Showing tag results for Other

Sep 22, 2009
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Things I've written that have amused other people, Episode 5

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

A question was sent to an internal discussion list for users of the XYZ tool: From: Q To: XYZ Users The GHI function in the JKL tool doesn't work for me. «description of problem deleted» I responded with this message: To: Q, XYZ Users The JKL tool is not part of XYZ. You should contact the author of the JKL tool. The reason wh...

OtherThe social skills of a thermonuclear deviceThings I've written that have amused other people
Sep 17, 2009
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Should I fix the spelling in the United States Constitution?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Commenter Dave jokingly remarked, "I've grown used to handling characters with ASCII. (If it was good enough to represent every character in the US Constitution, it's good enough for me.)" But there's a double-joke in there. You see, not every character in the United States Constitution can be represented in ASCII! If you take a close look, you'...

Non-ComputerOther
Sep 10, 2009
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Management-speak: Focus

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Management likes to use the word focus. They like it so much, that anything important is called a focus. That's an interesting scenario, one which we hope to address, but it's not our main focus. We're focusing on three features for this release. But how can you focus on more than one thing? The first citation implies that there's more than on...

OtherMicrospeak
Sep 8, 2009
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Why are developer tools orange?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The Secret Geek Leon Bambrick wonders why developer tools are orange. Coincidence? Worldwide conspiracy?

Other
Sep 8, 2009
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Things other people have written that have amused me, Episode 2

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Somebody posted a time-saving tip and concluded with "You'll save yourself at least 5 minutes per year." I jokingly wrote back, "I already do XYZ which does this automatically, and besides, saving 5 minutes per year isn't much anyway. I spend that much time picking my nose." The response: "Yeah, but now you can do both nostrils."

OtherThings I've written that have amused other people
Sep 7, 2009
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Thanks for identifying the good programmers for us

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Many years ago, my manager told me about a recruiting trip he made. In response to a large number of job applications submitted from a city where a major competing software company had its offices, a small group of Microsofties travelled to that city to interview those applicants and hold a mini-job fair, so that other interested parties could also...

Other
Aug 31, 2009
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Why do new controls tend to use COM instead of window messages?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Commenter David wonders why new controls tend to use COM instead of window messages. "It seems that there must have been a decision to only develop COM controls after the invention of COM." There have been plenty of Win32 controls invented after the invention of COM. In fact, the entire common controls library was developed after the invention ...

Other
Aug 27, 2009
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Isn't every dinner at a technology conference a geek dinner?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

I'm always amused when somebody announces that they're having a geek dinner at a technology conference. I mean, at a conference like that, every dinner is a geek dinner. The geek density is so high, +4 enchanted vorpal swords quiver in fear. [Update 8am: Fixed broken permalink. Yay, they broke a permalink...]

Other
Aug 24, 2009
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The operating system doesn't know which language programs are written in – by the time the code hits the CPU, they all look the same

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Reader Will Rayer asks about "the degree to which 'plain vanilla' C Windows API code works under Vista with the native look and feel." It works just as well as code written in any other language. The operating system doesn't know which language programs are written in. By the time the code reaches the CPU, they all look the same. It's just a bun...

Other
Aug 3, 2009
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When giving a presentation with a diagram, pretend the diagram doesn't exist

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

::Wendy:: suggested enabling a means of displaying pictures on the blog without messing up the display of the whole post. Actually, I've simply given up on the pretty diagrams since everybody seems to hate them. You may have noticed that I've been using ASCII art instead. It's certainly easier for me to write, though it's also a bit uglier. One...

Other