tinyapps.org / blog / 2005

Apparently in its effort to reduce splogs, Google's Blogger service now requires word verification for every new post. Not only does it force legitimate publishers to waste time figuring out and typing those warped letters:


It has also broken Blogger - even after entering the correct letters, the following message appears:

While WinSCP (an open source SFTP client for Windows) has been listed on TinyApps.Org for several years, it is just now that I ran across this neat trick: Keep Remote Directory Up To Date. Essentially it allows you to securely (using SFTP) and automatically sync a local directory on your Windows box with a remote server. May substitute for apps like WebDrive which allow you to map a network drive via SFTP.

Fog Creek Copilot ($9.95 for a day pass) is a remote access and desktop control service very similar to the free SkyFex Remote Assistant. Like SkyFex, Copilot offers easy, encrypted access through firewalls with no installation or configuration. Other solutions in this category include: LogMeIn Rescue (fee), GoToAssist (fee), UltraVNC's NAT2NAT (free), and reverse VNC connections (free).

Microsoft Money 2006 issue resolved, thanks to Paul Petterson's kind assistance (billg, if you're listening, Paul is serious VP material). If anyone else has trouble importing data from previous versions of Microsoft Money, here is what worked for us:

1. Backup data!!! Do not proceed without all of your critical data backed up, including your Microsoft Money data.
2. Relocate My Money.mny to a directory other than My Documents
3. Uninstall any existing MS Money versions
4. Install MS Money 2006
5. After installation, since Money cannot find an .mny file in the My Documents directory, it asks if you want to create a new file, open an existing file, etc. Choose the "Repair" option for the file which you relocated in step 2 and have the resulting file sent to My Documents
6. Launch MS Money 2006 and with any luck, all will be well.

When written out this way, the solution seems trivial. However, the key factor (which is moving the .mny file out of My Documents) was not immediately apparent... the app would simply crash on import, and then upon every startup, without any indication that there was a Repair option available.

While backing up data from an HFS+ (OS X) partition to a FAT32 external firewire drive, I received the following error message:

One or more items can't be copied. Do you want to skip them and copy remaining items?

This error was due to characters in some of the filenames on the HFS+ system which are not allowed under FAT32. Cameron Hayne created a swell Perl script to replace the offending characters, but changing the filenames was not my first choice. Thankfully, silentaccord posted a wonderful solution (look for his April 15, 2005 comment) here: Create HFS+ and FAT32 partitions on one external drive.

CSVed is a powerful CSV file editor that works with any delimiter/seperator (comma, semicolon, tab, pipe, etc). Installer-free version available.

SIW (System Information for Windows) - Freeware utility that displays detailed specs for motherboard, BIOS, CPU, devices, memory, video, disk drives, ports, printers, operating system, installed programs, processes, services, serial numbers (CD keys), users, open files, system uptime, network, network shares, as well as real-time monitors for CPU, memory, page file usage and network traffic. It displays currently active network connections, passwords hidden behind asterisks, installed codecs, and more. Does not require installation. (See this post for similar apps)

Text Rider is an insanely easy to install weblog system that uses simple text files as its database. Features include: templates, search, archiving, RSS feed, comments, and more.

Using two NAT routers for enhanced security | Configuration Details

TCC : Tiny C Compiler

MidiMeow is a free MIDI to WAV/MP3/OGG converter.

While not a tiny app, PSPad is a must-have freeware text editor for Windows. Features include: tabbed interface, FTP client (edit files directly on server), macro recorder, powerful regex search and replace, syntax highlighting, HEX editor, spell checker, and much more.

DemoStudio (apparently built on CamStudio), records screen activity and audio to avi or swf. Review

CBT4FREE offers two videos: Linux Web Server (17 minutes 58 seconds) explains how to set up a web server on a GNU/Linux server, and Web Server Config (13 minutes 26 seconds) details the installation and configuration of Apache, MySQL, and PHP on Windows. I ran across two more of their videos on Google Video: Setting up a Windows Workgroup and Setting up a Wireless Network.

Who knew that Microsoft speaks leet? Here's a taste:

• "kewl": A common derivation of "cool."
• "m4d sk1llz" or "mad skills": Refers to one's own talent. "m4d" itself is often used for emphasis.
• "n00b," "noob," "newbie," or "newb": Combinations synonymous with new user. Some leetspeekers view "n00b" as an insult and "newbie" as an affectionate term for new users.
• "w00t" or the smiley character \o/: An acronym that usually means "We Own the Other Team," used to celebrate victory in a video game.
• "roxx0rs" Used in place of "rocks," typically to describe something impressive.
• "d00d": Replaces the greeting or addressing someone as a "dude."
• "joo" and "u": Used instead of "you." This is also commonly written as "j00" or "_|00."
• "ph": often replaces "f," as in "phear" for "fear" (as in "ph34r my l33t skillz") and vice versa, such as spelling "phonetic" as "f0|\|371(."

(via digg)

Handcoding (X)HTML vs. WYSIWYG editors

The shareware ZTreeWin file manager seems to have an enthusiastic following; I've received a number of requests to consider listing it here. Here is a description from ZTree Environment Nirvana:

file and disk manager with split screen capability; flexible and sophisticated program launcher; keystroke recorder and player; a 32-bit Windows console (fast!) application with dynamically resizable windows; Registry- and GUI-free (but co-existing peacefully); compact (fits on a floppy); fast, with excellent contextual online help. ZTree operates with independently developed assistant applications; boasts probably the most intuitive, efficient and user-friendly interface invented; maintains a separate history list for every single command, preserving all user input; is constantly evolving; has a large following of professionals and power users (who are somewhat spoiled by almost instant, direct user-to-developer contact); and more...

Fluid Dynamics Search Engine is an easy-to-install search engine for local and remote sites. Features include: keyword highlighting, template-based design, result ranking, more. (via Kenny - test it at his site)

Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals offers a detailed walkthrough describing how to troubleshoot intermittent Explorer hangs using three of his indispensable apps: FileMon, RegMon, and Process Explorer.

In response to yesterday's post, Jeff Harrison kindly wrote in to share a more up-to-date collection of GNU utilities for Win32, called appropritately GnuWin32. There are over 150 apps, all available as either plain ZIP or setup files. Tool collections include: CoreUtils, FindUtils, and DiffUtils.

GNU utilities for Win32 is an awesome collection of over 100 *nix apps ported to native Win32 by K. M. Syring. The apps include:

ansi2knr, basename, bc, bison, bunzip2, bzip2, bzip2recover, cat, chgrp, chmod, chown, cksum, cmp, comm, compress, cp, csplit, cut, date, dc, dd, df, diff, diff3, dircolors, dirname, du, echo, egrep, env, expand, expr, factor, fgrep, find, flex, fmt, fold, fsplit, gawk, gclip, gplay, grep, gsar, gunzip, gzip, head, id, indent, install, join, jwhois, less, ln, logname, ls, m4, make, makemsg, man, md5sum, mkdir, mkfifo, mknod, mv, mvdir, nl, od, paste, patch, pathchk, pclip, pr, printenv, printf, pwd, recode, rm, rman, rmdir, sdiff, sed, seq, shar, sleep, sort, split, su, sum, sync, tac, tail, tar, tee, test, touch, tr, type, uname, unexpand, uniq, unshar, uudecode, uuencode, wc, wget, which, whoami, xargs, yes, zcat.

