operating systems
As I recall, the Blue Screen of Death was introduced with Windows NT 3.1 circa 1993: A blue screen of death occurs when the kernel, or a driver running in kernel mode, encounters an error from which it cannot recover. This is usually caused by a [hardware] driver that
documentation
Have you ever noticed that much of the online MSDN .NET framework help is.. not helpful? Take the the MSDN help for the IBindingList.AddIndex method [http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpref/html/frlrfSystemComponentModelIBindingListClassAddIndexTopic.asp] , for example: Scott Swigart calls this undocumentation, and elaborates further
software development
Have you ever noticed how many people keep a physical calculator next to their computer? The irony is almost palpable. My favorite is the calculator mousepad. Jef Raskin, in The Humane Interface, defends the practice of keeping a pocket calculator next to your PC: It's true. Many of
software development
Why is it that fully half of my interactions with GotDotNet are extremely unpleasant? I was telling someone about the Microsoft sponsored IronPython project [http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c6a7fee3-6495-427f-8b1f-768a2715170c&displaylang=en] today and I foolishly attempted to click through to the GotDotNet workspace [http://www.
software development
After I discovered the CTRL+I incremental search function in Visual Studio [http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/f27e8wzh], I never used the standard find dialog again. Incremental search is so good that it makes traditional search dialogs completely obsolete. If you think that's hyperbole, consider that Chris
clipboard
In this era of 3ghz processors, 1gb memory, and 500gb hard drives, why is the Windows clipboard only capable of holding a single item? Sure, you have fancy multi-level undo and redo in applications like Microsoft Word and Visual Studio. Did you know that the humble Windows textbox supports a
enums
Brad Abrams recently posted [http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/archive/2005/10/26/475085.aspx] another great excerpt from the unfortunately named .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference Volume 2 [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321194454/codihorr-20]: > Avoid creating methods with Boolean parameters. Boolean parameters make calls
windows
We're in the middle of an after-hours MAME [http://www.mame.net/] arcade project at work*. As one of the final fit and finish steps, I did a bit of research on how to replace the default Windows XP boot screen with something a little more arcade-y. I
naming conventions
Jason Kemp notes that Microsoft's choice of product names can have some unintended consequences [http://jasonkemp.ca/archive/2005/08/01/2696.aspx]: > I don't know yet how I feel about the name Windows Vista, but it at least has some character to it. But
conferences
Courtesy of my employer, I have the privilege of attending this year's Professional Developers Conference. I've been to a few trade shows, but this is the first technical conference I've ever attended. I arrive Monday night, and I'm definitely looking forward to
configurability
I've recently been experimenting with a few hand-picked desktop utilities, but I am rapidly reaching the point of diminishing returns: the effort required to run and maintain all these utilities is greater than the productivity benefit. Furthermore, if I learn to rely on a highly custom desktop, I&
shortcuts
I'm sure everyone knows that the Windows key brings up the Start Menu, but there are also a bunch of standard Windows key shortcuts built into Windows: + B Set focus to first tray icon + D Show Desktop + E Windows Explorer + F Find Files or Folders (aka Search) + M