The arrest of dozens of Pro-Palestinian demonstrators since last week has left First Amendment advocates asking who gets to enjoy speech protections in Texas.
WASHINGTON—Saying they’d learned a lot about her life and the adversities she’d faced over the years, the nation’s white women announced Monday that they had a new perspective on socialite and media personality Paris Hilton. “After many difficult, arduous hours spent reflecting on our own deeply held biases and…
Don’t get me wrong, it’s absolutely brilliant that Microsoft was able to release a fairly complete (minus DOSSHELL) source code for MS-DOS 4.00 or 4.01 (see below). As much as it was hated, DOS 4.0 was an important milestone and DOS 5.0 was much more similar to DOS 4.0 than not. This source code will be an excellent reference of modern-ish DOS until Microsoft officially releases the long ago leaked MS-DOS 6.0 source code. The source code includes all required build tools, which makes building it (compared to many other source releases) extremely easy.
But please please don’t mutilate historic source code by shoving it into (stupid) git.
First of all, git does not preserve timestamps, which causes irreversible damage. Knowing when a source file was last modified is valuable information.
Second of all, the people releasing the source code clearly thought, hey, it’s source code, let’s shove it into git, what could possibly go wrong. Well, this is what could go wrong:
Nope, not building
For practical purposes, old source files are not text files. They are binary files, and must be preserved without modification. It is not OK to take an old source file and convert it to UTF-8. For one thing, UTF-8 didn’t even exist in the times of MASM 5.10 and Microsoft C 5.1, of course old tools can’t deal with it!
The above problem was most likely caused by taking a source line using codepage 437 characters and badly converting them to UTF-8. That made the source line too long, past the circa 512 byte line length limit of MASM.
In the case of getmsg.asm it’s easy enough to manually delete the too long line in a comment. But it’s much worse with the src\SELECT\USA.INF file. Here, the misguided use of git not only made some comment lines too long for MASM, but it also actively destroyed the original source code. The byte arrays defined near labels PANEL36 and PANEL37 got turned into junk, or more accurately into a sequence of Unicode replacement characters.
This blunder is all the more regrettable because similar problems affected the previous GW-BASIC source release (very old MASM versions cannot deal with UNIX style line endings).
The timestamp destruction makes it harder to pin down what the source code actually is. The DOS 4.0 release was very confused because IBM first released PC DOS 4.0 in June 1988 (files dated 06/17/1988), but soon followed with a quiet update (files dated 08/03/1988) where the disks were labeled 4.01 but the software still reported itself as 4.00.
The just released source code almost certainly corresponds to this quiet 4.01 update. At least one source comment implies 8/5/88 modification, i.e. August 1988.
At least the core files (IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, COMMAND.COM, FORMAT.COM, FDISK.SYS, SYS.COM) built from the source release are a perfect match for the files on “MS-DOS 4.00” disk images that can be found on winworldpc.
Said files are dated 10/06/1988 and DOS reports itself as 4.00. However, the released source code, in the file SETENV.BAT, includes the following line:
echo setting up system to build the MS-DOS 4.01 SOURCE BAK...
This further suggests that the source code in fact corresponds to the quiet update of DOS 4.01 and not to the original IBM DOS 4.00 from June 1988, which to the best of my knowledge was never available from Microsoft. After a few months, perhaps in late 1988 Microsoft changed DOS to report itself as 4.01 because—unsurprisingly—the 4.00 version number was confusing customers.
As a historic footnote, BAK stood for Binary Adaptation Kit. MS-DOS OEMs would receive the BAK to adapt to their hardware. However, most OEMs did not receive the full source code, only the code to components that likely needed modification, such as IO.SYS.
But the fact that the “Source BAK” was something that Microsoft shipped to (select lucky) customers is actually great—since it’s supposed to be built by 3rd parties, it includes all of the required tools and is in fact quite easy to build.
Executive Summary
It’s terrific that the source code for DOS 4.00/4.01 was released! But don’t expect to build the source code mutilated by git without problems.
Historic source code should be released simply as an archive of files, ZIP or tar or 7z or whatever, with all timestamps preserved and every single byte kept the way it was. Git is simply not a suitable tool for this.
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
A reader writes:
I’ve found myself in an odd situation and would love some thoughts on what to do. I work in fundraising at a nonprofit and today, following a donor event, I got back to my desk and saw that I had five missed calls from the same number. The first four had no messages, but the fifth one had a message from a (supposed) elderly woman I didn’t know stating that she and her husband wanted to make a gift of $7 million. Immediately my spidey-senses pinged, as people don’t just make six-figure donations out of nowhere (in all my years in this line of work, the only surprise million dollar gift I ever saw was an estate bequest).