Since the ZIP file from SourceForge appears to be corrupted, I have taken the liberty of digging up an archived version from the Wayback Machine and hosting it here, with the last updates included. It is compressed with 7-Zip (ZIP size was 2.52MB vs. 1.42MB for 7z). As always, standard disclaimer applies: You are 100% responsible for your own actions. Using this site, visiting a link, downloading a program, in short, living, is done entirely at your own risk (and joy).

UPDATE: See tomorrow's post for a more up-to-date GNU for Win32 collection.

"Abyss Web Server is a compact web server available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD operating systems. Despite its small footprint, it supports HTTP/1.1, dynamic content generation through CGI/1.1 scripts, ISAPI extensions, Server Side Includes (SSI), custom error pages, password protection, IP address control, anti-leeching, and bandwidth throttling. It features also an automatic antihacking system as well as a multilingual remote web management interface that makes its configuration as easy as browsing a web site." Shareware version also available - see the feature comparison for more information.

Danny Choo has reviewed 20 useful OS X apps for switchers.

Vurlix kindly informs us of Cog, an open source audio player for OS X with support for: Ogg Vorbis, Mp3, Flac, Musepack, Monkeys Audio, Shorten, Wavpack, AAC, and Wave/AIFF.

A Microsoft Angel & Several Saviors
Many, many thanks to William Johnson, Ken Livingston, Bernie Luger, and Paul Petterson (from Microsoft) for kindly responding to my plea for help regarding Microsoft Money. There were two main approaches outlined: 1. install Money 2006 on another PC and locate the Product Key by going to Help > About or 2. import the 2002 data file into the trial version of Money 2005 (which reportedly works smoothly) and then upgrade the 2005 data file to 2006. My deepest gratitude to Paul as well for kindly offering to do whatever he can to see this issue gets resolved.

Microsoft Tech Support Hell

• A client is having problems with Microsoft Money 2002. She is told upgrading to Money 2006 will solve the problem.
• She buys Money 2006 Deluxe from Amazon.com, installs it, and begins the data import wizard, which repeatedly crashes the app.
• She spends 1.5 hours on the phone with Microsoft trying to resolve the problem to no avail
• She installs Money 2003 (an OEM version which came with her computer) and imports the data successfully.
• She calls Microsoft Tech Support for help with 2003, and is told since it is an OEM version, no help is available without paying
• She patiently explains that she just bought Money 2006 Deluxe on their advice and would prefer to run that, but has no choice since it won't import her Money 2002 data successfully.
• The support agent asks for the product key or serial number for Microsoft Money 2006.
• There is no such number anywhere on the retail box, CD case, or CD itself, nor was one required during install.
• No number = no help she is told
• There is no such number she tries to explain again and again.
• I pick up the phone and try to explain the situation, end up going postal, and get hung up on by the Indian support agent.
• Call for help: If you work at Microsoft or know some way out of this tech support nightmare, please contact me: [email protected]. Thanks!

UPDATE: Problem solved!

Recent items from the mailbin (thanks to all those who submit suggestions):

• uTorrent - An efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint. It was designed to use as little cpu, memory and space as possible while offering all the functionality expected from advanced clients. (via Vurlix)
• SQLite - A small C library that implements a self-contained, embeddable, zero-configuration SQL database engine. (via Aidan Pierce)
• ZoomIn - Open source screen magnification program allowing you to view any area of your screen under magnification. ZoomIn allows you to control the amount of zoom, view a pixels location and color, and save it as a bitmap. (via Austin)
• PowerPro - Take control of how you use Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP. Run commands and configure your system any way you want. (via David Troesch)
• url2bmp - Convert URLs to web page screenshots (via Matt Vance)

Not Yours To Give by Davy Crockett:

"'My papers say that last winter you voted for a bill to appropriate $20,000 to some sufferers by a fire in Georgetown. Is that true?'

"'Well, my friend; I may as well own up. You have got me there. But certainly nobody will complain that a great and rich country like ours should give the insignificant sum of $20,000 to relieve its suffering women and children, particularly with a full and overflowing Treasury, and I am sure, if you had been there, you would have done just as I did.'

"'It is not the amount, Colonel, that I complain of; it is the principle. In the first place, the government ought to have in the Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has nothing to do with the question. The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be intrusted to man, particularly under our system of collecting revenue by a tariff, which reaches every man in the country, no matter how poor he may be, and the poorer he is the more he pays in proportion to his means.

"'What is worse, it presses upon him without his knowledge where the weight centers, for there is not a man in the United States who can ever guess how much he pays to the government. So you see, that while you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he.

"'If you had the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter of discretion with you, and you had as much right to give $20,000,000 as $20,000. If you have the right to give to one, you have the right to give to all; and, as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to any and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity, and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity.

"'Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose. If twice as many houses had been burned in this county as in Georgetown, neither you nor any other member of Congress would have thought of appropriating a dollar for our relief. There are about two hundred and forty members of Congress. If they had shown their sympathy for the sufferers by contributing each one week's pay, it would have made over $13,000. There are plenty of wealthy men in and around Washington who could have given $20,000 without depriving themselves of even a luxury of life.

"'The congressmen chose to keep their own money, which, if reports be true, some of them spend not very creditably; and the people about Washington, no doubt, applauded you for relieving them from the necessity of giving by giving what was not yours to give. The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution.

As more and more people continue to follow their joy, leave unpleasant 9 to 5 jobs, and start their own businesses, cool spaces like theOffice and Paragraph will likely grow, providing clean, quiet environments to get work done outside of the home. Kinkos and Starbucks are swell, but they pale in comparison to the atmosphere which these places seem to offer. Rather reminiscent of the wonderful Diogenes Club.

UPDATE 1: Sandbox Suites in downtown San Francisco is a "coworking space for freelancers, entrepreneurs and anyone in need of a flexible and affordable place to work or meet." It reportedly offers "hot desks, private desks, a comfortable lounge with an espresso service, conference rooms, and a company of like-minded professionals."

UPDATE 2: One Alfred Place is "a new kind of club that combines the best of a private members' club with your own London office. A stylish, spacious interior filled with bespoke furniture and stunning contemporary art creates the perfect environment in which to hold meetings, get work done and relax. Excellent food and drink in a private dining club, and club PAs to provide the support you would expect from your own PA, make it a pleasure to spend time there."

dd_rhelp is a very useful frontend for dd_rescue, which recovers data from hard drives with bad sectors. Unfortunately, it is not included with Knoppix or many other Live CDs, so you'll need to download and install it first. However, one Live CD that does include dd_rhelp is the excellent (R)ecovery (I)s (P)ossible. An added bonus is that RIP runs from RAM once loaded, thereby freeing up your optical drive.

SkyFex Remote Assistant is a free remote desktop viewing service which claims to be secure and work through firewalls and NAT routers. While the website has a number of grammatical errors, its apparent creator, <name removed by request>, certainly seems qualified to create such a service. Requires Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer.

eServiceInfo.com - Service manuals, FRU guides, documentation, etc for computer hardware, software, consumer electronics, and much more.

Why does Sony make their Vaio model numbers so confusing? Needing to remove the hard drive from a notebook labelled PCG-531A, I searched Google for help to no avail. Only after visiting Sony's support site and entering PCG-531A as the model number, did I find out that it is actually a PCG-Z505LS. THAT certainly turned up a number of walk-throughs:

• VAIO Z505 disassembly, Installation of new hard drive
• Z505 Drive Replacement
• Upgrading the Sony Vaio PCG-Z505
• Sony VAIO Z505 HD Upgrade

browsershots.org - Free, open source browser screenshot service similar to NetMechanic's Browser Photo. Option to donate for faster turnaround time.

