Larry Osterman's WebLog
Just another Developer Network site
Cleaning up shared resources when a process is abnormally terminated
This post came into my suggestion box yesterday from Darren Cherneski: We have a system that has an...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/24/2004
Types of testers and types of testing
In yesterday’s “non admin” post, Mat Hall made the following comment: "Isn't...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/23/2004
Running Non Admin
There’s been a fascinating process going on over here behind the curtains. With the advent of...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/22/2004
Why is there a GENERIC_MAPPING parameter to the AccessCheck API?
Ok, back to techie stuff. I recently received the following piece of mail sent to an internal...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/21/2004
On the "Day of Caring"
Well, I spent Friday morning (and part of the afternoon) at the Center for Career Alternatives, down...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/20/2004
Putting Pants on an Elephant.
Valorie's enrolled in City University to get her Masters in Teaching. Yesterday was her orientation...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/18/2004
Going Dark Tomorrow.
Sorry about not posting anything significant today, I've been swamped. And tomorrow's the "Day of...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/17/2004
I figure this is redundant, but...
If there's anyone reading my blog that's not reading Raymonds, Raymond has finally proven for once...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/16/2004
Proudly Serving our corporate masters...
Adam Barr, a friend and former co-worker of mine (and currently an employee over in another part of...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/15/2004
Access Checks, part 2
Yesterday I discussed the format of an ACL. For todays post, I want to talk about how the system...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/14/2004
Access Checks
Before I begin today’s post, a caveat: In this discussion, when I use the term...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/13/2004
I thought I could avoid writing this today but...
For 9/11, Joel's gone dark. It won't be there after 9/11, but today, his blog has been replaced with...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/11/2004
What's wrong with this code, part 6 - the answers
In yesterdays post I presented a trace log writer that had a subtle bug. As I mentioned, the problem...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/09/2004
What's wrong with this code, part 6
Today, let’s look at a trace log writer. It’s the kind of thing that you’d find in...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/08/2004
Dare on cost cutting at Microsoft
Dare Obasanjo has an insightful post here about Microsoft’s cost cutting strategies. Dare and...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/07/2004
How Exchange's role SIDs work (aka. NT's security on Psychotropic Drugs)
Now that we've seen some of the things you can do with SIDs when you use them in the way they were...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/03/2004
Fun things to do with SIDs
As I mentioned in my previous article, SIDs are fascinating beasts. Consider domain SIDs. As I...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/02/2004
What is this thing called, SID?
One of the core data structures in the NT security infrastructure is the security identifier, or...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 09/01/2004
Surveillance at a local Shell station
Valorie was out getting gas the other day and she noticed that the attendant at the local Shell...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/31/2004
A Parable
Valorie’s first day back at work was yesterday, and the principal at her school led a...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/31/2004
LarryO's Suggestion box
Someone suggested that I open a Suggestions box similar to Raymonds. It's a good idea, so the...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/30/2004
The suggestion box is now back open
The old suggestion box had its comment period expire, so I've recreated it. Feel free to add to it...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/30/2004
XP SP2 Craters
So the newswires and forums are buzzing about this reported security flaw in XP SP2. Essentially...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/26/2004
Nineteen years ago today (ok, by now, everyone sees where this one's going :))
Back in 1995, I was working over in the Northup building. Valorie had joined me from school, and was...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/26/2004
Eighteen years ago...
It was 1986. I was working for Eric Evans at the time, working with Alan Whitney on finishing up...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/25/2004
Seventeen years ago today
I was finishing up on the MS-DOS 4.1 project and started working in the networking group, working on...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/24/2004
Things to do with your son over a long wet weekend...
This weekend, Daniel and I went to Dash Point State Park for a lovely two days of working out in the...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/23/2004
Silly historical notes
One of the comments in my “interviews” post reminded me about something that happened...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/20/2004
Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your stackframe grow?
So there was a discussion on an internal mailing list yesterday, and Raymond popped in with the...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/19/2004
Ok, what the heck IS the windows audio service (audiosrv) anyway?
This morning, Dmitry asked what the heck was the audio service for anyway. That's actually a really...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/18/2004
Why didn't XP SP2 install copy the right SP2 DLL when there was a DLL with a higher version number on the machine?
In yesterday’s post, I mentioned that SP2’s installation didn’t update a Longhorn...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/17/2004
Debugging a problem: Audio stops working after an XP SP2 install
A number of people have asked for me to write up my experiences debugging a problem. The thing is...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/16/2004
So why didn't the Windows guys just remove the AARD code from the system?
In yesterday’s post I talked about the AARD code. One of the questions that perennially comes...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/13/2004
I can't let this one pass by...
I just discovered this web page (via /.). The wizards at Microsoft research have figured out how to...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/12/2004
Sometimes you've just got to wonder.
I just ran into this on Microsoft's "What to Know Before You Download and Install Windows XP Service...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/12/2004
AARDvarks in your code.
If there was ever a question that I’m a glutton for punishment, this post should prove it. We...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/12/2004
Where do I get netfw.h?
Bruce Wells asked (in the comments of my “opening firewalls” ‘post) where you...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/11/2004
Three years ago today
I was cleaning up the remaining bits in the Simple Control Protocol, and wondering what I'd be doing...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/10/2004
Insecurity in our daily lives
Last week (or so), Joe Wilcox of MicrosoftMonitor posted this article describing the Joe’s...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/09/2004
The consequences of ignoring nagling and delayed acks
Over most of this week, I’ve discussed how ignoring the underlying network architecture can...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/06/2004
What's wrong with this code, part 5: The answers
Yesterday’s post was a simple implementation of TransmitFile. First things first: I need to...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/05/2004
What's wrong with this code, part 5
So there was a reason behind yesterday’s post about TransmitFile, it was a lead-in for...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/04/2004
My favorite APIs: TransmitFile
Back in NT 3.5ish, Microsoft first deployed IIS, our web server. The people working on it very...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/03/2004
Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
Thanks For Letting Us Know Vernon Blake, an engineer at the Alabama Department of Transportation,...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/02/2004
Comment Policy is now up.
I got nailed by a new blog-spammer yesterday, so it's my turn to follow KC and Raymond and post a...
Author: Larry Osterman [MSFT] Date: 08/02/2004