Why did my thread pool stop processing work once it hit a long-running work...
A customer found that occasionally, their program's thread pool stopped processing work items queued with the WT_EXECUTEINPERSISTENTHREAD flag. They would queue up the work items to the thread...
View ArticleMan, this housing downturn is hitting everyone, follow-up
Back in 2008, I remarked on a house for sale on Mercer Island, described in the original listing as 22,000 square-foot, having five bedrooms, nine bathrooms, two swimming pools, and a place to park...
View ArticleHow do I fix the problem of a long-running task running on the thread pool...
Last time, we diagnosed a problem caused by a long-running task on the thread pool persistent thread, which prevented other tasks which target the persistent thread from running. But what motivated...
View ArticleA more efficient solution to the problem of a long-running task running on...
Last time, we found one solution to the problem of the long-running task on the persistent thread: Namely, put the long-running task on a regular thread. But that's not the best solution, because it...
View ArticleFollow-up: The bus that straddles traffic
In 2010, the world was amazed at the traffic-straddling bus, whose inventors announced plans to begin work "as soon as 2011". And then the world forgot about this invention that left them so...
View ArticleAnother more efficient solution to the problem of a long-running task running...
Last time, we broke up a series of operations on the persistent thread pool thread so that the thread pool did the waiting rather then clogging up the persistent thread with a synchronous wait. This...
View ArticleThe 2017/2018 Seattle Symphony subscription season at a glance
For many years, I've put together a little pocket guide to the Seattle Symphony subscription season for my symphony friends to help them decide which ticket package they want. For the past several...
View ArticlePsychic debugging: Why does opening a command prompt always print a weird...
Every so often, somebody reports that whenever they open a command prompt, they get a weird error message between the version banner and the prompt. Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393] (c) 2016...
View ArticleWhat little kids think of lifeguards
We had extended family over for a visit, and we decided to take everybody to the public swimming pool. While waiting in line, the kids (ages 4 through 7) somehow got onto the topic of lifeguards....
View ArticleThose Year 2000 disaster preparedness trucks were originally there for a...
I mentioned some time ago the trucks filled with computers and backup generators parked outside Building 26 on the evening of December 31, 1999, standing by to assist with operations should a...
View ArticleHow to create a folder that inherits its parent’s ACL, and then overrides...
A customer wants to create a folder that inherits its parent's ACL but then overrides part of it. Specifically, the customer wanted to disallow the creation of subfolders. The customer reported that...
View ArticleHow am I supposed to print my print-at-home tickets if I can’t reproduce them?
I ordered some tickets online and was sent to a Web page which displayed the tickets (with bar codes and stuff), with instructions to print them out. The Web page also had this big warning on it: IT...
View ArticleThe system manages the system image lists; don’t go changing the art on the...
A customer reported that their program ran on Windows XP just fine, but on Windows 7, its icons are all black boxes. They included a code fragment to demonstrate: CBitmap *pBmp = new CBitmap;...
View ArticleEventually you reach a critical mass of LEGO pieces where you can build most...
My kids are fascinated by camper vans and recreational vehicles. (They keep asking to go camping, but not for the purpose of experiencing nature. It's because they want to travel in a camper.) They...
View ArticleHow do I disable the press-and-hold gesture for my window?
A customer had a program which responded to left mouse clicks, but they found that when used with a touch screen, when users touched the screen, the WM_LBUTTONDOWN message didn't arrive until the...
View ArticleBaking soda has hundreds of uses, but what about what it says on the tin?
My mother bought a giant bag of baking soda in order to deodorize some carpet. She had some left over and wondered if it was food grade. The bag said, "Hundreds of uses!" and listed all sorts of uses...
View ArticleGreat moments in journalism: “Confirmed Microsoft Surface Pro 5 launch date”
Today I wish to draw your attention to this article: Confirmed: Microsoft Surface Pro 5 to be launched in June [2016]. I added the "2016" because the article didn't give a year in its headline, but it...
View ArticleWhy does my attempt to acquire an SRW lock block even though !locks report no...
A customer asked for some help debugging a problem with their application: We have an application that synchronizes access to resources by using SRW locks rather than critical sections. We have traced...
View ArticleWant to include a gift message with your tires? Nice try.
I learned that Costco online doesn't allow gift messages for car tires. Happy anniversary, honey! Disclaimer: Not actually my anniversary.
View ArticleDon’t forget to implement canonical names for verbs in your shell context...
A commonly-overlooked implementation detail of shell context menu extensions is the canonical verb, which is returned by the IContextMenu::GetCommandString method and which can be passed to...
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