-----I was using HTML manifests on some of my calculator apps on this site, which made it possible to run the app locally, even on a plane, which sounded like a nice feature, but the browser made it sound so horrible to visitors that I decided to take the feature off. "This site wants to store files locally, are you sure you want to allow this?" firefox would say. from now on, my browser apps don't use this feature.----

This site is simply here for informational purposes, but visit the fun section anyway. You will find a lot of information on computers. I update or create some page pretty much weekly.

Windows Blue (Windows 8.1) should be coming out in August/September 2013 timeframe - beta released in June @ ms dev conference.

External links are in bold.

Parts availability Notices - what you and I can't get

• windows xp and xp recovery media. updates will be unavailable in 2014 it looks like. (I kept old service packs)
• windows 2000 and service packs are no longer available (I have service packs I have kept)
• windows NT in any version and service packs are no longer available (however, I have an official disc for NT4 SP6a with IE6 SP1 you can use on win98/me to upgrade the browser)
• windows 98 and me and their updates are no longer available (however, I have an official disc for NT4 SP6a with IE6 SP1 you can use on win98/me to upgrade the browser)
• windows 3.x is no longer available, although on a pentium motherboard with the max 32MiB it just pops!
• motherboards no longer offer support for floppy drivers as of 2012
• floppy drives. teac, mitsui, and hp seem to be the last to make floppy drives. you can't be picky. so use what you can get! these are the 3 best makers I think.
• as of 2/2013, IDE/ATAPI/PATA DVD burners are no longer available on the market - except 1. WORKAROUND:
  • buy from computer recycling shops
  • buy from computer stores that still have them in stock while you still can!
  • (probably not work on windows 9x/me!) buy an external USB DVD burner. blu-ray doessn't work with xp abd below I hear.
  • buy a used computer, maybe off craigslist.org - although that may be the expensive way to do it, might cost upwards of $50
  • buy this one for $70 (way overpriced)?
• as of 2012, motherboards no longer offer IDE/ATAPI/PATA
• 32GiB drives are no longer avaliable for windows 98/me machines. see the table below for how to partition an existing smallest drive into chunks windows 98/me can use (no more than 24 letters!):

  windows 98/me maximum-sized GiB partitions for up to GB disk

  partition number	partition size in GiB (×2^30 bytes)	sum of size

  the maximum size usable by most windows 98 boxes will be about 127GiB due to the old BIOS and possibly the chipsets. usually it's the BIOS. if you are fortunate enough to have a BIOS update which fixes the problem, then you have a chance to fix the problem and use a bigger disk like a 500GB. chances are no. WORKAROUND: a refurbished 80 or 120GB drive might work just fine. motherboard which have the old 127GiB/137GB limits you can mitigate wmy installing a SATA CARD.

As per Microsoft regulations, XP Recovery Media can no longer be sold. sorry folks. if you didn't make recovery discs or you lost yours, you have several choices:

• buy a new computer and get used to the new OS (maybe buy a book on it)
• buy a used computer that DOES come with recovery discs (very little chance of this, people are in the habit these days of wiping the machine before selling, which removes the OS recovery partition), and 99% of the time you don't get recovery discs
• buy a used computer that has a recovery partition
• buy a new Windows Retail (full) OS for $180-$280 - most of the drivers you need are built-in. 32-bit XP Mode is available in Pro and Ultimate - you may have to manually install it. Maybe buy a book on it.
• if necessary, get help from a techie friend and install a favorite distribution of linux I usually think of
  • OpenSuse linux (not all that great for installing software)
  • Fedora linux
  • Ubuntu linux
  • edubuntu for college students and kids
  • reactos (windows clone still in alpha stages)
  • linux mint
  • turnkey linux (for business servers)
  • zentyal linux (for business "office" servers)
  • debian linux (comes on a blu-ray-DL disk)
  • http://pinguy-os.sourceforge.net/
  . in fact, linux live cd's can be used to fix and repartition and backup windows systems...
• see if there is a trade-up/trade-in program for your machine via the manufacturer
• recycle the machine at a local computer recycling shop
• if your system is running, use it till it drops.

Software hosting

hostedftp.com at $10/mo@10GB, $40/mo@40GB, 160/mo@160GB (2/2/2013) is the only anon FTP hosting place around except for maybe akamai (akamai).also check out akamai.com they I think have global software delivery (FTP?) and e-commerce hosting and software/content delivery and content streaming. sourceforge.net and github.com.

This is a 1067-page PC-oriented site, though once in a long while you will find some Mac tidbits. I am learning bits more about the Mac as I go along.

This QR Code is RenewalComputerServices.com, my business site. updated 7/2/2012 since my business changed trade names in may forgot to change this.

This QR Code is VancouverWAHomeLandGuide.com. the main page may have videos on it which may not be mobile-browser friendly due to their size.

what programming is like for me

I am not on any social networking sites for my own reasons. don't make requests.

about my programming

The languages I currently use for development are:

• NSIS installer
• C++
• Auto-it3 (BASIC-like GUI language)
• PHP
• SQL
• Perl
• 386 Assembler
• JavaScript
• BASIC-like languages
• flex
• bison
• Java
• minimal stuff with Flash.
• Tcl
• whatever is thrown at me pretty much... - except LISP - it ties my mind in knots.

Languages I used in College

• Actor (dervative of Smalltalk)
• Modula-2
• C
• C++
• Pascal
• 8086 Assembler
• P/byte-Code interpreter
• languages spec'd (very simple specs) by the instructor

Certifications have not benefitted me and seem to be a waste of my resources. I know basically what I can do.

Windows GUI programming I tried once before using MFC, but now I am trying to tackle it using only the Win32 API. any help is greatly appreciated. Now I would like to work with combo boxes and list boxes without using a resource editor, and using mingw and mingw-w64. I might end up using a GUI toolkit to make everything easier because the message passing system of windows is a pain.

I think I could do embedded systems given some practice. Real-time Embedded is another matter, that would take some study into the subject.

Send email to Jim Michaels