Sharing Wares #4

AltaVista Personal Search '97

Windows 95, Windows NT--Freeware

Okay, bare with me, this is way too cool. In my humble opinion, AltaVista is the best search engine around, a great balance between extensive search results and a concise interface. Those geniuses at Digital (AltaVista's parent company) raised a lot of eyebrows by announcing a few months back that they had developed an AltaVista Personal Search Engine for your PC. Many people, including myself, said "Huh? AltaVista indexes webpages. I don't have a web on my hard drive." This AltaVista doesn't archive webpages (although it does recognize html files, of course). You install Personal Search onto your computer, allow it to scan your entire hard drive, and you can search all of the contents of your hard drive from a simple HTML page that opens in your web browser. It recognizes over 200 file formats, possesses "the same capabilities, speed, and interface you've grown accustomed to," and is pretty damn fast for something that searches your whole hard drive. For instance, you don't want your new squeeze to find any e-mails or letters to or from your old girl/boyfriend. Just open up Personal Search, type in the ex's name, and every e-mail and document containing their name will pop up in a few seconds. Pretty cool, eh? Download it, check it out, and have Digital further control your existence on this planet. At least it isn't Microsoft. : )

Socketwatch 2.0

Windows95, Windows NT--Shareware - $10

Ever awaken one morning to find the little clock in the lower righthand corner of your screen tell you it's 6:17 pm? Hundreds of different things can screw up your computer's clock synchronization by just hairs, but over a day or hour or whatever, you will consistently find your clock incorrect. It isn't anything to be alarmed about, but it definitely annoying. Socketwatch solves this problem with practically no hassle — you won't even know it's working. Using this great little piece of shareware, you simply tell it how often you want it to correct your time, and specify a time server to use. If you aren't on a network which has a time server, Socketwatch has over 100 built-in time server addresses to choose from. Once it is installed and configured (which takes all of 10 minutes), your system clock will never go awry again. Hallelujah!

V-Card 1.25

DOS--Freeware

Ever dreamed of being a Hollywood-esque supercriminal who could manufacture credit card numbers up to wazoo? With V-Card, this dream can become a reality. Just launch a DOS window from Windows, and get rolling. The first feature of V-Card is to validate VISA, MasterCard and Discover card numbers. Just type in a number, and it will process the number through the complex mathematical patterns distinct to each card, and tell you if the number is legit. The second feature is to produce numbers which match the necessary patterns. Just choose what kind of card you'd like, the number to produce, push enter and BAM! Credit card numbers just falling off the screen. Within minutes of downloading you can become a corrupt villain wanted by the law enforcement of many large nations, including the United States. Pick it up, and enjoy it, but remember that PCC is in no way responsible for what you do with this program. As far as we're concerned, it makes pretty bunnies dance across your screen, and nothing else.