Subject: Newsletter 8/02
From: mitchg
Date: Tue, 06 Aug 2002 00:12:11 -0500
To: zzGCCLeonard Hill

(Article for main page).

Hello Everyone!

Well I really didn't think I was going to make this edition with any content but I
managed to get some time due to an unrelated calamity.
I would like to ask for help from any of you out there that might be able to
download a part of the free programs I list.  There is not much chance I will be able to do it.
If you can spend some time doing this for the club please let me know via email.
I will give you a part of the target apps we need downloaded.
You can do however many you choose.
Once done and burned onto a CD the club will be able to make copies for us all!
   
    As you may have noticed I have never recommended a prog that was not free.
However this seems that it might be a real boon to lots of you;
 RE:     EZ OS INSTALL                                          $4.99
http://www.pchelplive.com/products.php?action=FDDL_INFO
   EZ OS INSTALL is a program designed to aide you in the installation of most of the
Microsoft Operating Systems.   Have you ever started an installation of Windows and then
feel like it dominates the next few hours of your life? Would you like an easy and fast way
to start an installation in only a few minutes and then be able to walk away and come back
later to a completed install of Windows?
Check out come user opinions: http://download.com.com/3302-2094-9017787.html?tag=lst
  The program supports the following Operating Systems:
Win 95 OSR1 / OSR2 - Win 98 / SE  - Win ME  - Win NT 4.0 Workstation / Terminal / Server 
Win 2000 Pro / Server / Advanced Server  - WinXP Home / Pro / Server / Advanced Server
I emailed these guys asking for a club discount on multiple copies but got no response.

Are you tired of all the clicking and waiting?
I have heard some of you complain about slow access to pages.
If you download everything you want you can have instant access to it all.
Why not just get it all at once???
Just buy a few semi trailer loads of those 100+ GB hard drives and go here.
To download the Internet CLICK HER

But seriously;

Please email me if you can download some prog's.

Thanks for your time

(signature file)

(End of Main article)



HOME SCHOOLERS NOTE:  Pay special attention to GREEN titles

               USEFUL  APPS
 


Mole Calc             Windows (95/98/NT)                    FREE
http://www.defoortsoftware.com/molecalc/
Mole Calc is a user friendly Windows (95/98/NT) tool which
is very similar to a classical calculator, but recognizes the atomic
compounds from the Mendeleiev table,  and knows their weight.
Accepts long and complicated chemical formula,
Knows the atomic weight of unusual compound,
Very useful for chemists, researcher, engineers, students...

Calc98                       ALL Win                        FREE
http://www.calculator.org/
a free Scientific engineering statistical and
financial pocket calculator simulator program for the
Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Pocket PC for
PDAs. It includes a very comprehensive set of conversions,
constants and physical property data, a built-in periodic
table of the elements, number base conversions, vectors,
matrices and complex numbers. It is especially suitable for
the scientific, engineering, medical and teaching professions
and in finance, but we have also found it has been picked up
by users in all walks of life.

Turn your scanner and printer into a simple to use photocopy machine.  FREE
You can find Photocopier at http://www.nicocuppen.com
It's called Photocopier and it's free! Its copies are very good.
There's also a Photocopier Pro, which is shareware, but in most
cases the free version can fit the needs.

SolarInfo                                                                FREE
 http://www.sulaco.co.za/downloads.htm
Sun, moon, and planets- It shows a graphical representation of
every planet in our solar system and its moons.
It also provides detailed information such as the planet's distance
from the sun, its volume, mass, and gravity in relation to Earth. 

FindIt XP!                     W9x/2k/XP                     FREE
 http://www.daft.cistron.nl/daftgames/findit2/
Find the difference  This type game is good early development fo
critical thinking skills for the young ones. "Everybody loves the Photoplay
games, but you could not play those games at home... until NOW!!"

MB-Ruler                          W9x/2k/XP                   FREE
 http://www.markus-bader.de/MB-Ruler/
Measure distance and angles;  A useful little application, especially
for anyone who has had to work with banners and graphics for the
Web. You can measure angles in radians or degrees, and distances
in inches, centimeters, twips, points or pixels. And if those
weren't enough options, you can even set your own scale.
Everything about MB-Ruler can be customized.


