WEBTOP
WebTop.com
LTD
3
Agents & tickers
4
stars
Cute
AND effective research tool
Actually a very
interesting little tool both in presentation and content. Webtop
can be a free floating little ball on your desktop. It opens like an audio/mp3
player an opens a search window. What it does then is really interesting in that it just does not search the Web, it searches for news content via
Moreover.com
Very
handy for answering reference questions. Depth of data is quite surprising
YAPS
PDA
Street.com -Palm Boulevard
3
Agents & tickers
1
star
Password
security
Yaps
(Yet Another Password Safe) stores your passwords and other confidential information on your Palm, using 256-bit encryption. Access to the safe is
password protected with automatic lock-out when the device switches off,
or you go to another application. Other features include ease of use, import
and export to Memo, masked or hidden records.
Overall
a better than nothing way of carrying your passwords and accounts around
with you on the Palm. Importing from better encryption programs is
comma delimited with # for record separators. No real encryption other
than a password protected file.
YOGI
Wall
Street Journal
3
Agents & tickers
2
stars
Business
news from your WSJ Yogi
Installs
it's way into your startup file so you get to watch it load up on business
news from the Wall Street Journal. It does however allow you track huge
amounts of company information without having to go look for it.
Find
something you like? You probably can't open it unless you are a subscriber
to DJ Interactive. Welcome to the future
Corey
Kessler Columbus Dispatch
4
Calculators
5
stars
Go
Figure -Area Math for Journalists
Fill
in the blank math for our reporting staff Isn't technology wonderful?
CALENDAR
SOFTWARE
Matt
Kruse
4
Calculators
5
stars
A
calendar for the Intranet
Nothing
but the very best for your library staff-their own group calendar! Very
similar to the Netscape based calendar but it resides on your Intranet
for greater privacy and no login problems. A wonderful tool for planning
and keeping everyone on the same page.
It
works in our department-could it work across the newsroom? -space is
tight on each day but you could track the major stuff. Maybe decentralize
and let each department run their own version. Oh by the way you need Perl
5.0 (but that's free too!
COMPOUND
CALCULATOR
Corey
Kessler Columbus Dispatch
4
Calculators
5
stars
Go
Figure -Compounding Math for Journalists
Fill
in the blank math for our reporting staff Isn't technology wonderful?
DISTANCE
CALCULATOR
Corey
Kessler Columbus Dispatch
4
Calculators
5
stars
Go
Figure -Distance Math for Journalists
Fill
in the blank math for our reporting staff Isn't technology wonderful?
LENGTH
CALCULATOR
Corey
Kessler Columbus Dispatch
4
Calculators
5
stars
Go
Figure -Length Math for Journalists
Fill
in the blank math for our reporting staff Isn't technology wonderful?
MAPQUEST
MapQuest
4
Calculators
4
stars
Are
we there yet? You can always use a map
Absolutely
indispensable tool for any news researcher. Where is it? How far and how
do I get there
MASS
CALCULATOR
Corey
Kessler Columbus Dispatch
4
Calculators
5
stars
Go
Figure -Mass Math for Journalists
Fill
in the blank math for our reporting staff Isn't technology wonderful?
PERCENT
CALCULATOR
Corey
Kessler Columbus Dispatch
4
Calculators
5
stars
Go
Figure -Percent Math for Journalists
Fill
in the blank math for our reporting staff Isn't technology wonderful? 82.3%
of all journalist can't do this on their own
PERPETUAL
CALENDAR
Herb
Weiner
4
calculators
4
stars
This
day in history
A
very simple application, but it solves that basic research problem that
usually sends us scrambling off the World Almanac or some such place
to find out if July 12, 1590 was a Tuesday. Simply type in the year, change
the month and presto you have that year's calendar. Good for the years
0001 through 9999. After that who cares?
Here's
the best part-it's a little Java script you can download to your networks
and install on your library Intranet. Be a hero to the reporting staff!
SPEED
CALCULATOR
Corey
Kessler Columbus Dispatch
4
Calculators
5
stars
Go
Figure -Speed Math for Journalists
Fill
in the blank math for our reporting staff Isn't technology wonderful?
VOLUME
CALCULATOR
Corey
Kessler Columbus Dispatch
4
Calculators
5
stars
Go
Figure -Volume Math for Journalists
Fill
in the blank math for our reporting staff Isn't technology wonderful?
WORLDTIME
HAB
Software GmbH & Co
4
Calculators
2
stars
What
time is it in…?
Worldtime®
is a service featuring an interactive world atlas, information on local
time as well as sunrise and sunset times in several hundred cities, and
a database of public holidays worldwide.
WORLDTIME was developed and is made available to the WWW community by
HAB Software, Hamburg, Germany.
Beats
looking it up in the almanac
ZDNET
5
Security & Encryption
4
stars
Reduce
ads from the Internet
Nifty
little program that scans your hard drive for "spyware"-those sneaky little
files you pick up on the Internet (especially if you download freeware)
Unobtrusive,
takes very little time to run and you have the happy feeling that you are
frustrating someone. After all isn't privacy vital in news research?
CHRIS
UNINSTALL MANAGER
Chris
Deep Mind
5
Security & encryption
3
stars
Uninstalls
programs
A
well organized uninstall manager that more thoroughly and effectively removes programs
from your PC manages the software programs you have installed.
If you are downloading free stuff from the Internet this could be pretty
handy.
You
can sort your programs by name, installation date, directory size, etc.
You can uninstall programs or just remove the description from the register
base.
KRPFILE
John
Rossi (email john52612000@yahoo.com) or ZDNET
5
Security & Encryption
4
stars
Heavy
duty file encryption
Security
and especially file security has grown in importance amongst Internet users.
News researchers especially have reason to be concerned with security given
the often sensitive matters they deal with. Researchers OUGHT to have access
to file encryption and library managers need to be aware of potential problems
as well as solutions. KPKfile is a very popular freeware program found
also on ZDNET that provides security for your files by both encrypting
them AND hiding them. Encrypted files may be further secured by burying
them in other binary files
KPK
file has pardon the pun a cryptic interface. The encryption utility asks
for a password then lets you add one or more files to a single encrypted
file. A second option allows you to create a Private folder on your disk
drive that is impossible to access without the password. After password
access the contents become visible like any other folder.
PASSWORD
CORRAL
Cygnus
Productions
5
Security & Encryption
5
stars
Protect
your usernames and passwords
One
of the best of many password keepers you may find on the Internet. This
particular one uses "blowfish" encryption techniques to encode your
passwords and usernames into gibberish. I liked this one because it is
simple to use and allows you to post hotlinked URL's of the subject site
in the notes field.
Password
keeper allows (and encourages you to export your username and passwords
in an encrypted blowfish file. You really want to do that because any clumsy
tampering with the program simply wipes out the password file. When they
say secure they really mean secure!
QUICKY
PASSWORD GENERATOR 1.2
Quicky
Software
5
Security & Encryption
5
stars
Your
cat's name is NOT a password!
Nifty
little program that generates 4 -20 character passwords with options to
mix letters numbers and case. Speedy little program will generate 100,000 passwords
at the drop of a hat.
We
really need to be more careful than we are about passwords! You may not
want 100,000 passwords but prudence should tell you to protect your information
systems.