Bicycle powered generators:

• DIY overview
• David Butcher's experience and experiments
• Matt Shaver's experience and experiments
• $115 for parts to build your own
• $600 contraption
• $640 contraption
• $900 contraption

How to flush the DNS resolver cache under

• Windows (NT-based versions): ipconfig /flushdns
• Linux: /etc/rc.d/init.d/nscd restart
• OS X: lookupd -flushcache (late 2008 update: under Leopard, use dscacheutil -flushcache)

TinyApps.Org was mentioned over at digg today. In response to jasqwerty's question about OS X apps and installers, I posted the following (reproduced here for suggestions and to include links, which digg strips from comments):

Aloha, jasqwerty! It is true that many OS X apps are installer free, and simply mounting a disk image does not launch a "hidden installer" or the like. From the mounted disk image, you generally click and drag the app to OS X's "Application" folder (though you can drag it to any directory). Up until this point, the app has not polluted the system at all. However, once it is launched for the first time, most apps put preferences and the like into directories outside their own (preferences typically go into ~/Library/Preferences). Uninstalling an app is often as easy as dragging it to the Trash, but preferences and other files may remain behind. In lieu of an app like FileMon to track what files an app creates/modifies, you could run and save the output of ls for the entire drive before and after running a new app and then cmp or diff the two files to find changes. A quick Google search just now uncovered File Buddy, which can apparently "Create snapshots to track the changes on a disk, such as files installed by an installer." If anyone knows of a better method for tracking file creation/modification under OS X, please post it here.

BackupPC is a server-based app that extracts backup data from Linux and Windows clients via SMB shares, tar over ssh/rsh/nfs, or rsync. Open source and very well documented.

WinDV is a small (92k) standalone Windows app that captures video from DV to AVI and records AVI to DV devices via FireWire. (via Matthew Allen at MemeCode Software)

One Planet, Many People: Atlas of Our Changing Environment - Free download | Print edition | BBC review

DeskPilot v0.9 [265k] + Standalone viewer for Palm Desktop's Address Book, MemoPad, ToDo List and DateBook files. 📺  (via Will Stevenson)

Star Wars ASCII movie: Telnet to towel.blinkenlights.nl and enjoy Star Wars as it was meant to be enjoyed - in beautiful ASCII characters. (via Google Blogoscoped)

IBM's new Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files will offer real-time file backup to a NAS device. Features to include: versioning of files, "small foot print", multiple targets, and perhaps most importantly, no need for server-side software. UPDATE: Check out IBM's earlier VitalFile, which is strikingly similar and can be downloaded free of charge.

CardTXT 0.50a [50k] Palm app for reading and writing TXT files up to 4MB in size.

Google Talk "enables you to call or send instant messages to your friends for free - anytime, anywhere in the world." The 900k installer requires Windows 2000 or XP, and while other Jabber-based clients work also, voice chat requires the Google Talk software. You'll need a GMail account to join in the fun. Feel free to say hello: tinyapps at gmail dot com.

The inclusion of Dashboard widgets in Tiger seems rather gratuitous considering how much memory they use:

There should at least be an easy preference pane to enable/disable Dashboard. (UPDATE: There is: DashOnOff) Instead, there is the following command that will do the job:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

To reenable:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO

(Thanks to macosxhints)

OS X Tiger: Why did Apple decide to sell iPhoto 5 as part of iLife rather than bundle it with the OS, as has been done since OS X was released? Paying $79 for a formerly included app did not sit well with me, especially since there have been a number of problems reported with iPhoto 5. Instead, I installed iPhoto 4 from my Panther CD into Tiger via Pacifist, a shareware extractor/custom installer for .pkg packages. iPhoto 4 seems to work flawlessly under Tiger, and importing old photos is as simple as copying "~/Pictures/iPhoto Library" into the same directory in Tiger.

Flash Earth - See anywhere in the world using satellite images from Google Maps or MSN Virtual Earth.

🌱 CPU-Z 1.30 [296k] + Displays CPU, Motherboard, Memory, and System info. 📺

waysmall computers are complete Linux systems that fit in the palm of your hand. each come in a case with MMC slot, USB Device plug and a power adapter.

If you are ordering a Dell for home use, I highly recommend calling 1-800-BUY-DELL and dialing Ted Nichols' extension: 7958865. He is the best customer service rep at Dell I've ever spoken with.

Access Ext2/3 partitions from Windows (via digg):

• Ext2Fsd - Ext2 file system driver for Windows NT/2000/XP
• Ext2 IFS for Windows - Provides Windows NT/2000/XP with full access to Linux Ext2 volumes. Can also access Ext3 volumes.
• Explore2fs - Win32 explorer for Linux ext2fs partitions. Supports ext2 and ext3 and runs under Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003.

Carmel highlights, Day 4:

• Point Lobos State Reserve - Seals, sea otters, deer, etc. up close and personal
• Lunch in Devendorf Park, where Andrea's Fault happened to be giving a free concert.
• Grasing's - Four words: Tofu Tower of Power

San Francisco, Half Moon Bay, Carmel highlights, Day 3:

• Muir Woods - A definite must visit
• 2 Fools Cafe - Very friendly service; many vegan options
• Oasis Natural Foods - Lone outpost of healthy, organic goods
• Tickle Pink Inn - A particularly restful spot
• Village Corner Mediterranean Bistro - Happy to accomodate vegans

San Francisco highlights, Day 2:

• Blue & Gold Fleet - Ferry to Sausalito
• The Spinnaker - Awesome view, fewer vegan choices than even Farallon
• Two highly recommended China town tea shops: Red Blossom Tea Company and Vital Tea Leaf (aka 仙葉谷)
• Millennium Restaurant - Vegan fine dining

San Francisco highlights, Day 1:

• SFO to Montgomery via BART - $4.95 one way and loads of fun for people watching
• The Prescott Hotel - Beautiful accomodations, excellent customer service, free and easy wifi access.
• Cable Car Museum - Join the tourist throng
• Coit Tower - Great views and murals
• Farallon - Funky undersea motif (vegan choices scarce, however)
• Japan Town - Kinokuniya bookstore, Genji Antiques, and the must-visit Cafe Tan Tan.
• Greens Restaurant - Zen veggie

Any advice on cool tech, Japanese, or vegan places to visit in San Francicso would be appreciated: [email protected].

A small collection of poems has been added to the site.

There Is No Death
by John Luckey McCreery (1835-1906)


There is no death!  The stars go down
 To rise upon some other shore,
And bright in heaven's jeweled crown
 They shine for evermore.

There is no death!  The dust we tread
 Shall change beneath the summer showers
To golden grain or mellow fruit
 Or rainbow-tinted flowers.

The granite rocks disorganize
 To feed the hungry moss they bear;
The forest leaves drink daily life
 From out the viewless air.

There is no death!  The leaves may fall,
 And flowers may fade and pass away --
They only wait, through wintry hours,
 The coming of the May.

There is no death!  An angel form
 Walks o'er the earth with silent tread;
He bears our best-loved things away,
 And then we call them "dead."

