SkyOS is a free operating system written from scratch for x86 PC's. As required for a modern operating system it supports features like multiprocessor support (SMP), virtual memory, memory protection, multitasking and threading etc. Additionally SkyOS has a built-in GUI system named SkyGI. "

The Harrow Technology Report: "Care & handling of CD's... The independent National Institute of Standards and Technology' has gone into great detail to analyze the different types of disks, their likely lifetimes, how storage conditions can affect their integrity (for example, don't store CDs/DVDs flat for long periods of time; store them in a case, vertically), and the safest methods for labeling and cleaning these polycarbonate packages that can hold your vital business or personal data, or the pictures of your kids.

For example:
- Did you know that the polycarbonate layer(s) that make up the bulk of these disks absorbs moisture, oxygen, and various environmental pollutants? These can eventually oxidize the reflective aluminum coating in stamped (ROM) disks (it's called 'disk rot'), and so reduce or destroy the disk's readability;

- Don't use 'RW' or 'RAM' rewritable optical disks for any archiving, as their dyes are far less stable than those used in the '+R' and '-R' write-once variety; and

- All types of CDs (as opposed to DVDs) are particularly fragile on their 'top' or label side. That's because the reflective metal layer is directly under the disk's top surface, which (surprisingly to most of us) is only a thin lacquer coating! Therefore using a ball point pen or anything sharp or hard on the label surface is discouraged.

Similarly, harsh solvent-based markers (water or alcohol-based markers are apparently OK, but not those based on toluene or xylene) can penetrate the lacquer and damage the essential reflective metal beneath it. (DVDs on the other hand DO have a top layer of thick polycarbonate; the reflective layer(s) are actually at the center of the disk's thickness.) If in doubt, just label the hub area which doesn't contain any data at all.

This paper is interesting and important reading, especially if "your data is your (or your businesses') life." But even if you don't wade through the entire report, do check out the one-page "Quick Reference Guide for Care and Handling" at http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/carefordisc/onepage.pdf."

Squirrelcart is a PHP / MySQL e-commerce shopping cart system. It is a fully customizable, robust shopping cart, designed with the advanced developer and web novice in mind. Plenty of power for around $100"

TASI :: Resources | Searching the Internet for Images: "There are several trends that make finding images on the Web more complicated than other information searches. The general push to digitise material means that large numbers of images are now accessible via the Internet. However, these are increasingly being locked away in databases - and so inaccessible to the general search engines. The commercialisation of the Internet places further access restrictions, as image owners seek to control and make money from their collections. The non-verbal/non-textual nature of images can also make them difficult to locate - and places great importance on the quality of their indexing and description. Successful image searching on the Internet will often require a number of different approaches and employ a variety of tools. There are useful search strategies to try, but no hard and fast rules or easy solutions."

EdTechPost: "Technologies for Learning, Thinking & Collaborating"

Should You Shut the Computer Down?: "I should mention where I stand on the power vs. stress angle. It's better for the health of your system to just leave it on. The power consumed is, at worst, comparable to leaving a light bulb on, especially with modern Energy Star components, disks that spin down, monitors that shut themselves off, and operating systems that know how to manage power, even on desktop systems. (Incidentally, light bulbs will also live longer if you leave them on, not that I advocate gratuitous waste of energy.) Running away from a problem usually is not a good solution to the problem, and turning off your computer to avoid Internet attacks is the worst kind of running away. It's not even effective. "

Geeknews: "Window Media Player Classic is an enhanced version of Windows Media Player 6.4. This program can play DVDs with help of external decoders like WinDVD and it can also play Realmedia files, if realplayer one is installed. The best part about this program is the ability to modify the filters when playing your favorite video. Media Player Classic 6.4.7.7 for Win2k/XP"

Geeknews: "ASUS SmartDoctor2 is designed to satisfy two major goals. One is to monitor graphic chip Status, altering users about abnormal events, such as fan malfunction or chip overheat. The other, as the name SmartDoctor implies, is to cool down the graphic chip smartly when it is not necessary for it to be kept running at full speed. SmartDoctor2 includes AGP Power Level Monitoring, Fan RPM Monitoring, Overheated protection, Smartcooling technology, and Manual Overclocking."

AnalogX: "Do you have several machines on a network, but only one connection to the internet? Wish you could browse the net from the other machines, just like you can from the machine that's connected? Then what you're looking for is called a Proxy Server, and AnalogX has just what you want. AnalogX Proxy is a small and simple server that allows any other machine on your local network to route it's requests through a central machine. So what does that mean in English? Simple, run Proxy on the machine with the internet connection; configure the other machines to use a proxy (it's very easy, there's a detailed description in the readme), and voila! You're surfing the web from any other machine on your network! Supports HTTP (web), HTTPS (secure web), POP3 (recieve mail), SMTP (send mail), NNTP (newsgroups), FTP (file transfer), and Socks4/4a and partial Socks5 (no UDP) protocols! It works great with Internet Explorer, Netscape, AOL, AOL Instant Messenger, Microsoft Messenger, and many more!"

