Ambiguous symbol error?

Your variable max conflicts with std::max(). Try using a different name and it ought to fix that error.

I think the problem is not std::max() but these horrible #define's in minwindef.h:

#ifndef NOMINMAX

  #ifndef max
  #define max(a,b)            (((a) > (b)) ? (a) : (b))
  #endif

  #ifndef min
  #define min(a,b)            (((a) < (b)) ? (a) : (b))
  #endif

  #endif  /* NOMINMAX */

Use #define NOMINMAX in your project settings or stdafx.h.