Compunews Vol 3 No 3Compuflash Bulletin 1 Nov 97 |
Music sequences have been especially chosen to provide a nice, soft background as you read this issue of Compunews. My special thanks to those nice people who produce such beautiful music so the rest of us can enjoy.
Dances with Wolves
Seq. by Peter Modin
In this issue.
- What's new at Omega?
- Award Winners Oct 97
- Software Downloads
- Need help with playing Midi files?
- IE 4 Ver 4 - Input from subscribers
- Special Messages
- Parting Words
What's new at Omega?
So much has been happening in October it would take a special issue to list it all. The final touch has been applied to this year's Omega's Christmas Concert which will be uploaded on Nov 15th! It will include more selections and a revamped graphics layout. Of course, the ever popular sing-along feature will remain. This concert enjoyed over 4500 'hits' in its inaugural launch last year and I hope you will make it a point to again visit this year.
The Omega site now comprises over one hundred individual 'pages' and some 400 Midi selections! All of this takes over 23 Megabytes of space on the server and efforts are now being expanded to 'trim' some of the fat off so as to permit me to include even more musical selections. The Musical tribute to Mr Sinatra continues to lead the palmares with nearly 3000 hits per month! And with the coming of the cold weather (at least in these parts of the world), the Concerts in the Park appear to gain even more in popularity. A new Concert should be ready for uploading in the latter part of the month.
The 'Latest Jewels' Award Winners
Havah NaghilahThe Official Jewish American Princess Home Page
Come! Sit! Help yourself to a warm bagel with a schmear of cream cheese and a nice glass of tea. How can you resist such a warm greeting???? This is it folks! Feeling low? Need an uplift? Can you use a bit of sunshine and levity? Then, ... visit this site and enjoy. If laughing was lethal, I'd be long dead by now. Never laughed so hard. And, you'll laugh until you plotz. Of course, as to provide a nice, healthy balance, there are also some serious pages, a little bit of everything for everybody. And to think this page began as an exercise on how to produce a homepage! Lucky for us.
The Wheel - An oasis of repose
Once in a blue moon, you surf into a site from which you simply cannot find the will to depart. The Wheel is such a site. It is an oasis of repose for the weary mind... Expertly and professionally rendered, it includes some of the best in design, poetry, music, art and so much more. There is a Ladies Den, a Gentlemen's Parlor and a Music Lover's page, to name but a few of the many restful stops on your journey within 'The Wheel'. Check it out; you have earned a rest! An Omega 'Latest Jewels Award' winning site.
Yes folks... this is home to Odette's famous "International Cat Carousel", the Kitty-go-round and the Cats slide shows. Not to be missed at this site is The Technical "Play Room". Here you will find some excellent music and very neat tricks using java applets.
This Latest Jewels award winning site was suggested to me by my good friend, Mel Webb. Here's a site which, not only meets but surpasses the most demanding criteria for quality, good taste and whatever other epithet one wishes to list! Here is a site which was built with more than a good HTML editor. It contains a good dose of toil and sweat all aimed at producing a page one wants to return to.... often. Among the sub-pages is one on Greece which brought a personal congratulatory note from Greece's Prime Minister, no less! That one page on Greece would have won the award on its own but, there is more.
The choice of music is simply astounding! What will be of great interest to Midi lovers is the following.... I have discovered a link on her page to the nicest Midi player I had yet seen available on the Net. I could highlight the URL address of this little gem right here on these pages but I'd rather let 'you' find it at her page as she describes this little nugget in much better terms than I could. Hint: Look for a link to a Jukebox! Set plenty of time aside when visiting this site... you will want to stay for a while. And return... Run, don't walk, to a Bon Bon
As you know, I am not against promoting the 'competition'. After all, Omega is a 'non-profit' (and I'm not kidding) site and when I come across a magazine of such quality, I just have to pass it on. Rarely have I seen such excellence in overall design, page content and presentation. Be sure to set aside some free time when you go there because you will want to read the 'entire' issue in one sitting. It's that good folks!
InterludeI know... search engines are more numerous than penguins at a webbed footed seabird convention. The trick is to find the right one for the task at hand. No longer will you have to hunt all over your hardrive for that one page listing that 'one' search engine you remember seeing somewhere. This page has them all! And then, some... Give it a try and don't forget to bookmark it!
How I wish there had been such a site available to me when I was burning the midnight oil preparing for my final exam on Geography. This is one site every serious surfer should have 'bookmarked' as a reference of choice and you don't need to have children of school age to do so. If it deals with geography, you will find a link here. And what links! To give credit where due, this is where I found the link to the OneWorld magazine featured above. Gives you an idea of what's available at Geography World
Harlem Nocturne
arr by Don CarrollScottish Radiance - A Hebridean Journal
If you are of Scottish origin, here is a site you don't want to miss. After spending some time at that marvellous site, one wishes to reserve the first flight available to Scotland! View Pictures and facts about Scottish Lighthouses , share Bill Currie's information and secrets of fishing in Scotland, read short articles on the customs of Scotland or just plain cruise the entire site and .... enjoy! An Omega's Latest Jewels Award winner.
