by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2010/06/22 07:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2010/06/22/10026554.aspx
Running through my head right now is that Lionel Richie song "Hello", which has no connection for me other than some long ago boyfriend of my sister's like ~25 years ago; it was their song. But somehow HELLo would be better than Hello for that song, and not just because I have Steve Dallasian/Bill the Catsian feelings about Mr. Richie. Man, why would anyone date anyone with that as the song?
"I don't have to talk to you about...scuba diving... so... that'll save some time." - Emo Phillips
Being right about something when people have a different (conflicting) plan they are set on can be a terrible burden, sometimes.
I mean at the time they just write you off as a crotchety old man, a crank who is more interested in theoretical backcompat issues than trying to solve actual customer-felt problems (I had an ex who, before meeting me, assumed I was in my 50s based on how people in such situations at work descibed me).
Then later on when it turns out you were right, you're that guy.
The one who says "I told you so".
Or even worse, the one who doesn't but everyone knows you'd be within rights to do so. Can it get worse?
Of course it can. Involve a blog somehow. When there is a blog involved...such people can be truly insufferable.
Use your imagination this one. Or just trust me.
Now sometimes it's a theoretical exercise -- like the small number of developers or testers who like to brag at conferences that they did not sign off on Vista, even though the features covered by the signoff passed.
I've seen 'em do it.
The bragging rights about their nullified signoff vote really doesn't matter all that much in the scheme of things. And in at least one case I know of it wasn't actually true. Which is like making up what you were doing when Kennedy was shot so you have a better story at parties.
I wasn't alive yet, which I figure gives me an alibi, at least.
Anyhow....
Other times, the impact is more marked on projects that are out there, that are almost about to ship, etc.
Like the problem I discussed in I know I'll Never say Never... again, at least with the change in the casing table with ς, aka U+03c2 (GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA).
As predicted, nothing happened. A cow made a satisfied grunt somewhere after chewing its cud, and everyone just kind of walked slowly away.
And, as also predicted, someone ran into problems.
They are going to work around it (I'll explain how in a moment!), though one amusing note: the guy I'm helping here is someone who I helped a few years back on another problem (that time was to do with Korean). He remembered me as being very helpful last time too, which is always nice. In fact that is the best part of having a good reputation with someone: they are impressed in advance. :-)
Anyway, if you are having problems with the GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA in Windows 7 then of course there are workarounds (like replacing it with σ (U+03c3, a.k.a. GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA) before doing whatever operation was causing problems.
Or just avoiding the naming issue by not creating files in Windows 7 that would be considered duplicates on downlevel platforms.
Or don't uppercase prior to building whatever index or storage token you have (since even without this bug there are always new characters out there).
Or I could just stop being right; that would save a lot of time, too. For everyone, including me....
Between that and skipping the scuba diving conversation, I have time to get out and enjoy Chennai!