Daily rotation

Here's a short list of URLs that I usually visit nearly every day.

• Google groups. After the original Deja takeover hickup, google have finally done the right thing with their searchable newsgroup reader. Learn something new every day or impersonate an expert to newbies <lol>. Obviously, you'd find me in various ATL/MFC or shell discussion groups.
• MSDN online. Love them or hate them, mikro$oft have the most up-to-date site for their products. Search the knowledge base for those bugs and/or read about the newest M/S products.
• BBC Weather. If you leave in England/UK you'd understand the urgency...
• The Register. UK-based news site, with computer-ish content, layman friendly. Rebellious staff writers love to play devil's advocates — and often come up with world exclusive scoop stories.
• Shell extension city. If there's a cool tool out there worth having, you can depend on uncle Bob (rrrespect!) to dig it up it for you.
• SegFault.org. "All your babe are belong to us". The best of inaccurate news. Double-size grins guaranteed <g>

Useful programs

Believe it or not, when I first started developing 2xExplorer, I was under the impression that there were no NC-style file managers around — talking about fallaceous hypotheses! — so I had to build my own to cure my explorer blues. I was completely oblivious to the existence of all those sites distributing software. Well, now I know better. There are tons of stuff out there, not all of them explorer replacements <g>, written by amateur enthusiasts. Many programs are of excellent quality, beating "pro" applications silly. Here's a list of small, useful and free (at the time of going to press) tools I use regularly:

• Resource Hacker. Rips off any resource you can imagine from executables and allows one to save modifications back into the original executable. Sir doesn't like the keyboard shortcuts of 2xExplorer? Sir can change them!
• Irfan View. Converts and transforms all the graphic formats that I know of. If only it could also edit files... but there's PaintBrush coming to the rescue.
• Color Cop. An easy way to get the color code off any screen element. I came to appreciate this little proggy when I did a lot of HTML development.
• Screen Calipers. Wacky-looking tool for measuring the pixel size of objects on your screen.

2xExplorer Distinctions/Awards/Reviews

The order of the buttons below is chronological, reflecting the date each publicity stunt took place.

Reciprocal links

The number of sites listing 2xExplorer has grown a lot, and that's not only me to blame. Many webmasters and webmistresses just go ahead and list 2xExplorer without my consent. Not that I am complaining mind, these folk save me the trouble of submitting. Anyroad, too many unorganised links are bad for you, so a little bit of housekeeping is in order. The links below are grouped in terms of relevance.

FREEWARE SITES

You may browse them all day without breaking the bank.

BETA SITES

Get involved in the history of making great programs, gratis and fer nowt.

SHAREWARE SITES

Please have your credit card details ready.

ARCHIVE SITES

Not the user-friendliest of the bunch but guaranteed to have tons of downloads.

INTERNATIONAL SITES

The web is not only for the english-speaking folk. I know that 2x is also listed in some chinese sites, but I couldn't figure out how to obtain a button for them — it's all chinese to me. Man, 2x looks weird in oriental fonts... I am amazed that it works at all!

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