He leaves our hearts all desolate --
 He plucks our fairest, sweetest flowers;
Transplanted into bliss, they now
 Adorn immortal bowers.

The bird-like voice, whose joyous tones
 Made glad this scene of sin and strife,
Sings now an everlasting song
 Amid the tree of life.

Where'er He sees a smile too bright,
 Or soul too pure for taint of vice,
He bears it to that world of light,
 To dwell in Paradise.

Born unto that undying life,
 They leave us but to come again;
With joy we welcome them -- the same
 Except in sin and pain.

And ever near us, though unseen,
 The dear immortal spirits tread;
For all the boundless universe
 Is Life -- there is no dead!

Running Windows XP with No Services by Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals. (via digg)

🌱 GreenPad 1.05 [70k] {S}+ Text editor with syntax highlighting, regexp search, unicode support, more. 📺

FreeSBIE is a LiveCD based on the FreeBSD Operating system. Be sure to check out the brief documentation, which includes helpful screenshots.

ecoMOD: a modular, affordable, ecological house system. (via Meta-Efficient)

RunFast - Tiny launcher/command tool that allows you to quickly launch programs, files, folders, websites and more. It supports aliases, which allows you to create custom commands and it also supports execution of multiple commands at one time. (via Greg Thrasher)

Flash demos of various exploits using WHoppix/WHAX, including:

• raptor
• autoscan-metasploit
• Whoppix-ssh-dcom
• Whoppix-ssl-mitm
• see-client-side
• Whoppix-wepcrack
• Whoppix-client-side

See also this new WPA cracking demo by Christophe Devine.

IP Sniffer v1.75 is slightly too large to be listed on TinyApps.Org, but it is an amazing tool nonetheless. Featuring a suite of IP Tools built around a packet sniffer, IP Sniffer works on all Windows versions using the raw socket implementation of Windows 2000 (driverless), WinPcap (needs to be installed), or an NDIS protocol (needs to be installed, no reboot). It has a clean, simple interface and does not write to the registry or create files outside of its own directory.

The IP tools are:

• Bandwidth monitor
• Adapter statistics (IP & NDIS)
• List and manage ARP entries, resolve IP to MAC, resolve MAC to IP, send a WAKEUP call
• List and manage routes, enable & disable host as a router
• List and manage open ports and attached processes
• Edit network config
• Hook winsock (winsock32.dll & ws2_32.dll)
• Spoof ARP (and do ARP cache poisoning), spoof TCP, spoof UDP, spoof ICMP
• Change MAC address
• SNMP Get & Set, List interfaces, Switch port mapper, Media Attachment Unit table
• WINS Query
• DNS (advanced) Query
• Local resolver
• DHCP Discover
• Whois Query
• SMTP client
• TCP tools (TCP ping, TCP half scan, ...)
• UDP tools (MSSQL Ping, SNMP ping, SSDP scan, ...)
• ICMP tools
• TCP/UDP bounce port
• Windows Networks (enum servers by type, spoof net send, shutdown windows, remote properties, netbios names, ...)
• Password tools (reveal asterisk, decode RDP, decode MDB, edit protected storage, edit LSA secrets)
• List and manage local & remote processes
• Tiny firewall (using Windows API)
• Test bandwidth
• Get Internet IP

JAM Software has a number of handy freeware apps, including:

• TreeSize - Directory size info
• NTFSRatio - Displays size and compression rate of folders on NTFS volumes
• HeavyLoad - Stress test / burn-in app

If you are ever having trouble recovering data and are thinking of throwing in the towel, be sure to read this post for encouragement and perhaps a few tips.

Good God, what in Heaven's name has happened to this country:

Schmidt said that to get him to talk, interrogators told him his mother and sisters were whores, forced him to wear a bra, forced him to wear a thong on his head, told him he was homosexual and said that other prisoners knew it. They also forced him to dance with a male interrogator, Schmidt added, and subjected him to strip searches with no security value, threatened him with dogs, forced him to stand naked in front of women and forced him onto a leash, to act like a dog.

Still, he said, "No torture occurred."

For those who claim to be Christians and yet support this insanity, I would remind you of your Savior's injunction: "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

Be a veggie, reduce global warming: People must stop eating meat and turn vegetarian to reduce global warming, says a British scientist. (via Vaughn Paul)

Dell's black and white 600dpi/15ppm 1100 Laser Printer is just $99. (via Strategize)

Netcat ("the network swiss army knife") has been listed on TinyApps.Org for some time, but for those new to it, the following documentation may be of use:

• The original README file
• NetCat Tutorial
• Netcat and Reverse Telnet
• NetCat Security (PDF version)

Forensic Acquisition Utilities for Windows 2000 and higher includes:

1. dd.exe: A modified version of the popular GNU dd utility program
2. md5lib.dll: A modified version of Ulrich Drepper's MD5 checksum implementation in Windows DLL format.
3. md5sum.exe: A modified version of Ulrich Drepper's MD5sum utility.
4. Volume_dump.exe: An original utility to dump volume information
5. wipe.exe: An original utility to sterilize media prior to forensic duplication.
6. zlibU.dll: A modified version of Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler's zlib library based on zlib-1.1.4.
7. nc.exe: A modified version of the netcat utility by Hobbit.
8. getopt.dll: An implementation of the POSIX getopt function in a Windows DLL format.

🌱 Atomic Web Server v1.0 [15k] {S}+ Extremely simple and fast web server 📺 💾 🌎

MEPIS is a very clean and polished Linux distro/Live CD with excellent hardware support. (via Iain Cheyne)

How to use Gmail as your SMTP server

IYHY - Free online service that makes websites easier to access via mobile devices by stripping non-essential content and markup.

NTT DoCoMo has an excellent collection of Flash-based Japanese fairy tales, including Momotaro, Warashibe Choja, Hanasaka Jiisan, and many others. The artwork and music are beatifully done.

3 apps from the mailbin:

• 🌱 ShideWin [3.5k] {S}+ Enumerates all top-level windows and allows you to show or hide them. Especially helpful for finding windows that were made invisible after a crash.
• 🌱 Double click simulator 2.1 [19k] + Simulates double left clicks using the middle mouse button. Also allows basic control of Winamp through global hotkeys.
• VoIPerized [279k] Tiny Voice over IP program. According to the submitter: "You only need the exe. You can copy it to another folder, and then uninstall the app. VoIPerized keeps its config in a small .cfg file. You can upx voiperized.exe to 141K." It would be nice if apps like this did not include an installer to begin with. Download

Backing up a Windows Laptop with OS X

ORIENT 2.5 [168k] + Unicode editor for Windows 2000 and higher that incorporates bi-directional text support for Arabic or Hebrew languages (right to left) and support for Asian languages (Chinese and Japanese). 📺  (via Mike Mills)

Export Gmail Contacts:

• Various hacks and work-arounds
• Another hack, with screenshots
• Gmail Address Book Exporter - Java app

Configuring autologin for SLAX

After installing SLAX to hard drive, some folks may want it to automatically log in a user and start KDE. Here's how:

1. Login as root
2. Open /etc/inittab and change this line:
   
   # Default runlevel. (Do not set to 0 or 6)
id:3:initdefault:
   
   to
   
   # Default runlevel. (Do not set to 0 or 6)
id:4:initdefault:
3. 
   
4. Save /etc/inittab
5. Go to: K Menu > Control Center > System Administration > Login Manager > Convenience and configure options as desired. Here is an example setup:

MySLAX Creator allows you to create your own customised SLAX live cd or bootable USB drive in Windows.

