From Mitch -- Mon Feb 11 2002

HOMESCHOOLERS NOTE:  Pay special attention to GREEN titles

               USEFUL  APPS
 

 ViewMol3D              W9x            FREE
 http://redandr.tripod.com/vm3/vm.zip
 http://redandr.tripod.com/vm3/
Make "visualization of molecules models from chemistry
calculations?"  "The 3D graphical system renders molecules
as sticks, ball-and-sticks and CPK models. ViewMol3D can
draw molecules models from output of several quantum
chemistry programs."

Orbiter Sim            W9x/2k/XP            FREE
 http://orbit.m6.net/orbiter020114_base.zip
 http://www.orbitersim.com/
 This is a space flight simulator, not a silly  video game.
"ORBITER is a realistic space simulation using proper
physics for the modeling of planetary motion, gravitational
fields, free space and atmospheric flight, etc. At the start of
the program, you are inside a spacecraft located on a launch
pad at Habana International Spaceport."  Everything is included:
vessel modules, rocket separation, opening cargo doors, solar panels...
the whole Space Shuttle.
 

 Unofficial DR-DOS Resource http://www.drdos.org/
"Many people think that it is like MS-DOS, which had no features
and wasn't very user friendly. There are a lot of DOSes (Disk
Operation Systems). All of them are compatible with MS-DOS, but
have much more features like pre-emptive multitasking, 32-bit
protected mode, etc. DR-DOS is one of those DOSes! The goal of our
Club is to bring DR-DOS under the GNU GPL license (open source) so
that FreeDOS can profit from its features. It is much more
difficult to understand than a GUI operating system like Windows,
but it is much smaller and easier than Linux - and ideal for
embedded systems and old desktops. You can also use it as an MP3 /
OGG and Video (CD, DVD) player or for surfing across the
Internet."

 Wild ID          http://www.wildid.com/                    FREE
{Encrypt your messages} Anyone can intercept and read your
 emails. A digital ID allows you to encrypt  e-mail.
"Can I have multiple IDs to support my multi-faceted
online persona? YES

PureMail                  W9x/2k/XP                  FREE
 http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/2098/pmail30b.zip
 http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/2098/PureMail.htm
Hate unsolicited e-mail?
This utility only allows messages that have a specific
password in the subject through to you. Everything else gets
deleted.  "Heuristics do not work well against all junk e-
mailers because spammers can easily change the grammar in the
email or forge the headers. This technique also requires training
the program to recognize phrases, thus requiring user
intervention. This technique has a hit-and-miss approach to
defeating junk email, and it lacks user authentication. PureMail
is transparent, and guarantees legitimate email from legitimate
users."

Wizmo ?      Win all      http://grc.com/wizmo/wizmo.htm
Steve Gibson's the bigtime PC security expert has given us all new...tool
It is quite a departure but you must see this to believe it besides
there is just way to many features to even list their names.
    -- useful as well as fun.  ---
 

RTF2HLP       http://www.ariacom.com/rtf2hlp/   FREE
Create Your Own Help Files
          RTF2HLP is a freeware tool that converts directly a
          Microsoft Word RTF document to a Windows Help file.
          The main advantage of RTF2HLP is that it converts
          documents without the need of any extra project
          files. Writing a help file is as simple as this
          1. Write your document using Microsoftr Word.
          2. Save it to RTF.
          3. Compile it to HLP using RTF2HLP.

 Encrypted File Transfer Protocol  http://www.eftp.org
     ...This is a great program, for anyone who wants
     to send encrypted information, (encrypted file transfer
     protocol).

FileAlert  http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Reviews/r327.html
Monitor changes on your hard drive;  Do you download and install lots
of new, fancy-looking and (supposedly) useful software? Do you know
how many files are left after you install lousy applications? Or do you
suspect someone of fooling around with your files while you're away from
your computer? And what about the spyware? FileAlert will make a make
lists of all files before and after the install and compile a list of the new ones.
So you can easily correct everything that got mess up.

EasyRGB     http://www.easyrgb.com/             FREE
 EasyRGB provides a way to match RGB values on
your screen to similar colors, search for color complements to
create harmonies, and convert color data. "The purpose of
this site is to give users practical suggestions about real life
colors matching computer generated RGBs. Every day architects,
graphic designers, painters, everybody using home improvement
software, generate new colors on their computers. As long as they
do not need to translate their colors in real products, RGB values
are OK."
 

                COLLECTIONS
       (FREE stuff from generous programers)

STEVE GIBSONs  PROGGIES  http://grc.com/freepopular.htm
If you are on a broadband connection you had better go
here  https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 and get a free safty check up..
there is none better!

Freeware Designed by Bosko Andjelkovic
 http://home.planet.nl/~andje000/download/freeware.html
"With TC, you can hide (Systray) items by unchecking them in the
list, and show them by checking them in the list. You can also use
a custom bitmap as a Start Button, or you can simply change the
Windows Start Button bitmap. Finally, full control over your
taskbar! Cool Notes is a small notepad which lets you type small
notes while you are doing something else (like playing a game).
Cool Notes sits in your Systray and supports skins! [AutoClick is]
a program which will automatically click at the current cursor
position at user selected intervals. You can choose from the left
or right mouse button - and choose to only click when the mouse
moves over the Start button. With Sound Events Creator, you can
now create sound events for all EXE files. A sound event is an
event that makes Windows play a WAV file."
 