                COLLECTIONS
       (FREE stuff from generous programers) 

Free Computer Software Downloads
Freeware Computer Monitoring software;
http://www.a1b2c3.com/free/comp02.htm

Horst                                W9x/2k/XP                                      FREE
http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/horst.htm
{Batch file enhancement} Back in the day, when kids had to walk
two miles to school, uphill and in the snow (and we LIKED it!), I
did almost everything in DOS. Even when Windows 3.11 came out,
there was still a lot that had to be done in DOS. Later came
Windows 9X and 2k/XP, but real power still lies at the command
prompt. You can automate any number of tasks with a simple batch
file. Horst 3.1 is a set of 32 small programs that are geared
towards DOS batch file enhancement. I could write a whole issue
highlighting all 32 of these programs, but for the sake of space,
I'll highlight just one for now. Choix is a CHOICE clone with one
major difference: mouse support. Also, a banner will let you
display an ANSI message across your monitor until you press a key
to stop it. There are just too many good programs to choose from
in this set of utilities! If you do still do any work with DOS
batch files, hurry over the Web address above, and get your copy
of Horst 3.1. NOTE: A few of these programs will not function in
Windows 2k.


                  WebDEV
 
SEPopular                           W9x/2k/XP                      FREE
 http://www.monocle-solutions.com/sepopular/sepopular.shtml
Search engines (such as Google) rank your site
by determining how many people link to your site (the more people
who link to your site, the better your ranking). With this
investigative tool, you can see how many links to your website
there are (from the perspective of five major search engines). You
don't just have to check out your own website, though... all you
have to do is enter the URL of a website, and out comes the TRUTH
about its popularity. Another nice feature of this software is
that you can import web addresses from a .txt file so that you
don't have to enter each one individually.



                USEFUL SITES
 
An amazing personal site of links relating to cosmology.
Amazing number and range of links on
almost *all* topics that this person has assembled!
 Visit http://www.jimloy.com
         http://www.jimloy.com/physics/physics.htm
          http://www.jimloy.com/astro/astro.htm

Wikipedia Encyclopedia
 http://www.wikipedia.com/
A  free, and very thorough online encycloped

Firewall Leak Tests
a head-to-head leak tests of 13 firewalls at http://www.pcflank.com/art21.htm ,
These tests show that while no firewall can stop every kind of leak
 In fact, some well-known firewalls fail even the simplest kinds
of leak tests. Don't be unduly alarmed by the fact that none of the firewalls
passed all the leak tests. No security tool is 100% secure, or ever can
be.  But if you use a multi-layer defense you'll have high level security.
With such a plan, your system will be very, *very* hard to get into, and that's
exactly what you want.

 



              UTILITIES/FIXES

     MOVING THE IMPOSSIBLE;                                 FREE
http://www.gibinsoft.net/gipoutils/rightview.htm 
Ever have a hard time deleting a file? Had to boot to DOS or
Safe Mode to get rid of it because Windows says "it's being
used"? It's happened to me.
HERE is a neat little utility that gives a right
click option to delete, move or copy file/s on the next boot.
I've just tried it and it does work.
 
Roxio makes CD drive go 'POOF'.
It seems that, if you had recently uninstalled a copy of roxio's cd creator
in Win , that registry settings from that program are left behind in the
registry, and renders your cd-rom/and or burner un-usable.
A fix for this problem is available in this bulletin
http://support.microsoft.com/search/preview.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314060
-AND-
Another easy solution can be found in this article
http://aumha.org/a/xpcd.htm  which leads to a link for a
registry patch called cdgone.zip. Worked for me, and useful to
keep if you uninstall any burning software and find your
drives missing again. The rest of the site is pretty useful too.

 Disk Investigator             W9x/2k/XP                   FREE
 http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/dskinv.html
Restore deleted files; Disk Investigator can view deleted files
or directories, and restore them if necessary.  no longer have to
wonder if I fully deleted a troublesome file... just load up
Disk Investigator, and I'll know if the file is gone100%!


An Install/Reinstall Tip

     If it's a reformat/ reinstall. Identify all the hardware on
     your system and copy the INF files for each piece of hardware
     to a floppy disk. While many bits are generic windows
     supported, many others have their own unique setups. Ever have
     windows "Not" find your modem? The idea is to collect all the
     actual setup files, either from the INF folder itself, the
     windows\inf\other folder, or locate them on the floppy or CD
     from the manufacturer. If you are not certain which ones to
     copy from the floppy of CD, copy them all to a properly
     formatted floppy disk.

     Then do your format and reinstall with this little twist. When
     you get to the "Setup needs to restart. Remove all Floppies."
     Leave the boot disk in and restart. When you get to the dos
     prompt switch to the A:\ prompt and type copy *.*
     C:\windows\inf where C is the letter of the drive you installed
     windows. When done remove the floppy and restart so that setup
     will resume.

