Useful Links

Using Access or Excel to Manage Your Data is a plain English explanation of the difference between a spreadsheet and a data base, and when to use each. (Added 23 November 2004)

Wired Wisdom is David Gray's personal blog on matters of personal security and privacy in the wired world. (Added 30 September 2008)

Thought Snippets is a brain dump for notes about workarounds, missing information, and other assorted discoveries, made in the course of the software development activities of the Chief Wizard. (Added 05 October 2008)

Back to index

7 Ways to Ensure Your E-mail Gets Read offers excellent suggestions for writing email that gets read and gets results. (Added 16 September 2006)

AT&T International Access (Country) Codes is the official list of country codes for international phone numbers. Use the second pick list for country and city codes. The first list is for AT%T USADirect numbers, and other information for people traveling to a country. (Added 24 January 2005, updated 05 June 2007)

AT&T US White Pages and Yellow Pages is probably the most complete U. S. White Pages telephone directory. (Added 24 January 2005)

InterNIC Global Whois is the official reference for all Internet domains. (Added 24 January 2005)

ISO 3166 Maintenance agency (ISO 3166/MA) is the official reference for ISO Country Codes, which are widely used in many applications. Since this list changes periodically, we refer you to this page for the latest lists. (Added 08 June 2007)

ISO 639 Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages is a reference for ISO Language Codes, which are widely used in many applications. Note that many applications, including Microsoft Windows, use the two letter codes. We trust the Library of Congress will maintain this list. (Added 08 June 2007)

North American Numbering Plan - Area Code Lookup is the official reference for area codes used in the US and Canada. (Added 24 January 2005)

Perpetual Calendars lets you look up any date in any year within reason. (Added 24 January 2005)

SIC (Standard Industrial Code) List is the official reference for Standard Industrial Codes. These codes are used by numerous US Government agencies, and others, to classify businesses. (Added 05 June 2007)

Tiny URL Service is a Web form that lets you shrink long URLs, such as those generated by mapping services and search engines, into very short strings that fit comfortably in email messages. This one has been a mainstay, and should have been added long ago. It gets regular use in our office. (Added 19 November 2008)

US Postal Service Zip Code Lookup is the official Zip code and address look-up page of the United States Postal Service. Get the right Zip code here - all nine digits of it if you really want it. If in doubt, we check a Zip code here before we use it. (Added 24 January 2005)

World Time Zone Atlas is the place we go to see what time it is in Singapore, Tokyo, Cape Town, or just about anyplace else in the world. (Added 24 January 2005)

Back to index

F-Secure Hoax Catalog is generally considered the definitive source of information on Internet hoaxes and bogus claims about viruses. (Added 22 January 2005)

Snopes has become the definitive source of information about urban legends in general. The site is maintained by a couple of researchers who clearly do their home work. Check here before you spread rumors. (Added 22 January 2005)

Back to index

We've been reading these newsletters for years. However, our attention has lately been focused on other matters, and we've neglected maintenance of this page. This is the beginning of our effort to remedy that situation, at least somewhat.

ExcelTips is an invaluable source of useful information for users of Microsoft Excel. (Added 30 September 2008)

Windows Secrets is an outstanding newsletter for serious users of Microsoft Windows. (Added 30 September 2008)

Woody's Office Watch is is to Microsoft Office what Windows Secrets is to Microsoft Windows. (Added 30 September 2008)

WordTips is an invaluable source of useful information for users of Microsoft Word. (Added 30 September 2008)

ActivePerl is our choice for complex search and replace and other operations involving ASCII text and for CGI programming on Unix and Windows. The rich implementation of regular expressions has no peer, and the comprehensive library of proved code that ships with it and can be augmented via CPAN means that we can assemble working scripts quickly. (Added 08 February 2005)

WinBatch is the scripting language that Microsoft omitted from early versions of Windows. We use WinBatch to create installation programs, manipulate files and directories, integrate programs so that they work together as one, and many other things. (Added 08 February 2005)

Back to index

Command-line Reference A-Z is the portal to a comprehensive reference to the command-line system utilities that ship with Microsoft Windows.(Added 31 May 2010)

Environment variables in Windows NT, while nominally about Windows NT, applies, for the most part, to all of its descendants, including Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7.(Added 31 May 2010)

Errorlevels offers updated information, much of it very useful, about the ERRORLEVEL system environment variable, including some new capabilities that make them more useful.(Added 31 May 2010)

Microsoft Win32 to Microsoft .NET Framework API Map is the official cross reference of Windows API functions to equivalent methods exposed by the Microsoft .NET Framework. (Added 06 February 2007)

Microsoft Win32 Variable Types contains a fairly comprehensive reference to data types found in Win32 API programming. (Added 24 January 2005)