Geeknews: "SharpKeys is a Registry hack that is used to make certain keys on a keyboard act like other keys. For example, if you accidentally hit Caps Lock often, you could use this utility to map Caps Lock to a Shift key or even turn it off completely. As it relies on internal support within Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003, you must be running one of these OS's for this Registry hack to work."

Gigablast

Geeknews"X-ray data from Chandra, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton, and the German Roengtensatellite (ROSAT) X-ray observatories provide direct evidence for the catastrophic destruction of a star that wandered too close to a supermassive black hole. The accompanying illustration (top) depicts how such an event may have occurred. A close encounter with another star put the doomed star (orange circle) on a path that took it near a supermassive black hole. The enormous gravity of the giant black hole stretched the star until it was torn apart. Because of the momentum and energy of the accretion process, only a few percent of the disrupted star's mass (indicated by the white stream) was swallowed by the black hole, while the rest of was flung away into the surrounding galaxy."

Geeknews: "XP Syspad provides quick access to many Windows management features, as well as programs, system folders and more, without having to use the Control Panel or click through multiple menus to get there. It runs in the system tray, from where you can right-click to access common folders (and files inside them), the Start Menu and IE Favorites or left-click to invoke the small interface that lets you select from more than 100 categorized functions, including a small calculator and a clock display. The program is very small with a minute memory footprint, and makes no changes to your system registry whatsoever and comes with uninstaller. The program does not introduce any new features, all of the functions are mostly shortcuts to standard Windows XP features, however it is much easier (and faster) to access them via XP Syspad."

The Web Robots FAQ

Instant Online File Conversion Service: "The ACI Online Conversion Service is a unique and very cost-effective online conversion facility to let PC (Windows) users convert their document, spreadsheet, graphics or data base files between different software formats, including converting from older (Dos-based) word processors and spreadsheets to something modern such as MS Word, Excel, WordPerfect, PDF, etc. No need to subscribe or buy any software. You only pay as you go for the files you convert."

do_more with Qnext: "Unlock the power of P2P communications.
You can Instant Message, Talk Online around the world, host a live Video Conference and Transfer Files of any size with your friends. But the closer you look, the better it gets. Qnext allows you to create private, shared environments called Zones where you can invite other users to securely share your content and online services. File Sharing, Group Text Chat, Qnext Photo and Live Online Games is just the beginning. You can also access your computer remotely from anywhere in the world using QnextMyPC. You can simply do_more with Qnext. "

Demo 2004 Weblog

Cool Tools: "I saw an impressive demonstration by Foursticks, which was launching its Net Prioritizer application for end users. The software acts a little bit like a QoS application for the desktop, giving network and bandwidth priority to the dominant application in Windows. In Windows, applications that are highlighted get the processing power, and Foursticks basically used that concept to give network prioritization as well. The software's free version will basically give the 'active' application 80% of the bandwidth, while 'background' or 'passive' apps will receive 20% of the bandwidth. Foursticks officials were showing off a voice over IP application and a large download taking place, and they were able to switch between the two to give network bandwidth the priority based on which application was clicked. The company plans to sell an enterprise version, which lets IT managers change the priority percentages, in order to guarantee bandwidth for specific applications. You can check out details of the free beta version for Windows XP systems here."

dropload: "Dropload is a place for you to drop your files off and have them picked up by someone else at a later time. Recipients you specify are sent an email with instructions on how to download the file. Files are removed from the system after 48 hours, regardless if they have been picked up or not. Recipients can be anyone with an email address"

HWiNFO - Hardware Info is a powerful system information utility designed especially for detection of hardware. It's able to identify a large scale of system components and supports the latest technologies and standards. This tool is periodically updated (usually once per month) in order to provide most accurate results.

MSFN - Where People Go To Know: "Adobe Reader SpeedUp is a simple application that was created to help make the loading time of Adobe's Adobe Reader 6 software bearable for everyday use. AR SpeedUp only needs to be used once (a process taking only a few seconds) and then your 'Reader will be transformed forever. Adobe Reader Speed-Up was created in an effort to automate the process of speeding up Adobe Reader's launch time by disabling the majority of plugins that are, quite franky, completely useless for most users. Currently supports free and full versions of Adobe Acrobat v3.0, v4.0, v4.0.5, v5.0, v5.0 CE, v5.1, v5.5, and Adobe Reader v6.0 and v6.0.1." Download here.

MSFN - Where People Go To Know: "In Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, Microsoft is introducing a set of security technologies that will help to improve the ability of Windows XP-based computers to withstand malicious attacks from viruses and worms. The technologies include network protection, memory protection, safer e-mail handling, more secure browsing, and improved computer maintenance. Together, these security technologies will help to make it more difficult to attack Windows XP, even if the latest updates are not applied. Download the .doc file."

How to convert your Windows Server 2003... to a Workstation!

