JIM HOLSONBACK wrote in a message to ALL:

 JH> Hello, ALL.
 JH> Here's a list from PCWorld of some recommended free utilities.  The
 JH> URL is below, but a long one.

Hey Jim,  do you know about "tinyurl"?

 JH> Actual article has links to where they may be downloaded.

 JH> - - -  JimH.

 JH> http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ttpcworld/20050407/t
 JH> c _techtues_pcworld/120306&cid=1740&ncid=1729
 JH> Yahoo! News - The Best Free PC Utilities
 JH> Exclusive from - PC World

 JH> The Best Free PC Utilities
 JH> Thu Apr 7, 3:00 AM ET

 JH> Michael Desmond
 JH> I'm old enough to remember the bad old days of Windows.

Bad old days of windows?  Heck,  I remember the first demo version that m$
sent out,  this joke that ran on a 286...   I remember what it was like to
run cp/m!  I remember the jungle we had before that point.

 JH> I struggled with crashing programs and merciless 640K DOS memory 
 JH> limits

Try 64k or less!  :-)

 JH> that made running game software almost impossible. To keep your PC
 JH> working in those days, you needed a host of utilities: memory
 JH> managers, disk defragmenters, and system boot tuners that became
 JH> crucial to your day-to-day work.

Sounds like a bunch of what's in my files section...

 JH> Times change, and yet they remain the same. Windows XP has helped
 JH> sweep away the old frustrations, but it leaves new ones in its
 JH> wake. Fortunately, there is a quiet army of programmers,
 JH> developers, and software makers churning out utilities to fix what
 JH> ails you and your current PC.

I guess m$ still didn't get it right,  somehow.

 JH> Here, in alphabetical order, is a
 JH> look at some of my favorite utilities--the ones I rely on every
 JH> day.

 JH> ALLSNAP: I almost feel bad recommending AllSnap because it's so
 JH> much simpler than the average utility. Install AllSnap and the
 JH> program quietly makes program windows and dialog boxes click into
 JH> place. No more slipping and sliding: windows snap cleanly to the
 JH> edge of the screen or to each other.

 JH> FIREFOX EXTENSIONS: Over the years, Internet Explorer has inspired
 JH> a raft of utilities, from pop-up blockers to cookie-management
 JH> tools. The popular Firefox browser is getting similar treatment,
 JH> but these utilities are packaged as Firefox Extensions--applets
 JH> that plug into the browser. My two favorites are the Tab Mix
 JH> extension for managing tabbed page behaviors, and the All-in-One
 JH> Gestures extension for navigating with simple swipes of the mouse.

Well,  my two favorites are adblock (!) and bugmenot.  I particularly like
that "remove this object" option that firefox gives me when I
right-click on something,  it's useful for those situations where page
designers insist on putting something on the page that flashes at you, 
which I find particularly annoying.

 JH> With Tab Mix, I can control where tabs appear and how they 
 JH> behave--adding a Close Tab icon to each tab, for instance, which
 JH> makes it much easier to close individual tabs.

Gee,  I have that option when I right-click on a tab,  don't need any icon
to do that with.

 JH> All-in-One Gestures eliminates the need to click the browser's 
 JH> Forward and Back buttons. Instead, you just click the right mouse 
 JH> button while dragging the mouse left or right to move backward or 
 JH> forward. Very cool.

I saw that on the firefox extentions page,  dunno whether I'd like that or not.



 JH> JGOODIES JDISKREPORT: The age of digital media means no disk is big
 JH> enough. The Java-based JDiskReport utility scans your hard disk and
 JH> then produces highly informative graphical displays. You can see
 JH> exactly where most of your data is residing, and even explore data
 JH> by file type, last modified date, and other criteria. It's a
 JH> terrific tool for deciding what files you want to keep on your
 JH> overcrowded hard disk, and what files might be good for saving to
 JH> removable media.

The trouble with that is that ever since windows came around drives are
cluttered up with more and more files that people have no clue about,  what
they're for,  which programs might use them,  etc.  And there's no real
separation between that and user data,  that I've noticed.



 JH> REAL ALTERNATIVE: RealNetworks' RealPlayer pushes the line between
 JH> software and spyware, installing all sorts of unwanted stuff onto
 JH> your PC.

Now this I hadn't heard of before.  I wonder if the linux version is the
same way?  No matter,  if I don't want it going out,  it won't get past my
firewall.  I do have a couple of those files,  and downloaded the software
but haven't installed it yet.  Gotta take a good look at that...

 JH> Unfortunately, other media players can't play back RealVideo and 
 JH> RealAudio files, forcing millions to bite the bullet and load the 
 JH> RealPlayer application.

 JH> Real Alternative ends the tough choice by letting users play back
 JH> Real-format files inside a specially modified version of the
 JH> "classic" Windows Media Player. Users can play both downloaded and
 JH> streaming tracks, without worrying about the software reporting
 JH> back on their viewing or listening preferences to Real's servers.

Sounds like spyware to me all right!

 JH> There's also an alternative to the QuickTime viewer, called
 JH> QuickTime Alternative.

Hm.

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