I played the voicemail back for my team, essentially saying “This is someone trolling us, right?” We couldn’t quite make out the name given and a search of the phone number didn’t do much. Finally I decided to call back to see if I could figure out what was going on. I spoke with the woman, who reiterated their interest in a multi-million dollar gift to name a theater. I told her that if she wanted to talk about naming opportunities, I’d have to forward her to my boss. She got quiet, then said “Never mind.” When I confirmed she no longer wanted to make a gift, she said she had been told I could handle this for her. I confirmed that while I process gifts, anything involving naming rights had to go through my boss. She said she would call my boss later as now wasn’t a good time. I asked if she wanted my boss’s phone number. She said no and hung up.
As my team and I were discussing what was, at this point, obviously a prank, my phone rang and the screen showed the name of a high school intern who just started with our team this week. However, when I picked up there was a man on the other end claiming I had been speaking with his wife and apologized for her, saying, “She’s a bit tipsy this afternoon.” He then said he did want to speak to my boss about a gift, so I transferred the call. Our intern’s name also appeared on my boss’s phone screen, and when she answered he had hung up.
At this point, we were all thoroughly flummoxed. We confirmed that the number for the original call (and the one I called when returning the voicemail) is the one given to us by the intern (he had already gone for the day when this happened). Obviously we’re going to talk to him about this and figure out what’s going on, but I’m not sure what the best course of action is.
On the one hand, we don’t know if this is something he was in on. I could easily see this being a friend or sibling stealing his phone to make a prank call (and while I haven’t interacted with him much, he struck me as a pretty shy and sweet guy). On the other hand, even if he had nothing to do with this, I’m not sure what we can say to him other than letting him know it happened. Don’t let someone take your phone? Be careful who you’re friends with? Watch how much info you’re giving out about us? And if he admits this was a prank by him, does it warrant cutting his internship early? I get high schoolers aren’t known for their maturity, but it does feel annoying if he’s squandering an opportunity he’s being given here.
In my youth, I was an expert prank caller — and not to brag, but I was once awarded a trophy made of clay for Top Prank Caller by my nieces after passing along my skills to them — but even I knew that you don’t prank call your job with false promises about money, particularly when you are a high school intern.
That said, “she’s a bit tipsy this afternoon” did make me laugh out loud, so kudos to this young group of hooligans. I can vividly imagine the mirth this must have produced on their side after they hung up.
Anyway. Your intern. The chances he wasn’t involved in this are low. Not non-existent, but low. Lots of high schoolers who appear shy and sweet at their jobs are quite different when they’re with their friends. (I was another example of that; my high school jobs all thought I was an angel. I was not.)
But the first step is to talk to him. Tell him you got a prank call from his phone number and ask if there’s anything he wants to tell you. He’s likely to be embarrassed (which is good; this is how we learn things), and there’s a good chance he’ll confess. Whether he admits his involvement or blames it on his friends, explain that you know it was meant as a joke but organizations take fundraising really seriously — it’s the only way your work can happen — and that wasting people’s time chasing donations that don’t actually exist is really disrespectful to his colleagues and to the work you’re all there to do.
He probably hasn’t thought of it like that, because he’s in high school and they don’t know much about the world. This is a good way for him to start learning.
I wouldn’t blame you if you decided to fire him over it (although you should hear him out and see how he responds first). It’s reasonable to decide he showed a level of immaturity that’s not compatible with the work you need done. But I also think internships — especially at that young of an age — are about learning, and there’s a big opportunity for growth here if you do keep him on. Sometimes mortification at being called on one’s behavior is a perfectly suitable consequence, and you don’t need to mete out anything more than that.
NEW YORK—Earning widespread praise from adult viewers, a new episode of the animated children’s TV series Bluey tackled the difficult subject of walking in on your parents during their scheduled weekly sex, sources confirmed Monday. “We watch Bluey every week as a family, and I tell you, when Bandit sat Bluey down to…
OTTAWA – Facing criticism for not having any plans to combat the climate crisis, opposition leader Pierre Poilievre has promised that if he becomes Prime Minister, “the country will be facing much larger problems.” “We know Canadians are frustrated with the government’s inaction on the environment, which is why my cabinet will ensure there will […]
Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives plan to make Canada the freest country in the world if (ok once) they get into power. In unrelated news here is a list of everything Conservatives currently in power provincially have banned Canadians from doing. 1. Using a name and pronouns that reflects their gender identity in school (Alberta, […]
VANCOUVER – No official outdoor Canucks viewing parties will be held in Vancouver during the NHL playoffs, prompting angry fans to make due by drunkenly smashing their own possessions. “I have fond memories of the year we competed for the Cup against Boston or Carolina or whoever it was,” said self-proclaimed hardcore fan Dennis Ford. […]
This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s four answers to four questions. Here we go…
1. The better I do, the more resentful my boss gets
I’m a manager in a technical field and my boss used to be a huge micromanager. He is one of those senior leaders who is good at delegating tasks, but not at delegating decisions or leadership responsibilities, so he wants every decision, big and small, to go through him. Classic case of a person who worries nobody else can do it making that fear into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Recently the company has been going through a reorganization, which has been distracting him from his normal micromanagement. Because he’s not inserting himself into routine work and making himself a bottleneck as much, my team has been knocking it out of the park — about 20% above our targets on the year, largely attributable to better process efficiency.
