Although they are not as common as they used to be, there are still quite a few sites using frames. Now, although they do have their uses, frames pages also create problems. For example, you may have no interest in the left hand frame, or, particularly the shell frame, but may want to print out or otherwise give some unique attention to the main contents frame. Now, there are ways that you can do that, including viewing the source of the shell frame to find the title of the frame in which you are interested and then editing the url so that only that page is thrown up. But a much easier solution was afforded by the internet explorer tools offered by MS for i.e.5. After installing the tools, a whole host of options was available from a right click, such as 'open frame in new window' or viewing a list of all hyperlinks on a page or all images. Unfortunately, MS have chosen not to offer those same tools for i.e.6. But that does not mean that such things are unavailable. You might want to try the i.e.5 tools and see if they work for you in i.e.6 (and run the risk that everything gets glued up), or else you can download 'IE Booster'. This is a very useful set of accessories for internet explorer version 5 and above. It installs with no effort and the functionality that it adds to the right mouse button will become indispensible to anyone wanting to take a closer look at the web sites they visit. Get it here!
How many of you missed the useful utility 'msconfig.exe' when you upgraded to Windows 2000? A handy piece of kit, it enabled you to nail down those app's that you didn't want loading at start up. It also allowed you to select various other options as well, such as whether or not to display the boot menu. Well, the good news is that it is possible to use the Windows XP version of msconfig. just download it from here (no long available) and follow the instructions in the readme file.
With the introduction of the Microsoft product activation technology, it is likely that, in the fullness of time, there will be far fewer people running copies of MS Office applications 'borrowed' from the office or elsewhere. Of course, you could always just go out and buy a new copy of Office XP. Or, on the other hand, you could just go to http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/5.2/ and download Sun's Star Office suite. It is free. It has a spread sheet, a word processor, a presentation slide show application and an optional database. It will also open and save some files, such as the word processor files, in MS native file format. I tried it out this evening and thought the interface to be not so very different from an MS application. Unless you have a big need to exchange files from several of your applications with people running MS Office, this seems like a pretty good alternative to MS Office to me.
Those of you in Japan with English software may occasionally find yourselves confounded by the receipt of a compressed file with the filename extension 'lzh' and which cannot be unzipped using Winzip. You may get the error message that an external application is necessary to unzip the file. LZH is a compression that is popular in Japan. To deal with files compressed in that format, you will need the utility 'LHA'. To save you having to search for it, we have put a copy of lha213.exe here for you to download (No longer available). Download it and double click to open it. It will self extract to the executable file 'lha.exe' and the dynamic link library 'lha.dll'. Put the dll somewhere intelligent, such as with your other dll's in the Windows directory. Put the executable file in an equally intelligent place such as in a separate folder in your programs directory. Tell Winzip where to find the executable file - read the Winzip help file for instructions if unsure. Although the Japanese version of Winzip ships with this utility on a separate floppy disk, the English language web site is almost useless on giving information about this matter.
Lots of people own but one computer and yet want to run more than one operating system. There may be a number of reasons for that, such as they want to run two different language systems, or they want to run Windows and Linux. Up until recently, the only way to do this was to create a dual boot system. For those people who only very occasionally want to use an alternative operating system, this can indeed be a satisfactory solution. But for anyone wanting to switch systems any more frequently than that, dual booting is a tiresome thing, having to reboot your computer each time that you switch operating systems. Now, for those people who primarily use Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Linux, there is an alternative, in the form of VMware. After installing VMware into your native Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Linux OS, you can then install other operating systems into virtual partitions. The really cool thing is that all of your operating systems run concurrently, so it is possible to switch between OS's with just a couple of clicks, without rebooting. Listen to a CD playing in Windows 98 while you work on files in Windows 2000. Naturally, there is an increase in system overhead, so you need a fairly modern PC to cope with running more than one OS at once. Also, it is not cheap at US$299 for the download version, but for native Linux environment users, there is an express version available for only US$79 for download. Surf over to www.vmware.com and check it out - a 30 day trial version is available.
Do pop up windows annoy you? Do things which other people force onto your screen as soon as you enter a site make you wonder if you want to give up surfing altogether? Well, I just installed WebWasher on my PC and it seems like just the ticket for anyone who wants to have some control over what goes flash pop whizz bang in front of them every time they use the browser. Installation is simple and, unless you choose otherwise, configuration is automatic. It acts as a local proxy server and so far it seems to do exactly what it says. If you are interested, click here to check it out.
Well, we have got something up at last for the Tips and Tricks section. Don't know what the delay was for, loads of people out there on the internet have already done a huge amount of hard work in detailing many kinds of Tips and Tricks. In the spirit of not wanting to re-invent the wheel, the easiest way to get the ball rolling is to provide a list of links to a small sample of what is already out there on the 'net, and this is what has been done - eyes left! Individual 'discoveries' by NIPCC members away from that already documented in places like those listed at left will be added from time to time. Check in now and then to see if this really happens or whether it is just BS.