[MS] What was origin of the code name Redpill for Windows 8 feature lockout? - devamazonaws.blogspot.com

Work on the revamped Windows 8 user interface had begun long before its public announcement in June 2011. The team doing the work needed to keep their efforts under wraps to avoid any leaks or other premature disclosures.

Humphrey: Can you keep a secret?

Bernard: (expectantly) Of course.

Humphrey: So can I.

— Yes, Minister, Season 1, Episode 1, "Open Government".

The mechanism for hiding the Windows 8 features from anyone not authorized to know about them was known as Redpill (one word, accent on the red).

The name was, as you might suspect, a reference to the scene from the movie The Matrix in which the main character is offered a choice between taking a red pill or a blue pill. The blue pill returns him to his previous state of ignorance, and the red pill takes him forward into knowledge of the true state of reality.

Okay, so it was kind of obvious. Sometimes the obvious answer is the right one.


Post Updated on May 27, 2025 at 03:00PM
Thanks for reading
from devamazonaws.blogspot.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

[MS] Pulling a single item from a C++ parameter pack by its index, remarks - devamazonaws.blogspot.com

In my earlier discussion of pulling a single item from a C++ parameter pack by its index , I noted that with the Pack Indexing proposal, you would be able to write this to pull an item from a parameter pack while preserving its reference category. template<int index, typename...Args> void example(Args&&... args) { auto&& arg = (Args...[index]&&)args...[index]; using Arg = Args...[index]&&; } Why did I need to apply the (Args...[index]&&) cast ? Why can't I just write this: auto&& arg = args...[index]; or possibly decltype(auto) arg = args...[index]; Well, when you write the name of a variable, the result is an lvalue reference, even if the variable is an rvalue reference . Watch: struct S { S(S&); // construct from lvalue S(S&&); // construct from rvalue }; void whathappens(S&& s) { S t = s; // which will it use? } Try it out in your favorite compiler. This code construc...
Read more

[MS] Boosting Azure DevOps Security with GHAS Code Scanning - devamazonaws.blogspot.com

Image
Debjyoti Ganguly shares insights on the security benefits and configuration of GHAS Code Scanning with Azure DevOps. Boosting Azure DevOps Security with GHAS Code Scanning Code scanning, a pipeline-based tool available in GitHub Advanced Security, is designed to detect code vulnerabilities and bugs within the source code of ADO (Azure DevOps) repositories. Utilizing CodeQL as a static analysis tool, it performs query analysis and variant analysis. When vulnerabilities are found, it generates security alerts. CodeQL CodeQL is a powerful static analysis tool used for showing vulnerabilities and bugs in source code. It enables developers to write custom queries that analyze codebases, searching for specific patterns and potential security issues. By converting code into a database format, CodeQL allows for sophisticated, database-like queries to detect flaws. CodeQL in Action 1. Preparing the Code Create a CodeQL Database : Extract and structure the code into a database for analy...
Read more

[MS] Going beyond the empty set: Embracing the power of other empty things - devamazonaws.blogspot.com

The empty set contains nothing. This sounds really silly, but it's actually really nice. The Windows Runtime has a policy that if a method returns a collection (such as an IVector ), and the method produces no results, then it should return an empty collection, rather than a null reference . That way, consumers can just iterate over the collection without having to deal with a null test. For example, suppose you have a method Widget:: Get­Associated­Doodads which returns an IVectorView<Doodad> representing the Doodad objects that have been associated with a Widget object. If no Doodad s have been associated with the Widget , then it should return an empty vector, not a null pointer. That allows developers to write the natural-looking code: // C# foreach (var doodad in widget.GetAssociatedDoodads()) { ⟦ process each doodad ⟧ } // C++/WinRT for (auto&& doodad : widget.GetAssociatedDoodads()) { ⟦ process each doodad ⟧ } // JavaScript widget.GetAssociated...
Read more