Showing tag results for Other

Jun 9, 2009
Post comments count0
Post likes count1

Mixed messages from the IT department regarding email safety

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

TipTalk wrote some time ago about the urban legend of the Reading Pane. In the conclusion, the article mentions the "read all standard mail in plain text" setting. And that reminded me of a story. Some time ago, the IT department sent out a message to all users on the subject of email safety. The gist of the message was that for increased safet...

Other
Jun 8, 2009
Post comments count0
Post likes count1

Why isn’t there a separate British English version of Windows?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

My friend ::Wendy:: asks why there is an American English version of Windows but not a British English version. I am not the expert on this subject (Michael Kaplan might be a bit closer), but I can speculate on the reasons for this. This is all conjecture, so who knows how accurate it is. (Actually, most of what I write is conjecture; I just don...

Other
Jun 5, 2009
Post comments count0
Post likes count1

Bonus chatter about that virus that is responsible for the top six Explorer crashes

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Last year, I wrote about a virus that is responsible for the top six Explorer crashes, by a wide margin. I learned later how the authors of this XYZ Virus operate, and it happens to answer a question posted by commenter SteveL as to why these virus writers are so incompetent that they crash so much. First, the virus authors infect your compu...

Other
May 28, 2009
Post comments count0
Post likes count1

I’m sorry, you don’t have permission to know where this shortcut file should show up in the Explorer window

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Commenter Gabe suggested that the shortcut file should contain a bit that indicates whether the target of the shortcut is a folder, so that shortcuts to folders can sort with real folders. "That would allow them to sort properly without doing any additional work beyond that required to see its icon." (Commenter Josh agreed that "The performance re...

Other
May 27, 2009
Post comments count0
Post likes count1

Before designing and implementing around an assumption, it helps to check that your assumption is true

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

When your component depends on another component in the project, and that other component is missing features you need, you have a few ways of resolving the situation. Most people would recommend working with the people responsible for the other component during the project planning phase and coming to some sort of understanding about what you req...

Other
May 14, 2009
Post comments count0
Post likes count1

Creating shortcuts in the same folder as the target isn’t as stupid as you may think

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Commenter Mihai wonders, "Why would I want to keep the original file and the link in the same folder?" Dragging a file, and in particular right-dragging a file, is not easy for all people. There are people with poor dexterity who have trouble with dragging; for them, right-dragging would be even worse. But even people with normal levels of dexte...

Other
May 13, 2009
Post comments count0
Post likes count1

People become more trustworthy the more you trust them

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

My faith in humanity goes up when I see an unattended self-service stand where customers are trusted to pay for what they take. It works because the system is open to public view, and any passer-by (or even just a poster of a pair of eyes) can spot the cheater. (Then again, it takes only a tiny percentage of cheaters to ruin it for everyone.) ...

Other
May 12, 2009
Post comments count0
Post likes count1

Microspeak: T-shirt sizing

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Larry Osterman discussed the buzzword T-shirt sizing, which means "making extremely rough estimates in terms of a small number of predefined categories." The term comes from the traditional way T-shirt sizes are specified in the United States. Instead of having T-shirts in sizes 4, 5, 6 and so on, there are only a small number of sizes: Small, med...

OtherMicrospeak