Neat Net Tricks Issue #99
April 1, 2001

http://www.NeatNetTricks.com
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IN THIS ISSUE:

01.  Cookie Spy
02.  WinSolo
03.  Closing popups and ad banners
04.  Internet Explorer shortcuts
05.  Another email stripper
06.  EndItAll
07.  Network Tracer
08.  Earthlink's Spaminator
09.  FormSite
10.  Another face generator
11.  Netscape's Built-In Spy
12.  Neat Net Nifty
13.  In depth:  A nudge for more speed
14.  Readers write

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01.  COOKIE SPY.  You'll find a lot of good freebies at
http://camtech2000.net/Pages/Downloads.html , and one of the better ones
is a little application called Cookie Spy.  You'll be amazed at the
number of cookies that are residing in your system.  Delete them easily
with this program, but be forewarned that some of your favorite sites
may cease to function if they are dependent on the deleted cookie for
account numbers, names, and other information.

02.  WINSOLO temporarily closes all background applications (even the 
ones that don't show up in the Ctrl-Alt-Del Close Program window) in 
order to allow a sensitive application to run with no interruption from
other multi-tasking applications.  It is intended to help when running 
applications that complain of low system resources or run substantially
slower due to external programs accessing the disk (ScanDisk, Defrag).
It's a free program and may be worth a try at 
http://www.sonicspot.com/winsolo/winsolo.html .

03.  CLOSING POPUPS AND AD BANNERS.  Next time you're annoyed with a
popup message or ad banner, try Ctrl+W to close it.  This works with
some browsers, some popups, and some ads,  but not all. Still, it's 
worth a try.

04.  INTERNET EXPLORER SHORTCUTS.  Here's a few keyboard shortcuts you
might find handy in Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 5.0 and 5.5.
In combination with the CTRL key, O (alpha, not numeric) opens the
Address box so you can enter a URL; I opens the Favorites list, H the
History list, E the Search menu, F the Find box, and N a new browser
window.

05.  ANOTHER EMAIL STRIPPER.  A recent NNT item suggested a utility to
strip out those characters such as ">" from your reply to make it more
readable.  Here's another one at http://www.dsoft.com.tr/stripmail/ ,
and it allows paragraphs and indentations as well.

06.  ENDITALL.  In response to a recent NNT item about interrupted
defragging, several readers suggested EndItAll, an application that
allows terminating all non-essential programs.  Similar to the Winsolo
discussed in Item 02, this one doesn't allow terminating essential 
programs (Explorer and Systray), but it quickly halts others to ease 
installation of new software, defrag, or other functions. EndItAll is
at http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,0011NB,.html .

07.  NETWORK TRACER at http://www.pc-help.org/trace.htm uses a host of
standard network query utilities such as PING, WHOIS, NSLOOKUP, and 
TRACEROUTE.  It prepares a report that helps you track down sometimes 
disguised sources of unwanted email as well as interpret Website access 
logs, firewall reports, etc. The software runs on Windows 95/98/ME. and
is free.

08.  EARTHLINK'S SPAMINATOR.  A reader advises he's had very good 
results with a service Earthlink provides its subscribers, an automatic
spam filtering service at http://spaminator.earthlink.net.  A hint to
other ISP: isn't it about time to follow suit?
 
09.  FORMSITE.  With no download or installation required, the service
at http://www.formsite.com allows you to create surveys, order forms, 
registration forms, reservation forms, sweepstakes, etc.  Data is
collected and retrievable from your Web-based passworded account.  A
free limited account is available and there are several other price
structures.  FormSite claims maintenance of 20 million forms.  For
those who have struggled with CGI and Web design, this is a much easier
solution.

10.  ANOTHER FACE GENERATOR.  Some three months ago we mentioned a face
generator, an application enabling designs from composite features on- 
screen.  It only worked on MSIE 4.0+.  A reader suggested another one 
without that limitation at http://spaghoops.com/idk/idk.html .

