Neat Net Tricks Issue # 72
February 15, 2000
Reply-To: NNT@silver.lyris.net

IN THIS ISSUE:

01.  Reader survey
02.  Dependency Walker
03.  Neat Net Nifty
04.  It's only a BOT
05.  So handy it's dandy
06.  Millanimations
07.  File Sniffer
08.  FTP Search
09.  NetNak
10.  The Solid State Complaint
11.  Dialectizer
12.  Readers write
13.  Somewhere in time

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01. READER SURVEY.  If you have just a few minutes to spare, we'd like
to know your opinion about Neat Net Tricks and what interests you on the
computer and the Internet.  It would greatly help in improving future 
issues.  Comments from all 57,000+ of you are very important.  Go here: 
http://www.zoomerang.com/recipient/survey-intro.zgi?ID=SACVXT21XXVG 
and thank you!!

02.  DEPENDENCY WALKER.  There's a free program worth checking out at
http://www.dependencywalker.com/ .  Dependency Walker scans any 32-bit
or 64-bit Windows module (exe, dll, ocx, sys, etc.) and builds a
hierarchical tree diagram of all dependent modules.  It may be a bit
too technical for the casual PC user (whatever THAT is), but if you're
troubleshooting your system, you'll find this one a must-have.

03.  NEAT NET NIFTY.  Old print media advertisements fascinate me.
It shows in past Neat Net Nifties awarded to fading ads of yesteryear
painted on buildings and propaganda notices used to elicit support in
our World War II efforts.  Well, I just discovered another goldmine at
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/ where 7,000 ads between 1911
and 1955 are archived.  Take a step back into history to this site
which neatly places the collection into five categories:  beauty and
hygiene, radio, television, transportation, and World War II.

Neat Net Tricks often pauses to recognize a Web site and recommend your
visit.  Set aside some time to explore the site and enjoy it.  Sites
that are predominantly non-commercial in focus are identified as
"nifty" when their all-around content, originality, interest, variety,
and graphical presentation have earned this award.  If you'd like to 
nominate a Nifty site, send the URL to mailto:jteems@NeatNetTricks.com
with a brief note telling why you think the site deserves the award.

04.  IT'S ONLY A BOT.  Something happened on an email discussion group
worth mentioning here.  Some glitch occurred to cause a message to
repeat incessantly, hundreds of times, clogging everyone's mail box.
As expected, the next onslaught of "Stop that!", "What's happening?",
and other unmentionables simply added to the onslaught, since the
automated mail software does not understand human chatter.  When I saw
my email box filling at some 150 messages per minute, I quickly set a
filter in my mail program, but that was ineffective as the repetition 
was diminished but not totally halted.  Fortunately, I remembered how
to unsubscribe from the list and that stopped the incoming mail as fast
as it started.  

The lesson here:  When you subscribe to a mail list, note your email
address at the time and the procedures necessary to remove yourself
from the list or change your address.  Keep that information handy.
Some hosting services such as Lyris, on which Neat Net Tricks is
distributed, make that information handy at the bottom of every
mailing and on a Web interface.  Others are not so kind so you need
to be prepared if calamity strikes.

05.  SO HANDY IT'S DANDY.  Learn to build, repair, decorate, and in
short, make yourself useful around the house with the tutorials at
http://www.learn2.com .  You can even learn how to properly build a 
snowman. (If you're in a warmer clime at this time, file this for 
future reference.)  Another nice site is http://www.doityourself.com ,
and I particularly like the bulletin board described as "The
Original Community Forum for Do-It-Yourselfers."

06.  MILLANIMATIONS.  With over 300 bits of animated clip art at 
http://www.millan.net/anims/giffar.html , the aspiring Web designer
is sure to find something to strike the fancy, and permission is
granted to use the material, with the caveat that it must be saved
to your own server.  Please, never succumb to the temptation to take
someone's "intellectual property" for your own use without their 
permission and, when permission is given as at this site, never link 
directly to that site in your Web page.  That's bandwidth theft.  At
the worst, this costs money, and, at the least, could cause heavy 
server load.  Play fair.

07.  FILE SNIFFER.  At http://skanade.simplenet.com/filesniffer/ is an
833kb download that will display a report of files that you have not
used for 300 days or more.  The idea is that if they are that old and
you haven't used them, you can likely clear up some hard drive space. 
But, File Sniffer warns that its report is based on the "last access 
date," which may not be realistic. Explorer has a habit of updating 
files when any operation is performed; for example, when a file's 
properties are changed.  It's appropriate here to repeat the warning, 
exercise caution when deleting files.  It's always best to move the 
file off to another folder or zip drive for awhile until you can be 
assured that your system behaves properly.  

File Sniffer is free if you will accept the unobtrusive advertising 
banners; otherwise, you can purchase the advertising-free version for
$10.

08.  FTP SEARCH.  Described as "The Ultimate Search Engine" this site 
at http://www.ftpfind.com will do an extremely fast search of FTP 
sites and can be limited to thematic searches: Linux, Windows, BeOS, 
MacOS, sound, movies, pictures, and miscellaneous.  In advanced search
mode, the user can add parameters to sort and/or limit domain, path, 
header, etc.

09.  NETNAK.  At http://www.comsoft.co.nz/index.htm you'll find a free
utility in a 728 kb download that shows Internet data rate through your
dialup connection, displayed in both text and histogram, along with a 
monitor of time on-line and a configurable alarm.  NetNak is for 
Windows 95/98 and NT 4.

10.  THE SOLID STATE COMPLAINT.  That's what Kvetch calls itself at
http://www.kvetch.com where visitors are allowed to "let it all out."
Choose your complaint topic, randomize, or chat.  Either way, you can
whine to your heart's content.

11.  DIALECTIZER.  Neat Net Tricks has featured a variation of these
before, just-for-fun applications to convert text to redneck, Elmer
Fudd, jive, and so on.  This one, at
http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/ converts a Web site by typing in the
URL, thus causing the discerning Webmaster to suffer a coronary from 
the result.

12.  READERS WRITE.  I thought we had put that "cat" issue to rest 
some months ago.  But now a reader suggests the expression "more 
than one way to skin a cat" refers to catfish.  I reminded the reader
of the theory about the "cat-o-nine-tail" (a whip) and the belief 
someone expressed, that "skinning the cat" was in fact stripping the 
flesh from the backs of victims struck with the whip, a grotesque 
picture indeed. Not so, this reader thinks; and if that were so, the 
expression  would have been "not enough room to swing a cat," since 
one would be skinning WITH the cat, and the cat itself would not be 
the victim.  She says a cat-skinner is also a Caterpillar-tractor-
driver. And what any of this has to do with computers or the Internet
is anyone's guess.

13.  SOMEWHERE IN TIME.  At http://www.timezoneconverter.com you can
use current computer time, or whatever time you choose, and convert it 
to whatever time it is anywhere else in the world.  Is this a timely
thing, or what?  It's called The Time Zone Convertor.

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