The Year 2000 Information Center�
This site was first featured in a past issue For many computer and software systems, the year 2000 will bring a host of problems related to software programs that record the year using only the last two digits. The Year 2000 Information Center� provides a forum for disseminating information about the year 2000 problem, also called the Millennium Bug, and for the discussion of possible solutions. A most interesting site indeed.
Running a Business on the Internet?
Hawaiian Wedding Song
by Mel WebbSoftware Downloads
This nice app is a freeware utility which will clean up your Start Menu by removing shortcuts and folders no longer required. If folders and/or shortcuts point to files which no longer exist, off they go!
Tray-HQ is a program that sits in your tray notification area on the Taskbar, and offers you 6 often used utilities with one click. Once you try this nifty little app you'll wonder how you managed without! It is freeware although the author will accept donations. A very, very nice little app. There also are other nice apps available at this site.
No matter how large disk capacity increases, it seems like hard disk space is always at a premium. Unfortunately not all programs come with an uninstall option. Additionally programs may create temporary files and folders which may stay on your hard disk forever. Many programs will also install duplicate copies of existing DLL/OCX files. What you need is More Space! When I first ran that program, I gained 220Meg on my harddrive! Check it out! Shareware.
For example, this program quickly made me realize how much space even tiny files took in a 1.2 Gig drive. In one directory, 600 such files took up over 20 megs of space. When copied to a 100MegByte Iomega disk (so-called ZIP disks), the same files took a mere 2.1 Meg. Give this app a try. it's an eye opener.
EidelweisslThis is a Win95 'been there, done that' type of tool for the power user. So many features.... better check it out yourself.
Here's a nifty little application no one should be without. This program scans your system looking for all references to DLL files in your Windows system directory. Those DLL files in the system directory that have no programs calling on them can be moved out of the system directory, saving disk space and improving system performance. Programs dealing with DLL's can be dangerous to your computer's health. Delete the wrong DLL and you have problems. But this app does not delete any file. Read the instructions before using.
Pavane
arr by Michael PetriNeed help with playing Midi files?
I often receive requests for help on setting up one's homepage for playing Midi files. While re-visiting a page featured in my Music page I came across a superb addition to that site. It describes what the author calls "ONE MAN'S SAGA OF GETTING THIS THING ON THE WEB". If the whole subject is alien to you then I urge you to have a look at this 'help' page. And while there, make sure to visit the rest of his site as it is a winner.
What our subscribers think about I.E. 4
Never has a Compuflash Bulletin item generated so much mail! Judging from the comments received, a few facts soon became clear:
Net surfers like to try the latest application available; Most surfers are like me: they don't read instructions and readme files; The Bulletin reached many surfers 'too late'. They wished they had known beforehand; The Bulletin reached many surfers 'on time'. They were thankful; and finally... Surfers get very 'attached' to their browser of choice! Just ask me. I found out In an attempt to help as many of you make a decision as to whether you should go the IE 4 route or not, I will list as many of the replies I have received as possible. Because of the size of the ensuing file, I made it a separate 'page' which you can reach by hitting the button below. Never has the title of the button been so appropriately named....
Special Messages
As you know, I always try to respond to all messages I receive but sometimes, it's impossible. Either the sender forgets to leave a forwarding address or sends the wrong e-mail etc. I will attempt in this section to leave messages to those I can't reach any other way. Some of the messages may appear cryptic. They are meant to be but, not to worry.... the persons to whom they are adressed will understand them.
To: Pogo basking in the sun.... a warm hello, from an admirer To: Mireille from Toulon and Andr� from Montr�al ..... please write. You deciphered the semaphore signal and I have a gift for you. To E.T.: What else? Call home! To the visitor who requested Mack the Knife.... you will now find it under the master 'MidiMenu' Enjoy. Parting Words...
I wish to sincerely thank all of you who either signed the Guestbook or sent personal e-mail this past month. As you know, I rely on your personal inputs to go on improving Omega and every single comment helps. Many of you informed me you had passed on the Omega's URL to many of your friends and I believe it too, judging from the counter at the main opening page.... now registering over 130,000! And that is only on the main opening page.... I have added individual counters to most other pages for my own information. I will begin 'trimming out' those few pages which do not appear to get too many 'hits', thus making more room available yet for music and such!
In early October, I uploaded a number of pages with 'embedded' music. It did not take long for a number of regular visitors to e-mail me and telling me they preferred the old way... that is, to leave them the choice to select which number they wanted to hear. So, it's back to the old way: you like.... you click! Thanks for the input on that one. As every page on the Net seems to have a pre-selected tune playing when you open it, I thought I'd join the mainstream and go 'embedded' music! Now, it's back to the good old Omega way.
I much value your feedback. Please let me know what you think of this issue. Your comments will be acknowledged. Thanks 
Background Graphics by Bruce's Web Page Help
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