     The twist is that now widows has the setup files for the actual
     hardware installed on that system, (including the modem ;~) and
     when it looks for the hardware can identify it all and use the
     manufacturer's setup. You may be asked for the CD's with
     drivers on it and you get a really solid and trouble free
     install with this method.

     Plus you do not get countless entries in the registry for
     hardware installs that were not correct.(0000. 0001, 0002 etc.)
     For a new system that you may have built or rebuilt you can use
     the same technique, you just need access to the original setup
     disks for the "newest" hardware that you have installed. This
     works especially well on a new system with the latest and
     greatest hardware and can save literally hours of hardware
     troubleshooting.

 Recovering Lost Image Files                            FREE
http://home.arcor.de/christian_grau/dir/index.html
"Digital Image Recovery is a data recovery tool for digital images.
The program is designed for media used by digital cameras.
Common media types are: Flash Card, SmartMedia, SONY
Memory Stick, IBM Micro Drive, Multimedia Card,
Secure Digital Card and Compact disc."

ISOBuster                      W9x/2k/XP                   FREE
http://www.smart-projects.net/isobuster/
{Recover data from CD} Sometimes CDs just don't read properly.
It may be an error in the creation of the CD, or a defect in the
CD itself; This app tries to work around those defects. Whether it
is a buffer underrun or a scratch, there is a good chance you can
recover that CD data with ISOBuster. For all the people who work
in Information Technology (IT), ISOBuster can also interpret files
in DAO, TAO, ISO, BIN, IMG, CIF, FCD, NRG, GCD, P01, C2D, CUE,
CIF, CD, and GI format, making it easier to copy that data to your
machine and recreate a CD that is compatible for your users.

How to Troubleshoot Issues with Reading CDs                       FREE
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q321641
"This article describes how you can
troubleshoot issues reading CD-ROM or DVD-ROM optical discs. This
article also discusses how to troubleshoot common issues with CD-R
and CD-RW devices. The steps in this article apply to compact disc
(CD-ROM) drives, compact disc recordable (CD-R) drives, compact
disc re-writable (CD-RW) drives, and digital video disc (DVD)
drives." Try this before calling for help

Help my IE attracts viri like a porch light attracts moths.
If you want better control over your surfing experience, I suggest
that you stop using Internet Explorer and start using Mozilla.
It's a solid alternative, it costs just as much (FREE), and it works
across platforms. AND you can get a free skin to make it look just like IE
only without all the bugs.  BUT: If you'd rather stick with Microsoft's IE,
click Tools | Internet Options | Security | Custom Level. Here is
how I suggest setting each option; your mileage may vary: Download
signed ActiveX controls: Prompt; Download unsigned ActiveX
controls: Disable; Initialize and script ActiveX controls not
marked as safe: Disable; Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins:
Enable; Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting: Enable;
Downloads: Enable; Font download: Enable (set to Disable if you're
paranoid); Java Permissions: High safety; Access data sources
across domains: Disable; Allow META REFRESH: Enable (set to
Disable if you're paranoid); Display mixed content: Enable (Prompt
if paranoid); Don't prompt for client certificate selection when
no certificates or only one certificate exists: Disable; Drag and
drop or copy and paste files: Enable (Prompt if paranoid);
Installation of desktop items: Prompt; Launching programs and
files in an IFRAME: Prompt; Navigate sub-frames across different
domains: Prompt; Software channel permissions: Medium safety;
Submit non-encrypted form data: Enable (Prompt if paranoid);
Userdata persistence: Enable (may be set to Disable if you're
paranoid); Active scripting: Enable (Prompt if paranoid); Allow
paste operations via script: Enable (Prompt if paranoid);
Scripting of Java applets: Enable (Prompt if paranoid); Logon:
Automatic logon only in Intranet zone (Prompt if paranoid).

Medusa                 W9x/2k/XP                     FREE
http://www.candego.com/product.shtml
A lifesaver when it comes to dealing with
poorly designed Web sites. You know, the type where you can't find
any of the downloads and everything is strewn all over the place.
With Medusa, you don't even have to go to the Web site to look for
files and download them. Just plug in the address and tell Medusa
what to look for, and she'll find the files, displaying them in a
nice thumbnail view. From there, you can either click on the file
to download it, or drag the file from the main window and drop it
wherever you'd like to save it on your hard drive.



           Patches, We Got Patches...