How to convert your Windows Server 2003... to a Workstation!: "TweakUI 2.10 for Windows XP and Server 2003 *New!* This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more. New in 2.10: Supported for Windows Server 2003, new extra tweaks." Download

Scott Hanselman's Weblog: "Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tools List"

Computer Gripes: "This web site is devoted to what stinks about computer products (hardware, software, web sites); specifically to the problems I've experienced in using them. It exists because the errors, bugs, poor documentation, and occasional stupidity in the field drives me nuts. These gripes are not product reviews, which typically describe the features of a product and what's good about it. Instead they fill in the gap, focusing exclusively on what's bad about a product. "

LangaList Std Edition 2004-02-23: "Our coverage of 'Transferring Files To A New PC' ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-01-29.htm#3 ) and the related 'Tools To Transfer Files And Settings' ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-02-05.htm#1 ) answered some questions, but raised others, such as this:

"Hi Fred, I've been particularly interested in the articles concerning transferring files and settings to a new PC. I just purchased a new motherboard and big hard drive, along with Windows XP Home. Knowing nothing about XP (I've run Win98SE for years), I was wondering if the transfer wizard in XP can handle drive to drive? I'd like to install XP on the new one, then mount the old one as a slave and transfer my old files and settings to the one with XP on it. I've enjoyed Langa List for years and depend on it. Thanks. --- Phil Gentry
Yes it can, Phil. In fact, the Wizard can work through almost any data-transfer medium, including a network, a direct cable connection, CDRs or DVDs, or a hard drive."

Bootdisk.Com

Desktop Engineers: "BootVis is a Microsoft utility which monitors the XP bootup process and displays helpful graphs and performance times of the various bootup phases and drivers. Great for diagnosing what is slowing you down. BootVis also has an option to optimize the bootup which changes the file locations of key files involved in bootup. You can also view when specific processes startup in the bootup cycle. "Download from Microsoft

Desktop Engineers Junk Drawer - Handy Odds N Ends for Windows 98, NT & 2000: "Everyone must have right clicked a folder and looked for a 'New Folder' item 100,000 times since Windows 95 introduced the right click context menu. For some odd reason you must always open the folder to create a sub-folder in it - not any more. This handy and small utility puts a 'New Folder' item on the right click menu of every folder in your system. I got used to it real quick! Download here."

microsoft.com support: "This article describes how to reinstall or repair Internet Explorer 6 and Outlook Express 6 in Windows XP."

Mozilla Tips :: Fun tips for your favorite browser

HostsToggle -- makes turning the Hosts file 'on' and 'off' as easy as clicking a button.

WDVL.com -- Encyclopedia of Web Design Tutorials, Articles and Discussions

startupmechanic.com: "Startup-Mechanic will scan your system for known data mining, advertising, and tracking components, and rid your system of these tracking components, allowing you to maintain a higher degree of privacy while you surf the Web. Startup-Mechanic will hunt down and remove junk and obsolete programs. freeware. "

CarGroove.com Car Searcher: "What is the CarGroove.com Car Searcher computer program? It is the power of CarGroove.com packed into an easy to use computer program! The software is even more powerful than the website! What can I do with this software? You can search many databases containing more than 10,000,000 new and used cars, trucks, and SUVs. "

Freeware - Moon Software: "Bookmark Wizard is a little program with a simple wizard-like interface that generates an HTML page with all or selected links from your Internet Favorites folder. The links in the resulting page are grouped and sorted in ascending order like they are in your Favorites folder. You can specify colors for links and backgrounds, title, caption, etc., for your page. Also, you can exclude certain folders from being listed. Advanced users are able to edit the entire page template to customize it further. The resulting web page can be used as a links page on your homepage; you can send it to a friend or use it just as a startup page for your web browser etc."

numion.com: "MaxSpeed is an experimental new speed measurement that measures the maximum speed between you and this server. It is similar to many other speed measurements available on the internet, in that it tries to measure the highest speed attainable. But it is far smarter. It uses techniques like direct socket communication, linear regression analysis, dynamic interval adjustment, and a dedicated random-data server, making it very fast and very accurate. "

Internet Archive archive.org's wayback machine.

Suggest A Fix PC Support Forums

SysInfo.org - Startup Applications List -- This free site lists thousands of common startup files along with full descriptions of what they do, plus links back to the vendor's web site.

WebReaper is a freeware web crawler or spider, which can work its way through a website, downloading pages, pictures and objects that it finds so that they can be viewed locally, without needing to be connected to the internet. The sites can be saved locally as a fully-browsable website which can be viewed with any browser (such as Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, etc), or they can be saved into the Internet Explorer cache and viewed using IE's offline mode as if the you'd surfed the sites 'by hand'."

Gadwin PrintScreen - screen capture software

Hotkeycontrol XPis a freeware hotkey utility that allows you to set hotkeys to do common tasks like opening files, ejecting your cdrom drives, restarting your computer, controlling active windows, controlling Windows media player and Winamp 3, changing volume, typing in commonly used text (macros) and much more.

alohabob: "PC Relocator takes care of the painful task of moving all your files, settings, preferences and programs to your new PC without the need for expert knowledge. PC Relocator transfers almost everything, including most common applications along with the associated registry entries. This is what sets it apart from any of the file transfer, partition/disk imaging, or back-up utilities. However, the program selects only the latest versions of your applications to be retained on your new PC and it does not transfer the operating system. $30"