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I have no idea who they are (since I can't read Japanese), but hatena appears to be some sort of Japanese social bookmarking site, and I'll often find hits from them in my referrer logs. One of the members found a newly-issued Japanese translation of my book, which opens up a whole new audience to my obnoxious personality. Stumbling across the J...

If you leave your computer unattended and logged in, especially if you work on the security team, you may come back to your office to find that somebody used your computer to sent email out to the entire team with the subject line FMLA. FMLA stands for "Fire my lame anterior" (except with another word for anterior). The implication is that somebo...

Yes indeed, all Microsoft files are (or should be) digitally signed (as far as I'm aware). So I'm not quite sure what commenter Dave is getting at: The Microsoft file should have embedded vendor/product information saying it's from Microsoft and will be cryptographically signed by Microsoft. Similarly-named malware won't be signed by Microsoft, u...

This term is used outside Microsoft as well, but it still bothers me. The value proposition is the benefit that the end-user gets from your product, the thing that convinces them to buy it. What makes it even more annoying is when it is abbreviated to value prop. Sample usage: "The main value proposition of this model is that it permits changes t...

The Windows Vista Start menu abandoned the flyout model for the "All Programs" menu because nested fly-out menus are a usability nightmare, and not just for novices. Research has shown that once you have menus more than one level deep, you have the problem that the slightly wiggle of the mouse can take the big, complicated menu hierarchy that the ...

Statements made in a general sense may have exceptions even if such exceptions are not explicitly acknowledged. Example: "Dogs have four legs." There are dogs which do not have four legs, but as a general rule, dogs have four legs. Statements are not independently fact-checked. They are based on personal experience and recollection, augmented by i...

In the Windows division, as with any other product group, there is a common "bag of tools" that people tend to rely on to get through the day. Occasionally, somebody will encounter a problem with one of these tools. When I run Program Q, I get the message XYZ, and then it appears to get stuck in an infinite loop allocating more and more memor...

When you use Explorer to copy a folder, and the folder already exists at the destination, Explorer merges the contents of the folder being copied with the folder that is already there. Why was this behavior chosen instead of replacing the existing folder? My colleague Bob Day explains.¹ Nitpicker's Corner ¹Although this statement is w...

One of my colleagues pointed out that my web site is listed in the references section of this whitepaper. It scares me that I'm being used as formal documentation because that is explicitly what this web site isn't. I wrote back, I really need to put a disclaimer on my web site. FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY Remember, this is a blog. The op...

Far too often I'll get email like this: From: X Subject: 27183 Have you started looking at this one yet? It may surprise you to learn that I do not memorize all my bug numbers. Please include a brief description of the bug in your message so I have a clue what you're talking about. The bug title is a good start. It's like going to a doctor an...