Month: January 2013

VS madness

Whoever decided to make the menus in Visual Studio 2012 uppercase deserves to be taken out back behind the woodshed. Y’all know what happens then.

buggerwithaxe

Whoever put in the registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\General\SuppressUppercaseConversion
(set the DWORD value to 1)

deserves a raise. Now, if they’re the same person, give them the raise before doing the Woodshed Experience . . . but I doubt this is the case, it sounds like “commitee of thirty six people, one of whom actually uses the product” kind of thing.

A few minutes later:

I can’t believe the color scheme. Can it really be this bad?

Ahh, there’s a color theme editor:

http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/366ad100-0003-4c9a-81a8-337d4e7ace05

That this has to exist makes me sad. We need more woodsheds.

A modest proposal

I propose that at the end of a legislator’s term in office, that they should be required to recite the text of the bills they voted for, word for word, under penalty of fines and imprisonment (as with impeachment). In other words, they should know and be able to prove that they knew what they were voting for.

Just an idea.

Wham smash pow

Kirkus Reviews on E. E. “Doc” Smith, here.

Doc Smith used to be my go-to guy when I wanted to retreat from the world and read some good old fashioned planet bashing. It’s hard to beat the thrill of a little vacuum-tube-based super science vaporizing the home world of a whole race of Bad People.

These days I read Vernor Vinge and Charles Stross for that. Smith was never strong on character development.

But God knows, we could sure use some lensmen.

Still forbidden

Adding to the list.

  1. Not allowed to put up signs with bogus directions to user play-testing sessions for a game that doesn’t exist, in a room that doesn’t exist.
  2. Not allowed to write, as many times as will fit, and in tiny letters, the words “fuckfuckfuckityfuck…” (and variations) on the publically visible whiteboad in the hallway.
  3. Not allowed to casually ask a VP, “Why haven’t you fired that guy yet?”
  4. I am sorry for the emotional distress that my manipulations of LEGO minifigs may have caused anyone.
  5. Not allowed to make a sign “Reserved for Steve Ballmer” in order to ensure a free table for our group at lunch.
  6. The Electrostatic Discharge machine is not a toy, nor can it be the basis of any dares or bets. (Wimps)
  7. Repeatedly running someone else’s “borrowed” badge against the card reader of one of the Forbidden Doors is not all that wise.
  8. There are no COM bugs that can be addressed by someone else’s honorable suicide, nor is public shaming a possible alternative.
  9. Not permitted to print copies of my alternative corporate newsletter to every network-attached printer on campus.
  10. Not permitted to drop test objects in the atrium from any balcony.
  11. Objects capable of powered flight are also forbidden.
  12. There are no useful applications of fire in software development.