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E-mail Update Newsletter #56
Issued August 18, 1998
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Welcome to the fifty-sixth edition of the 'Completely Free Software' E-mail Newsletter. This is a selection of the programs we've added over the past week.
The programs listed here are completely free for non-commercial use, even though some may be shareware or commercial products. None are time-limited and all are fully functional. If you know any that aren't exactly as specified, please let us know and they will be removed immediately.
COMPLETELY FREE SOFTWARE
FastNet – W95
It seems that everybody has a program which will speed up your Internet access – but many don't even do a small proportion of what the authors' claim. FastNet is different. It provides a database of common DNS or IP numbers (those numbers which relate to URLs, ie 207.68.137.62 is microsoft.com) so that when you send a request to go to, say, microsoft.com, instead of the server locating that DNS from the Internet, you provide it yourself from your hard disk. The program has some terrific features. It ships with well over 700 DNS numbers so you have a good start, but it also allows you to enter URLs which it will add to that database (along with the IP number of course). You can also add all of your Internet Explorer favorites, and/or your Netscape Navigator bookmarks, and the program will scan each of the addresses to find the correct IP number. Click on the 'Save' button and those extra IP numbers are added to a file called 'host' in your Windows directory. Whenever you want to visit a website the 'host' file is checked first and the DNS number is taken from there rather than through the Internet. Of course you could create the host file yourself (you will normally find a file already there called host.sam or similar which was provided by Microsoft), but why would you! FastNet does it faster and better – and will even look up DNS numbers for you! By the way, you don't even need to have FastNet running for the 'host' file to work (though if you do you can easily add new URLs). Access this 2.96MB download from: W95 Internet Related
Gedcom Viewer – W95
If you have a genealogy program which uses the popular Gedcom files (like Kindred Konnections reviewed two weeks ago), you might find a Gedcom viewer helpful – specially if you want to pass the files around to other members of the family and don't want them tampering with the original. Though not a small download at 2.5MB, Gedcom Viewer is a great tool to use to, well, view your Gedcom files (Dohhh!!!). It will save these files in the Pedigree format (PEx) which will give you faster viewing. The entire family tree from the Gedcom file is displayed on a single screen but you can zoom in on any section with the right mouse button (in conjunction with the Ctrl key, etc) to view details about individuals. We found Gedcom Viewer to awkward to use until you bothered to read the Helpfile. It is not an intuitive program to use but once learnt is surprisingly powerful for a 'simple' viewer. If you wish to view Gedcom files – specially if you are worried that your valuable files may be altered by well-meaning relatives ("I'll just amend the date for Auntie's funeral") – then go grab this download from: W95 General Programs
Mehul's Backup – W95
Having backups of the data on hard disk drives is a safety net should your hard disk crash (which happens more often than HHD manufacturers like to admit). Mehul's Backup is a great way of providing that backup with facilities to backup individual files and/or directories to another drive (a Zip, Jaz or tape drive perhaps). The program allows for synchronization of individual files (only newer ones are backed up) and the ability to exclude specific file extensions and/or directories. You can carry out your backups manually, at Windows' startup or shutdown, or at specific intervals (set in minutes but can be set for thousands of minutes – ie days – apart if required). If just data files are backed up (all that is really necessary) the media required to store the backup doesn't have to be of enormous size. This program does not attempt to compress backed up files and will re-create the entire drive's directory structure if recursing is nominated (even if there are empty directories). By using normal DOS wildcards you can capture a copy of just the file types you want. For example, you might want to backup the MyFiles directory on the C:\ drive, along with all the INI files and all the REG files on that drive. For that you would need three entries. The first would be aimed at the C:\MyFiles directory (with Recursive checked) using the *.* wildcard to indicate all files The second entry would be aimed to the C:\ drive (root) and would be set to *.ini (with Recursive again checked), and the third entry would also be aimed at the C:\ root directory and be set to *.reg (with Recursive 'on'). With the program set for Synchronization rather than Backup, you can afford to have it do an automatic synchronization, say, every 30 minutes. If you have just the one hard drive fitted to your computer you might like to consider adding a second smaller hard drive (say a 500MB second hand unit, or even smaller) which you could use as the backup drive rather than using removable media. Even if the main hard disk crashed, the backup hard drive should still be OK (unless of course, someone steals the computer!). Backup time is excellent unless you want to do a full backup of all files (you should still have the original install disks for the programs so you just need to back up data files). The author requires that the program is registered (free) and there are annoying nag screens until it is registered. Access this 697kB download from: W95 Desktop Utilities
