I submitted a question to a MS newsgroup asking if there was a way to disable the prompt you get when you want to change a file extension for a file:
If you change a file name extension, the file may become unstable.
Are you sure you want to change it?
Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be a way to disable that prompt in XP (though some people said it you might be able to disable it in Vista). I mean, I understand the reasoning for this prompt, but for advance use, this seems rather pointless, and when I want to change a bunch of file extensions, it gets annoying to have to close that prompt every time.
I got a few responses back and someone showed me the power of “rename” in the command prompt. I didn’t know that rename took in wildcards. Apparently you can type:
rename *.jpeg *.jpg and it’ll rename all your .jpeg files to .jpg without altering the base file name.
I decided to check how smart it really was and tried this earlier:
rename *.jpg orange_playdough_*.jpg, but apparently it wasn’t able to do what I wanted it to do. I just wanted to append the phrase orange_playdough_ in front of all the jpg files in this directory.
Someone suggested Lupas Rename and I decided to give it a try. So far, it’s pretty neat and does basically what I want it to do. You can insert phrases wherever you want, change file extensions, etc. It’s a pretty neat tool.
Someone also suggested a new Vista Renaming Powertoy, but I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet.
Random Crap:
Orange Playdough (from ChewyDenise) – I’ve seen this awhile back but it’s just too cool not to share it:
China arrests men for murdering “ghost” brides – Chinese police have arrested three men for killing two young women to sell their corpses as “ghost brides” for dead single men, a Chinese newspaper reported, warning the dark custom might have claimed many other victims.
Money rains down in German town – A lorry driver who won a contest “What would you do with 100,000 euros?” with the most original idea threw 75,000 euros ($96,810) in five-euro notes from an elevated crane to groups of people below, RPR1 radio spokesman Thomas Reiche said. Marco Hilgert, 49, kept the remaining 25,000 euros he won in the radio contest for the best idea — throw money out of a city hall window. But the first city hall in Mainz rejected the suggestion and the event was moved to Kaiserslautern. Really? That was the best/most original idea they could think of? I mean even The Simpsons and tons of movies have done similar things…
A fish vendor inspects a fish of 2.4 metres long and 340 kilograms at a seafood market in Wenzhou, east China’s Zhejiang Province January 23, 2007. The large fish was caught by a fisherman in the East China Sea. (from China Daily)
Desi woman catches husband cheating (from Digg) – Why some Indians need the Seminar urgently! Listen to this Indian man getting caught cheating on his wife, live on American radio. It’s hilarious, but there’s also a lesson to be learnt about being a better lover. It’s so funny!
Casino: $102,000 Jackpot A Mistake (from Digg) – An on-screen message told Wilkinson, by name, that he had won $102,000 in a power play jackpot. The woman next to him screamed with excitement. But Wilkinson’s six-figure payday was short-lived. Casino officials soon informed the retired carpenter that the message was sent in error. Ouch! I’d be pissed if I was Wilkinson too. I mean, to have a machine say you won $100k and have someone else tell you it’s a mistake…
Creative photos by Chema Madoz (from Digg) – Some really interesting photography. Has a very nice touch with the color and tones.
Disjoint Twins (from Digg) – All seemed so easy, until the customer service rep realized what Philip was trying to do: “I’m sorry sir, but we need a different birth date for each of your kids.” “Uhh, er,” Philip stuttered, rather puzzled, “they’re twins? They were both born on the seventh of May, so they actually do have the same birth date.” “Oh yes, I understand,” she said, “but our system cannot handle two people with the same last name born in the same month of the same year on the same plan.” Haha!!! He ended up picking birth dates which were a month apart, as if that was more possible than having twins ;p
Dilbert – The Knack (from MS newsgroup) – an animated short clip of young Dilbert and what is wrong with him. A really funny clip of how he has the case of “the knack”.
Coming out ahead when your ticket price drops (from The Consumerist) – Seattle times gives a good detail list of what you should do if the price of ticket drops. Many airlines offer vouchers for that amount minus a service fee which you can use to apply on a new ticket. So if the price of the ticket has fallen beyond the service fee charge, it will be worth it to exchange your current ticket for the lower priced one. I’ve always liked Southwest for this because they do not charge a service fee for this. I’ve happened to had to cancel certain flights (due to unexpected changes in which I had to delay my trip) and I can just refund my ticket and I would automatically get a credit of my entire fare which I can apply to any travel through them for a year. You can even do this after the fact, meaning if you didn’t take a flight, your flight confirmation number automatically becomes your credit confirmation number.