RAH Humor Review - Toggle Booleans by Ray Koziel Over the past few years applications have been created to move many of the items which used to sit upon the conventional desktops in our offices to the electronic desktops on our computers. We have our electronic clipboards, notebooks, calculators, and card files. But what about some of the other items commonly found on desktops such as your coffee mug? And with all these applications running wearing down the bits in your PC wouldn't it be nice to have a utility to regenerate them? And how about your mouse? Even though it may be confined to its little pad, ever wonder how much mileage is put on it in an average workday or work week? Well, the answers to these questions and many more have been provided by a small company in Canada by the name of Toggle Booleans. Toggle Booleans is based in Ottawa, Ontario, the result of three individuals - Don Leclair, Kevin Morton, and Kristianne Palmer - and their neverending pursuit to develop silly, witty little programs and utilities. The origin of Toggle Booleans is as interesting as the programs they've created. The start of the company, according to Don, was the result of database project that he and Kevin were working on. One of the features of this program, which was the source of alot of pain and confusion, was to allow the user to toggle between different boolean operators. The F8 key became the "toggle booleans" key and Don and Kevin liked the sound of it that it also became the name of their company. There are a number of different programs that Toggle Booleans provides. Many of them are freeware while some are shareware. They have also produced a few business applications as well. Many of the freeware/shareware programs can be found on services such as CompuServe or America Online. Also, your local BBS may have acquired a copy of some of them too. One of the products in the freeware line is "The Mouse Odometer." This little program allows you to track the mileage of your mouse and other statistics such as number of left and right button clicks, number of keystrokes, etc. The "Bit Recycler" is a witty little program that helps recycle your PC's worn out bits. Let's face it - changing from 1's to 0's again and again can be quite stressful and every once in a while need to be regenerated. In fact, the "Bit Recycler" isolates "subversive bits" which have totally gone off the deep end and are trying to overthrow the system. This program has great graphics and animation too! The "Resource Monitor" is a little program which keeps track of the memory and resources available on your system. Get your PC ready for Halloween with "Desktop Pumpkin" and "Desktop Ghost." "Desktop Pumpkin" puts a blinking pumpkin on your desktop and "Desktop Ghost" puts a ghost on your system that roams around the screen. Also for your desktop is "Desktop Cigarette" and "Desktop Coffee Mug"! Now you can smoke in the office without worry for "Desktop Cigarette" has 0mg tar, 0mg nicotine, and 0mg CO! The "Desktop Coffee Mug" gives you a steaming hot cup of coffee right on your desktop. But be careful - move an application over your mug and it tips over, spilling some coffee on your desktop and leaving coffee rings wherever you move your mug. Now that you have your coffee, try a game of "Amazon Skulls" during your break. This game is based on a game similar to one played by an ancient Brazilian tribe. Ok, your in the middle of a crucial game of "Amazon Skulls" and the boss walks in. What do you do? Well, if you have "Presto Saver" there is nothing to worry about! This little utility fires up your current screen saver with just a click of the mouse button. The following programs are from Toggle Booleans shareware line. Thought you saw the "King?" Well, with the Toggle Booleans "Elvis Detector" you will know for sure whenever the presence of Elvis is nearby. And, if you register, you will receive an enhanced detector which will pick up other greats such as Roy Orbison and M.C. Hammer. But that's not all! Toggle Booleans will also customize a detector to fit your needs. "Name of the Game" contains a bunch of card puzzles. But these aren't just ordinary card puzzles because custom cards have been thrown into the deck, such as the 26 of spades and the 'C' of hearts. "Mouse Warp" is a cursor enhancement utility allowing you to select from a variety of custom cursors or to design your own cursor plus many other functions. "Swift Access" is a utility which allows you to set up a "toolbar" containing your most often used applications. "Type Right" has the ability to automatically correct common spelling mistakes as you type. Unlike other spell checkers, "Type Right" works across many Windows applications. "Video Benchmarks" provides a means to test the performance of your video board and video driver by rating the ability of drawing lines, filled areas, polygons, and bitmaps in terms of actions per second. "Pop Charts" provides an easy way to add sophisticated charts to illustrations, memos, and documents. Last but not least is the "Non-Productivity Pack" which includes many of the freeware products and trial versions of the shareware products. The pack includes: "Coffee Mug", "Mouse Odometer", "Presto Saver", "Resource Monitor", "Elvis Detector v1.0", "Bit Recycler", "Swift Access", "Name of the Game, Public Edition", "Desktop Ghost", "Desktop Pumpkin", and "Desktop Cigarette". The following are the latest prices for their shareware products: Elvis Detector $7 US/$8 CAN Name of the Game $20 US/$24 CAN Mouse Warp $20 US/$24 CAN Swift Access $30 US/$35 CAN Video Benchmarks $20 US/$24 CAN Pop Charts $30 US/$35 CAN Non-Productivity Pack $10 US/$12 CAN Many of the freeware products can be found on CompuServe, America Online, and probably a bulletin board system near you. Toggle Booleans can be reached at the following address: Toggle Booleans P.O. Box 4204, Station E Ottawa, Ontario Canada, K1S 5B2 Or, program developer Don Leclair can be reached via CompuServe at 73753,3044 or the InterNet at 73753.3044@compuserve.com. -------------- Ray Koziel lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife and one and a half children. When asked about his thoughts on the information super- highway, Ray replied that it was a "pretty nifty idea" but wondered "how we could drive a car small enough to fit through a telephone line". Ray can be reached via CompuServe at 73753,3044 or via the Internet at 73753.3044@compuserve.com, which is most convenient.