The Old New Thing

It was not one of Explorer's design goals to provide a Turing-complete interface for bulk file renaming

August 3, 2007 Aug 3, 2007 08/3/07

Raymond Chen

Somebody wanted to append an extension to all files in a directory and couldn't find a way to do this type of bulk rename in Explorer. On the other hand, it's pretty simple from the command prompt: The person then asked, "Can we get this and other multi-file operations added to Explorer?" "There should be a way to rename a large number ...

But now I'll never know which politician that alien backs for the next election

August 2, 2007 Aug 2, 2007 08/2/07

Raymond Chen

It has been reported that everybody's favorite mock tabloid The Weekly World News is ceasing publication. Seeing as this is The Weekly World News we're talking about, I'm not sure how much of this I'm going to believe, but people seem to be taking it at face value. I remember seeing a WWN article clipped out and posted on the door to a ...

What is the difference between the Folder and Directory (and other special) progids?

August 2, 2007 Aug 2, 2007 08/2/07

Raymond Chen

When you're installing your shell extension, you need to know which progid to hang it off of inside . We'll start with the title question and then move on to other predefined (but perhaps not well-known) progids...

Note to locals: Lincoln Center is in New York City, not Bellevue

August 1, 2007 Aug 1, 2007 08/1/07

Raymond Chen

In downtown Bellevue there is a mall named Lincoln Square, but I hear people refer to it with some frequency as Lincoln Center. Just a reminder: Lincoln Center is in New York City. Nitpicker's corner There are many other places in the world with the names Lincoln Square and Lincoln Center...

Footnotes in Win32 history: VLM (Very Large Memory) support

August 1, 2007 Aug 1, 2007 08/1/07

Raymond Chen

Ah, the Alpha AXP.

I just discovered that the Scandinavian Gift Shop in Ballard is closing

July 31, 2007 Jul 31, 2007 07/31/07

Raymond Chen

When in Ballard for SeafoodFest, I was saddened to discover that one of the last remaining Scandinavian businesses in Ballard, the Scandinavian Gift Shop, is closing. They were in their final stages of "everything must go!", and I picked up a small number of Glad Påsk greeting cards, some pretty napkins (including a set that would be ...

What is the lpdwHandle parameter in GetFileVersionInfoSize used for?

July 31, 2007 Jul 31, 2007 07/31/07

Raymond Chen

The function returns two pieces of information. The return value is the amount of memory needed to record the version information of a file, and the pointed to by the parameter is set to zero. What's the deal with this strange parameter? That parameter used to do something. The documentation for used to read dwHandle: The value ...

Stuart Stevens takes performance-enhancing drugs in order to see what they do

July 30, 2007 Jul 30, 2007 07/30/07

Raymond Chen

It's an old story, but once again timely thanks to the drug scandal that rocked this year's Tour de France. Not to be confused with the drug scandal that rocked last year's Tour de France. (But that's okay, because it's all cleaned up now. Tipster.) Amateur cyclist Stuart Stevens takes performance-enhancing drugs for six months in order ...

There's a whole Internet out there, folks, you might want to check it out

July 30, 2007 Jul 30, 2007 07/30/07

Raymond Chen

If you're going to add a topic to the Suggestion Box,¹ at least do the courtesy of researching the question before asking it. It takes me an hour to answer each question; it's only fair that you spend ten minutes making it a good question. For example, one entry in the Suggestion Box asked for the story behind the hotkey. But even the ...

Seattle to Portland (STP) 2007 trip report, part 4 of 4: St. Helens to Portland and beyond

July 27, 2007 Jul 27, 2007 07/27/07

Raymond Chen

Note: You probably want to start with Part 1. 1:33pm: S and I arrive at the St. Helens High School food stop (mile 175) just as J, M, and A are on their way out. S is pretty wiped out by this point and heads over to the nearby McDonalds for a cup of Coke and an order of French fries. "What I need is fat," she explains. (And she was ...