Good software download site

+ Battling Information Overload
by Mary Ellen Bates, Guest Writer

In case you were in any doubt that we're inundated with data, consider the
study conducted in 2000 by the School of Information Management and
Systems of the University of California, Berkeley. "How Much Information"
found that we produce 1.5 billion gigabytes of content a year. And a
delightful article from Inc. magazine claims that people spend 150 hours
a year looking for lost information and that 45% of people watch TV and
use PCs simultaneously. No wonder we're overwhelmed!

Searchers can fight information overload in two ways -- at the source and
with tools and techniques that cut down on the amount of information we
wade through.


Stemming The Flood

We're information junkies -- that's why you're reading SearchDay -- but
that doesn't mean that we have to contribute to data glut.

* Think before you forward an interesting web site, an article, or an
amusing email to your colleagues. Do they really need to see this?

* Practice Just In Time, rather than Just In Case, information gathering.
Rather than holding on to everything that passes by your desk or PC,
develop skills that help you find it later if you really need it.

* Fight cover-your-behind emails. Is there really a need to cc everyone in
your department every time you report on the status of a project?


Tools to Cut Back Information Overgrowth

* Put yourself on an email discussion list "fast" once a quarter. Set your
lists to "nomail" for a week and see which ones you miss. Keep those and
lose the rest. Life's too short to spend your time reading postings you
don't care about. You can always go back and search the list's archive if
you really need to track down that elusive posting.

* Evaluate information as you gather it. Is this really relevant? Does it
duplicate something I already have? Is it the most current source? Is it
the most authoritative source? Could I do better?

* Set a time limit for how long you will spend searching. It's easy to get
caught up in the chase and to keep on gathering more and more (and more!
and more!) information, even though you have enough material or the topic
isn't worth the additional time you want to invest in it.

* Provide human filtering of content before posting it on an intranet or
passing it along to a colleague or client. Rather than subscribing to a
raw feed of data, have an info pro review it first to eliminate duplicates
and irrelevant material.

* Develop the skill to evaluate what information is immediately useful,
what is transitory and what is important. These are not mutually exclusive
categories, and what is useful right now may not be something that can or
should be retained.

Bottom line? It's easy to be the most efficient "information hauler." It's
harder to lead by example and demonstrate that even self-avowed
information junkie can actually serve as the first defense against
information overload -- for both yourself and others.

Mary Ellen Bates is the principal of Bates Information Services , a
research and consulting business based in Washington, DC. Her email
address is mbates@BatesInfo.com.


How Much Information
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info/
This study is an attempt to measure how much information is produced in
the world each year. U.C. Berkeley researchers Peter Lyman and Hal R.
Varian look at several media and estimate yearly production, accumulated
stock, rates of growth, and other variables of interest.

"Data Data"
Inc. magazine, Jan. 1, 1999
http://www.inc.com/magazine/19990101/715.html
How much time people waste looking for lost information, how fast the
World Wide Web is growing, and other statistics from the front lines of
the info glut.

Microsoft® Windows Media™ Encoder is an easy-to-use, powerful production tool that enables content developers to convert both live and prerecorded audio, video, and computer screen images to Windows Media Format for live and on-demand delivery.

Windows Media Encoder now captures Windows Media Video 8 content in real-time for streaming delivery, and creates Windows Media Audio 8 for streaming and download. For best motion picture quality download video, professionals should still use the Windows Media Encoding Utility.

Securitysoftware.cc:

Slap - If your like me you run firewall software that tells you when someone tries to access your system. Sometimes I respond with a few packets of my own just to let them know that I am paying attention. I wrote Slap to make responding to these access attempts easier and more entertaining. Just enter the IP address of the person you wish to slap and click on the Slap button. The program will attempt to access all the ports in the list and send them a packet with a personal message. (The default message is 'Leave Me Alone!') Slap integrates with Black Ice and Zone Alarm and can use information received from these software firewalls to "Auto Slap" intruders and add their attacks to your list of responses. --Here is a cool Wav file to use with this.

