Q: In Vista, how can I change a file named like FileWithWrongExtension.docx to FileWithWrongExtension.zip?
A: Open an Explorer window, click Organize dropdown on Ribbon bar, then select Folder and Search Options. This will bring up Folder Options window with General/View/Seach tabs. Click View tab, uncheck Hide extensions for known file types in Advanced Settings section. This will enable the Explorer to show file extension. Now you can change the file extension right there in the Explorer.
Recently, due to the unexpected changes in life as it always is, I am out of job and find a lot of time on my hand. So I take advantage of it and start to check off the ever-growing To-Read/To-Do list that get accumulated during my hectic working days, lot of them new technologies that I found relevant yet didn't have time to explore. And also I a lot of catch up with all blogs I subscribe to and my own blogs.
Then it hits me that all those bloggers are working professionals too. Just like myself when I was employed, they have products to deliver and they have family and kids and they cannot always sit in front of the computer during their spare time. How could they find time to enrich themselves? How could they grow their skill and advance their career while serving the needs of their employer? Where did they find the time to research and blog about their research ?
Then I ran into this statement by Juval Lowy, a highly respected developer:
I think you have to be a professional developer. I think you have to understand that you have spent part of your time honing your skills, it's an ongoing life goal. It doesn't stop because you learn one thing, there is going to be changes. You should also search for a more nourishing business environment -- if they don't let you learn on the job [then] it's probably not the best place to work for.
Seriously I mean, the rate of change today is such that learning is part of the job. No ifs, no buts, that's the way it is.
Hah! That's it. If the place you work for just doesn't allow you to explore new things, you just won't get it. And if the culture in the workplace is against exploring new things, the innovation just won't thrive and all your poor souls just going to wither out like dry lily.
FIND A RIGHT PLACE TO WORK THAT IS HOW YOU GET AHEAD.
But how?
How do I know about it: Joel Spolsky gave the booka glowing recommendation on his blog. Being a fan of Joel, I bought a copy.
Content:
The book is divided into five parts. Part 1: Managing the human resources, there are six chapters. Chapter 1: Somewhere today, a project is failing. Chapter 2: Make a cheeseburger, sell a cheeseburger. Chapter 3: Vienna waits for you. Chapter 4: Quality-If time permits. Chapter 5: Parkison's law revisited. Chapter 6: laetrile. Part 2: The office environment has seven chapters and one intermezzo. Chapter 7: The furniture police. Chapter 8: "You never get anything done around here". Chapter 9: Saving money on space. Intermezzo(according to the book,"an intermezzo is a fanciful digression inserted between the pages of an otherwise serious work"): Productivity measurement and unidentified flying objects. Chapter 10: Brain time versus body time. Chapter 11: The telephone. Chapter 12: Bring back the door. Chapter 13: Taking umbrella steps. Part 3: The right people has four chapters. Chapter 14: The hornblower factor. Chapter 15: Hiring a juggler. Chapter 16: Happy to be here. Chapter 17: The self-healing system. Part 4: Growing productive teams has six chapters, chapter 18: The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Chapter 19: The black team. Chapter 20: Teamicide. Chapter 21: A spaghetti dinner. Chapter 22: Open kimono. Chapter 23: Chemistry for team formation. Part 5: It is supposed to be fun to work here has three chapters, chapter 24: Chaos and order. Chapter 25: Free electrons, chapter 26: Holgar Dansk.
What I like: It is a small book, with total of 188 pages and twenty six chapters. That puts average of 7 pages per chapter. The longest chapter is 12 pages and shortest one is 3. With short chapter, it is easier on readers concentration span. On the other hand, it puts high demands on author to deliver points efficiently. Overall, this book delivers. I feel I take home a clear message from each chapter. In terms of content, the book brought back a lot of dreaded memory of my previous project experience and shed a light on them. One now-defunct start-up I worked for before, the CTO went through a product design meeting with us engineers and wrote down the time needed on the whiteboard, then set a deadline that reduced the development time by one fifth. Guess what, the product was delivered overdue with a lot of bugs in them, and the whole engineering team had to be brought to the support side to fix the problem (at meantime making more bugs along the way). And years after the company imploded, I found the answer in the book.
What I dislike: None.
Quotables: "Quality, far beyond that required by the end user, is a means to higher productivity." "Quality is free, but only to those who are willing to pay heavily for it." "The one thing that all the best organization shares is a preoccupation with being the best." And I especially like the authors quoting of "Vienna waits for you" by Billy Joel, oh, those good old days J
