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September 2003 - Posts

Tuesday, September 30, 2003 11:55 AM

Why is the readonly property for folders so strange?

It's actually a signal to Explorer to look harder.
Posted by oldnewthing | 10 Comments
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Monday, September 29, 2003 3:26 PM

Why you can't rotate text

Answering a comment from an earlier entry.
Posted by oldnewthing | 20 Comments
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Monday, September 29, 2003 1:23 PM

In case people got the wrong impression

I really did enjoy my trip.
Posted by oldnewthing | 16 Comments
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Monday, September 29, 2003 3:40 AM

Back from Europe

I'm back and I'm tired.
Posted by oldnewthing | 6 Comments
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Saturday, September 20, 2003 7:49 PM

When I dock my taskbar vertically, why does the word "Start" disappear?

Because the alternative is even worse.
Posted by oldnewthing | 7 Comments
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Friday, September 19, 2003 10:51 AM

Pre-travel insomnia

I can't sleep the night before an airplane flight.
Posted by oldnewthing | 13 Comments
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Friday, September 19, 2003 10:00 AM

How much is that gigabyte in the window?

How much is a gigabyte anyway?
Posted by oldnewthing | 20 Comments
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Thursday, September 18, 2003 9:04 AM

Improving the world one bad analogy at a time

Why are there so many copies of svchost.exe running?
Posted by oldnewthing | 9 Comments
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Thursday, September 18, 2003 12:19 AM

Emergency vacation

I will be comparatively quiet for the next week.
Posted by oldnewthing | 10 Comments
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Wednesday, September 17, 2003 11:42 AM

The end of the scrollbar series

What next?
Posted by oldnewthing | 60 Comments
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Wednesday, September 17, 2003 11:39 AM

Answers to exercise from Scrollbars Part 11

Integer overflow can be painful.
Posted by oldnewthing | 0 Comments
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Wednesday, September 17, 2003 11:30 AM

Scrollbars part 12: Applying WM_NCCALCSIZE to our scrollbar sample

Using the information we've learned in part 11.
Posted by oldnewthing | 2 Comments
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Tuesday, September 16, 2003 11:00 AM

Why does Win32 fail a module load if an import could not be resolved?

Because we tried it the other way and it was much worse.
Posted by oldnewthing | 6 Comments
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Monday, September 15, 2003 8:29 PM

Eric's complete guide to BSTR semantics

Eric Lippert has posted Eric's Complete Guide to BSTR Semantics . This is a document that is widely valued within Microsoft, since BSTR semantics are rather tricky, and I'm glad he's willing to share it with the world. In particular, Eric spends quite
Posted by oldnewthing | 11 Comments
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Monday, September 15, 2003 1:19 PM

Scrollbars part 11: Towards an even deeper understanding of the WM_NCCALCSIZE message

Discussing the more complicated version of the WM_NCCALCSIZE message.
Posted by oldnewthing | 6 Comments
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Sunday, September 14, 2003 12:07 PM

Something about Microsoft employees and milk

Behold the power of milk. Or something. More milk-related bug reports.
Posted by oldnewthing | 1 Comments
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Saturday, September 13, 2003 9:09 PM

I'm not sure if this was a dare

Joe Beda stopped by my office, clutching a stack of documents he had just had notarized, and told me, "Raymond, you should become a notary public."
Posted by oldnewthing | 6 Comments
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Saturday, September 13, 2003 8:17 PM

Answers to exercises

Answers to exercises from Scrollbars Part 10.
Posted by oldnewthing | 0 Comments
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Friday, September 12, 2003 7:05 PM

Whimsical bug reports

Whimsical bug reports show up every so often to lighten the mood.
Posted by oldnewthing | 12 Comments
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Friday, September 12, 2003 11:21 AM

Why does the taskbar default to the bottom of the screen?

The original taskbar didn't look at all like what you see today. It defaulted to the top of the screen.
Posted by oldnewthing | 13 Comments
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Thursday, September 11, 2003 5:57 PM

You too can dress like Raymond

Yes, I'm the Raymond that Kraig Brockschmidt is writing about when he discusses "Dress Like Raymond Day".
Posted by oldnewthing | 8 Comments
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Thursday, September 11, 2003 10:55 AM

Scrollbars part 10 - Towards a deeper understanding of the WM_NCCALCSIZE message

There are two forms of the WM_NCCALCSIZE message. The simple form merely takes a window rectangle and returns a client rectangle.
Posted by oldnewthing | 2 Comments
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Wednesday, September 10, 2003 9:09 AM

Computers are still too hard to use.

UK survey reveals that one in seven computer users needs help turning the computer on and off.
Posted by oldnewthing | 11 Comments
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Wednesday, September 10, 2003 8:51 AM

Why do some people call the taskbar the "tray"?

Because they're wrong.
Posted by oldnewthing | 73 Comments
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Tuesday, September 09, 2003 10:20 PM

If you see only one Elvis vs. Mummy movie this year, make it this one

Bubba Ho-Tep.
Posted by oldnewthing | 3 Comments
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Tuesday, September 09, 2003 11:03 AM

Scrollbars part 9 - Maintaining the metaphor

This is one of the subtleties of scrollbars which users rarely consciously notice, but when it doesn't work, it gives the impression that computers never quite get things right.
Posted by oldnewthing | 2 Comments
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Monday, September 08, 2003 12:07 PM

It's a lot easier to write a column if you don't care about accuracy

Beware of rumor season.
Posted by oldnewthing | 9 Comments
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Monday, September 08, 2003 11:48 AM

An insight into the Windows 95 startup sound

So who wrote all the music that came with Windows 95?
Posted by oldnewthing | 14 Comments
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Friday, September 05, 2003 2:23 PM

How to recognize different types of timestamps from quite a long way away

The great thing about timestamps is that there are so many to choose from.
Posted by oldnewthing | 11 Comments
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Friday, September 05, 2003 12:26 PM

Where is my program running from?

GetModuleFileName(NULL) will tell you.
Posted by oldnewthing | 1 Comments
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Friday, September 05, 2003 12:23 PM

Case mapping on Unicode is hard

Every locale has its own rules.
Posted by oldnewthing | 2 Comments
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Thursday, September 04, 2003 10:22 AM

Why are the rules for GetWindowText so weird?

Set the wayback machine to 1983.
Posted by oldnewthing | 8 Comments
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Wednesday, September 03, 2003 12:37 PM

Why is there no programmatic access to the Start menu pin list?

We learned our lesson the hard way.
Posted by oldnewthing | 49 Comments
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Tuesday, September 02, 2003 3:39 PM

The World Adult Kickball Association

Goofball fun for grown-ups.
Posted by oldnewthing | (Comments Off)
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Tuesday, September 02, 2003 7:00 AM

Determining whether your window is covered

How to determine your window's visibility outside of the paint loop.
Posted by oldnewthing | 0 Comments
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Monday, September 01, 2003 6:30 PM

Even the trees are falling for the media's lies

Constant lights of television cameras cause trees to bloom out of season.
Posted by oldnewthing | 2 Comments
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Monday, September 01, 2003 6:25 PM

Suburbs make you fat, researchers conclude

Researchers have determined that living in the suburbs makes you fat . That and all the super-sized value meals. Speaking of super-sizing your value meal: people are tearing down their McMansions in order to build... a bigger McMansion (WSJ, paid registration
Posted by oldnewthing | 2 Comments
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Monday, September 01, 2003 11:06 AM

The default answer to every dialog box is "Cancel"

The problem with displaying UI is that people will take every opportunity to ignore it.
Posted by oldnewthing | 39 Comments
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