WipeOut - I don't like windoze tracking everything I do and I I don't like the programs I have seen that clean things up so I set out to write a history and free space wipe program that is more suited to power users. Here are the features: Wipes free space on the selected drive, Clears cookies, temporary internet files, file access history from the registry and recent folder. Some of the power user features are select additional directories you want to wipe, registry keys you want to clear, cookies you want to keep, number of patterns to write to free space and registry entries before clearing and the thread priority of the free disk space wipe. For NT/W2K and XP users you a Miscelaneous tab will be displayed that will give you the option of deleting locked files and relocating the SAM file.

FTP Server - Another anonymous FTP server program. I actually didn't write this one. It was a sample ftp server program that came with a component I downloaded a while back. I just changed it so its invisible when runing on 9X/ME systems when running and under NT/W2K only shows as a process.

Utilities from the excellent http://electricalsocket.com

Anyways: Have you been known to mince words? How about mix them? Well, here's your chance to mix your words with others. Be an author of stories told step by step.
Anywhere.?: this.is yourguide.to top-level country domain name codes. Figure out where all those .au's, .uk's and .to's are from.
behindtheURL: there's more than just WHOIS here, there's a growing number of tools and resources for finding out information about urls & domain names.
8Track On My Mind: Are you a music fan who likes to make mix tapes? Well, so am I. This is a few of my recipes and a chance for you to share yours.
Formulaic: Tired of filling out forms? Well, here's a site filled with forms you don't have to fill out. Form art.
Hexagonal Hues: A guide to online coloring with a healthy dose of do-it-yourself attitude. Try naming a color or simply use it to find colors to use on your website
If I Had But 1/2 A Brain: Do you own www.unmilkedcows.com? Let us help you figure out what to do with that strangely named domain.
LinkArt: Enough of those long lists of links with no inspiration. Finally there's a collection of links which can finally be called an art form. Or is art in the eye of the beholder?
No More Web: We'd all rather be doing something else, right? Well, here's a chance for you to share your dreamt of lives with others.
Periodically Coherent: What if Einstein had been right-brained? What if physics was an art course? An image font.
Ransom Letters: Every once in a while there comes a product of technology that even the Unabomber has to enjoy. An image font.
Touch Tone TT: What if your modem learned how to write? What if your phone was a poet? Touch Tone TT is an image font that explores the place where numbers meet words.
Viewer's Choice: Where else can you type in 4 simple words and a few days letter find a written work about it? Yes, this is a journal/story site of sorts, where you, the viewer, submits the four words that sparks the train of thought. Exert your influence now!

Massive file extensions database. What is the meaning of the file extensions? Which program can I use to open the file? This site has every file and operating system. Excellent.

http://www.endungen.de/

Link shortening services

SnipURL
http://snipurl.com/

TinyURL
http://tinyurl.com/

MakeAShorterLink
http://makeashorterlink.com/

The best dictionary on the net that you have never heard of:

Word Search from SXlist.

Put Outlook Notes on Your Desktop
From Brian Lema, Nepean, Ontario, Canada

"In Microsoft Outlook® version 2002, notes are the electronic equivalent of paper "sticky" notes. You can use notes to jot down questions, ideas, reminders, or anything you would write on note paper.

To create a note in Outlook:

On the File menu, point to New, and then click Note.
Type the text of the note.
To close the note, click the × in the upper-right corner of the note.

You can also make Outlook notes accessible from your Microsoft Windows® desktop by creating the following shortcut:

Right-click the desktop, point to New, and click Shortcut.
In the Type the location of the item box, type the following path: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\OUTLOOK.EXE" /c ipm.stickynote
Click Next, name the shortcut, and then click Finish.

Now, when you double-click the shortcut, an Outlook note will appear on your desktop."

META Tag Creator
This tool will assist you in creating META tags for the site you are building. Meta tags are important in that they are most often used to provide information to search engine spiders and occasionally to perform various HTTP functions, such as a refresh or redirect. The META tags below are only a few of the functions available, however, these are the most important ones for our purposes. Not all of these have to be used, but they are provided so that you can pick and choose which ones you prefer.

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