Spouting: April 2005 Archives

Why do programmers assume that "C:\" must exist under Windows ? When I reinstalled Windows on my PC I had an external card reader attached, and because the hard-disks are attached to the motherboard RAID controller, through the weirdities of drive letter assignment the Windows boot drive ended up on J.

Every so often I trip up because of this. The latest example was found when trying to install Garmin MapSource data, admittedly an older version. Despite successfully installing the updated MapSource application to J:\, that application could not install the map data directly from the CD - I had to use the original installer.

Fortunately, I discovered that inserting my USBdrive took over "C:\" and allowed the installation to continue, even though C:\ was *never accessed*.

Chris Applegate posts a fantastic rant about Micheal Howard. I can't help but agree with everything he writes. I was amazed that the Tory Party elected him as leader, since I considered his credibility completely destroyed by the famous Paxman interview. The fact that they did elect him confirms that the rest of the Tory party remain completely backwards looking and out of touch.

On a related note, I caught Liam Fox on the radio tonight, trying to claim that the Rover business going into administration, with the potential loss of 30,000 (sic) manufacturing jobs, proved the current government wasn't delivering economic stability.

So exactly what kind of economic stability were the Tories delivering during the destruction of British manufacturing under their 18 years ?