GrandSlam Baseball – W95
Grand Slam is a terrific – and very playable – baseball demo with realistic graphics, great sounds (not just 'ball' sounds but umpire calls, etc) and a great gameplay. While the demo has somewhat limited functionality compared to the commercial version, it does provide baseball aficionados with a great game which is approaching video in its clarity, smoothness of action, etc. The realism is superb. Control over the players is, of course, on par with the rest of the program. Impressive! We can't speak too highly of this demo and will limit these comments to one. If you like baseball then get it! Enough said. Slam on over and grab this 6.69MB download from: W95 General Games
Book of Jesus – W95
This is an excellent harmonization of the four Gospels of the Holy Bible – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – written by Dennis F McCorkle. The four Gospels are presented as one coherent narrative in chronological order (retaining Scriptural references for further study) which answers many of the questions posed by both Bible students and non-Christians as they grapple with the four separate accounts of the life of Christ. As the author says: "[t]he circumstances leading up to and following a particular event are interwoven between all four books with each account having a necessary piece of the complete picture. In order to help fit these pieces together, this project was started." The download site for the Book of Jesus contains not just the EXE version (which is actually a 16-bit program but requires Win95 for the setup) but also a HTML version which can be downloaded and read off-line. The download site also carries the full text of the book for on-line reading. Access this 638kB download from: W95 General Programs
WinPlace – W95
This is a powerful and feature-rich 2D and 3D design tool for the creation of, amongst other things, VRML scenes. With the ability to export to a range of file formats, the author lists the features as: WMF project file format (directly insertable into Windows applications); built-in VRML viewer; export of several file formats (BMP, DXF, STL and WRL – VRML 1&2); object libraries; support for inline VRML objects; thermal analysis; rats nest routing analysis; automated generation of VRML object models; user-defined part properties; thumbnail viewing of project and VRML files; automatic sizing/placement; snap to grid parts placement; zoom mode; Excel-compatible import/export; mouse-driven, intuitive interface; actions allowed on multiple parts; drag 'n drop part selection; 5 drawing layers; true color support; and support of VRML primitive geometries! This is a fabulous program and even non-graphics experts will get some fun working with it. The program supports the accurate rotation of drawings, stills of which can be pulled into the Windows' Clipboard. Now, imagine if you took a series of stills of an object rotating, saved them as GIF files, and then fed them into a little program like Gif Animator... Unfortunately, at this stage there's no support for adding text, which is probably its biggest downfall. Still, this is one program which is certainly worth the 9.47MB download! Grab your copy from: W95 Graphics Programs
Win Domino – W95
Win Domino is a fun tilegame where the idea is to match up the number of dots on one end of a tile with the number of dots on the exposed end of the tiles already played. If you can't match a tile end, you grab a tile from the kitty or stockpile, and then another, etc until you can place a tile on the board. You get seven tiles, your opponent (the computer) gets seven, and the kitty gets 14. There are three levels of opposition from the computer and the game is bi-lingual, offering both English and Spanish languages. The setup program is in Spanish but it isn't hard to guess what you have to do next! Once loaded, there is an option of converting into English language. There is no Helpfile and the readme file is in Spanish (sigh). The website is also in Spanish (the English-version page didn't work when we tried!) and if you click on the text "Haga click aqui para bajar Win Domino" you can download the program. Even with all the 'fun' in trying to get this program (the main website is in Argentina but that was down more often than it was up so we linked to the author's GeoCities mirror site) we still think that it's a great program and well worth the hassle. Get this 193kB download from: W95 General Games
UPDATES
Excalibur – the excellent and full-featured RPN-only calculator – has been upgraded to version 1.05 with many new features and enhancements. The download size has also been increased to 809kB. Get you copy from: W95 General Programs
COMMENTS
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