GOT BAD BIOS?
If any of you have a  BIOS chip problem send them to http://www.badflash.com .
They give great service and in a timely fashion.
Just e-mail them what type you have and a link to the file
download of the particular BIOS file you need and he will send
you a chip pre-programmed and ready to install. His prices are
very reasonable.

New Free ZoneAlarm
On Tuesday, Zone Labs released ZoneAlarm 3.1. If you're a ZoneAlarm
user, you should soon get an update notice (the notifications are staggered over time to prevent
everyone from trying to download the new code at once.) You also can grab the code manually
by going to http://www.zonelabs.com . Updated Cumulative Patch for Windows Media Player
Microsoft says: Who should read this [item]: Customers using Microsoft Windows Media Player
6.4, 7.1 or Windows Media Player for Windows XP [Home and Professional]. Impact of
vulnerability: Three vulnerabilities, first reported on June 26 2002, the most serious of which
could be used to run code of attacker's choice. Maximum Severity Rating: Critical Recommendation:
Customers running affected products should apply the patch immediately. Customers who are still
running Windows Media Player 7.0 should upgrade to Windows Media Player 7.1 first and then
apply the patch immediately. Affected Software: Microsoft Windows Media Player 6.4 Microsoft
Win Media Player 7.1 Microsoft Win Media Player for Win XP For more info and fixes, see either; http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q320920& or http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS02-032.asp


 
 

          SHORTCUTS - TWEAKS  

The script adds "Copy To" and "Move
To" to the right-click context menu of all files and folders.
You can try it out by going to
http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/ScriptRepository/



          JUST FOR FUN
 
FONTFILE                                              FREE
http://www.fontfile.com/
Tons of free font

Xanthic Graphics                                         FREE
http://www.xanthic.net/
Xanthic throws this rule to the wind by offering in-depth
tutorials for both Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. Maybe now, I can
become the mouse-twirling graphics guru that I have always dreamed
of being!

Web Album Generator               W9x/2k/XP            FREE
http://www.ornj.net/software/webalbum/
Have a fully functional Web album in minutes. All you have to do is open a
new album, click the "Add New Photograph" button and navigate to
your image files (JPG/JPEG format).
Once you have added an image to your album, you can add a title and
caption to explain your photograph. After that, all you must do is
to open the File menu and choose "Generate Album." From there you
can upload to your Web page. For the more advanced Web designer, Web Album
creates its Web album to fully conform to the XHTML 1.0 strict and CSS 2.0

PowerOff                            W9x/2k/XP                 FREE
http://users.pandora.be/jbosman/applications.html
You don't want to leave your computer because you want to shut down
your machine when the install/download is done; just schedule
your computer to shut down after the install finishes. Along with
the shutdown feature, PowerOff can also reboot, log off, power
off, or lock your workstation. Network configurations too.tandard

NetOpener                          W9x/2k                  FREE
http://www.code.gr/netopener/
"NetOpener allow[s] you to save up to 20 site URLs and open it all
together in your default browser with just one click."
Simple to use, with big "Add" and "Remove" buttons for sites.
When you are ready to open all your favorite sites, just click the
"Open Sites" button! A check box beside each URL to uncheck any Web
sites you don't want to see.

SToIK Video Converter                  W9x/2k/XP              FREE
http://www.stoik.com/products/morphman/mm30_svc.htm
"STOIK Video Converter converts AVI and Windows Media Video files. You
can use it to change [the] fps, frame size, compression codec of
[a] video stream, sampling depth, frequency, and [the] number of
channels of [an] audio stream."


           For PROPHEADS & UBERGEEKS
 
Convert .Bat to .Com
 It quickly converts a batch file into a .com file. Very good to hide or
     compress the big batch files.
     http://nlsn.free.fr/batch-down/Bat2Exe.ZIP
 .com format makes them execute faster, and also
hides the actual contents of the batch file from prying eyes, should you
have that need. On the other hand, leaving batch files as plain text
makes them easier to understand, modify and debug. But it's good to know
about the .com option, and have it available if you need it. See also
http://www.computing.net/dos/wwwboard/forum/9854.html .

Code Genie                           W9x/2k/XP                        FREE
http://www.code-genie.com/
With Code Genie, you can edit HTML, or Perl and PHP, Java,
JavaScript, VBScript, C++, CSS, Pascal, binary files, and Asm files.
Code Genie comes loaded with syntax highlighting, auto-complete,
file comparison, color-selector and color printing, just to name a few.