Outside the Box was an excellent collection of free command line utilities. The site also features links to other excellent sources of useful and oddball command line utility programs. Alas, it, too, went extinct. (Added 19 November 2008, retired 31 May 2010)

RGB Hexadecimal Color Chart was a beautifully organized color chart for Web designers. Unfortunately, it has gone extinct. (Added 24 January 2005, retired 30 September 2008)

Script Repository debuted as the Community-Submitted Script Center. Chief Wizard David Gray was one of its inaugural contributors, and he continues to contribute scripts from time to time. From the beginning, the repository was language agnostic. Scripts written in VBScript, Perl, PowerShell, the MS-DOS and Windows batch languages, and others are accepted. Visit here before you decide to roll your own, or troll for ideas.(Added 31 May 2010)

SET command Windows NT 4-Windows 2000 Syntax provides extensive coverage of recent extensions of the venerable SET command, with which you can create temporary environment variables. (Added 31 May 2010)

Thought Snippets is a brain dump for notes about workarounds, missing information, and other assorted discoveries, made in the course of the software development activities of the Chief Wizard. (Added 05 October 2008)

Back to index

IE7 Support Portal is a compact page of essential information about Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer 7, which was released to the general public on 18 October 2006. (Added 18 October 2006)

IE7 Vista is a comprehensive reference, assembled and maintained by Microsoft Internet Explorer MVP Sandi Hardmeier. (Added 29 December 2006)

VirusWarn Web Site is the place to go in order to subscribe to our free no nonsense Virus Notification mailing list. (Updated 20 September 2005)

AVG Anti-Virus - Free Version is a solid, well rounded anti-virus program that is available free for personal use. (Added 20 September 2006, Reviewed and Updated 18 June 2009)

Apple Security Updates is your headquarters for security updates for Apple software. (Added 18 August 2005)

Apple Product Securitycontains general security information for Apple customers. (Added 18 August 2005)

Alphabetical List of File Extensions is a very comprehensive list of file extensions and the programs that use them. (Added 30 September 2008)

Ten Rules of Common Sense Computing and Virus Defense is an excellent, plain language list of ten things to do to keep your computer secure. (Added 23 April 2004)

A Home User's Security Checklist for Windows provides a useful check list geared to the needs of home users. (Added 23 April 2004)

How can I tell if an e-mail message is fraudulent? offers practical information about how to identify fraudulent email messages. (Added 24 February 2005)

F-Secure Hoax Catalog is generally considered the definitive source of information on Internet hoaxes and bogus claims about viruses. (Added 22 January 2005)

Snopes has become the definitive source of information about urban legends in general. The site is maintained by a couple of researchers who clearly do their home work. Check here before you spread rumors. (Added 22 January 2005)

McAfee, Inc., formerly Network Associates, Inc., is the home of VirusScan, SpamKiller, and numerous other security products. (Added 22 January 2005)

SANS Institute is an excellent place to learn about all aspects of computer security. (Added 22 January 2005)

Symantec is the home of the Norton security products. (Added 22 January 2005)

LavaSoft is the home of Ad-Aware, one of two spyware removal tools that we recommend. We encourage you to use both together, as each identifies different threats. (Added 24 January 2005)

Fix for Error: "LU1803: LiveUpdate failed while getting your updates" or "LiveUpdate had an internal error while getting your updates" is an on-line tool for fixing this common problem with Norton Anti-virus. (Added 20 September 2006)

Office Document Open Confirmation Tool, for users of Microsoft Office 97 and 2000, is a security update that causes Microsoft Internet Explorer to prompt for permission to links to Microsoft Office documents. (Added 20 September 2006)

Safer Networking is the home of Spybot Search & Destroy, one of two spyware removal tools that we recommend. We encourage you to use both together, as each identifies different threats. (Added 24 January 2005)

Some Mysterious Messages Explained is an informative article about why we all get so many bogus bounce messages and the like, from addresses that are unknown to us. The article is from Woody's EMAIL Essentials, a free newsletter from the highly regarded publisher of Woody's Office Watch. If you use Microsoft Office a lot, we recommend that you subscribe. (Added 04 March 2005)

Ultra High Security Password Generator is a great place to go when you need a really good password to secure something like a wireless network. The page was created by fellow wizard, Steve Gibson. (Added 14 December 2006)

Password Checker is a page created by the security team at Microsoft that lets you test the strength of your passwords. Although there isn't much explanation of the rules, it probably uses standard industry criteria for password strength. Like the page created by Steve Gibson, (see above) it runs over SSL. (Added 19 December 2006)

Zone Labs is the home of Zone Alarm, one of three personal firewalls that we recommend. (Added 24 January 2005)

