uptime.exe

Uptime.exe

It is a nice little program from Micro$oft which shows information you probaly didn't know your computer logs. It shows you current system uptime or a log of nearly every boot and shutdown of your PC. It is really interesting to launch on a computer to see how the PC is used :-)

I don't know what more could i say about this little utility. When started without parameters, it displays you current system uptime (for how much time has it been running). With /s switch it will show you key system events (boots and shutdowns) and time between shutdowns and boots, which means it will show you downtime and uptime of the box.

The usage:

Uptime [server] [/s ] [/a] [/d:mm/dd/yyyy | /p:n] [/heartbeat] [/? | /help]

server Name or IP address of remote server to process.
/s Display key system events and statistics.
/a Display application failure events (assumes /s).
/d: Only calculate for events after mm/dd/yyyy.
/p: Only calculate for events in the previous n days.
/heartbeat Turn on/off the system's heartbeat
/? Basic usage.
/help Additional usage information.

Old links

I noticed several visits coming from obsolete search engine cache: these people were searching for the URL collection i had here before i nuked my old weblog. It was a quite large link collection. Although chaotic, unordered and mostly obsolete for me now. But it still is in Google, MSN search, Excite (meta), and Yahoo caches.

If they search for it, they obviously become dissapointed when they find no trace of them here. A reason to put them back online :-) I leave them all in format the list was originally written (it once was one of the most useful items of my old web log)

---THE LIST START---

http://www.opus.co.tt/dave/index.htm - DOS programs! Ranging from MP3 player for DOS, to DivX players for DOS!
http://costofwar.com/ - cost of war in Iraq - compared to costs of various lots more important things in the world
http://bengross.com/smallunix.html - Links to various small Unix/Linux distributions
http://aumha.org/freeware/freeware.php - huge links collection to the best freeware programs
http://mr-53101.v-mirror.spb.ru/prikoLl_as/see.swf - ICON WAR! Fun thing to watch, i'd say
http://www.lieronet.com - main fan site for original Liero
http://www.lierox.net - official LieroX site
http://www.isohunt.com - one of the best torrent search sites
http://www.hallmark.com - perfect e-card site
http://www.azzcardfile.com - the homepage of light and incredibly flexible sucessor of old Cardfile from Win 3.x
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ - the most in-depth log i have seen about current situation in Iraq
http://www.python.org/ - home of programming language i began learning to program with
http://www.honors.montana.edu/~jjc/easytut/ - book i’m learning Python with. It’s for people, who want to program, but never had programming experience before
http://www.davidszondy.com/future/futurepast.htm - how people thought the future’d be in the past
http://www.mozilla.org - homepage of some of the best internet programs in the world
Where is it? (http://www.whereisit-soft.com) - WhereIsIt is an application written for 32-bit Windows operating systems, designed to help you maintain and organize a catalog of your computer media collection, including CD-ROMs, audio CDs, diskettes, removable drives, hard drives, network drives, DVDs, or any other media that Windows can access as a drive.
http://littlehack.free.fr/download/troyens.htm - Ever wanted to wreck someone’s computer? Well, now you can! Here is a large assortment of trojan horses to download, but make sure, that victim’s computer doesn’t have antivirus ;) Have fun damaging computers!
http://www.radmin.com - one of the best commercial remote control programs
http://www.tucows.com/remoteadmin95_default.html - choose yer own remote control program here
http://www.runescape.com - best free Java MMORPG avialaible
http://www.adventurequest.com - online RPG - nothing special there
http://www.miniclip.com - flash game site
http://www.zaidimai.com - another flash game site
http://www.streamload.com: one of the best sites available: offers unlimited storage space, 100 mb download limit per month, you can share your files
http://www.swiftdesk.com: place that gives you 30 mb of remote storage space, email service, and website hosting
http://www.transfer4free.com - a thing that stores your file for 24 hours, then deletes it (filesize limit = 10 MB), oh and BTW, it doesn’t require signup (you only tell what file to submit and email address and they email a link for you/someone else)
http://www.upload4free.com - the best single file hosting without signup! 1 mb filesize limit
http://host.yourfile.net/index.php - smaller filesize, but you can specify for how long time you want to keep file you uploaded (800 kb filesize)
http://www.santharia.com - a wondrous fantasy world on net (mostly like encyclopaedia, but with stories, poems, RPG boards) i discovered several months ago, but i’m still reading it till now
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se - biggest collection of fantasy fiction and artwork in whole wide world: 445209 pictures and 32811 stories!
http://www.rinkworks.com/stupid/ - hilarious and huge collection of stories about people who have problems with computers (most stories here are true)
http://torrent.youceff.com - good Bit Torrent site with lots of downloads. What’s Bit Torrent you may ask? Its a centralized p2p protocol. Anyway, download latest version of it here in order to download anything from Youceff: www.bittorrent.com
http://www.suprnova.org - just another bit torrent site
http://www.abandonwarering.com - abandonware sites ring, which includes many sites where you can download and read about old programs and games
http://www.the-underdogs.org - one of the best existing abandonware download sites (more than 5000 games, but unfortunately here you cant download some of them)
http://www.annoyances.org - if you have MS Windows, then you will be often annoyed: ARGH, why i cant change this?, WHY ITS DISPLAYING THIS?! and lots more. This site contains many tips about how to customize Windows to fit your style, disable annoying features and more
http://www.tucows.com - ordinary download site, but i get huge speeds when using Lithuanian mirror cause i live in Lithuania
http://www.oldcomputers.net - a very good site about old computers

---LIST END---

An interesting challenge

I found out that what makes computing really interesting for me are challenges: i have triffled with DOS so much recently because i challenged myself: is it possible to surf internet with pure DOS, with system that weighs (with install files) 15MiB? This challenge was finished: DOS really is suitable for internet use. It displays webpages graphically; it has several nice email clients.
Although there are not many types of clients for it (IM is almost non-existent here except IRC clients and the only ICQ client, which is broken because it uses obsolete protocol), you can always use SSHDOS or some telnet client to connect to shell server and use clients here.

I have one question which i will try to research and answer soon:
Amiga 2000 has COMM ports. COMM ports - communication ports. Is it possible to use null modem to connect to another computer and send/receive files? If so, how? What software I need? And is it possible to use them to connect external modem? If so, what max baud can it be?
This is challenge that will keep me busy for some time.

DOS and Unix

This is meant as a quick reference between Unix and DOS commands. I hope this will be useful for you :-)
This list isn't complete yet though

Explanation              DOS                  Unix
Display file contents    type                 cat
Display file contents    type file | more     more
with interrupts
Brief list of files      dir /w               ls
Detailed list of files   dir                  ls -l
Copy files               copy OR xcopy        cp
Move/rename file         move                 mv
Rename file              rename               mv
Get help                 help command         man command
Delete file              del                  rm
Delete directory         deltree              rmdir
Compare files            comp                 diff
Print                    print                lpr
View print queue         print                lpq
Create directory         mkdir OR md          mkdir
Change working directory chdir OR cd          cd OR cwd

Arachne

Arachne is your way to go if you have at least 286 (386 recommended). It is really fast, graphical internet browser and email client. Arachne supports a subset of the HTML/4.0 specification, including tables, frames, imagemaps, forms, and includes built-in HTTP, FTP, POP3, SMTP and other internet protocols. FTP, SSH, or TELNET are easily plugged in via APM (Arachne Package Manager) packages.

You can get it here

All you have to do with the downloaded file is execute it and follow the instructions on the screen.


Notes:

Accept the C:\Arachne option, don't specify a different option, because we will be using this path further in this mini-tutorial.
When she asks you about video, look at upper right corner. There you'll see what kind of video adapter it detected. Try to guess the memory it has and try the selected video mode. If your card isn't supported, then the safest choice would be the "VESA compatible card or driver" and, most likely, 640x480 512KB 256 colours. Oh, and at bottom of the screen you should read the explanation of options i already gave you.

After the video is setup, she asks you about max resolution. Choose 640x480 or 800x600
In net setup, choose PPP wizard - it is longer but more user friendly than advanced setup.

Let him (The Wizard) try to detect your modem. If the modem is connected to COM1 or COM2 everything may work fine. But it may fail if it is connected to COM3/COM4 or if it requires an init string. When you skip detection or it doesn't work, you're asked the COM port, then the communication speed. Both these steps are sufficiently explained on the screen.

The further step is more important - you have to enter init string, which for many modems will be ATZ, but it's always better to check the correct init string for your modem here or here. The dial command will probably be ATDT, which is the default setting. Next step is the easiest - you have to enter your provider's phone number (with prefixes).

In the following step you have to change only one option - The dialpage should be "Simplified version for old computers" - the appereance doesn't really matter much anyway. But performance does. Consequently, you have to enter your username/password. When asked for IP adress leave as it is - dynamically assigned each time you connect. But the DNS you will have to figure out yourself - consult the documentation you have or ISP's web site, where you will almost surely find this info in "HowTo set up the connection".
If you want, you can now try to set up the email.


TIP: If your Arachne is up and running, press hotkey 'K' and you will get a screen with all Arachne-HOTKEYS, so, if you don't like mouseclicking, you have the shortcuts. You can also have your own personal hotkeys: they are defined in arachne.cfg and at arachne's optionpage Personal settings.


You're done! If everything went right, you have an internet connection in your old computer! A nice graphical one :-)

Note: Later, when you want to launch Arachne again, type "arachne" to start arachne (if not already in c:\arachne, type "cd \arachne", then "arachne")