 

                USEFUL SITES

FEED THE POOR--NOW! http://www.thehungersite.com/
All you do is click on one button and the corporate sponsors pay for
a  meal for some poor soul!  Come on save the link.
Put a shortcut on your desktop! Then it's just 2 clicks to feed some child!
Help      Another page that might be of interest is
     http://www.weaverlane.com/tech/windows.html

 The Web Host Industry Review   http://www.thewhir.com/
 "Our Web host consumer section is one of the
Internet's largest repositories of in-depth Web hosting
information. This section features Web hosts offering virtual,
dedicated, managed and co-located Web hosting plans, and also
offers numerous helpful articles to assist you in choosing the Web
host that's right for you."
 

Quick Topic               http://www.quicktopic.com/         FREE
Instant discussion groups "Upload any HTML document (Microsoft
Word documents too) and Quick Topic's collaborative document
review service gives you an instant private space for your
reviewers to comment on it."
 

              UTILITIES/FIXES
 

Disable SuperCookie Tracking for all Windows PCs         FREE
 http://home.kscable.com/wecoyote/NoSuperCookies.inf
 http://home.kscable.com/wecoyote/
"If you haven't heard, there is a unique identifier that Windows
Media Player assigns to every user that you can optionally disable
within Windows Media's settings. However, even with the Media
Player not reporting this ID, IE leaves this ID open to the world
via the wonderful world of ActiveX, creating an ID that is just
custom for you! This new privacy hole is called a SuperCookie. So,
here's a simple install file called NoSuperCookies.inf that can
be installed on all versions of Windows to Zero out this value to
make you non-identifiable. Maybe someday, Microsoft will fix this
privacy problem. But at this point, they have known about it for
about a year and have not addressed it via ActiveX."
 

 Cryptext           W9x/2k/XP                FREE
 http://www.tip.net.au/~njpayne/cryptext.exe
 http://www.pcug.org.au/~njpayne/
Encryption -Windows shell extension prog.
No two files encrypted with the same keystream.
Encryption and decryption is as easy as right-clicking on a file.
"Each block is read, encrypted, and then written back to disk, so
that when the encryption of the file is complete, the original
file has been completely overwritten by the encrypted version."

Don't Knock Off Your Roomie           W9x/2k/XP           FREE
 http://www.geocities.com/readerspal/dontknock10.zip
 http://www.geocities.com/readerspal/dontknockoffyourroomie.html
If your  connected  on a dial-up connection  it is easy to knock someone
else off. This application will let you know if someone else is online by
connecting to the server and displaying a message.  "Other info
can be gleaned about the computer the server resides on such as if
it's printing or the temperature if it has Motherboard Monitor
installed or anything else the system tray might show."
 

           Patches, We Got Patches...
 

Qfecheck.exe Verifies the Installation of Windows HotfixesFREE
 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q282784
"This tool helps customers who thought they had properly installed
an update, but had not, and are now experiencing a problem.
Previously, it was somewhat difficult to identify which fixes were
installed on a computer. This simple tool easily enumerates all of
the installed fixes by Microsoft Knowledge Base article number.
Customers can then confirm that they have installed the
appropriate set of fixes before using a valuable support incident
and potentially experiencing unplanned down time. Many companies
identify a common set of fixes that are required for all servers
in a given data center. To help ensure that Windows 2000 and
Windows XP hotfixes are applied in a consistent manner across many
servers, this tool allows you to create logs for each computer in
your organization that show which fixes are installed. Once those
logs are created, you can easily scan them for consistency."
 

KILL THOSE  "SMART TAGS"
 you can disable Smart Tags for your site by
 inserting the following line between <head> and </head> in the html:

     <META NAME="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="TRUE">
 

          SHORTCUTS - TWEAKS
 

Microsoft Word tips.
A non-breaking space.
A line wraps in an inappropriate spot.
You need to put a space between two words on the same line.
A non-breaking space.
Hold down CTRL + SHIFT when you tap the space bar.
These words will never be split apart.

Need to alphabetize a list?
 I'd suggest pasting them into a new document before
invoking the command, however. Click Table | Sort | Paragraphs |
Text | Ascending (or Descending, depending on the desired result).
If there are secondary conditions to be met, then you'll need to
select "Field 1" in the first Sort by option. See, there are
features in this thing that you need every so often (though you
may not realize they're already there).

IE thumbnails
Why do Internet Explorer's Favorites suck? Lost on me.
Well you'll never make tthem as handy as Netscapes but
you can do this......Simply double-click one of your Favorites
folders (in IE's Favorites menu).  Now, select "Thumbnail" as the
folder's View style. If this is not an option, you may need to
enable it for that particular folder (right click- Properties).
Now you get a teeny image of the page in question.
This is a quick way to scout for 404s, too.
Those with faster Internet connections will display thumbnails
quicker. Each of them should be cached for future viewing.
 