The thing that’s confusing me is this: The better my team does, the more moody and resentful he seems to get. If I, as a manager, had a direct report who was firing on all cylinders, I’d be thrilled. Yet, the better my team does, the more sour he looks, the more he makes backhanded comments to me in front of my team, and the more dismissive he gets of my ideas and input. I don’t get it. He’s the sole owner, so it’s not like I can threaten his role.
I’ve been looking for a new role for a while, but for personal reasons I don’t have the freedom to be without an income right now. So in the short term, I need survival strategies to keep myself sane. What’s driving this behavior of his, and what can I do to keep the peace while I continue my job search?
He feels important by feeling essential. You’re threatening his self-image by showing that not only is he not essential, your team actually performs better with him out of the way. A more secure manager would think, “Great! I’ve hired great people and set them up well, and their achievements are a credit to me.” (And even if they couldn’t take any credit, they’d recognize that having a successful team under them was still good for them.) But he’s not a secure manager, so he feels threatened and resentful.
You have two paths. You can decide to ignore his moods and resentment and keep knocking out achievements that you’ll parlay into a better job for yourself. Or you can choose to cater to him a bit: find things to let him weigh in on so he can regain some confidence and feel important again, give him credit even where it’s not deserved, and generally play to his ego a bit so that his ruffled feathers are smoothed. Which you pick should probably depend on how much ability to has to affect your day-to-day quality of life, how petulant he’s being, and which you have the stomach for.
2. Should I contact my husband’s old company about how bad his boss was?
Should I tell the HR person of my husband’s former supervisor’s inappropriate and incompetent managerial skills?
My husband was hired by a company under the old department head. His direct supervisor did not like him for the role, and expressed that to my husband. The department head left, promoting the supervisor to department head. Since then, the training my husband was supposed to receive has been lacking to none, he was written up for asking questions about a new skill he is learning, and he was put on a PIP a month after being told everything was going great. None of the items on the PIP were addressed prior, denying him the opportunity to improve before a PIP. Three weeks after he comes off the PIP, he is fired, without a conversation to improve. Directions given throughout his tenure were incomplete and vague, yet the chief reason for his firing was that he failed to follow instructions. Essentially every instance where the manager was supposed to support and improve, he set my husband up to fail, all while telling my husband to his face that everything was going fine.
The company culture purports to be supportive, open to initiative, and embracing of the skills people bring. It claims to encourage people to think outside the box, use their skills in creative ways, and propose new solutions. For my husband’s role, it also required someone who could work independently. His boss was none of those things in action, and barely in verbal context. Essentially his boss set my husband up to fail by not being clear on expectation or instructions and moving the goal posts with every task. My husband would finish a task, his boss would say good job, and then a week later would pull him aside and tell him how he didn’t do a good job on the task. Not there in the moment, when it would have been appropriate, not the next day – a week. The toll of this repeating over and over caused mental anguish in my husband. He would come home feeling good about himself and proud of his work and then suddenly would come home and say things like “I’m such a loser” because of some interaction with his boss where my husband thought everything was going well, and out of the blue his boss would say something to the opposite. He’s a bad manager, and as a manager myself, this behavior is appalling to me.
You should not contact your husband’s former company on his behalf. It would be incredibly undermining to him, and it wouldn’t carry any weight with the company. They don’t care what someone outside the company who they have no relationship thinks about how they manage people, and any merit to your message would get overlooked because of the weirdness of a spouse weighing in. It would get talked about, but not in a good way.
Your husband had a bad boss. It happens. Your husband sounds like he was really suffering from the experience, and that’s hard to watch as a spouse. But your role is to support him, not fight his professional battles for him. You can help him see who he is and who his boss is, but you can’t seek justice with the company or set the record straight there or tell off his old boss. The impulse to do those things is very human, but you don’t have the standing to do any of them in an effective or credible way, and they’d make the situation worse, not better.
