TreePad    http://www.waschbusch.com/software.asp

The only Notes program I have been happy with – it allows me to organize my notes the way I want (and not the way whoever wrote the program thinks I want).

Treepad Lite 2.9.5. A free and easy-to-use Information Manager. You can also use it as very intuitive database program. All e-mails, notes, texts and other information can be stored in an information tree. You can define the shape of this tree yourself. Now you will never lose your notes again! TreePad supports most languages, like English, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic. It also has extended search, print, sort, file import and export functions. Note: only TreePad Lite and TreePad Viewer are free, the other programs offered are shareware.

It still has some faults – it doesn't sort by date, in case I can't remember what I called that note I wrote 2 days ago). – and its not suitable for research notes if you plan to organize them into an article or book (but you can copy them into an outline program if you want to do that). – Does anyone know of a good Windows outline program? I had a good one where I used to work, but it was DOS (Symantec I think). – I couldn't imagine getting along without it at the time. –
But check out some others at  Overview of Windows Outliners .

One confusing thing about TreePad at first – following database terminology, TreePad calls what looks like a directory and subdirectory, a node and the actual note, an article. Once you get by that it's easy to use. I think it's more Useful to use one big file I call notes, but you can create several files if you want. I made these notes when I discovered and used the freeware I'm telling you about: I just copied and pasted it into this page! Also I have a node called downloads where I paste info from web sites where I download software. – A program I would choose to be stranded on a desert island with.
    I think you'll use it instead of reaching for a pencil.

 NotesPad     http://www.newbie.net/NotesPad/index.html
It has its faults, but this is one of the best Win text editors I've found. My good old DOS QEdit beats it hands down: I've memorized the QEdit hotkeys and macros so I can do everything fast without thinking, but unfortunately QEdit doesn't directly support windows features like clipboard, etc. And I would never use my big clumsy MS Word for 98 percent of the typing I do.

The information below is taken from the freeware site    No Nags   (they seldom steer me wrong on software). In fact they evaluate some of the best software. Some of which isn't even mentioned in other sites: I suspect some shareware sites think they have an obligation to shareware authors to ignore freeware – even when the freeware is better than all of the shareware apps that do the same task. Although a lot of shareware sites DO have some of the more terrible freeware.

  NetLaunch    http://www.blackcastlesoft.com/netlaunch/default.asp
Allows me to regain control of my internet software. – One click dials (without pressing any annoying buttons), starts email (and checks for mail), starts connection meter (see next), starts my browser, starts a ping program (to keep connection alive), etc. When I close my connection it will close any apps I set up to close. You can close open apps like email, netscape, etc. or you can run another app or command. For example if you want to empty your document folder (so no one can see what *.JPG's you downloaded) just run
   DELTREE /Y C:\WINDOWS\RECENT\*.*
and have NetLaunch close the DOS window after DELTREE has run. Or do the same to get rid of cookies with personal information about yourself that are on your hard disk for any website you visit to snoop into.
(Or check out Lukman's Anonymous Cookie program – find it at    NoNags  - of course.)

 D4 Time    http://www.thinkman.com/~thinkman/

Dimension 4 time synchronization for Windows 95 NT 4.0 --  D4TIME41.ZIP  155 KB. Automatically sets PC's time clock to within 50ms of actual time using Internet SNTP or Time protocol. Once installed, Dimension 4 is hands free. PC's time will be updated at user specified intervals without user action.
I freak out if my watch is 2 seconds off from the National Bureau of Standards (shortwave radio station WWV) – a holdover from the old days on the mainland. Here on the islands, I actually am on Hawaii time. My computer clock loses one MINUTE a day ( ! ), so I guess I need this small program to keep me comfortable. I put it in NetLaunch (above) so it runs every time I log on the internet. I run it minimised and have it exit a few seconds later when the time is updated.

 DipStick    http://www.klever.net/kin/dipstick.html
Allows me to evaluate mirror sites to figure out which one has currently the least traffic. Useful when downloading software or picking a site from a list when I'm not in the mood for slow servers. I use this one all the time to find out where the fastest downloads are.