SLAX Guide

A new version of Stash has been released. It's a tiny CLI database app for books, email addresses, etc.

MacTheRipper is an excellent OS X utility for copying your legally-acquired DVDs to hard drive. This might be useful when travelling, for example. It comes with a detailed manual, but some may wonder how to bypass DVD Player's Region Code check which says:

Drive Region Code
The disc region code does not match the drive region code. The drive region code must be changed to play this disc

Simply open System Preferences, click on "CDs & DVDs", and change the line which reads "When you insert a video DVD:" to MacTheRipper (for example).

How-To: Boot Windows XP Off a Compact Flash Card

James Broder crafts "custom real-time scoring, timing, results, and television graphics software solutions for some of the biggest sporting events & live TV productions in the world." Plus, he's a really swell guy.

You may have noticed Google ads in the Atom feed lately. If not, here's a sample:



I have decided to discontinue these ads, mainly because they seem more intrusive than the web-based variety. Dave Taylor also has an interesting article on AdSense for RSS.

Three IP Subnet Calculators:

1. Online (Perl script also available for download)
2. Windows
3. Palm

Tumbleweed Tiny House Company (via ritilan)

Rhebus Networks, a UK tech support firm, has created an excellent technical advice section, with such gems as:

• RAID Hard Disk Arrays: They Work, They're Affordable, Every Network should have one - Including Yours!
• How to get a Professional-Looking Company-Wide Email System - Simply & Cheaply
• How to Choose the Right Networking Cable
• Some Tricky Windows 2000/XP Problems & their Solutions
• Which IP address range should you choose for your internal network?

🌱 ASFRecorder V1.1 [368k] {S}+ Download and store streaming Windows Media files (asf, asx, wma, wmx, wmv, wvx). 📺

The BBS Documentary DVD (mentioned a little over two years ago) is now shipping

"BBS: The Documentary" is an 8 episode series about all aspects of the history of the dial-up Bulletin Board System, or BBS. 3 years in the making and the result of over 200 interviews, this collection puts in one convenient package a sense of the variety and wide-reaching effects of the BBS phenomenon. All in all, over seven and a half hours of material is included across the three region-free DVDs.

Among the features of this documentary:

• 5 and a half hours of episodes
• Over 80 minutes of bonus footage
• Commentary Tracks and Statements by Jason Scott
• Easter Eggs
• Subtitles on all Episodes and Footage
• Region-Free DVDS
• No Copy Protection, CSS or Macrovision
• Licensed under Creative Commons
• DVD-ROM Section with:
  • Thousands of photos
  • Additional audio interviews
  • Speeches by Jason Scott and guests

UPDATE: I just bought a copy and highly recommend you do the same, if only to see the great thank you page.

NSLookup - Online forward and reverse DNS Lookup. UPDATE: An anonymous reader kindly wrote in to suggest dnsstuff.com as well.

HijackThis! Log Analyzer - Automated online analyzer to help you find information about entries in your HijackThis! log.

Linux Newbie Administrator Guide - A complete reference for new Linux users who wish to set up and administer their own Linux home computer, workstation and/or their home or small office network. The answers are meant to be simple, with just sufficient detail, and always supported with a readily usable example.

Longhorn will so rule (warning: extremely funny)

The HP 9100C Digital Sender's documentation states that in order to erase the administrator password, you simply press SHIFT+ALT+r. That didn't work at all, but thanks to Google and a little persistence, here is the correct method (however improbable it seems):

Reset the HP 9100C Digital Sender's administrator password:

1. Press SHIFT+ALT+Duplex (the button under the green and red buttons)
2. Type "erase password please" (without quotes, but including spaces)
3. Press OK

• Recovering Windows XP using the Recovery Console (with screenshots)
• Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console (from Microsoft)
• Repair XP (links and screenshots)
• How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install

VersionBackup - Create daily scheduled backups, keep x days worth of backup sets, delete old backups after x days, more. Freeware and shareware versions available (differences).

In his Wi-Finally: wireless security that actually works, Brian Livingston strongly suggests using WPA for wireless security. He notes that Microsoft only supplies WPA client software for Windows XP, and recommends two shareware packages for users of earlier versions of Windows. However, he fails to mention that WSC provides free WPA Personal client software for Windows 98 through XP. (via WNN)

History of the Internet and Web from 700 BC to 2000 AD

The Netcraft Toolbar (which helps protect against phishing attacks and the like) is now available for Firefox.

Jacques' Hack Attack - Video from the BBC showing what happens to a non-firewalled Windows XP box on the Net (Sasser infection in 8 seconds). Includes shots of Process Explorer and TDIMon.

filehippo.com - "The aim of filehippo.com is to provide you with the simplest method of downloading the newest versions of the best software - without the usual excessive popups or spyware and without the low quality software. We do not offer any illegal software, warez or pirated material. All software is either Freeware or Shareware. All our servers have 100Mb network connections so your downloads will be as fast as possible!"

Tons of information, including commands, file lists, version info, etc, for virtually every Microsoft OS ever made as well as several other DOS flavors and OS/2. NEW URL: http://www.geocities.com/rick_lively/MANUALS/INDEX.HTM

Skype: be afraid

Working with OS X image files:

• Convert .DMG images to .ISO: hdiutil convert /path/to/filename.dmg -format UDTO -o /path/to/savefile.iso
• BurnCMPlugIn - Burn disc images directly from the Finder (to install, put BurnCMPlugIn.plugin into ~/Library/Contextual Menu Items/ and restart Finder)
• dmg2iso - Converts compressed (z-lib) DMG images to ISO images. Available as a Perl script or Win32 binary.
• FreeDMG - Perform drag and drop disk imaging on the fly. Supports twelve compression formats (UDZO, UDCO, etc.) and optional encryption.
• CD > ISO via Disk Utility
  1. Insert CD, open Disk Utility and highlight the desired session in the left pane.
  2. Images > New > Image from (image name)
  3. Type a filename for the ISO image and choose the save location.
  4. For "Image Format" choose DVD/CD master and click "Save"

Anonymizing Google's Cookie - Use this simple GoogleAnon bookmarklet to anonymize your Google cookie.

DISENTER - Free Usenet news servers database and search engine

The Aardvark Firefox extension displays a red rectangle framing each element under the cursor, as well as a caption showing the HTML element type and its class or id if they exist. (via Shell Extension City)

How to use RSS correctly makes a very strong case for limiting feeds to short descriptions with links back to the main article. This approach has now been adopted by TinyApps. Here is a real life example of why this might be a good idea.

Store Wars - Star Wars spoof promoting organic food (Flash, QuickTime, and Windows Media formats available). From the good folks who brought you The Meatrix.

Two interesting job offers for vegans on the Big Island:

• "EITHER a programmer (ideally familiar with HTML, PHP, MS Access, MySQL, or highly intelligent with a good ability to learn)
• OR a good communicator, able to compose well-written e-mail correspondence
• Meticulous (paying attention to detail, not prone to making lots of mistakes)
• In possession of a good work ethic (too often lacking these days)

... and you don't mind

• Living in somewhat basic housing until we build more (or renting nearby)
• Beautiful Pacific Ocean views
• A perfect climate (mid-70s every day, all year)
• Waterfall pools to swim in
• Not having to commute to work
• Not having any neighbors

... then we would like to hear from you!