Command Prompt Explorer Bar                      W9x/2k/XP                FREE
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/CommandBar.asp
{Explorer FIX} How many times have you tried to run a DOS batch file
or some sort of script (whether VB or Java), only to have a black screen
pop up and then suddenly disappear, leaving nothing?
With a quick press of CTRL+M,you can have a command window that is nested
inside you're Explorer window. And the command prompt is already
"navigated" to the window you opened it in. For example: If I hit
CTRL+M when my current directory is the Desktop, then the command
prompt window opens to C:\Windows\Desktop. Command Prompt Explorer
Bar also has a built-in script button. Make sure you have both Windows
Installer version 2 and .Net framework installed, both of which
you can find on Microsoft's Web site.

Enable Dual Boot After You Install ME on a W2k-based PC
 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q293401
"This article describes how to enable a dual boot configuration on
a Microsoft Windows 2000-based computer on which you have
installed Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me). When you
install Windows ME on a Windows 2000-based computer, the W2k boot
menu may not appear. To enable a dual-boot configuration, repair
the Windows 2000 installation. To do this, follow these steps:
Start Windows 2000 Setup. On the Welcome to Setup page, press R.
On the Windows 2000 Repair Options page, press R. When you are
prompted to Select one of the following repair options, press M.
Press the UP ARROW twice to select Verify Windows 2000 system
files , and then press ENTER to clear the selection. Press the
DOWN ARROW to select Continue (perform selected tasks), and then
press ENTER."

TightVNC                    W9x/2k/XP                           FREE
 http://www.tightvnc.com/
"VNC (an abbreviation for Virtual Network Computing) is a great
client / server software package allowing remote network access to
graphical desktops. With VNC, you may allow yourself to access
your machine from everywhere provided that your machine is
connected to the Internet. VNC is free (released under the GNU
General Public License) and it's available on most platforms. The
original VNC distribution can be obtained at the AT&T research
labs site. Here you can find enhanced version of VNC, called
TightVNC (grown from the VNC Tight Encoder project), which is
optimized to work over slow network connections such as low-speed
modem links. While original VNC may be very slow when your
connection is not fast enough, with TightVNC you can work remotely
almost in real time in most environments. Besides bandwidth
optimizations, TightVNC also includes many other improvements,
optimizations and bug fixes over VNC."



           XP,  2000, and/or IE only
Use Netscape email and bookmarks and you'll never wanna go back to IE
       Yes OK, Stop the pain of IE-OE (It even sounds like pai

Benchmarking Windows XP
To properly benchmark your Windows XP system, there are a few steps you should follow.
The step with which we are concerned in this particular tip is letting your PC process any "idle tasks."
Idle tasks are tasks that your PC executes when it deems the system to be unused or idle.
Some of these include file placement optimization, system restore, and done-once-after-setup work items.
"All of these 'idle tasks' are controllable by a system API in advapi32.dll, ProcessIdleTasks.
The API's sole purpose is to allow benchmarks a simple way to force any pending idle tasks to
be executed immediately, without having to wait a lengthy period of time. To call ProcessIdleTasks
from the command line, use this syntax: Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks." Once running,
it may take up to around 15 minutes to process all of the idle tasks, and your hard drive will be active
through most of it. For more steps on preparing your Windows XP machine for benchmarking, head
over to the Windows Platform Development page on Benchmarking for Windows XP on Microsoft's site.


DriverManager                                2k/XP           FREE
 http://www.l5sg.com/DriverManager.html
  If you're running on NT, 2000, or XP
and need to know what drivers you have running on your system,
this program can show you. You can also change or get rid of certain drivers.
  "DriverManager is a tool designed to allow System
Administrators, Power Users and Driver Developers an easy means to
view, modify or remove drivers and their information."

TC 3D File manager            W9x/2k/XP            FREE
 http://www.geocities.com/udodenko/moretc.html
"TC is based on OpenGL. It was made to simplify all file
operations. If you are bored by the Windows file manager or flat
text file managers, try it. Instead of Drag & Drop, TC provides
new Pick & Put - you just can pick files into group and copy
(move, delete) that group to a folder. You may also collect files
/ folders from different folders into one group. TC supports three
groups simultaneously. TC shows files in usual way, so you don't
need to learn how to fly in 3D space or solve balistical equations
to reach a file. TC was made to simplify navigation on disks. It
keeps access statistics, so files you access frequently are shown
first. Using pre-defined filters, you may (with one click) watch
only executable, graphic, sound files or documents. For me, one of
most unpleasant things in file managers is scrolling. In TC, you
may scroll only by placing your cursor on the leftmost or
rightmost column to scroll. TC supports standard Windows Drag &
Drop and Shell Context Menus."