Showing tag results for Other

Aug 10, 2007
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Things I've written that have amused other people, Episode 4

Raymond Chen

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...

OtherThings I've written that have amused other people
Aug 8, 2007
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Email tip: I don't have my bug numbers memorized

Raymond Chen

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...

Otheremail
Aug 7, 2007
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It rather involved being on the other side of this airtight hatchway: Executable corruption

Raymond Chen

In the category of dubious vulnerability, I submit the following (paraphrased) report: I discovered that if I take an EXE file and corrupt its header, then when I try to run the EXE file, the process starts up and then crashes. I used the information in the crash dialog to direct further investigations, noting that the specific crash location co...

Other
Aug 6, 2007
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Freudian typo: Enchanced metafiles

Raymond Chen

Back in 1993, there was an internal presentation discussing the various new features that were being added to that fancy new version of Windows that ultimately came to be known as Windows 95. In the GDI section, one of the new features was listed as "Enchanced metafiles". When the slide went up, you could hear the scattered titters of laught...

Other
Aug 3, 2007
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It was not one of Explorer's design goals to provide a Turing-complete interface for bulk file renaming

Raymond Chen

Somebody wanted to append an extension to all files in a directory and couldn't find a way to do this type of bulk rename in Explorer. On the other hand, it's pretty simple from the command prompt: The person then asked, "Can we get this and other multi-file operations added to Explorer?" "There should be a way to rename a large number of fi...

Other
Jul 30, 2007
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There's a whole Internet out there, folks, you might want to check it out

Raymond Chen

If you're going to add a topic to the Suggestion Box,¹ at least do the courtesy of researching the question before asking it. It takes me an hour to answer each question; it's only fair that you spend ten minutes making it a good question. For example, one entry in the Suggestion Box asked for the story behind the hotkey. But even the most ...

Other
Jul 23, 2007
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The real cost of compatibility is not in the hacks; the hacks are small potatoes

Raymond Chen

Commenter Myron A. Semack asks how much faster Windows would be if you took out the backward compatibility stuff. Myron is so anxious about this that he asked the question a second time. Asking a question twice typically counts as a reason not to answer it, but since I had already written up the answer, I figured I'd post it anyway. Oh great, ...

Other
Jul 20, 2007
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Screwing the computer parts back together is the most dangerous step

Raymond Chen

I had removed the cover from one of the computers in my office in order to upgrade one of its hard drives (from 20GB to 200GB, woo-hoo). The hard drives are kept in a removable cage, so first I had to unscrew the cage, then unscrew the drive from the cage, then swap in the new drive. Of course, you don't screw everything back in until you've tested...

Other
Jul 13, 2007
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I was sort of interested at first, but now I'm not so sure any more

Raymond Chen

Some time ago, there was a product under development that was starting to get some buzz, so I thought I'd go check it out. I went to the product's Web site, but the product was so new that they didn't have any substantial information available. The only way to learn about the product was to download the documentation. And before they would let me d...

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