As a rough guide -- and it can only be rough until we know you -- we can offer a good programmer/analyst $30-$40 per hour ($60-80,000 per year), and we can offer someone who is able to take over a significant portion of the day-to-day running of the business (responding to e-mails, processing payments, etc.) $15-25 per hour ($30-50,000 per year)."

One way of hiding CSS from un- or under-supported web browsers is to use @import. However, this causes IE to briefly flash an unstyled page, a most annoying effect. BlueRobot has the scoop on how to block this behavior.

As with any new operating system, Tiger has its share of problems:

• Tiger Bugs Break Networking Software
• Tiger Memory Usage
• That syncing feeling
• Frustrating Tiger Bug

Rather than enduring such unpleasantness, Panther users may want to instead update to 10.3.9, which includes the same Safari enhancements as Tiger. However, 10.3.9 users should also apply Security Update 2005-005, as it patches some rather serious security holes.

Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (not to be confused with Ultimate Boot CD) - Bart's PE on steroids, i.e., loaded with useful antivirus, antispyware, security, recovery, and diagnostic apps. (via digg)

Hide CSS from browsers covers: CSS tricks relying on lack of CSS support in browsers, Browser sniffing using JavaScript object detection, and MSIE Conditional Comments.

Why would you want even a single version of Internet Explorer on your PC, let alone multiple versions? Browser bug testing.

• Multiple Explorers
• Taming Your Multiple IE Standalones
• Multiple IEs in Windows
• Multiple Versions of Internet Explorer

Before submitting an app, please be so kind as to run a quick search and make sure it is not already listed. It may be helpful to read this for information on search operators. For example, a simple search for "FAC" returns 90 results, but using the w: operator, it returns only 1 (which is the one we were after).

Many thanks to the following folks who kindly responded to yesterday's request for help:

Benjamin, Fritz, Michael, Micronsite agenzia webmastering, Laurent, Steven, Uwe, Norberto, and Mike Mills.

The logo which was ultimately selected is from Micronsite agenzia webmastering, and can viewed here. So far, it seems to work perfectly in every major browser, even when the text is resized. Please let me know if your browser has any problems. Thanks!

I am working on moving TinyApps to a CSS-based layout, and am having a few problems with the logo (found here), namely:

• Looks perfect in Firefox, Opera, and Safari, but awful in IE (unless text size is set to "smallest")
• Does not resize well in any browser but Opera (increasing font size in Firefox results in the text overflowing)

If anyone can help with this, or just with general tips on transitioning the site to CSS, please let me know. UPDATE: Many thanks to all of those who kindly wrote in. Micronsite agenzia webmastering has sent a version which works perfectly in all major browsers. It will be posted here shortly along with credit to everyone who took the time to help. Thank you.

Shareware is rarely mentioned on TinyApps. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with it (especially considering that there is no such thing as "free" software), but usually there are better freeware alternatives.

However, such is not the case with Aid4Mail. This mailbox converter/archiver is simply without parallel. Though suffering from an unfortunate activation and verification system, Aid4Mail can do far more with mailboxes than any other app I've seen.

Despite being over 1.44mb (and therefore not qualified to be added to the program listings), it has been reviewed for two primary reasons:

1. There is simply no other app (free or fee) that has the same functionality
2. For years, Eric Fookes has generously given away one of the most popular text editors for Windows, Notetab Light. Several years ago, he kindly made a version for TinyApps readers: tiny_notetab.zip

You can read the review here.

Pravin kindly wrote in to inform us of his app, Yammy (Yahoo Messenger Archives Decoder), which decodes and displays archived Yahoo Messenger conversations. Screenshot

"Detailed discussion of DiamondCS' ProcessGuard, a tool designed to generically protect your sensitive and critical processes from being tampered with by all sorts of malware."

The phrase "pre-IPO biotech trade secrets" may very well become the next "all your base are belong to us":

1. Berkeley laptop thief is scared out of his wits by professor
2. Teacher Caught Lying To His Students, Boing Boing Takes The Bait
3. Pixel reenactment
4. ABC News: Professor Exaggerates Risk During Stolen Laptop Tirade

UPDATE 1: ABC has yanked this story - perhaps they got a call from a certain pre-IPO biotech company ;-) However, here is a quote from the story and a screen capture of the headline at Google News

UPDATE 2: Paul Jones (who is to thank for salvaging the quote mentioned above) is also following this story. The sources keep disappearing... I'm beginning to suspect that a certain pre-IPO biotech company is in cahoots wit^^$*~$))^- NO CARRIER

UPDATE 3: The ABC News story lives! Thanks to Google cache and Justin's kind email. Page 1 | Page 2

UPDATE 4: The official Berkeley webcast of Prof. Rine's class has been edited to remove his laptop comments, so here they are in QuickTime format.

🌱 Angry IP Scanner 2.21 [109k] {S}+ Pings a range of IP addresses and optionally resolves hostnames, scans ports, returns NetBIOS info (computer name, workgroup name, currently logged in user and MAC address), and saves results to CSV, TXT, HTML, XML or IP-Port list files. Don't miss the plugin page, especially David Bingham's MAC Address via ARP protocol. (While settings can be saved to the registry, this is not the default behavior.) 📺

floppyswop.co.uk - "A place for sharing any files small enough to fit on a conventional floppy disc (1.44meg High density), art, media, sound, noise, its up to you, all files are hosted here for taking and swopping." (via ME-L)

Joe kindly wrote in to tell us about his patched version of jhead (covered on April 1st), which is capable of outputting EXIF data in XML format. Open source, with binaries available for Linux and OS X.

Nothing Better Than Death - Insights from 62 near-death experiences. Buy from Amazon or download the PDF for free.

iBackup 3.1.0 [516k] Simple backup/restore utility with scheduling support for OS X. Free for personal use. 📺

New HOWTO posted: Help yourself, your fellow beings, and the planet

Help Me with Firefox Popups has a number of helpful posts on how to block the latest popup and popunder ads plaguing Mozilla Firefox.

Andrew Parker kindly sent in a very cool alternative to the two Japanese language tools featured yesterday: Rikai.com displays the reading and definition of any word in a tiny popup box:

jBrowse is an Internet Explorer plugin which adds furigana and word definitions to Japanese web pages. It can also be used as a two-way dictionary and kanji locator (search by radical, stroke count, pronunciation, meaning, jouyou level, or JIS number).

Original page:


Page with furigana inserted:


Page with word definitions:


If you do not or can not use Internet Explorer, this site offers instant online rendering of furigana, though the output is a bit harder to read:

nLite - Build custom Windows 2000, XP, and 2003 install CDs with integrated service packs, hotfixes, and drivers while excluding unwanted components (Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer, Messenger, etc). Requires .NET Framework 1.1.

Bjorn kindly informs us of Indeed.com, which is, as he so succinctly puts it, "basically the Kayak.com of job hunting sites."

Kayak.com is a very simple yet thorough travel search engine. According to About.com, Kayak "searches more than 100 major airline, hotel, and travel sites. From those it can access prices and itineraries on more than 550 airlines and 85,000 hotels - and then Kayak gives users the options of booking directly from the travel supplier of their choice by clicking on a supplier's direct URL, calling the travel provider's tollfree phone number, or booking via Orbitz or Onetravel.com."

