave you a very precise answer, but not a very accurate one. Meanwhile, you look at your ...