Here's to you!

2003-10-24 13:52

Louis Nel

Cape Town - Pour yourself a stiff drink and sit down before you get going with this week's column - you're going to need it when confronted with some drinking statistics.

Results may vary depending on whether you consult the Drink-o-meter in the presence of friends or of your boss/significant other.

We'll also have you seeing things without taking a drop.

Cheers!

Cool sites

You don't drink much, do you? So how much did you have last weekend? And in the last month? And the last year? Now that spot of this and drop of that is beginning to add up, isn't it?

Now it's getting interesting, but not interesting enough ... What about in your lifetime? The "too much maths" excuse won't save you from an embarrassing result, because the Drink-o-Meter will do all the work for you.

Just give it a few figures to work with, sit back with your favourite tipple, and let the show begin.

The Drink-o-Meter will show you graphically how much you've consumed all these years. It's got delightful animated graphics - worth a visit even if you've never drank a drop.

The next site might make you doubt your own soberness, because you'll definitely start seeing things - even with your eyes closed.

At The Minds Eye you get to stare at two dots between the eyes of what looks like negatives of celebrities. Then you sit back, relax and close your eyes and wait for a proper picture of the celeb to appear in your mind's eye!

We all want something free, but we also know you seldom get something for nothing. When the net was in its infancy, there were many free sites and services. Since then, many of those have disappeared.

But you can still get free stuff on the net - lots of it, in fact. You just have to know where to look. Which is where a site like TheFreeSite.com comes in. It shows you where to find "the Web's Best Freebies".

You can even sign up for a free e-mail newsletter to get a weekly round-up of latest and greatest freebies the web has to offer.

Hot software

Need a good, free graphics package? Then give the GIMP a shot.

You can use it as simple graphics programme or use its sophisticated features for photo retouching, batch processing, mass production image rendering and more. Do what they say and first read the FAQs before you head on to Downloads.

For instance, you have to know that you must first download and install the latest GTK+ 1.3 package before the latest Gimp for Windows package.

The programme is 11.9 MB big and runs under Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.

If you have private and confidential files you wish to protect, encryption is the answer. However, many cryptographic programmes are a real nuisance to use. A good solution is Cryptainer LE.

It is a free, strong encryption (448-bit) programme that creates virtual drive letters where you can save your private stuff. Files added to such drives are encrypted on the fly and you can access them with a password.

Cryptainer also allows you to send files with encrypted e-mail messages. Attachments sent this way are self-decrypting, so the recipient doesn't need any decrypting software.

Cryptainer LE is the free edition of Cryptainer and is somewhat limited in that you can't create containers bigger than 5 MB. However, you can create as many of these as you like.

Cryptainer LE is 2.1 MB and works with Windows 98, Windows 2000 and XP.

Here's a collection of free small business software, some of which you might also useful for home use. Citrus Freeware has four useful freeware products: Invoicer, to create invoices; Simple Dispatcher, which lets you to schedule service times for vehicles useful for a small business doing service work; Citrus Writer, a simple cheque writing programme; and Proposal Writer, for creating and printing a professional proposal.

For Windows all versions of Windows.

Latest updates

HTTrack Website Copier 3.30
Off-line browser utility (2 MB; free; all Windows versions)

Apple QuickTime 6.4
Popular multimedia player (552 KB; free)

Tip of the Week

If you've ever heard Windows complain that it's missing some .dll file, you've been to what is known as "dll hell". The "dll" stands for "dynamic link library" and these little files are essential collections of files doing useful stuff that can make or break a PC.

Once missing, you're often faced with a complete reinstallation. But the good news is there is also a .dll heaven, like this site.

There you'll find a great collection of these files that's free to download and install. There's also a good FAQ section.

Have a good one ;-)

Louis

- News24