PowerShell’s 248 or 260 character limit path bug

Thanks to bad, old code, Microsoft’s PowerShell breaks on file or directory paths longer than 248 characters. PowerShell reuses other code that maintains compatibility with very old software that can’t understand paths with more than 260 characters. I don’t know how 260 drops to 248 in PowerShell, but it does.

Amazingly, in the first comment in a bug report, Microsoft dodges the question and passes the buck.

I hit this bug when working with a Sitecore web site. For example, I have a path like this:

C:\XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX\raw\WebSite\App_Data\MediaFiles\{11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111}\{3D6658D8-A0BF-4E75-B3E2-D050FABCF4E1}\{15451229-7534-44EF-815D-D93D6170BFCB}\{700C2C14-6082-4378-AA43-821E8422E9BE}\{6507E0E5-6CF2-4342-A11F-68F787B32EA3}Boulevard.jpg

That is 259 characters. I can’t delete it with PowerShell’s Remove-Item command.

Fortunately, there is a workaround: use legacy command prompt tools. In my case, I am trying to remove everything below C:\XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX\raw\, so I can use this command in PowerShell:

cmd /c rmdir C:\XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX\raw\ /s/q

But I shouldn’t have to do this. There is no reason that PowerShell can’t delete files with more than 248 character paths.

The Social Security Trust Fund is still a lie

Finally, a word of sense about the Social Security Trust Fund from a mainstream financial columnist:

And, no, the [Social Security Trust Fund] could not have been invested elsewhere. First, it would have overwhelmed the private investment markets. (Scott Burns, The “Truth” about Social Security)

What he’s talking about: The Social Security Trust Fund was a hoax even when Alan Greenspan started it. It represents money the government “borrowed” from itself and then spent.

It’s like spending from my retirement account and then putting IOUs in my wallet. Those IOUs are worthless; they are not an asset. The Social Security Trust Fund is the same thing; it has no value.

But you say, “The government could have saved the money…” Um, yeah, holding $2,300,000,000,000 ($2.3 trillion) means deflation. Then spending it down would be inflationary.

Or it could have invested $2,300,000,000,000–meaning the government owns $2,300,000,000,000 of the “private” economy. That’s called a state-controlled economy, run by the same geniuses who brought us drivers’ license offices.

Even a 50%/50% compromise is bad: $1,150,000,000,000 in withheld cash and $1,150,000,000,000 of government-owned economy.

Social Security is, by necessity, a “pay as you go” system. There is no way to save for the future. If Social Security costs too much, then we’ve over-promised.

The Social Security Trust Fund hoax isn’t left vs. right, regressive vs. progressive, Republican vs. Democrat. This is truth vs. lying.

Did Forrester Research CEO George Colony really say that?

According to CMS Wire, Forrester Research Chief Executive Officer George Colony said, “within 15 years CEOs will need to know the ins and outs of new media, social network technologies and social communities before they get the job.” (emphasis mine)

15 years? I’m scratching my head. The Web 2.0 is relevant today. E.g., Facebook has over 400 million users right now. Fifteen years from now passes through several generations of new technology!

For Colony’s sake, I hope CMS Wire misquoted or he misspoke. I’ll tweet him and see what he says.

Advertisements on Massachusetts capitol building

Amazing: Massachusetts lets for-profit companies advertise on its capitol!

Up close:

The Celtics and Bruins are for-profit commercial firms owned by Wycliffe Grousbeck and Jeremy Jacobs. For-profit as in the same kind of corporate entity as Exxon, Microsoft, and Citibank.

I’d love someone to do an open records request and see how much Wycliffe and Jeremy paid Massachusetts for this. I’ll bet nothing!

This appears sleazy. But what else should I expect from the state of the Kennedy dynasty and John Kerry?

Fascinating San Fransisco streetscape video

(EDIT: Replaced first video with much better one.)

This video, shot from a San Francisco streetcar, is from 1906, just a few days before the San Francisco earthquake:

Note the huge numbers of pedestrians on the road, the dangerous interactions between various transportation modes, the lack of efficiency, and the layers of clothing.

I don’t know how many of those buildings survived the 1906 earthquake except–of course–the building at the end.

Here’s a similar scene today:

View Larger Map

…and this guy claims he has a video of the same area from 2005: