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Looking for new skillz (turning the blog around)…

Just for giggles, I went looking at the various job listings within Microsoft and outside Microsoft (no, I’m not going anywhere, I was just curious).  While looking, I realized that I had absolutely no marketable skills :).  Nobody seems to Read More...
Posted Tuesday, October 20, 2009 5:31 PM by LarryOsterman | 37 Comments

I can make it arbitrarily fast if I don’t actually have to make it work.

Digging way back into my pre-Microsoft days, I was recently reminded of a story that I believe was told to me by Mary Shaw back when I took her Computer Optimization class at Carnegie-Mellon… During the class, Mary told an anecdote about a developer “Sue” Read More...
Posted Tuesday, September 29, 2009 2:49 PM by LarryOsterman | 26 Comments

Fixing an accessibility bug with the trackbar common control

The trackbar common control is a strange beast. The trackbar can be oriented either horizontally or vertically. On LTR language machines, when the trackbar is horizontal, it works much as you’d expect it to: The minimum value of the trackbar is on the Read More...
Posted Tuesday, January 27, 2009 5:17 PM by LarryOsterman | 9 Comments

When you do UX work, sometimes you have to worry about the strangest things…

I recently got a bug reported to me about the visuals in the sound control panel applet not being aligned properly (this is from the UI for a new Windows 7 feature): The problem as reported was that the microphone was aligned incorrectly w.r.t. the down Read More...
Posted Tuesday, January 13, 2009 9:13 AM by LarryOsterman | 31 Comments

Fixing a customer problem: “No Audio Device is Installed” when launching sndvol on Windows Vista

Yesterday someone forwarded me an email from one of our DirectShow MVPs – he was having problems playing audio on his Windows Vista machine.   Fortunately David (the MVP) had done most of the diagnostic work – the symptoms he saw were that he was Read More...
Posted Tuesday, January 06, 2009 11:26 AM by LarryOsterman | 18 Comments

I get spam :)

I just received this spam message the other day: From: Microsoft [mailto:customerservice@microsoft.com] Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 11:13 PM To: Larry Osterman Subject: Security Update for OS Microsoft Windows Dear Microsoft Customer, Please notice Read More...
Posted Tuesday, October 14, 2008 9:13 AM by LarryOsterman | 18 Comments

THIS is what a Windows PC should look like…

We had a neighborhood picnic on Saturday at our neighbors house.  While we were chatting in the kitchen, I noticed their new computer. They had an HP TouchSmart computer , and I have to say that I was blown away by it.  I really liked the industrial Read More...
Posted Tuesday, August 05, 2008 8:53 AM by LarryOsterman | 18 Comments

Oh Wow, Dr. Horrible is AWESOME!

Someone just pointed me to http://www.drhorrible.com , which is Joss Whedon’s newest epic. The first two acts are up on the web (the final act will go up on Saturday). They are spectacularly cool, especially to a musical nut.  I knew that Neil Patrick Read More...
Posted Thursday, July 17, 2008 11:34 AM by LarryOsterman | 4 Comments

Wow - We hired Crispin Cowan!!!

Michael Howard just announced that we've hired Crispin Cowan ! This is incredibly awesome, I have a huge amount of respect for Crispin , he's one of the most respected researchers out there. Among other things, Crispin's the author and designer of AppArmor Read More...
Posted Friday, January 18, 2008 10:31 AM by LarryOsterman | 5 Comments

Playing Librarian...

Those of you who know me (and my family) from beyond my blog know that among my our many passions, one of the biggest is books. And we've got a lot of them. A couple of years ago, Valorie got me a Flic barcode scanner and a copy of the program Book Collector Read More...
Posted Thursday, January 03, 2008 9:22 PM by LarryOsterman | 24 Comments

Every Domain Name tells a story, I wonder what this one's was.

And I'd love to know the story behind this site: http://www.modestapparelchristianclothinglydiaofpurpledressescustomsewing.com/choosing_your_fabric.htm . I ran across it while shopping online the other day. The root page of the domain ( http://www.modestapparelchristianclothinglydiaofpurpledressescustomsewing.com/index.htm Read More...
Posted Tuesday, January 01, 2008 3:17 PM by LarryOsterman | 10 Comments

Hanselminutes

A couple of weeks ago, Scott Hanselman stopped by my office, and we chatted for almost an hour for his Hanselminutes podcast. On Monday, he posted the interview - it's mostly me rambling on about security and other stuff, but my ego requires that I mention Read More...
Posted Wednesday, November 21, 2007 8:29 AM by LarryOsterman | 6 Comments

So Amazon brought out this "Kindle" thingy... But I have one question for them...

Amazon just brought out a new eBook reader called " Kindle ". It looks pretty cool, but I have one question: "Where can I go to try one of these out before I fork over $399 for one of them?" I have a real problem with buying a new technology item (especially Read More...
Posted Monday, November 19, 2007 11:25 PM by LarryOsterman | 14 Comments

Think Geek Responds

Valorie just received the following email from Think Geek ( in response to our previous issue with them ): From: Caroline Offutt [mailto:<email address at thinkgeek.com>] Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2007 7:05 PM To: <valorie's email address> Read More...
Posted Monday, November 19, 2007 11:19 AM by LarryOsterman | 14 Comments

How to lose customers without really trying...

Not surprisingly, Valorie and I both do some of our holiday season shopping at ThinkGeek. But no longer. Valorie recently placed a substantial order with them, but Instead of processing her order, they sent the following email: From: ThinkGeek Customer Read More...
Posted Thursday, November 15, 2007 3:21 PM by LarryOsterman | 25 Comments
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