CERT/CC is the Computer Emergency Response Team Coordinating Center at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Funded partially by the U. S. Department of Defense, this is the oldest and best clearinghouse for information on security issues involving all types of computers and software. In 2003, responsibility shifted to the U. S. Department of Homeland Security. (Added 22 January 2005)

Zip Reader for Windows is a free utility from PKWare, Inc., the originators of the ZIP file format. Use it to unzip any ZIP archive, including the new AEA encrypted formats that can be generated by the latest versions of most Zip archive programs such as WinZip 9.0. (Added 04 March 2005)

Windows Secrets is an outstanding newsletter for serious users of Microsoft Windows. (Added 30 September 2008)

Woody's Office Watch is is to Microsoft Office what Windows Secrets is to Microsoft Windows. (Added 30 September 2008)

IANA Official TCP and UDP Port Assignments is the authoritative list of Well Known and Registered TCP and UDP port assignments. Though primarily of interest to our more technically inclined visitors, this is a list that we frequently use ourselves, and it may be helpful in understanding reports from ZoneAlarm and other personal firewall software. (Added 18 November 2005)

Back to index

ASAP Utilities is an add-in for Microsoft Excel that adds numerous functions that you will soon find indispensable. Leslie Vail, whom I have known for about 17 years, told me about this package. When I scanned the summary of worksheet functions, I found several that I've written into numerous workbooks over the years, but never got around to moving them into an add-in. I expect to get lots of mileage from the "copy a work sheet's page and print settings" and "color each nth row or column in selection" features. According to the author's documentation, the package is compatible with Excel 2000 through 2007. (Added 28 March 2007)

Ad-Aware was the first really good spyware and adware detector. We paid for our copy to do our part to ensure its success. (Added 08 February 2005)

Paint Shop Pro has been our picture editor since 1990, when it was called simply Paint Shop. It is outstanding for converting from one image format to another. In reviewing the site prior to adding it to this list, we noted that Corel Corporation bought JASC on 14 October 2004. We use Corel Draw 9 for everything that Paint Shop Pro cannot do. (Added 08 February 2005)

PK-ZIP is one of the oldest shareware companies in business. It may come as a surprise to some that we still use their legendary PK-Zip 2.04g for MS-DOS. (Added 08 February 2005)

WinBatch is the scripting language that Microsoft omitted from early versions of Windows. We use WinBatch to create installation programs, manipulate files and directories, integrate programs so that they work together as one, and many other things. The scripting language is shareware. The compiler costs serious money, and has been worth every penny to us. (Added 08 February 2005)

WinZip remains our preferred Zip tool. The current version can extract from CAB, GZIP, LHA, and TAR files, and is one of the few programs that supports the new bZip and PPMD compression formats, in addition to being able to create and read ZIP files. There are plenty of free zip programs but we think this one is worth the small price. (Added 08 February 2005, updated 21 November 2006) WinZip is a registered trademark of WinZip International LLC. All rights reserved

Zone Labs is the home of Zone Alarm, one of three personal firewalls that we recommend. The other two are from Symantec and Norton, both of which cost money. ZoneAlarm has a free basic firewall that is adequate for most users. (Added 24 January 2005)

Back to index

Outside the Box is an excellent collection of free command line utilities. The site also features links to other excellent sources of useful and oddball command line utility programs. (Added 19 November 2008)

Adobe Reader is required to view many documents found on the Internet. You will need it sooner or later. (Added 23 January 2005)

HEdit, published by Yuri Software, is the Windows hexadecimal editor that we use. You can download a demo to review before you buy it. (Added 08 February 2005)

LavaSoft is the home of Ad-Aware, one of two spyware removal tools that we recommend. We encourage you to use both together, as each identifies different threats. (Added 24 January 2005)

Safer Networking is the home of Spybot Search & Destroy, one of two spyware removal tools that we recommend. We encourage you to use both together, as each identifies different threats. (Added 24 January 2005)

Seagull FTP is a basic FTP client that we recommend to our clients. We recommend it for basic Web site file maintenance chores. (Added 23 January 2005)

WinZip remains our preferred Zip tool. The current version can extract from CAB, GZIP, LHA, and TAR files, in addition to being able to create and read ZIP files. There are plenty of free zip programs but we think this one is worth the small price. (Added 24 January 2005)

Zone Labs is the home of Zone Alarm, one of three personal firewalls that we recommend. The other two are from Symantec and Norton, both of which cost money. ZoneAlarm has a free basic firewall that is adequate for most users. (Added 24 January 2005)

Zip Reader for Windows is a free utility from PKWare, Inc., the originators of the ZIP file format. Use it to unzip any ZIP archive, including the new AEA encrypted formats that can be generated by the latest versions of most Zip archive programs such as WinZip 9.0. (Added 04 March 2005)

Back to index