The Old New Thing

The social skills of a thermonuclear device - The Old New Thing

We're all in this together: Maintaining common tools

August 21, 2007 Aug 21, 2007 08/21/07
Raymond Chen
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 ...

The social skills of a thermonuclear device, part 3

December 27, 2006 Dec 27, 2006 12/27/06
Raymond Chen
Some years ago, a group different from the one I worked in invited me to "volunteer" to help them with serious problems they were having with their product. They asked to "borrow" me for one week so that I could magically resolve all their issues. I wasn't really that familiar with their product, and I certainly didn't know how it worked ...

The social skills of a thermonuclear device

February 17, 2004 Feb 17, 2004 02/17/04
Raymond Chen
Somebody@somewhere.else described me as having the social skills of a thermonuclear device. I don't remember the incident in question, but I'll have to accept that it happened. I have a very low tolerance for laziness. If you come to me for help, I expect you to have done your homework. (Though I try to scale my expectations to your position...