System Information for Windows

This download is for those geeky people out there, "System Information for Windows" or SIW. Find out what you need to know about your computer's hardware, operating system, installed programs, and more with this utility. SIW provides detailed information about your PC's properties and settings, as well as specs for your CPU, motherboard, chip set, BIOS, PCI/AGB, USB and ISA/PnP devices, memory, monitor, video card, disk drives, CD/DVD devices, SCSI devices, ports, network cards, printers, operating system, installed programs and security patches, processes, services, and serial numbers (CD keys). There is no install, so it is great for your thumb drive.
It's free here:
http://www.gtopala.com/siw_download.html

Google - books in PDF format

Google on Wednesday began offering full downloads of out-of-copyright
books in PDF format, enabling users to read at their own pace or use
an ebook device. Currently being offered are a handful of classics and
obscure titles in the public domain:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/download-classics.html

National Geographic Map Machine

We have all seen the mapping pages online from Google, Microsoft, and others. National Geographic Map Machine is a new one on me. It has a satellite, street view, and others. It seems faster than a few I've used, but you still will need broadband to get the full effect. Give it a try at:
http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/index.html

Thunderbird e-mail client

Thunderbird is Mozilla's next generation e-mail client. Thunderbird makes emailing safer, faster and easier than ever before with the industry's best implementations of features such as intelligent Spam filters, a built-in spell checker, extension support, and much more.

If you have been using Microsoft Outlook Express, try this one, the look and feel are about the same, only Thunderbird will have some features your going to love. The price is right “It’s free”.

http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/

Madison Came Running

Madison Came Running is the Internet Pictorial of Downtown Madison, Indiana. Our page features the Downtown & the Riverfront, plus People, Places and Things connected to this "City Beneath The Hills" on the Ohio River in Southern Indiana. (Roger Bean)
I might add, If anything is big with Madison news, Roger will most likely have a photo & article on his page. Thanks Roger for a great page at:
http://madisoncamerunning.com/

Navy drill team

Check - out the Navy drill team. These boys are pretty
good with those bayoneted rifles. (Dont forget to crank
up the sound)
http://cvsg-57veterans.org/US_Navy_drillteam.htm
You should have broudband but dial-up may work.

Live Writer

Do not try this program, I will not work for Google Blogs.

The Drug Problem in America

The other day, someone at a store in our town read that a
methamphetamine lab had been found in an old farmhouse
in the adjoining county and he asked me a rhetorical question,
''Why didn't we have a drug problem when you and I were
growing up?''

I replied: "I had a drug problem when I was young"


I was drug to church on Sunday morning. I was drug to church
for weddings and funerals. I was drug to family reunions and
community socials no matter the weather.

I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults.
I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents,
told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with
respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher, or if I didn't
put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me.
I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out
with soap if I uttered a profane four-letter word. I was drug
out to pull weeds in mom's garden and flower beds and
cockleburs out of dad's fields. I was drug to the homes of family,
friends, and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no
one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some
firewood; and, if my mother had ever known that I took a
single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me
back to the woodshed.

Those drugs are still in my veins; and they affect my behavior in
everything I do, say, and think. They are stronger than cocaine,
crack, or heroin; and, if today's children had this kind of drug
problem, Americawould be a better place.


author unknown

FREE address book program

This is a FREE address book program with a much nicer user interface than normal. Also included is a Personal Info page, to keep up with any personal information you might want to save. The program requires a password of 1234 which can be changed by going to the Utilities page, plus the personal information is encrytped on your hard drive.

Over the years I have seen many address books, but most were crude looking or much too complicated having to many un-needed fields. This program keeps up with needed information, such as name address telephone number, cell number, but... it has a large memo field that will hold as much as your hard will let it hold.

pd-Base is FREE and does NOT have a time limit. Later versions will have more options for a small fee. Try it today, you'll like its looks and its functions. Get it here:
http://planet-denn.com/freebies.shtml#pd-Base

I Found this Site

http://www.foundmagazine.com/

Starter a startup manager

Starter is yet another startup manager, that allows you to view and manage all the programs that are starting automatically whenever Windows boots. It lists all the hidden registry entries, as well as the common Startup Folder items as well. You can choose to safely disable selected entries, edit them or delete them altogether (if you know what you're doing). Expert users can even add their own entries. Nice interface, easy to use, no documentation though (but hardly needed).

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/Starter.html

Firefox Passes 200 Million

On its Spreadfirefox web site, Mozilla claims that Firefox has
acquired about 15 per cent of the global usage share in the nearly 21
months since it was released. It has now passed the 200 million
download mark:
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33443
Download Firefox here:
http://www.getfirefox.com

Phone Star Codes

Star Codes

http://www.nanpa.com/number_resource_info/vsc_definitions.html

See a video tribute to: Mr. Akers

Phishing

I have been wanting to do a post on phishing, but Chris beat me to it. He tells it like it is.
Lockergnome puts out a great newsletter, you can find it here.
http://channels.lockergnome.com/windows/


From:
Lockergnome's Windows Fanatics ~ August 3, 2006
Chris Pirillo


Over the past few weeks, a Lockergnomie named Wayne has submitted two separate pieces of feedback responding to Matt Hartley's posts on phishing: Phishing Season and Nigerian 419 Scams (though Wayne may not have seen the report on Vishing). No matter, he has a relatively dramatic proposal - though I'd hate to see us have to do such a thing:

Since the start of the year, I have painstakingly recorded and reported about 200+ phishing scams for PayPal, eBay, lotteries, every known bank, mortgage companies, etc. I've sent reports to PayPal, eBay, the Anti-Phishing Working Group, CastleCops, etc. Often, I get back some generated email with some pap about how to identify a phishing scam (like I didn't know already). All these institutions claim to follow up with law enforcement, but of course they must keep their legal actions "confidential" (if they were really doing something, they should advertise it to scare off new crooks)! The net is that I heartily endorse a block on the Ukraine and anyone else who is not working to stop this tsunami of phishing attempts. It's amazing how many I track back to China. Why are American companies bending over backwards to accomodate them, while Chinese spammers and phishing crooks blithely ignore any law? Maybe we should form our own posse and go after these crooks? Or how about routing all phishing scams and spammers back to their own governement websites - with an honest request for enforcement?

I see more phishing scams coming into my corporate LAN than legitimate email. I have dutifully reported these scams (hundreds) and yet nothing is done to apprehend these baddies - and that only seems to encourage them. We need enforcement, and if it means shutting off entire countries - so be it, because it's a total cop-out to say "they're foreign countries and nothing can be done!" It seems strange that local companies like Yahoo!, Microsoft, and PayPal bend over backwards to placate China on the Internet, while China blatantly ignores our laws regarding the Internet? Only aggressive actions will put an end to this escalating problem. Here's the irony: why does law enforcement go overboard to protect the music companies from illegal downloads, while ignoring this wave of phishing scams that hit the little guys hard?

I believe that with new versions of Firefox and Internet Explorer (7.0), in combination with services like OpenDNS, we'll soon see the bad guys cut off at their knees. Have you ever been phished?

Chris Pirillo

Hard to find 800 numbers

Their all here:

http://www.hardtofind800numbers.com/