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The Completely Free E-mail Update #39
Issued Apr 21, 1998
Welcome to the thirty-nineth edition of the 'Completely Free Software E-mail Update'. Over the past week we've added many new programs, including the ones listed below.
The programs listed are completely free for non-commercial use, even though some may be shareware or commercial products. None are time-limited and all are fully functionable. If you know any that aren't exactly as specified, please let us know and they will be removed immediately.
COMPLETELY FREE SOFTWARE
20/20 – W95
The image viewers/converters we have been listing lately have just been getting better and better – and 20/20 is the best yet! Able to view and convert GIF, JPEG, TIF, BMP, WMF, PCX, EPS, DIB, PNG, PCD, TGA, DXF, CMS, and ICO image files, you can also create your own slide show. Once you have the basic image sorted out (either by creating or importing one) you can then apply one or more of the myriad of special effects filters supplied. These are Canvas, Bleed, Blur, Engrave, Extrude, Jiggle, Motion Blur, Mosaic, Noisify, Oil Paint, Pinch Hole, Polar, Page Curl, Spray, Whirlpool, Wave, Warp Auto Contrast, Brighten, Color Palette, Darken, Despeckle, Enhance, Gamma, Halftone, Hue and Saturation, Sharpen, Soften, Threshold Borders, Border Fade, Edge Detection, Gray Area, Invert, and Tile. Also you can add the following to your image – Rectangle, Hilite, Line, Arrow, Circles, Ellipses, Bezier Curves, Freehand Draw, Image Overlay, Polyline, Polygon, and Notes. You can add user defined text shapes, outline, solid color, or gradient fill. You can also crop and copy rectangles, rounded rectangles, polygons, ellipses, and/or freehand selected areas to your image (which can be moved around the image area). There is also a highly configurable capture facility built-in so you can grab an image off the screen and then manipulate it through 20/20. Whew! And this is free? Well, actually it is advertiser supported and at the start of each session you get an advertisement thrust at you but once you've clicked on OK, you will see no more of it (or any other type of nag) until the next session. 20/20 has an awkward effects dialog box which is like a mini program inside another (saving and exiting from the effects dialog box only takes you back to an unsaved but modified image in the main screen) but you will soon learn the tricks and be imaging and special effecting in no time. If you aren't convinced by now that this is the best free image viewer/converter available you should grab a copy just to see what we didn't have room to mention. Available as either a 1.21MB download without an install feature, or as a 1.91MB download with full setup facilities, you can access 20/20 from: W95 Graphics Programs
Clip-&-Font – W31 (suitable for W95)
This is a handy set of three utilities – WinClip, FontViewer and Character Master. WinClip is a Clipboard enhancement and allows you to create a mini document, add existing information from the Clipboard if required, and then save the resultant 'document' to the Clipboard. With a number of very handy tools (including being able to set the font and typesize), you will find WinClip a super handy tool. FontViewer is, as the name suggests, a utility to view fonts (Doh!) and you can select the font, the sample text, even indicate what the font looks like in bold or italic. Again, handy. The third utility is Character Master and this is similar to Character Map supplied with Windows. Character Master not only allows you to view the characters used by a particular font (as does Character Map) but it displays them as they really are instead of just in the system font. Either double-click or right click on a character and it will be copied to the panel where it is displayed and where it can be copied into the Clipboard (like with Character Map though Character Master seems to be easier to use). All in all, a handy set of utilities which are as suitable for Win95 as they are for Win 3.1. Like all good utility sets, it has a very small download – in this case a miserly 55kB. Access your copy from: W31 Desktop Utilities
Spectrogram – W95
Spectrogram is a 32-bit dual-channel audio spectrum analyzer which allows you to examine sound files and direct input sound (via, say, your CD-ROM). According to the website, suggested uses for the program include analysis and identification of biological sounds, human speech, and musical performances; tuning of musical instruments; evaluation and calibration of home audio systems; Ham radio audio reception and tuning; and analysis of radio interference (including atmospheric electromagnetic effects). With the ability to record and playback non-compressed (PCM) WAV files, Spectrogram is a handy tool for the amateur and professional audiophile and sound technician. Access this 172kB download from: W95 Multimedia Programs
MomLogo – W95
Let's face it, those shutdown screens which Microsoft provides for Win95 are boring. What we really need is a way of changing those screens, preferably with different amusing quotes, jokes or sayings so we can laugh as we shutdown our computer (which usually means that it didn't play Russian roulette with our programs and actually did shutdown properly without shredding today's work!). MomLogo is a fun – and very configurable – program which does just that. Use the same shutdown screen each time, use random shutdown screens, or use a single shutdown screen which has both question and answer on it (eg first screen "Etorre's Observation:", second screen or answer with previous screen: "The chance of the bread falling with the butter side down is directly proportional to the value of the carpet." If this sounds like the sort of fun which you think all computers should include as standard from the box, grab this 656kB download from: W95 Desktop Utilities
SpammerSlammer – W95
This is a tremendous e-mail anti-spam tool which will filter out those spam messages which clogs mailboxes. With an auto-configure routine for Eudora, Outlook Express and Netscape Mail, SpammerSlammer will auto load these e-mail clients and work seamlessly with all other POP3 e-mail clients. Once it is working with your email client it keeps a wary eye on your mail. It can be configured with different filters so you can prevent mail from certain people being downloaded though you don't have to worry about blacklists, huge domain name lists, or spam lists. It is automatically updated every time it starts. SpammerSlammer can work for multiple accounts on the same machine and will even keep a log of the mail if you want. If you don't want the hassle of receiving bulk spam and then having to delete it, this is the best anti-spam tool we've seen. If you only download one program this month, you won't go wrong selecting this as the one! NOTE: SpammerSlammer will not work inside AOL. Access this 1.37MB download from: W95 Internet Related
