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Back-Issue #1 released 08/02/99 Click Here
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The Spider Wire
For the week of 08/09/99 - Issue #2
Brought to you
by...
MotherNature.Com
Welcome! Has it been a week already? They say time
flies
(mmmm.. flies..) when you're having fun and Tsunami and I
are having a blast! Stick with us if you enjoy our stuff and
if you don't, let us know why - then stay with us any way..
We are here for you and thoughtful input is welcome.
Let's do it then!
- Tarantula.
Downloadus Interruptus?
by Tarantula
You're almost there. Just a few more seconds. Then it
happens! You've lost your connection and 19.9 megs
of that hot new 20 meg game file are gone.
Don't even mention the time wasted. This happened to
your little ole spider pal here so many times that I only
have cobwebs to show for the time. Then I reached
enlightenment by downloading Gozilla. Wow! This is
truly one of the best computer tools I ever used. Gozilla
is called a download manager, which doesn't do justice
to a program like this.
Anything but boring, this puppy has a wonderfully
intuitive interface, some beautiful graphics and some
spectacular sonics. Gozilla can integrate itself into your
web browser and when you are ready, will go grab that
file for you, even searching alternate sites for faster
downloads. And if that dastardly broken connection
thingy happens, it will resume downloading the file at the
point where it was cut short. Did I mention Gozilla
is
FREE? Aha! Go get it
here
and change the way you
download forever. Oh, remember to turn the volume
down.
The Thingy Remover!
by Tsunami
The Window's registry is a forbidden zone for most
computer users. A place of dark secrets. There's stuff
going on in the registry that scientists are still musing
about. Every time you install a new program to your
Windows9x based computer there are these thingys
written to the registry, lots of thingys!
And get this; when you remove stuff from your system,
not all the thingy's go with it. Some of those boogers
get left behind. After a while, your registry is full of
useless thingy's! Thank goodness for anti-thingy
software like Easy Clean, a true-blue thingy remover.
It searches through the registry for all the pointers that
point to nothing, for all the links that don't link to anything,
for all the stuff that is simply taking up space.. and
removes them! Why remove all the useless thingys in the
registry, you ask?
Because
they s - l - o -
w your system down..
Tsunami wants you to have a fast computer, so removing
the garbage speeds things back up. In addition to removing
useless left-overs in the registry, Easy Clean also allows you
to get rid of duplicate files and unwanted orphaned files.
Exercise caution here, you must NEVER delete files unless
you know beyond a shadow-of-doubt what effect doing so
will have on your computer. Safe stuff like duplicate
wallpaper files won't hurt anything, but system files should
always be left alone! Visit the author, Toni Helenius, at
http://www.saunalahti.fi/tonihele/
for complete details on
Easy Clean and other downloadable goodies. Toni is a
remarkable15 year old lad responsible for creating Easy
Clean. Don't let his youth fool you; Toni is gifted, and
spiders like us are thankful for such programming talent.
Thanks Toni!
La,la,la,la...Make your own kinda music....
by Tarantula
Ahhhh, Mama Cass! Tarantula had a huge crush on her
when he was a twenty-something spider. I like to listen
and tap my many little feet to her and all my fave ole
boomer crooners. Thanks to the computer age I can
now record my CD's to MP3 format and store them
on my hard disk. I am able to listen to Lady Cass wailin'
whenever the mood hits me, by pointing and clicking or
even dragging and dropping. There are many MP3 players
available on the 'net and my personal choice is Sonique.
Sonique is a user friendly product which supports
several
different audio formats including MODs and WAVs, in
addition to MP3. A whole slew of custom features
distinguish this FREE professionally
crafted music maker.
There are many of those ubiquitous "skins" to choose from
and you can also pick from a variety of fascinating visual
plug-ins. Another feature that tickles my little spider parts is
the cool slide down equalization panel. Sonique is sooooo
sweet and you can get it right here:
http://www.sonique.com/dload.html.
Be sure to check out
their free MP3 download page:
http://music.sonique.com
I can picture all my arachnoid buddies ditty boppin' and
chair dancin'. Yes!