11.  NETSCAPE'S BUILT-IN SPY.  Later versions of Netscape have a 
"What's Related" search in which your location is transmitted to
Netscape so that search results of related sites can be displayed. Tbis
is called "smart browsing," but you may not think it's so smart after
all.   If you think where you are is nobody else's business, you can 
disable this feature by clicking on Edit|Preferences|Navigator|Smart 
Browsing.  Remove the check from the Enbale What's Related Box.

12.  NEAT NET NIFTY.  Both adults and children have been fascinated by
the Harry Potter books and the Harry Potter Web site at 
http://www.harrypotter.com depicts the magical, mystical, and eerie 
feelings of the books.  With your children or grandchildren, visit 
King's Cross Station to see, hear and feel the Hogwart's Express,
guaranteed to thrill any adult who still retains the luxury of a child's
imagination. Sign up for Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, 
read the Daily Prophet and view the trailers and countdown for the much-
anticipated movie "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."

Neat Net Tricks pauses on occasion to recommend you set aside some time
to explore and enjoy a particularly memorable Web site.  Such sites are
predominantly non-commercial in focus and identified as "nifty" when
their all-around content, originality, interest, variety, and graphical
presentation earn the 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.

13. IN DEPTH: A NUDGE FOR MORE SPEED.  Someone suggested this little
tweak to get more speed from your Win 98 PC, and it really does seem
to improve performance.  Go to My Computer and right click to select
Properties, Performance Tab, and File System.  Click the down arrow
to select Network Server, slide the bar all the way to the right for
full Read-Ahead Optimization, click Apply, OK, Close, and Yes and 
restart your PC.

My expert advisor, Sheryl Clark (AKA Granny C) says she remembers
someone without much RAM crashing their system and overheating RAM
modules by constantly maxing out without spare resources.  How much
of your resources are you using?  Check it out with System Monitor 
(typically in the Program|Accessories|Systems Tools, and if you don't
have it installed, go to Start|Settings|Control Panel|Add/Remove 
Programs|Windows Setup tab and double-click Systems Tools to install).

Sheryl thinks changing your system from "Desktop computer" to 
"Network Server" and adjusting the read-ahead optimization slider to 
maximum has definite possibilities, if you have at least 64 mb RAM 
and you're not running this close to the maximum.   She points out 
that Windows remembers the last 128 files accessed when set as 
"Desktop computer" but recalls the last 4,000 files as a "Network 
server."

Thanks, Sheryl for your comments on this topic!

14.  READERS WRITE.  Someone suggested if you're going to eat crow,
it's easier to swallow if it's warm.  I've been served a lot of crow,
some not so warm, since my gaffe last issue about the print solution
using Adobe.  The tip was just fine, except that it doesn't work on
the free Adobe Acrobat Reader as indicated. Rather, the tip requires
the PDF Writer, a part of the Adobe Acrobat selling for $249, probably
a bit too pricey if you're only going to use it as an alternate print
solution.

I tried to find a graceful alibi since the PDF Writer did show as a
printer option, even with only the free Reader installed.  The folks
at Adobe suggested this was because drivers were in place even though
the Writer wasn't installed.  In retrospect, I failed to follow through
and test the entire performance, something that's essential to retain
credibility.  I'm sorry I let you down on this one.

Having explained my dilemma to Adobe, they graciously rushed me a beta
copy of the new Acrobat Reader 5.0 .  I assure you the tip as written
performs well with that software, and there's a lot more to be said for
the package.  I'll save that review for an upcoming issue, though.

Perhaps this is a good time to again remind everyone that errors, 
fixes, apologies, or general crow-eating are noted on the NNT Web site 
"What's New" page as soon as they are first discovered.  This is more
productive than responding to the inevitable deluge of email.

.....
In closing, don't forget to provide your comments in the Neat Net Tricks
Survey at http://www.NeatNetTricks.com/survey/survey.htm .  That's how
we know what interests NNT readers the most.  You may win $100 in 
software for the few minutes it will take you to share what's on your 
mind.
.....

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Copyright 2001 by Jack Teems.  All rights reserved.  Neat Net Tricks
is registered with the U.S. Library of Congress ISSN 1533-4619.