Learning to Use Regular Expressions

BeOS fans can still listen to virtual (void). (via Aldoblog)

🌱 jhead 2.3 [94k] {S}+ Extract/modify digital camera setting information from exif JPEG files, strip unncessary data, more. Precompiled binaries available for Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris. 📺  (via Mike Mills)

Some uncharacteristically bloated behavior from Google. As Brad Hill points out, "The (potential) problem is, that page's cookies and other gunk gets downloaded to your hard drive even if you don't visit the page." Aside from the needless network activity and wasted storage space, what if the first result contains illegal or illicit content? Firefox users can disable this behavior by typing about:config in the address bar and setting "network.prefetch-next" to "False".

DOSBox is an open source DOS emulator with ports for Windows, BeOS, Linux, and OS X.

Kangoo Jumps are crazy fun and great exercise:

Just bought a pair from Daniel, who provided the best customer service I have ever experienced on the web.

🌱 Resize 2.6 [335k] + Batch resize images by percentage, height, width, or maximum dimension while maintaining aspect ratio. From the website: "The resizing algorithm produces high quality images because it uses all available information from the source image. Most other image resizing software only use a small amount of information from the source image." 📺

Help! My browser is hijacked! is an excellent guide to spyware removal, with a special emphasis on how to use HijackThis safely.

10x10 - 100 words and pictures that express the current news glop. (via David Weinberger)

Setting up Windows XP or 2000 to Run Japanese Software

XBT Client - Tiny BitTorrent client. (via Michel)

30 Days to Becoming an Opera 7 Lover

MirrorFolder [1044k] $ Mirror selected files to a local, network, or removable disk in real time. 📺

Arctic - Minimal BitTorrent client for Windows 2000 or higher. (via Robbin Henryson)

UPDATE 1: Laurent kindly informs us that Arctic requires the .NET runtimes.

UPDATE 2: Phil Bean explains that Arctic itself apparently does not requires the .NET runtimes, but its MSI installer does.

MiniApache - Lean version of the open source Apache web server for Windows NT and above. (via digg)

Ed Carlson, "The Waver", has been walking and waving throughout the country for almost thirty years. He has walked over 225,000 miles spreading his message that "All is love."

Three recent app suggestions from the mailbin:

1. menuApp - "Configure menus and use them to launch your favourite programs, music files, documents, websites, etc. Its fast, doesn't hog a lot of resource and is easy to setup and use (so long as you can handle a text editor). What's more, it doesn't drop any extraneous files on your system and it stays well clear of the registry." (via Douglas McFadzean)
2. 2A-ChitChat - "Chat application like e.g. ICQ or AIM and similar programs. The 2A-ChitChat advantage is a completely ciphered data transmission, free configuration of TCP-ports (only one port is used - important for firewalls), tiny footprint (no additional DLL's or runtime) and no public server needed." (via Andreas Aumayr)
3. Omziff - "Straightforward encryption utility that uses various cryptographic algorithms to encrypt and decrypt textual files. These algorithms include: Blowfish, Cast128, Gost, IDEA, Misty1, Rijndael, and Twofish. It also generates random passwords. It is freeware, comes in a standalone executable file." (via Dean)

dBpowerAMP Music Converter (dMC) - Convert virtually any audio file type via the context menu: MP3, MP4, Windows Media Audio (WMA), Real Audio, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, Monkeys Audio, FLAC, SHN, many more. (Before complaining about the MP3 encoder trial period, read this thread) | Reviews

Answers to your most perplexing Microsoft Word questions (including how to fix the 'Page X of Y' printing as 'Page X of X' bug) can be found at the Microsoft Word MVP site.

🌱 HI-MD Renderer 0.30 [180k] + Convert OpenMG (OMA / OMG) files to WAV, MP3, FLAC, or OGG. More info on Sony's Hi-MD Recorders, SonicStage, and their proprietary OpenMG file format is available here. 📺

Hydreux kindly informs us of pdftk, an open source, cross-platform PDF toolkit that can:

• Merge PDF Documents
• Split PDF Pages into a New Document
• Decrypt Input as Necessary (Password Required)
• Encrypt Output as Desired
• Fill PDF Forms with FDF Data and/or Flatten Forms
• Apply a Background Watermark
• Report on PDF Metrics such as Metadata, Bookmarks, and Page Labels
• Update PDF Metadata
• Attach Files to PDF Pages or the PDF Document
• Unpack PDF Attachments
• Burst a PDF Document into Single Pages
• Uncompress and Re-Compress Page Streams
• Repair Corrupted PDF (Where Possible)

Combine PDFs 1.0 [832k] {S} Combine multipage PDFs/graphics, reorder/remove pages, add meta data. 📺

🌱 Screen Thief for DOS v2.01 [37k] + Capture DOS screens as BMP, TIFF, PCX or TXT files. 📺 💾

CamStudio 2.0 [1331k] {S} Screen recorder able to save captures as AVI or SWF (Flash) files. (Source code available here) 📺 💾 🌎

Out of Body Experiences: How to have them and what to expect

Recover a dead hard drive using dd

The Linksys WRT54G wifi router for around $60 has some exciting firmware alternatives, including:

• OpenWRT - Turn the WRT54G into a customized Linux box
• HyperWRT - General enchancements
• Ewrt - HotSpot / Captive portal

Please note that all of these (and any other non-Linksys firmware) will void your warranty. Also, make sure your hardware is supported (most alternative firmware will not support v2.2 at the moment).

UPDATE: Linksys Blue Box Router HOWTO

ZoneCD - WiFi hotspot/captive portal on a Morphix-based LiveCD. Success stories | Review

Mailbag Assistant from Eric Fookes (maker of NoteTab) is a swell shareware app that allows you to browse e-mail archives from: Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape Messenger, Mozilla Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Pegasus, The Bat!, Forte Agent, PocoMail, Calypso, FoxMail, Juno 3.x, Unix mail (Pine, Elm, mbox, etc.) and EML message files.

I found it especially helpful in recovering "lost" messages from a Eudora mailbox.

By the way, in their instructions on migrating Eudora from Mac to Windows, Qualcomm recommends a freeware app called CRLF which does not seem to work under OS 9 (it was originally made for OS 7, IIRC). However the tiny Green Award winner XCRLF works beautifully.

🌱 RenameFiles 2.42 [148k] + Rename files recursively, add/delete strings, change case, preview before applying, much more. 📺

Microsoft to Users: Buy a Mac

Beginning February 28, customers who purchase Windows on a new PC will not be able to activate, nor reinstall their operating system without first calling Microsoft... Microsoft expects to expand the Internet product activation ban to all pre-activated Windows PCs in the next quarter.

(via BetaNews)

Ariya Hidayat kindly wrote in to suggest ExplorerXP, a file manager for Windows 2000/XP which includes tabs, batch renamer, folder size info, and more.

Even though Microsoft's Strider GhostBuster looks incredibly useful, there are apparently no plans to release it.

Perhaps the good folks at SysInternals read Bruce Schneier's plea and decided to do something about it:

RootkitRevealer is a free advanced root kit detection utility. It runs on Windows NT 4 and higher and its output lists Registry and file system API discrepancies that may indicate the presence of a user-mode or kernel-mode rootkit. RootkitRevealer successfully detects all persistent rootkits published at www.rootkit.com, including AFX, Vanquish and HackerDefender (note: RootkitRevealer is not intended to detect memory-based rootkits like Fu that don't survive reboots).