                 JUST FOR FUN

IncrediMail   http://www.incredimail.com/english/index.html     FREE
Have you ever found that the common task of sending and receiving emails is dull,
redundant and tedious? Wanted to send emails that look livelier than standard emails?
Would you like to add some thrill and experience to your email, a message that
goes beyond text?  The reciever does not need the program to get the full effects.
Welcome to IncrediMail. Email has finally evolved!  (See their demo)

Little Fighter II         W9x/2k/XP           FREE
 http://ihome.cuhk.edu.hk/~s000182/v16/lf2_v16.exe
 http://www.littlefighter.com/
{You want to fight?} This game is  a throw back to the
days of Street Fighter and Double Dragon.
Kick, thrust, dodge, block! Each character has its own special
attack, too. You can play in the arcade mode or set up a random
game that cycles through all the players and automatically picks a
winner.  "LF2 is not finished yet. New special moves are being
added in the new version."

Shoot It!              http://www.shoot-it.org/                   FREE
Upload any picture (under 100k) and blast a holes in it.
It's all in fun.

                              SPECIAL FEATURE:
Still having NAPSTER withdrawls?
AudioFile is proud to present its at-a-glance Napster clone chart.
For a link to each clone's site, click on the full review.
Files found refers to a specific artists files that were looked for
on each of the sites to make the comparison fair.
Rating is from top (best) to bottom; ( **** = 4 stars)


           Just for PROPHEADS
 

 InetServ                      W9x/2k/XP                       FREE
 http://216.194.80.68/avtronics/files/inetserv323.exe
 http://www.avtronics.net/
"Inetserv is a freeware Windows 9x/NT email server. It is a fully
functional POP3 server with limited SMTP abilities. It includes
SMTP, POP3, DAYTIME, FINGER, WHOIS, a telnet Interface and a
webmail (browser) interface among it's services. The webmail
interface at this time is read only. Latest release of Inetserv is
3.23 to correct a buffer overrun DOS. The installer for Inetserv
has been updated to allow for all Windows operating systems
including Windows XP. The Inetserv help files have been removed
from the website and changed into a downloadable format. Full
source code is available on the site free of charge. We welcome
all additions to the source code and hope that you will submit any
changes that you think would benefit the program."

 BoguStub                W9x/2k/XP            FREE
 http://www.bogusystem.com/files/bs_setup.exe
 http://www.bogusystem.com/bogustuff.html
Can't  find the original receipt ?  Well you
can create a new receipt with this program. It's easy.
Enter all the usual receipt info into each (appropriate) field,
and there you have it. Just make sure you don't use it for the
wrong reasons. "The IRS is aware of this product, so use it very
cautiously. BoguSystem.com specializes in making software no one
in their right mind would ever dare to write."
 

           XP,  2000, and/or IE only
Use Netscapes email and bookmarks for 2 weeks; you'll never go back to IE.

The Universal Serial Bus trouble?
Disable the feature in your BIOS if you're having problems
(as documented in MSKB Q282195).

Retrieve the local admin password for Windows 2000 Pro?
Sure, it's hard. It can be done, as is explained in some depth here:
http://www.ntsecurity.net/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=9527

WPA Lockout Workarounds
Any form of "XP" software---
Windows XP, Office XP, Word 2002, Excel 2002, FrontPage 2002, etc.has
Windows Product Activation (WPA): It's a mandatory
product registration that requires you to communicate with Microsoft by
web or phone to receive a unique 50-digit product identifier that locks
your software to the specific hardware setup it's installed on.
 http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020117S0002
Windows XP's 'Product Activation A Privacy Risk?
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20010816S0015
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20010831S0009
Remedies and workarounds
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020117S0002
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020131S0005
http://www.informationweek.com/forum/fredlanga .
 

XP/Win2K Bug, And Solution
Problem:  Error 1311 when trying to install from a CD
     (cab file not found). Searched in vain for a way to
     reinstall windows installer (someone suggested to unregister
     and reregister msi.dll -?).
   Ran the System file checker (SFC) using the command
     sfc /scannow from the run command.
     Second bug found: Windows asked for the Windows professional cd -
     even though it was in the drive! A search of google
     newsgroups and found two things:

     a. If you press retry when the sfc error message pops up you
     can continue the procedure. You will need to press retry many
     times during the procedure and windows will ask for different
     cd's during the process - including Whistler professional
     You should try running sfc to see if you have that bug.

     b. An MS KB article for that problem in Win 2000 Prompted for
     CD-ROM When You Run System File Checker While Correct CD-ROM
     Is in Drive
     http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q263499
     which explains that " This issue can occur if the
     computer security policy is set to allocate the CD-ROM only to
     the local logged-on user. However, Windows File Protection is
     controlled by the Winlogon process; when that policy is in in
     effect, Winlogon cannot use the CD-ROM and that prevents the
     System File Checker from completing successfully."

     The solution is to disable Restrict CD-ROM access to locally
     logged-on user only policy in Group policy mmc, and reboot.
     Will cause no change in sfc behavior . HOWEVER, it will
     clear  windows installer problem