Information Conspiracy
by Tsunami
Windows 98 users may wish to know about the system
information tool Microsoft carefully tucked away. There's
a cool tool that clues you in on a whole bunch of stuff
about your machine called MSINFO32.EXE. It's a solid
diagnostic utility buried in one of those Windows program
file sub-directories already on your computer.
Up front,
this utility tells you which version of the OS you
are running, how it was installed, how long its been up,
who is running it, what kind of CPU you have, how much
memory, how much free resources are available, how
large the swap file is, and the amount of available space
on the hard drive. Whew! ( ...almost as good
as the
Psychotic-Friends Network!!!)
For those spiders who are true computer geeks, it's like
the pot of gold at the end of the proverbial rainbow.
Beyond the up front info, this FREE (ahem, included..)
utility also reports on three additional system function
categories; hardware resources, components, and
software environments - all of which can help you
troubleshoot a problem.
To run MSINFO32.EXE do this:
1: Click Start and select Run
2: Type in MSINFO32.EXE in the box and click OK.
To the technical novice it may appear to be gibberish,
but to the quasi-technoliterate it will look more like a
handy-dandy reference manual. Whichever it means to
you, so long as you are aware of its existence, the
chance of it being useful to you at some point in the
future has now been greatly increased.
Be afraid, be very afraid. Not!
by Tarantula
When 'Chula was just an itsy bitsy spider he saw a
movie called "The Thing" about a really nasty
tempered frozen veggie. If truth be told, it scared the
weewee out of me.
Now comes along Thingworld.com's The Thing,
which makes me wet myself because it is so funny!
This zany creature is disguised as an interactive
multimedia screensaver. It is fully configurable to
make you think you have some control over what's
going on.
There are chattering, animated Things, which, when
you click or hover your little rodent over them, say
or do something in reaction and even link you to
interesting new web sites. Hey! That's our job!
Anyway, you can download lotsa Things to add to
your ThingWorld. There are Wild,Wild, West Things;
South Park Things; WWF Things; Space Muppets
Things and so on.
I didn't see any Spider Things - yet.
Another thing I discovered is the option to load up
these guys onto your Active Desktop. It's
FREE and
all you need to get started is at
http:\\thingworld.com
and is also on Big Daddy's (MS) Windows 98 update
site at the very bottom of the page.
OK, my friends, outta my way. This ole spider is
gonna scurry over and grab some more South Park
Things for his desktop. "Let's all sing Kyle's mom is
a *%#~*!"
A Clickwork Orange
by Tsunami
Ever think about Bugs Bunny in a dress? Er, me neither.
Ever wonder what the right mouse button was for?
Most computer users own a two-button mouse (if not
a three-button rodent..) and rarely use the right button;
content to exist in a one-button-clicking universe.
In the pre-Windows 95 era, one left clicking button
was all you got! Windows 95 introduced users to the
two-button concept and right-clicking seemed alien to
most. In Windows 9x the right mouse button can
typically be used to open the properties of a program
to access it's settings and controls.
Right-clicking on the desktop and then a regular left
click on Properties allows you to access the Display
Properties.
Right-clicking on the My Computer icon and then
Properties and you can access the System Properties
screen.
Here are a few more: In My Computer R-Click on
the C:\ icon and select Properties to view a nice
pie-chart of your hard disk drive showing its usage
and how much free space you have left to add those
nifty files we find for you.
In My Computer R-Click on the CD-ROM drive
icon and select Eject to open the CD-ROM tray!
No, don't use it as a cup holder.
R-Click on the time displayed in the System-Tray
(usually in the lower right-hand corner) to quickly
access the time/date adjustment screen.
R-Click on the Start button and select Explore to
quickly view the contents of the Start Menu screen.
R-Click on the Recycle Bin and select Empty Recycle
Bin - fast and easy! There are many more items you
canRight-Click on. Be careful not to change the settings
of things unless you fully understand how those changes
will effect your computer, of course.
But, feel free to experiment and get comfortable living
in a two-button universe!
Or, in our case, a 16 button universe!
Tada!
Tell us what you think. Praise or constructive criticism are
welcome. Help us help you by sharing what kind of files or info
raises your pulse rate. Also, if you have technical or configuration
problems, we can help you or direct you to someone who can.
Send Email to: [email protected]
Until next week.....
Don't get Caught in the Web!
Thanks for telling your friends about
us! |
