Sharing Wares #6

WAV Browser

Windows 95, Windows 3.1--Freeware

I know from watching my Mac friends that browsing through your collection of sound files is pretty darn easy on their paltry operating system (whoa, doggie, PC person back in the cage!). However, on Windows 95, I was offended by the pathetic capabilities of the default wav file player, so I started opening all of my waves in the sound file editor I use. However, due to the robustness of that program, it now took a solid 10 seconds to open a sound to play for my friends, and by the time I got it opened, the moment of hilarity had passed, and the sound was no longer funny. So I went out shareware huntin' one day and found WAV Browser. This fit what I was looking for to a "T". Just launch the program, select your directory, and suddenly up pops a list of all the wav files in that directory. Just click on the name of a file in the list, and it plays. The best part is its modest interface, which allows you to just do the important stuff rename, delete, move and copy files nothing too snazzy. Now I can play three or four files in the time it used to take to play one, with the perks of being able to perform those features on the files. Could I ask for anything more? Well, maybe some women, but that's another story.

Neotrace

Windows--Shareware - $19.50

Okay, I know, this may be totally useless to everybody but Internet systems administrators, but it is really cool when you get into it. The techie geeks out there know about the built-in trace program that all computers have pre-installed. You type in an Internet address, such as sony.com, at it tells you every routing computer you go through to get there. It will print out the IP address of your computer (i.e. 123.456.789.012) followed by the IP numbers of a dozen or so other computers around the world until it reaches 198.93.3.1, which is the IP for the actual sony.com server. In other words, it "traces" your voyage from your computer to where you're receiving data from (hence the name). Well, Neotrace is a fully graphical version of this, and can make hours of fun and games for the whole family (children age 3 and up). Next time you are trying to log into your favorite website, but your browser hangs on "Waiting for reply...", pop open Neotrace, type in the address, and see if the problem is due to your Internet Service Provider, the website you're trying to get to, or the most likely, some unnamed server in the middle of Burlington, Iowa. Trust me, it's fun!

FontShow

Windows 95, Windows NT--Shareware - $20

Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. I admit it, I have a problem. I like fonts...I mean I REALLY like fonts. Times New Roman here, Courier there, they're all around me. I have over 400 installed on my computer (for those of you who don't know, that's WAY too many). Okay, enough of my self-pity. Sometimes I want to know what exactly these masses of fonts are, and why I have all of them. In strolls FontShow, a lightweight, little program for Windows which can browse through your fonts directory and display the proverbial "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" for each font so that you can see what exactly is the dealio with each and every font you have. Its advent has talked me down from many ledges when the weight of the fonts started to get to me. It saved my life.