PCUGR Shareware SIG
- September 30, 2000
Rawls
Frazier, Facilitator
rfrazier
Eight of us got together at RE/MAX this month. First off, we
reviewed some items from last month we never had time to get
to and then continued with more.
IconPro
This
program is a demonstration utility evidently put together by
Microsoftie, John Hornick. With it you can explore the
details of Windows icons and how to program them. You can load icons contained inside icon files,
extract icons from DLLs and EXEs, or create an
"empty" icon holder. Then you can remove icons or
add new ones of various bit sizes and/or color depths, either
by copy/pasting a graphic or importing a bitmap. Included
with the utility is complete C source code.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/techart/msdn_icons.htm
Snooper, The
System Checker
Snooper is a DOS program that displays system information:
CPU type and speed, IRQs, disk statistics, CMOS information,
etc. The program runs fine inside a DOS box under Windows and
one of its features is a nice benchmark screen, rating the
CPU, video and disk speeds. Originally shareware, the author
is no longer taking sales (or providing support). In fact, if
someone is interested in taking over this program, he's
interested in talking to you!
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jvias/
CD Check
This little freeware utility is handy for people with CD
burners. First off, it will check the CD to verify that the
data on it can be read without errors. The other key function
is a bit-by-bit comparison of files copied to the CD versus the
originals. The utility sports an Explorer like interface,
making it easy to select specific folders or files to check
as well as the whole CD.
http://Fusion.zejn.si
Next, as a
bit of a theme, we took a look at some of the freeware
offerings from Database By Design.
http://databasebydesign.com/freebies.shtml
CD Run
This is a simple, little CD player that comes with a set of
skins to change its look. It has nice setup screens,
accessible from a button on the player, controlling how the
player functions, whether to be the default player when a CD
is inserted (easily reversible, too!), which skins to use and
what to show on the track list.
dbd-Tiny Calc
A truly tiny four function calculator with some silly sound
effects. Just pop it up, bang out the calculation and put it
away. Or, shove it to a corner of the screen. It's so small,
it won't be in the way.
Database By
Design had a slew of freebie screensavers. We took a look at
a couple - dbd-YMCA (cute and, yes, it plays the
music), dbd-DiagnosticScreen (your machine looks busy running
some complicated diagnostic - maybe your neighbor will keep
their hands off) and dbd-Warning (looks like your machine is
having a serious problem - is someone thinking about pulling
a prank with this one?). Others available, but not looked at
were dbd-Island, dbd-Christmas, dbd-Halloween, and dbd-Taz.
The Database
By Design folks also had some amusing stand alone programs as
well. The one we looked at was dbd-Crusin', which displayed
the interior of a car. By exploring with the mouse (a click
here; a click there), one can manipulate windows, the radio
(5 tunes!), the gas and brakes - a fun little time waster.
That was
enough for Database By Design, and, getting a little serious
again, we looked at some utilities to control Windows.
Resman
Resman is a free program that integrates a resource monitor, a
process manager and a memory recovery application into one
tiny (118.5K) utility that runs in the system tray. The
process manager shows what is currently running and, like the
Windows task manager, can be used to kill a process. (Our
thanks to Steve for sharing this one.)
http://www.entechtaiwan.com/
Appman
Complementing Resman, Appman is primarily an enhanced task
manager for Win9x that functions like the task manager in NT.
The list of running programs can be separated into
"visible" and "hidden" groups. A handy
feature is that programs that start automatically with
Windows via the registry can be removed or added back easily
with a simple dialog.
http://users.cybercity.dk/~bcc22142/programs.htm
Msconfig
While we were on the subject, we also demonstrated Msconfig.
This utility comes with Windows 98 and is most useful
because, with it, it is easy to see what programs start
automatically with Windows and to selectively disable or
re-enable such behavior for any of the programs listed.
Switching
gears, we next turned to the Internet to look at some
interesting web sites.
First up was
the Golem Project, an amazing artificial life project under
way at Brandeis University. The Golem Project is about
automatic design and manufacture of robotic "life
forms". A computer program has been developed that,
using Darwinian type selection processes along with
"mutations", designs simple robots consisting of
rods, linear motors and a simple neural net
"brain". The purpose of these electromechanical
robots is to move themselves across a plain surface (e.g., a
floor). The computer design program tries many combinations
of parts, assessing how well it moves and then keeping the
more "fit" design to evolve a robot. When a
suitable robot has been found, the program can then drive an
automatic prototyping machine to create an actual example of
the design. Most amazing, almost all this is done without any
human intervention (people are needed to insert the electric
motors into the plastic robots made by the prototyping
machine). The web site has mpeg files of both the computer
designs in operation as well as the physical counterparts. Not
only that, each of us can also participate in the experiment
by either running a screensaver that the Golem Project
periodically connects via the Internet to fetch the current
design (security is addressed) or by operating a stand alone
program called "Live Truss" and submitting your
creation separately. And you own the copyright to any robot
you create. A most intriguing project.
The
Golem Project:
http://demo.cs.brandeis.edu/golem
We next took
a look at web sites with the theme, "kid sites that
adults can use too".
For
a nice tutorial on search engines, look at:
http://www.cbc4kids.ca/general/whats-new/homework-helper/
For
a little science:
http://www.k12science.org/
http://www.k12science.org/askanexpert.html
To
find out how things work:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/
And
some great dictionary sites:
http://www.wordcentral.com/
http://www.funkandwagnalls.com/
http://onelook.com/
Test
how fast your connection is to the Internet (great
for DSL/cable modem users). Just go to the page and the
benchmark will run automatically:
http://www.computingcentral.com/topics/bandwidth/speedtest.asp
Find
out the real skinny on urban myths and other scams:
http://www.urbanmyths.com/
http://www.scambusters.org/
Interested
in a little art? Check out this great site dedicated to van
Gogh:
http://www.vangoghgallery.com/index.html
Signature
bylines. Here's a place to find all sorts of great
tag lines to put in your emails. For example, "When
you're swimming in the creek and an eel bites your cheek,
that's a moray!".
http://www.coolsig.com/
Learn
to dance! Go to this site by Sony, complete with
movies to demo the steps. Watch out, Arthur Murray!
http://www.spe.sony.com/movies/dancewithme/
Celebrate
the 10 year anniversary of the Hubble Telescope. See
nebula, galaxies, gravitational lenses and more! Plenty of
fabulous pictures and mpeg or Quicktime movies.
http://hubble.stsci.edu/
Last up, we
took a look at yet another way those snoops on the internet
can follow you around, watching where you go and what you
click on - web bugs. We looked at the HTML
source for a couple of pages that contain these critters and
talked about how to identify them (look for images where the
width and height attributes are only 1 pixel in size).
With that,
we wrapped things up. Thanks again to Bernie Stepan and
RE/MAX Marina in Petaluma for the meeting space and the
connection to the Internet. Next month we will meet at the
Bank of the West, Petaluma Blvd South and C Street, Petaluma.