3. My boss gave me thank-you money in secret, but it feels like hush money
I work as an office support member. There were some minor issues with some seasonal employees in my area who didn’t like some changes I made, so they went to one of the bosses who abruptly dismissed the changes and put old ways back in place.
Fast forward to after our busy season. A week ago, my boss called me to his office and thanked me for all my hard work and gave me several hundred dollars — stressing it was from him personally, not our firm, and not to tell anyone else about it, and specifically stating not to tell the other bosses or aforementioned coworkers.
Although I didn’t know the exact amount of money at the time because it was folded up, it felt a little weird. I asked several times why he was doing this, and he assured me it was a thank you.
I have held onto the money for about a week. I’m a single mom and could use it, but it just felt like a strange situation, especially since it was done in secret.
A couple days ago, I just found out that the other bosses knew about the issues previously mentioned and are unhappy with those employees and that particular boss for undermining me. Suddenly it hit me — I think he was giving me a sort of “hush money” to make him feel better and to buy my loyalty. Am I wrong?
Although I could use the money, and he has demonstrated generosity in the community, I feel like this makes me beholden to him and is just not professional. Am I wrong? If not, how do I give it back without creating more issues?
I don’t see any reason to assume it’s hush money, like that he’s paying you to not talk about what happened. Using money to make you feel better, yes, but not hush money. It sounds like he felt guilty about what happened and wants to smooth it over, so is handing you some cash from his own funds and hoping it functions as an apology/morale-boost. A smoother boss might have taken you to lunch or bought you flowers. Cash makes it weirder, but it doesn’t mean it’s hush money. I read it as “I F’d up” money.
To be clear, if it will feel like hush money to you, you shouldn’t take it. If you’ll feel obligated not to raise issues you’d otherwise want to raise or to downplay what happened, you shouldn’t accept the money. And if you’d just feel better returning it, do! You could say, “I appreciate the thought, but I don’t feel right taking it, especially if it’s something others aren’t supposed to know about.” But I think you’d be fine keeping it if you want to and if you can see it purely as appreciation and nothing else and if it won’t make you hesitant to speak freely.
4. Should a 25-minute interview trump a year of great performance?
I’m a reading teacher. My job was a one-year position that became permanent, which is why I had to interview for my current job. I received “stellar” reviews in all four observations and throughout the year. I voluntarily attended meetings to learn, grow, and become part of a new school community. I went over and above because that’s my nature and they noticed this.
Admin urged me to apply, saying the job was 90% mine. I prepared for the interview and I didn’t rest on my laurels. The interview didn’t go well. I was very nervous despite how prepared I was.
They said that the interview didn’t go well and that was the sole reason they didn’t pick me. They choose another candidate who has never done the job. I am not overqualified for the job. Can a 25-minute not-so-great interview really trump 150 days of a “stellar” performance?
It depends on specifically what happened in the interview and what made it so bad. If you were just nervous and stumbled through a few answers, no, that shouldn’t trump what they’ve seen of you on the job. On the other hand, if you couldn’t answer key questions or answered crucial things badly — not just fumbling a little, but truly badly … well, maybe. I’d still hope they’d compare that to what they’ve seen of you actually doing the job and allow for nerves, and maybe even suggest a redo, but I can also imagine interviews going badly enough that they could end up being prohibitive.
It’s also possible that they were bound by internal hiring policies. For example, if they score candidates on a rubric and commit to hiring the best scorer, the interview could definitely do you in, regardless of what your actual work on the job has been like. (And if they do use a scoring rubric like that, they might not be able to offer a redo on grounds of fairness to other candidates.)
“You MUST see The Lion King.” The last time you were in New York, Michael Bloomberg was mayor and nobody knew what a cronut was.
“Why not try kayaking on the Hudson?” You do not actually like living in New York City.
“Corner bodega bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich.” You haven’t been north of 23rd Street in seven years.
“Go to a poetry slam in the East Village and then spend a few hours just getting lost in The Strand.” You do not have, nor have you met, children.
“Try the steak frites au poivre at La Bonne.” You work in finance. What you know of the world is not applicable to 97 percent of the population.
“Go to Max’s Kansas City and order a beef shish kebab.” You are Fran Lebowitz in 1978.
“Museum of Ice Cream!” You have children between the ages of five and nine. The last time you tried to go to The Strand, you forgot the ziplock of Cheerios and had to spend $24.95 on a sticker and jewel mosaic set to avoid a public meltdown.