The Jetsons Space Race – W31 (suitable W95)
Ever watch The Jetsons on TV? Well here's the game! Complete with fabulous graphics, sound and animation, this is one game you will play, and play, and play (and you wondered why last week's e-mail update was so small!!!). George Jetson has to drive (fly?) daughter Judy to Orbit High School, son Elroy to Little Dipper School, Astro the dog to the Galaxy K-9 School, and wife Jane to the Shopping Center – avoiding the heavy traffic and still getting to work at Spacely Sprockets within 100 seconds or Mr Spacely will really chew him out for being late. Complete with original graphics and sound from the Hanna Barabera TV series, you will become totally addicted to this fun game. Don't say we didn't warn you! Go grab this 1.46MB download from: W31 General Games
Copernic 98 – W98
This is a tool which checks with up to 33 search engines and directories for keywords and phrases, and then presents the results in HTML form so they can be saved or just used like any other HTML document (active links, etc). With strong integration with MS IE and Active Desktop, the program even has an IE4 look and feel about it and the built-in browser is obviously cloned off IE4. When first used you might be disappointed in the results (we only got 83 'hits' on the keyword "freeware") but after you have re-configured the program to give longer and more detailed information (specially increasing the time-out period – from Australia on a Friday evening almost all the search engines time-out before giving up their bounty) we found that it was at least the equivalent of other multi-search engine programs, and better than most. The presentation of the information is configurable in many different ways. Whether or not you like the delays while it compiles HTML documents, Copernic 98 is never-the-less an efficient tool for finding that elusive site. Definitely worth a look, you can access this 1.88MB download from: W95 Internet Related
EasyAscii – W95
If you need to access the ASCII codes you will appreciate that it is not always easy to look up tables while you're working. EasyAscii is a simple utility which gives the ASCII code for different characters and vice versa, the character for different codes. Just type in the character or ASCII number that you want, click on the "Get" button and, voila, there is your answer. It will also create an ASCII map out of any range of numbers from 0 to 255, though you can't copy that list to the Clipboard which is a shame. Still EasyAscii is just that, an easy way to get ASCII codes. Requiring the VB5 DLLs (available from the download site if you don't already have them) the program is a respectable 220kB download which can be accessed from: W95 Desktop Utilities
Ms Chomp v1.2 – Win 3.x (suitable Win95)
This is a clone of Ms PacMan with quite good graphics and sound plus some nice features – like Ms Chomp can eat the ghosts at certain times, and speed variation (essential for today's fast machines!). With a high score feature, Ms Chomp is rather a good example of a Ms PacMan clone and is very playable. The Helpfile even has hints! Access this 100kB download from: W31 General Games
SiteSnagger – W95
From the pages of PC Magazine, SiteSnagger is one of the best free website downloading tools we have seen yet. You can select how many levels you wish to squirrel down, whether you want it to grab the multimedia files as well (though that can take much longer to get), if it should get off-site pages, etc. Once you have downloaded the website, it creates a HTM file of the site so you can browse it quickly and it also converts links so images, etc can be loaded from your hard drive. Once it's all in place you can use the downloaded website exactly as you do one which is on-line. One of the terrific advantages for SiteSnagger (and what we are planning on using it for) is to grab your own website for removal or mirroring on another site (yes, the entire CFS site could be moving – soon!). To add some cream to a terrific program, the zipped size is only 269kB so it won't take all day to download, even with a slow link (aren't they all!!!). Access SiteSnagger from: W95 Internet Related
Cool Mouse 97 – W95
How cool is your mouse? If you have a three button rodent can you convert a single middle-mouse button click to a double-click, display the Start menu anywhere on the screen, have windows which 'roll up' to their title bar, run any program, 'tray' windows (minimizes them to the desktray area where the clock is), display window features menu, scroll windows, or drag 'n drop objects without holding the left mouse button? You could if your mouse was 'cool'! You don't have a three button mouse, just one of those old fashioned two button ones? Well don't feel left out. By turning on the Scroll Lock, the right mouse button can be made to act as if it was the middle mouse button. If you want to get your hands on this 217kB download, then grab it from here: W95 Desktop Utilities
PC Ladder – W95
If you like word-ladder puzzles then this is just for you. Word-ladder puzzles are those where you have to change one word into another word in a certain number of moves. For example, to change HATE into LOVE in three moves you could go HATE, HAVE, HOVE and LOVE which changes one letter on each move but still retains a proper word at each level. Some of the puzzles are that easy, some are very hard and you can pick individual words, pick the size of a word, or just have random words. With the facility to add your own words – and to print – PC Ladder is a good addition for anybody who likes word puzzles. Access this 597kB download from: W95 General Games
UPDATES
QuicPics – probably the only free Win95 screen saver creation program available – has just been upgraded to version 1.8.6 and now includes QuicPics Wallpaper Hanger beta test (whatever that is, we didn't get a chance to look at this latest version). QuicPics will allow you to turn JPG, GIF and BMP images into screen savers with a true SCR filename so that it can be used and password protected like any other Win95 screen saver. Download size is now increased to 174kB and you can access it from: W95 Windows Extras
Time Stamp – a tool which can easily track time spent on a project – has been upgraded to version 1.30f and is now a 520kB download (down from 531kB). The upgrade has been mainly bug fixes. If you need to keep track of the time you've taken on a job – and want full billing features to go with it – then go grab a copy of Time Stamp for yourself: W95 Desktop Utilities
SchizoSigz! – the e-mail sig generator with a thousand faces – has been upgraded to version 2.1 with a download size increase to 1.73MB, though you can add another 5MB of extra quotes, etc if you wish. SchizoSigz! can be accessed from: W95 Internet Related
COMMENTS
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