Useful Places To Go
On The Internet
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This page provides directions to websites that RLC members visit for useful programs and updates. Given the fly-by-night nature of the Internet, we can't guarantee that the links will work forever but they go to what we believe are sound, lasting organizations because they provide quality software.
   They are all worth a visit.
A similar page on interesting websites in the Specials 2 section can be reached by clicking here.
Book Bargains

Bibliophile – claims to supply 'Britain's best postal book bargains. The firm is certainly well worth checking out, and it sends out a monthly catalogue in tabloid newspaper format to serial book buyers.

PostScript – offers a similar service, and sends out a glossy magazine catalogue with a lengthy selection devoted to academic works.

There are lots of genuine bargains to be had from both sources.

Graphics Software

Alchemy Mindworks – the source of such essential programs as Graphic Workshop and Gif Construction Set, this outfit provides quality software at reasonable prices. And one of the guys is a mad author of fantasy stuff, whose books are also available.

EditPad – Jan Goyvaerts wrote the RLC's text editor of choice, which was used to build this website. The program allows the user to have a whole bunch of plain text files open at the same time - unlike the one-shot NotePad that comes with Windows 9.x - and you can copy-and-paste html code very conveniently. Also, it can handle much larger files than Notepad. The RLC authors use what Mr. Goyvaerts now calls the 'Classic Version', which is no longer available as a download. But he does offer a for-sale professional version.
Highly recommended.

Free Anti-Virus Software

Grisoft.com offers free and paid for versions of the AVG antivirus software with free updates for the free version. The free version is never going to be as comprehensive as a paid-for Norton or McAfee antivirus program but some sort of virus defence is a must these days.

The Best File Manager

Windows Commander – Christian Ghisler wrote this file manager program to display two directories in adjacent windows - what you used to be able to do with Windows 3.x but can't do any more with Windows 9.x. One of the useful gadgets included is an ftp utility, which RLC web-wizards use to copy all this stuff to our website hosts. You can also change file attributes, unpack archived material, e.g. the contents of Zip files, and do all sorts of similar neat stuff.
   The registered version of the program costs 40 Swiss francs, which is only about 15 quid in real money. Treat yourself! – Note: the program is now called Total Commander as Microsoft objected to the use of the word "windows" after the program had been in existence for 9 years.

Free Firewall

ZoneAlarm – Zonelabs provides a free firewall program for non-commercial users. If you're worried about the bad guys getting in to your computer while you're on-line, or nosy people getting information about you on the sly, check out ZoneAlarm. Remembering that anything you get for nothing is worth it.

When you've installed ZoneAlarm, you can go to the Gibson Research Corporation website [www.grc.com] to try out the Shields Up gadget, which tests a computer against penetration by bad guys on the Internet. The site has a lot of good things to say about the effectiveness of the ZoneAlarm firewall.

Utility Software

WinZip – is cheap ($29) but good. As well as unzipping archives (which Total Commander can also do), the program can be used to compress material for storage and span large files across several floppies.

Atomic Clock – is a Freeware utility which keeps a local computer up-to-date with the exact current time via the Internet. The website also lets you find out what time it is anywhere around the world.

TIP.exe – is a Freeware utility which lets users of Zip drives check the drive and media for signs of failure. Zip drives are subject to the "Click of Death", although Iomega is reluctant to admit the defect. Mr. Gibson (author of Shields Up above) can tell you all about it.
   User discretion is required as Mr. Gibson's utility can be alarming to use; expecially when it reports that a Zip disk has 100+ non-serious "soft" errors on it.

A good Freeware font viewer is the AMP Font Viewer, which is available from ampsoft.net
The programs pops up 2 windows, one showing the fonts installed on the system. The other window can be used to inspect uninstalled fonts in storage directories, on a CD, etc. The program provides the font's proper name in addition to the sometimes uninformative TTF file name, which can be very useful.

Alternative Browsers

Opera – Fed up with Internet Explorer crashing on you? In addition to the Netscape browser, there are a couple of others which use the Mozilla engine. Opera comes in 2 versions – a free one with adverts and a paid-for version without ads. The browser has a useful full-screen option, which has none of the usual windows furniture. It can handle mail from multiple accounts but everything goes into one mail box and the handling options are limited. There are no pop-up descriptions when the mouse pointer is placed on a button, which makes understanding what the buttons do unnecessarily difficult. But if it does crash (and it does), then it offers the option to return to the previous crash point via saved archives.

K-Meleon – An open-source browser which looks like a mixture of Netscape and Opera, and which can import both Internet Explorer's favourites and Netscape Navigator's bookmarks. The basic window offers a larger display area than Opera as K-Meleon has no adverts, even though the browser is free, and it has the same full-screen mode as Opera. Doesn't do mail.

Avant – This is a cut-down version of Internet Explorer which uses IE resources, such as the favourites list. Pressing F11 gives a full-screen display. The browser has a very good button bar and menu bar. The latest incarnation includes pop-up suppression and an ad blocker.

Games

One of the best games for Windows is Ron Balewski's Mah Jongg. Version 1.0 can be downloaded from his website. The latest version is available for a registration fee of $20. The zip file of version 1 includes DOS applications for making further tilesets and viewing tilesets if the player is up for the job of designing them.

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