“Broadway is OK but locals know that the real New York experience is going to see off-off-Broadway experimental theater. For a limited time, you can see a play called ‘Erasmus’ Journey to the Center of the Matrix’ at an abandoned magistrate court on Second Avenue.” Your nephew is a Tisch graduate and also the writer, director, and producer of Erasmus’ Journey to the Center of the Matrix.
“Forget the main branch. The best library in the city is hidden away on the Lower East Side with no public restrooms and barely any light. A must-see.” You had an unfortunate interaction with a drunk Santacon Santa on the steps of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. You’ve tried to move past it, but the feeling of yuletide dread has stayed with you.
“Or take a drive upstate to Cold Spring—it’s so nice there.” You spend 100 percent of your free time trawling RedFin for homes in the Hudson Valley, making a Pinterest list of cottagecore decor inspo, and taking “hikes” in Central Park. Seriously, you hate the city and we’re all wondering why you’re still here.
“Get a real authentic New York slice in Times Square.” You hate tourists.
“Don’t tell anybody, but you can see leprechauns in the catacombs of the Old St Patrick’s Cathedral on Mulberry Street, but only if you’re very lucky.” And a Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you, Shamus Connelly!
“The High Line is an abandoned elevated train track where you can relax and be in nature.” You were born and raised in New York City and never bothered to get a driver’s license.
“Grab a Jacques Torres hot chocolate and just walk around. Or cheese and rosé tasting at Murray’s.” You come from a long line of people who don’t know lactose intolerance from Adam.
“See an improv jam. It’s free!” You’re an out-of-work actor who’s been hired to give out “free” tickets for a two-drink minimum improv jam at a bar on Ninth Avenue.
“Central Park boat ride, ballet at Lincoln Center, or maybe jazz at The Django, then walk along the Hudson at night, marveling at the wonder of it all.” You still watch Woody Allen films but have the good sense not to mention it in mixed company.
“The Secret World of Elephants exhibit at the Natural History Museum is the best thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ve seen it seven times.” You are a child between the ages of five and nine.
“See the skyline from a yacht. I can get you a fifteen-dollar ticket for a yacht party next weekend. Tickets are usually forty dollars.” You’re not sure how or why you have come to acquire this Groupon, but it expires at the end of the month.
“B&H Dairy and B&H Photo are actually two very different things. Oy.” You still regret the way it all went down with Mendel, but are ever hopeful that time heals all wounds.
“Get courtside tickets to see New York Liberty and sit next to Billie Jean King.” You are Fran Lebowitz in 2023.
“Little known secret: the best bagels and lox are in Nassau County.” Seriously. Move already.
FRESNO, CA – Across the United States young people who will turn eighteen by November 5 are expressing their excitement at being able to vote in the last presidential election of their lifetimes. “Voting is an amazing right for all adult Americans,” said Ashley Connor. “In November I will walk proudly into the voting booth […]
WASHINGTON—In a shocking breach of White House security, President Joe Biden was reportedly carried away by ants Friday. According to witnesses, the 81-year-old commander-in-chief remained quite calm during his apparent abduction by the insects, showing no signs of resistance as the swarm of approximately 2,500 black…
This uniquely shaped home made of bio-based materials hangs from the eaves of someone else’s garage so you won’t have to pay any property taxes. Must share with thousands of current residents.
President Biden signed a bill into law banning TikTok nationwide unless the Chinese company that owns it, ByteDance, sells its stake in the app within a year. What do you think?
NEW GLARUS, WI—Tsking her tongue with envy as she put the finishing touches on her teen’s at-home hairstyling, local mom Sandra Bennett told reporters Friday that she was pretty jealous of all the dick her daughter was going to pull with those highlights. “Honestly, I’m happy knowing what these dirty blond…
The Transportation Department issued a new rule requiring airlines provide customers with automatic cash refunds in the event of flight cancellations or significant delays, saving passengers a projected $500 million in the next year. What do you think?
Enlarge / Federal Communication Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, then a commissioner, rallies against repeal of net neutrality rules in December 2017. (credit: Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla)
The Federal Communications Commission voted 3–2 to impose net neutrality rules today, restoring the common-carrier regulatory framework enforced during the Obama era and then abandoned while Trump was president.
The rules prohibit Internet service providers from blocking and throttling lawful content and ban paid prioritization. Cable and telecom companies plan to fight the rules in court, but they lost a similar battle during the Obama era when judges upheld the FCC's ability to regulate ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act.
"Consumers have made clear to us they do not want their broadband provider cutting sweetheart deals, with fast lanes for some services and slow lanes for others," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said at today's meeting. "They do not want their providers engaging in blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization. And if they have problems, they expect the nation's expert authority on communications to be able to respond. Because we put national net neutrality rules back on the books, we fix that today."
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