  Net Meter   http://mofetsrv.mofet.macam98.ac.il/~fainaf//netmeter.htm
Shows a graph of internet send/receive speeds on y-axis and time on the x-axis. Numeric readout at bottom of graph. I like the options: black idle, green download, red upload, yellow both.

*** NOTE *** : Net Meter is now shareware ($15).
Use the website above to download the latest version (v2.2 as of 02/27/00).
You can download the last freeware version 1.3 here:
 NETMETER13.ZIP ( 29,018 Bytes )
Note: This Version 1.3 will work with the newest version of MicroSoft Dialup Networking (DUN).

I size the window tall (screen height) and very narrow so that the graph is scaled enough to give me a good view and I park the narrow window on the upper right hand side of my screen where it's out of the way. I then resize my browser window so that it takes up the rest of the screen.
If you do this with version 1.3 you lose the numeric readout. To get a numeric readout on v1.02b, just put the mouse arrow in the window.
You can download version 1.02b here:  DUCM102B.ZIP ( 28,317 Bytes )
But Note – Version 1.02b only works with older versions of MicroSoft Dialup Networking (DUN). If you have Win98+ or Inet Explorer 5+, you will have the newer version of DUN.

Net Meter is useful to find out if the next item works.

 MTU Speed    http://www.mjs.u-net.com/

Note: This software is now called option ware by the author. This means you have the option to pay or not ($10.00 suggested) – The program isn't crippled and won't time out.  I've kept it on this page anyway.
-- Actually you don't need the program at all: Use RegEdit that comes with Windows – just be careful! And back up the registry first. All you need to know to do this is on the author's web site and to do a little expirmentation with RegEdit – again: BACK UP FIRST – if you goof, Windows may not start. With that said, I have to tell you that it's fun to hack system files – if that's your idea of fun.
The MTU Speed program is actually only a safer way to modify the registry communication settings than RegEdit.

MTU Speed can actually **DOUBLE** your download speed (sometimes). Windows default setup for MaxTransmissonUnits and other communication settings are chosen to maximize speed on a network – this results in poor dial-up internet modem speed. Note these settings are independent of internet software. I don't expect MicroSoft to change their default settings anytime soon since they make a lot of money from businesses that run LAN's. And the internet techies picked a MTU of 576 because it was an effective speed for the internet. Read all about it at the website (highly recommended before you use the program!). All of the following jargon is explained there.

Here are the settings I used:
  MTU = 576  RWin = 2144  MSS = 536   Time to live = 64   NDI cache size = 16

Before I changed the settings I got Peak download speeds of about 3.2K Bytes/sec (28,800 bits/sec) which equals the speed of my modem. – 8 bits per byte + 1 inter-byte guard (stop) bit. After changing the settings I now get 3.9K frequently and sometimes get 6.5K peak!! This is equivalent to a 58,500 bits/sec modem! This only happens when accessing a high bandwidth server and/or few people accessing it. Try CNet or CNN for a heavy duty server.

By the way the internet term high bandwidth is a misnomer (like so many buzz words) – bandwidth and the rate that data is transmitted are related (like Volts and Watts) but are not the same thing.
Having got that off my chest I'll comment on another buzz word: quantum leap.
-- Since a quantum is the SMALLEST energy shift possible at a given wavelength, I guess a quantum leap is an insignificant change.
Here's another: these data are.
-- Since data means more than one datum it must be treated as a plural, right? – But data is a group noun and takes the singular. Another group word is "information". No one says "an information". And "those information" sounds strange. "Those informations" also sounds strange – there isn't such a word as "informations". "These mob are rioting" sounds as ungrammatical as "these data are".
One more if I may: The 21st century starting date was not Jan. 1, 2000, it was Jan. 1, 2001.
A century is 100 years not 99 – the 20th century started 1/1/1901 and so on back for hundreds of years (there was no year zero).

