Monday, May 13, 2002		Downloads of the week

The main component of this program PowerOrganizer helps you find and classify applications and documents into desktop folders for fast access using Power Drawers. It can also search for and remove dead shortcuts that clutter your computer. Once your applications and files are grouped logically, you will be able to access everything quicker and with less effort. PowerOrganizer will search for applications and help you sort them into various desktop folders. Each desktop folder created by PowerOrganizer is based on a functional grouping such as Internet, Communications, Utilities, Graphics, Games, Development Tools, as appropriate for the applications you have installed and the type of user you are. PowerOrganizer helps you find and sort applications into these folders and allows you to create new folders to suit your needs. The actual applications are not moved by PowerOrganizer. Similar to the Start Menu, only shortcuts to the actual applications are put in the desktop folders. It also creates a desktop folder called Recent Folders that contains shortcuts to recent-accessed files and folders. The Recent Folders list will be initially empty but will automatically be updated every time you access a file through Power Drawers. Right-clicking on Recent Folders greatly speeds up your access to frequently used files and folders. Once the folders are set up, you can access any of your installed applications quickly by right-clicking on the appropriate desktop folder and selecting an item from the cascading menu. Sometimes your screen may be covered with Windows so it’s hard to get to the desktop folders that Organizer created for you. Even when your desktop is covered by Windows, there are two other easy ways to access everything in desktop folders. You can access everything on the desktop (or in subfolders) by right-clicking on the Start Button or right-clicking on folders on your Quick Launch Bar. You can use PowerOrganizer to remove clutter from your desktop by deleting duplicate and dead shortcuts. Click on the Remove Unneeded Shortcuts button to find and remove unneeded desktop shortcuts. Dead shortcuts link to files or programs that no longer exist. They are often left behind after an application is uninstalled and are useless. PowerOrganizer doesn’t actually delete dead or duplicate shortcuts that it finds. It moves them to DeadShortcuts and DuplicateShortcuts subfolders respectively of the Power Drawers directory and will tell you any time it has done so. It does this just in case you have shortcuts that only temporarily appear to be dead that you want to keep, such as a link to a file on a removable drive. Download from www.powerdrawers.com

Yahtzee for Windows is an easy to play Windows version of the classic dice game Yahtzee, without the dice! Each turn consists of up to three rolls of five dice. After the first roll, you have the option of keeping any number of dice. The set of dice you have left after the last go is the set you will be scoring on. Turns are repeated until all score boxes are filled. Each score box can only be filled once. If the hand shown does not match the score method you chose, you will get a score of zero for that box. Before you can play this absorbing game, you should know some of the terms used in playing it. Here they are: Ones through Sixes: Score: Sum of all dice with the named value. (i e. If you have { 4, 6, 3, 4, 4} as your 5 dice, and place it in the 4’s, you will score 12 points, if you place it in the 5’s you will score 0, and if you place it in 6’s, you will score 6. If sum of Ones through Sixes (i.e. Total 1) = 63 then a bonus of 35 points is awarded. Three of a Kind: Score: Sum of all dice if 3 dice with the same value are in the hand. Four of a Kind: Score: Sum of all dice if 4 dice with the same value are in the hand. Full House:

Score: 25 points if the hand contains two of one value and three of another. Low Straight: Score: 30 points if a sequence of 4 is in the hand (e.g. { 1, 2, 3, 4} , { 2, 3, 4, 5} or { 3, 4, 5, 6} not necessarily in that order). High Straight: Score: 40 points if a sequence of 5 is in the hand (e.g. { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5} , or { 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} , not necessarily in that order). Yahtzee: Score: 50 points for first 5 of a kind, and 100 points for each one thereafter. When you get a Yahtzee, you have a choice of where to place it. Obviously, if the Yahtzee section is not filled, that is the best place for it, but after that is filled in and the corresponding number of the Yahtzee (i e. A throw of all 4’s would be the 4 section) is also filled in, you can place it in Full House, Low Straight or High Straight. For example, you get a throw of { 5, 5, 5, 5, 5} , and you have already had a Yahtzee. If the 5’s section is not filled in, you can place it in there for a score of 25. You can also place it in 3 or 4 of a kind (also for a score of 25). However, if the 5’s are filled in, you can choose not only to place it in 3 or 4 of a kind, but also Full House and Low or High Straight (25, 30 and 40 points respectively). It’s one of those tricky rules not many people know about, but summed up, if you get a subsequent Yahtzee and the corresponding number is filled in, it becomes a Joker and can be placed in the above sections. Chance: Score: Sum of all dice in hand. This is used when you have a bad hand that can’t be placed anywhere. There aren’t many tactics to playing Yahtzee, there is more than a certain element of luck about it! However, in order to constantly achieve high scores, you need to adopt certain Tactics, some of which are: Try not to use your ‘chance’ up too quick. When you do use it, go for the highest total possible. Always go for the bonus in the 1’s to 6’s section. Remember, you need 63 or over to get the 35 point bonus. (63 is calculated from an average of 3 of each type, i. e. 3x1’s, 3x2’s, etc.) When you go for 3 and 4 of a kind, always go for high numbers, as these forms the basis for your total. If you have a bad throw, and have nowhere to place it, think about putting it in Yahtzee or 1’s. 1’s always score low, and Yahtzee is rare to come by! Download available from www.jas.tj/yahtzee/yahtze32.zip

Stay Online is a small system-tray utility you can use to prevent your ISP from disconnecting you due to inactivity. Stay Online simulates Internet activity in order to prevent your ISP from disconnecting you. The program starts and stops this simulated activity automatically by detecting active online connections. Stay Online is very easy to use and is free. To Stay online while surfing the internet click the start button. This process can automatically start and stop by ticking the right boxes under properties. To edit the list of address, double click on the selected address. To change the delay time between connecting to each address click on either of the four coloured clock buttons. To install the program run the installation file "stayonline25.exe" to automatically install Stay Online. Download available from http://0a.itgo.com

 — Raman Mohan