I want my Windows 7 start menu back

Hate the new way you go around the barn to accomplish anything in Windows 8?  Here is a 3rd party app to bring back the old look and operation of the Windows 7 start menu.

Classic Shell is a collection of features that were available in older versions of Windows but were later removed. It has a customizable Start menu and Start button for Windows 7 and Windows 8, it adds a toolbar for Windows Explorer and supports a variety of smaller features. Look here for the full list.

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Acceptance Rates and Impact Factors

For those of you who do publish at computer science conferences*:

1) On your CV/Biosketch/Website/etc. list-of-publications, do you include conference acceptance rates?

2) If you do, what  is the threshold for you to mention it? (e.g., 50%, 30%, 10% ?)

For those of you who don't publish at computer science conferences:

0) Hey, why aren't you publishing at CS conferences? We're cool people, and we start counting at zero.  

1) On your CV/Biosketch/Website/etc. list-of-publications, do you include journal impact factors?

2) If you do, what is the threshold for you to mention it? (e.g., do you list IFs for startup journals)?

And for anyone willing to share their field / subfield, I'd be interested to hear that as well. I'm planning to assemble this information into a longer post on the topic in a few weeks.

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* This includes anything which has archival proceedings, like some workshops, symposia, summer/winter/fall/spring schools, etc. 

CONCURRENT REMOTE DESKTOP SESSIONS IN WINDOWS XP SP2

Windows XP does not allow concurrent sessions for its Remote Desktop feature.

What this means is that if a user is logged on at the local console, a remote user has to kick him off (and ironically, this can be done even without his permission) before starting work on the box. This is irritating and removes much of the productivity that Remote Desktop brings to Windows. Read on to learn how to remove that limitation in Windows XP SP2

A much touted feature in SP2 (Service Pack 2) since then removed was the ability to do just this, have a user logged on locally while another connects to the terminal remotely. Microsoft however removed the feature in the final build. The reason probably is that the EULA (End User License Agreement) allows only a single user to use a computer at a time. This is (IMHO) a silly reason to curtail Remote Desktop's functionality, so we'll have a workaround.

Microsoft did try out the feature in earlier builds of Service Pack 2 and it is this that we're going to exploit here. We're going to replace termserv.dll (The Terminal Server) with one from an earlier build (2055).

To get Concurrent Sessions in Remote Desktop working, follow the steps below exact

1. Download the termserv.zip file below and extract it somewhere.

2. Reboot into Safe Mode. This is necessary to remove Windows File Protection.

3. Copy the termserv.dll in the zip to %windir%\System32 and %windir%\ServicePackFiles\i386. Ifthe second folder doesn't exist, don't copy it there. Delete termserv.dll from the dllcache folder:

%windir%\system32\dllcache

4. Merge the contents of Concurrent Sessions SP2.reg file into the registry.

5. Make sure Fast User Switching is turned on. Go Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Change the way users log on or off and turn on Fast User Switching.

6. Open up the Group Policy Editor: Start Menu > Run > 'gpedit.msc'. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Terminal Services. Enable 'Limit Number of Connections' and set the number of connections to 3 (or more). This enables you to have more than one person remotely logged on.

7. Now reboot back into normal Windows and try out whether Concurrent Sessions in Remote Desktop works. It should!

If anything goes wrong, the termserv_sp2.dll is the original file you replaced. Just rename it to termserv.dll, reboot into safe mode and copy it back.

termserv.dl_ file is provided in the zip is for you slipstreamers out there. Just replace that file with the

corresponding file in the Windows installation disks.

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Happy Birthday, Ada! [CSEdWeek]

Today is the great Ada Lovelace's birthday. In case you have't noticed my icon, she has always been my favorite computer scientist, so I was delighted to see today's Google's doodle:

Ada's birthday celebration also helps kick off Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) which, as a computer science educator (and friend of NCWIT), I am honored to support. CSEdWeek is a worldwide effort to increase interest and participation in the awesomeness that is CS. Lots of great resources on the CSEdWeek website, go check it out.

Finally, in other exciting FCS news, it turns out yesterday was Grace Hopper's birthday! Two famous FCSes were born one day apart. I think that's really cool. Any of you share birthdays with Grace or Ada? This is actually a fun math problem, and, indeed, forms the basis of a cryptological attack called the the birthday attack.

See! Not only is CS everywhere, but: