KAREN'S POWER TOOLS NEWSLETTER ~~~~~~~~~~ This Week's Power Tools Sponsor ~~~~~~~~~~
Karen's Power Tools are now available on CD! To learn all about it, and securely order online, visit: http://www.karenware.com/cd.asp ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ November 16, 2004 By Karen Kenworthy Read the Web version of Power Tools online! http://www.karenware.com/newsletters/2004/2004-11-16.asp IN THIS ISSUE * Karen Wields a Screwdriver! * Time Travel * Karen Does DOS and COBOL * All of Karen's "Power Tools" * Subscription Center What a nice surprise! You're a sight for sore eyes. Come in and have a seat by the fire! Help yourself to the plate of chocolate chip cookies. Here's a mug so you can share that thermos of hot cocoa with me too. That'll chase the cold and damp in no time. :) Karen Wields a Screwdriver! --------------------------- What have I been up to? Let's see ... wow! My last newsletter went out way back on September 21st, 2004. Looks like I've been on a long vacation. But I've actually been pretty busy. Since our last get-together I've built a new computer, and moved all my programming software and files to it. Like most such projects, it took a few wrong turns. For example, as I added new disk and CD drives, the computer outgrew the original power supply. This caused the computer to automatically power off just 15 seconds after powering on. Not nearly enough time to get any useful work done. But a new, larger power supply fixed that problem. And inadvertently caused a new problem ... Turns out I accidentally knocked a jumper from the motherboard while replacing the power supply. The jumper had the undocumented effect of disabling all keyboard support when removed. Unfortunately, I didn't know that bit of motherboard trivia until after a new keyboard arrived, and "failed" just like the original. :( But everything seems to be working fine now. Besides being faster, my new computer sports a cute "glow-in-the-dark" keyboard, and a super-bright LCD monitor. Between the two, I may need to start wearing sunglasses here at the secluded Power Tools workshop. :) That's not all I've been up to. I also helped my Dad move to a new office. He only has two computers. But they are networked, allowing both computers to share disk drives, printers, and an Internet connection. At his old office, the computers communicated via coaxial cables hidden in the walls and above the tiles of the suspended ceiling. But this style of connection wasn't possible at the new location. Fortunately, wireless networking, using a technology known as WiFi, has recently become reliable and quite inexpensive (compared to the cost of custom cable runs). One wireless router, two wireless network adapter cards, and one wireless print server later, Dad's computers are as chatty as ever! Time Travel ----------- No, I haven't fired up the old Power Tools Time Machine lately. But I really ought to get it out so we can all go for a ride! Some day soon, I promise. Still, it did feel like I had taken a trip back in time, a couple of weeks ago. Instead of working with the latest incarnations of Windows, and the most up-to-date programming tools, I suddenly found myself using DOS, and writing programs in the COBOL programming language! Old-timers will remember DOS. It preceded Windows, giving life to the earliest personal computers (way back in 1981). No elegant icons or mice back then. To run a program, you typed its name. No fancy fonts either. All text was displayed on a screen just large enough to show 25 lines containing 80 fixed-size characters each. While today's personal computers have millions, and even billions, of bytes of memory, early models running DOS limped along with just 640 thousand bytes of memory (or less). If you also remember COBOL, then have another cookie. You deserve it. COBOL stands for "COmmon Business-Oriented Language". It was originally designed to allow folks to write business and financial programs for the big mainframe computers. But over the years programs written in COBOL found their way into smaller and smaller computers, eventually reaching our desktops and laptops. COBOL's roots go back as far as 1952. But the first official version didn't appear until 1960. Later, new dialects released: in 1968 (often called COBOL-68), 1974 (COBOL-74), and 1985 (COBOL-85). I've even heard a new version was recently devised, named COBOL-2002 after the year it was born. Despite these revisions, COBOL's glory days are mostly behind it. Newer programming languages, such as C, C++, Java, and of course Visual Basic, are all the rage these days. Even so, countless thousands of important COBOL programs run every day (mostly on large mainframes and largish minicomputers). And lots of sharp people make their living modifying COBOL programs, and writing new ones. Karen Does DOS and COBOL ------------------------ It's hard to believe now, but I too spent much of an earlier life writing programs in COBOL. In college I wrote software for an early minicomputer called the NCR Century 100 -- a novel machine that sported 16 KB of memory, with just 2 KB available for programs like those I wrote. Later, while working for a company known as Burroughs, I wrote banking software that ran on their Medium and Small System computers (B4700, B1700, B700, B800, B900, B80, etc. -- the hardware folks were fond of the letter "B"). If you wrote a check during the 1970's, it was probably sorted and processed by a COBOL program I helped write. After leaving Burroughs, I started my own software business and wrote software for companies like my Dad's. In addition to the usual accounting features, my programs performed specialized billing (they printed invoices), and handled industry-specific revenue distribution (they printed checks). For many years I thought my DOS and COBOL days were over. But then a problem appeared at my Father's office, one of the few places where DOS and my old COBOL software still run together. For some inexplicable reason, my software -- written 20 years ago using the 1985 incarnation of COBOL -- didn't mesh perfectly with new WiFi networking software release last month. Go figure. Fortunately, after a few days of painful head-scratching, I was able to discover a workaround. It only required modifications to a couple of hundred programs I hadn't seen for over a decade, written in a language I thought I'd forgotten. Amazingly, a few more long days and nights later, my Dad's office was humming once again! And my COBOL skills have been dusted off and sharpened. Who knows -- anyone interested in a collection of DOS Power Tools written in COBOL? :) It will be a while before those programs appear. But if you'd like to give my current collection of Power Tools a try, just visit their home page at: http://www.karenware.com/powertools.asp As always, the programs are free for personal/home use. If you're a programmer, you can download their Visual Basic source code too! Better yet, get the latest version of every Power Tool on a brand-new, shiny CD. You'll also get three bonus Power Tools, not available anywhere else. Source code of every Power Tool, the text of every issue of my newsletter, and some of my articles written for Windows Magazine, are also included. And owning the CD grants you a special license to use all my Power Tools at work. Best of all, buying a CD is the easiest way to support the KarenWare.com web site, Karen's Power Tools, and this newsletter! To find out more, visit: http://www.karenware.com/cd.asp Whew! Sorry I talked so much. Guess I missed you more than I imagined. It sure was good to catch up. Please have a safe trip home. And until we meet again, if you see me on the 'net be sure to wave and say "Hi!" Karen P.S. Happy Birthday to my "baby" brother Kevin Kenworthy! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Visit Karen's Power Tools Store and check out her collection of Power Tools T-shirts, mouse pads, hats, tote bags, mugs, and more! A portion of each purchase helps keep Karen's Power Tools newsletter and programs free! http://www.karenware.com/store.asp ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All of Karen's Power Tools -------------------------- Note: For the most up-to-date list, visit: http://www.karenware.com/powertools.asp * Time Sync - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptsync.asp Zone Manager - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptzone.asp Directory Printer - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptdirprn.asp Print Logger - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptprnlog.asp LAN Monitor - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptlanmon.asp URL Discombobulator - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptlookup.asp Window Watcher - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptwinwatch.asp 'Net Monitor - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptnetmon.asp Drive Info - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptdinfo.asp E-Mailer II - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptmailer2.asp Countdown Timer II - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptcount2.asp Computer Profiler - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptprofiler.asp Replicator - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp Disk Slack Checker - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptslack.asp WhoIs - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptwhois.asp Recycler - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptrecycler.asp Show Stopper - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptstopper.asp Alarm Clock - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptalarm.asp Font Explorer - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptfonts.asp Power Toy - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/pttoy.asp Time Cop - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/pttimecop.asp Hasher - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/pthasher.asp Mailer - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptmailer.asp Version Browser - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptbrowse.asp Autorun.inf Editor - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptautorun.asp Cookie Viewer - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptcookie.asp Registry Pruner - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptpruner.asp Registry Ripper - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptregrip.asp Snooper - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptsnoop.asp Clipboard Viewer - http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptclpvue.asp * Indicates program was updated recently. NOTE: You should use Control Panel's "Add/Remove Programs" applet to remove the old version, before installing a new version of a Power Tool. Note: Be sure to install the Visual Basic Runtime v6.0 before installing your first Power Tool. It's required by all the Power Tools, and must be installed first. You can download a copy of the Visual Basic Runtime v6.0 installer, vbrun60-setup.exe, from any of the pages where you download the Power Tools themselves, or from my special Runtimes page at: http://www.karenware.com/runtimes.asp -- K-A-R-E-N-'-S--P-O-W-E-R-T-O-O-L-S -------------------- Copyright 2004 Karen Kenworthy http://www.karenware.com/ Subscription Center ------------------- To subscribe to this newsletter, visit http://www.karenware.com/subscribe/ or send a message from the email account where you'd like to receive the newsletter to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change or cancel your subscription, click this custom link to Karen's Power Tools Newsletter Subscription Center: https://secure.karenware.com/sc.asp?key=nela&id=98780 You can also cancel your subscription by sending a message, from the email account where you are subscribed, to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This Newsletter was Sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your Subscriber ID is: 98780