(Excuse my editorializing. Back to the subject.)
Try MTU Speed, it doesn't change how fast a web page downloads most of the time but on rare occasions the page really flys into view. – At a WebExpo here on Kauai a few years ago they had a T1 connection. The page downloads were almost instantaneous --- sometimes. Most of the time you had to w---a---i---t . . . like I do most of the time. – Because the delays are on the other end (or over the web interconnections).

  The Thinking Man's Thesaurus
 Kevin Solway's Software
- Thesaurus and word-prompter - v1.2 This utility is useful when the right word is eluding you. I usually don't like to use a thesaurus while writing, but this one is so convenient and versatile that I keep on clicking it back to the desktop. It includes a powerful thesaurus and a dictionary which can check the spelling of individual words as well as provide you with a list of similarly spelled words. Automatically links to the popular freeware dictionary WordWeb (see below), for looking-up definitions. For Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. The Thinking Man's Thesaurus (808 KB)  ththes13.zip
If you have space on your hardisk (Thesaurus 1.3MB and WordWeb 8 MB), I highly recomend getting both Thesaurus and WordWeb since they work so well together. Note: You need the 16 bit version to do this:  wdweb16.zip - about 4 MB

  Word Web Thesaurus/Dictionary

WordWeb (16 bit version) is a free thesaurus/dictionary. Can be used from your word processor or as a standalone program. It received the top five star rating in its ZDNet review. In addition to displaying sense definitions and synonyms, WordWeb can also find sets of related words including

• Antonyms - Words opposite in meaning, e.g. bright/dull
• Hypernyms - Less specific words, e.g. jungle/forest
• Hyponyms - More specific words, e.g. forest/jungle
• Meronyms - Words which denote a part, e.g. tree/forest
• Holonyms - Words for a collection, e.g. forest/tree

You can filter the synonyms by sense and by part of speech. WordWeb matches case of synonyms, e.g. search for pulpits and WordWeb finds podia, rostra, ambos, etc, search for pulpit and you will get the singular synonyms. WordWeb comes with a template file so you can use it directly from MS Word and macros for use with AmiPro, Word Pro 96 and Word 2. WordWeb requires a 386+PC with 4MB+ RAM and 8MB free disk space running Windows 3.1x, 9x, ME, 2000,or XP.

The WordWeb website (  http://wordweb.info/free/ )  no longer offers the 16 bit version. They still offer a free version and WordWeb Pro ($20 shareware). The newest free version is still good, but definitely not as good as the old 16 bit version. The synonyms are sparce and if you misspell the word, good luck finding the right spelling. Do yourself a favor and download the old version:
 wdweb16.zip - about 4 MB

I will include software on this page only if:
  It's truly free.
– Some freeware adds nag screens to advertise their pro version, etc.
  It's not difficult to install or uninstall
– I especially avoid installation programs that copy old, buggy .DLL's, etc, over my up-to-date DLL's.
  It fulfills a need I have or makes my life easier.
  It's as good or better than any shareware or commercial software I've run across.

After 26 years of programming, I dislike bloatware programmed in Visual Basic, Visual C+++++++, etc. These memory hogs (oink, oink) take up a lot of disk space and memory, they are slow, and they scatter DLL's, etc. all over my hard drive. There is a place for .DLLs but you seldom see them applied in a suitable way. For example, the visual basic file MSVBVM60.DLL takes over 1 Meg of memory. It needs to be in memory for any visual basic version 6 program to work. This DLL contains hundreds of functions, only a percentage will be used by a given program – so where is the logic behind this? If MicroSlop (oink, oink) wanted to put out a quality product they could have had a library of functions that could be linked into a program only if the program needed them instead of having a separate DLL using wasted memory. Check out  BloatBusters . Get a program that lists running processes and find out how much memory is being used by these ill-conceived methods (sometimes dozens of Megs):
Try Process Viewer  www.teamcti.com/pview/ (free)
or DLLShow  www.gregorybraun.com/ (no-nagged shareware $20)