WallWatcher 3.2.16 - Collect, view, and analyze router logs from certain 2Wire, Airlink, Buffalo, Cisco, D-Link, Draytek, Gnatbox, Linksys, Lucent, m0n0wall, Netgear, Netscreen, Smoothwall, Sonicwall, Speedstream, Symantec, Westell, Xincom, and ZyXEL devices. Requires Windows 98 or higher.

Joel on pricing software (and just about anything else).

An Illustrated Guide to Cryptographic Hashes

The Portable Freeware Collection catalogs freeware that can be extracted to any directory and run independently without prior installation.

TED Notepad 4.3.1 [81k] + Notepad replacement with Unix-like text functions, hotkeys, multiple clipboards, and much more. Written in pure ANSI C using the system API functions. 📺  (via Kenny)

Fatal Harvest - Contrasting Agrarian And Industrial Agriculture (keywords: farm, farming, organic, monoculture)

PingPlotter 1.10 [424k] Graphical network troubleshooting and diagnostic tool. Shareware version also available (feature comparison). 📺 💾

Rescue data from a non-booting Windows 98 Virtual PC 4 file via SLAX

Blowfish Advanced CS 2.52 is an open source file encryption tool which supports: Blowfish, Twofish, AES, RC4, Triple-DES, Serpent, CAST. Runs under Windows 95 to Server 2003, and is available without an installer. (via Iain)

TinyApps.Org site search is now powered by KSearch, an open source Perl script. Please give it a try (using the form field at left) and tell me what you think.

Recently used Mac links:

• Apple Manuals
• iMac take apart guides with lots of photos.
• apple-history.com has a brief history of Apple, and a gallery with descriptions, specs and pictures of every Apple computer ever made.
• Tutorial: Now you see 'em, now you don't: Invisible files in Mac OS X

freeSee 1.2.0 [59k] Picture viewer for OS X. 📺

Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory - Free wireless hotspots

Privoxy is an open source "web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting privacy, modifying web page content, managing cookies, controlling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet junk." (via Rob Dench)

Off By One has been updated! If you have not seen this insanely cool, self-contained web browser with SSL (all under 1.44mb), now is the time to check it out. See the release notes for new features. (via Pete)

SyncBack v3.2.7 Easily backup and synchronise your files to: the same drive; a different drive or medium (CDRW, CompactFlash, etc); an FTP server; a Network; or a Zip archive. The 'No Install' will not install files into Windows or other PC system directories. Reviews

InstallSpy v2.0 Track any and all changes to the registry and file system, and also record all shell notification events (e.g. media inserted), when a program is installed, uninstalled, or run.

Intellibuild - "Quickly and easily create your own custom GNU/Linux LiveCD Distribution (like Knoppix and Morphix)."

ThinBrowser might finally give Gmail some serious competition. 1GB of storage space, a 30 second signup (just name, desired email address & password are required), cool interface, and a slew of features: Advanced Spam Filtering, Virus Screening, Check Other POP/IMAP Accounts, Outlook-to-Webmail Sync, Enhanced Address Book & Calendar, Block/Approve Senders, Forward to Email Address or Mobile Device, Track Delivery, Password/PGP Encryption, POP/IMAP Access, and much more.

Foxit PDF Reader 1.2 [903k] + View and print PDF documents. CJK support with additional download. Free for non-commercial use. 📺  (via CleanSoftware.org)

Port-to-process mappers have been covered before, but CurrPorts is worth a close look: a mere 36k with no installer, it operates under Windows 9x and higher. From the included text file:

CurrPorts displays the list of all currently opened TCP/IP and UDP ports on your local computer. For each port in the list, information about the process that opened the port is also displayed, including the process name, full path of the process, version information of the process (product name, file description, and so on), the time that the process was created, and the user that created it. In addition, CurrPorts allows you to close unwanted TCP connections, kill the process that opened the ports, and save the TCP/UDP ports information to HTML file, XML file, or to tab-delimited text file. CurrPorts also automatically mark with pink color suspicious TCP/UDP ports owned by unidentified applications (Applications without version information and icons)

A mini-guide to Mac OS X

Last year (Jan 4-8, 2004) we were searching for freeware calculators with virtual tape. Iain has reviewed several and recommends ESBCalc v4.5: "Scientific calculator for Win32 platforms with infix notation, brackets, scientific functions (trigonometric, hyperbolic, logarithmic - including base 10, base 2 & natural - plus more), memory, paper trail, result history list and more."

WSedit - "Freeware editor with CUA (default Windows) and Wordstar key commands. If you know the behaviour of Wordstar DOS, the 'feeling' of WSedit will be similar. WSedit reads and writes the file formats Wordstar 3.4 - 7, ASCII ISO and IBM codepage and works fine with very large files up to 20 MB." (via Robert Bull)

If you haven't read Free and easy remote access (through firewalls and NAT routers) with VNC reverse connections yet, be sure to check it out. But there may be an even easier (and still free) option coming from WebEx on January 24th: MyWebEx. See WebEx to offer free remote PC access for more information. And don't forget LogMeIn (mentioned last year).

If you need to support remote Windows users through firewalls or NAT, GoToAssist is hard to beat for ease of use. However, the price (over $300 per month) seems rather expensive.

Another option, almost as easy but completely free, is to use VNC's Viewer in listen mode as discussed here: Remote control tech support.

Also see Fred's comprehensive list of remote control applications.

UPDATE: Created a tiny tutorial with screenshots: Free and easy remote access (through firewalls and NAT routers) with VNC reverse connections.

🌱 DriveUse v1.00 [7k] + Reports detailed disk space usage on all drives and presents the results in a clear, sorted, tree-like structure. 📺

isnoop.net's gmail invite spooler - "A place for people with Gmail invites and those who want them to come together with minimal effort and fuss. Currently, we have 254 invites available to share. Thanks to the generosity of folks like you, we've distributed 153,696 invites since this page went up on Sep 13, 2004."

Barry Klein kindly sent in two tiny DOS apps by Tom Kihlken (quotes are from the included docs):

TinyView 0.9k (released into the Public Domain) - "The best text file viewer your ever going to see. It's tiny (958 bytes), it can view ANY size text file, it displays lines up to 1024 characters wide, and it uses all 25 lines of your display. How does TV do all of this? Through the magic of assembler. This program is written in 100% pure assembly language for the smallest, fastest program possible."

TED 3k - "A small, full-screen editor for line-oriented files of up to 64K in length that supports scrolling, cut, copy, paste, and printing operations, and permits entry of all members of the IBM character set."

Search and download 86775 BBS files. (via Mike Mills)

Russian Password Crackers - Reviews and benchmarks for a wide range of password crackers.

"At the center of the universe is a loving heart that continues to beat and that wants the best for every person. Anything we can do to help foster the intellect and spirit and emotional growth of our fellow human beings, that is our job."

Fred Rogers (AKA Mister Rogers)

(via World Prayers)

Beatles Mash-up Medley - 40 Beatles songs smushed into 3m34s. (via goodblimey!)

Bob Cerelli's Windows Site has an amazing amount of useful information in a fast-loading and easy-to-read format.

Voice Recognition for Palm OS

Begin a forensics investigation with WinHex (and be sure to check out its other impressive features).

GLtron - Open source game based on TRON with binaries available for Windows, Mac OS 9/X, and Linux.

UPDATE: Jalada kindly points us to Armagetron, another open source Tron clone with binaries for Linux, OS X, and Windows and more features than GLtron.