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  • A spreadsheet called 'The Cracker'

    From roger@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jun 18 04:44:03 2021
    I'm pretty sure the spreadsheet I use to use on DOS was called 'The Cracker'.

    Try googling anything with spreadsheet and cracker in it and you get a zillion links for unlocking password protected excel files!

    I have tried looking through DOS program archives, wikipedia spreadsheets articles etc. and can find no mention of it.

    Did it really exist or is it just my age playing tricks on me?

    BTW, does anybody know of a definitive archive of MS-DOS software? I've find many sites that list a lot of DOS apps but they all seem only partially complete; either that or MANY dos apps I remember never existed!

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  • From roger@21:1/5 to R.Wieser on Fri Jun 18 06:08:57 2021
    On Friday, June 18, 2021 at 2:28:34 PM UTC+2, R.Wieser wrote:
    Roger,
    I'm pretty sure the spreadsheet I use to use on DOS was called 'The Cracker'.

    Try googling anything with spreadsheet and cracker in it and you get a zillion links for unlocking password protected excel files!
    I threw 'DOS spreadsheet "The cracker" ' into DDG and got http://www.fvempel.nl/manuals.html as the third result.

    I guess I got lucky, as that is the /only/ result (on the first few pages) which looks like what you are searching for.

    Regards,
    Rudy Wieser

    Thanks. I just tried sticking your query in DDG and it wasn't in the result. As DDG does not track you I wonder why the same query get's different results!

    So it looks like it was from a company called NewSoft, no longer around of course. This site also reminded that this was originally a CP/M program that I used on aa Amstrad PCW. I went on using it because it had a superb and simple best fit line function
    (my spreadsheet use was primarily for collating test results).

    Next job, find a copy! This might not be easy, it was probably commonplace in the UK at that time because it ran on the Amstrads, a kind of local hero! I'm getting the impression it is simply unknown outside those circles.

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  • From R.Wieser@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jun 18 14:27:29 2021
    Roger,

    I'm pretty sure the spreadsheet I use to use on DOS was called 'The
    Cracker'.

    Try googling anything with spreadsheet and cracker in it and you get a zillion links for unlocking password protected excel files!

    I threw 'DOS spreadsheet "The cracker" ' into DDG and got http://www.fvempel.nl/manuals.html as the third result.

    I guess I got lucky, as that is the /only/ result (on the first few pages) which looks like what you are searching for.

    Regards,
    Rudy Wieser

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From R.Wieser@21:1/5 to All on Fri Jun 18 15:35:17 2021
    Roger,

    I just tried sticking your query in DDG and it wasn't in the result.

    I just did the same search again, and this time did not get it either.
    Though when I prepended a "+" to the DOS (to give that word more weight) it
    now turned up as the second entry.

    Don't you just /love/ gambling machines ? I know I don't. :-\

    As DDG does not track you I wonder why the same query get's different results!

    Someone once told me that it probably has to do with how much time it takes
    to find a certain match - the query is fired off to a whole bunch of
    servers, and he fastest returned results are at the top of the list.

    Regards,
    Rudy Wieser

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Sjouke Burry@21:1/5 to roger on Sat Jun 19 03:05:05 2021
    On 18.06.21 13:44, roger wrote:
    I'm pretty sure the spreadsheet I use to use on DOS was called 'The Cracker'.

    Try googling anything with spreadsheet and cracker in it and you get a zillion links for unlocking password protected excel files!

    I have tried looking through DOS program archives, wikipedia spreadsheets articles etc. and can find no mention of it.

    Did it really exist or is it just my age playing tricks on me?

    BTW, does anybody know of a definitive archive of MS-DOS software? I've find many sites that list a lot of DOS apps but they all seem only partially complete; either that or MANY dos apps I remember never existed!

    A year or so ago I downloaded MSDOS and UTILS from
    SIMTEL. A total of 4.44 GBYTE.
    The original owner stopped, but somebody took over support.
    Try google to find it.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JJ@21:1/5 to Sjouke Burry on Sat Jun 19 20:35:55 2021
    On Sat, 19 Jun 2021 03:05:05 +0200, Sjouke Burry wrote:

    A year or so ago I downloaded MSDOS and UTILS from
    SIMTEL. A total of 4.44 GBYTE.
    The original owner stopped, but somebody took over support.
    Try google to find it.

    The largest DOS collection I've found is 500GB+.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From mutazilah@gmail.com@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jun 19 12:36:00 2021
    On Saturday, June 19, 2021 at 11:35:59 PM UTC+10, JJ wrote:

    A year or so ago I downloaded MSDOS and UTILS from
    SIMTEL. A total of 4.44 GBYTE.
    The original owner stopped, but somebody took over support.
    Try google to find it.

    The largest DOS collection I've found is 500GB+.

    Wow. And it was all invalidated. Sounds like it's
    time to switch to Freedos+HX+doslfn+PDPCLIB-msvcrt.dll

    BFN. Paul.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Rube Longfellow@21:1/5 to roger on Fri Oct 22 10:29:36 2021
    On 2021-06-18, roger <techfell@gmail.com> wrote:
    I'm pretty sure the spreadsheet I use to use on DOS was called 'The
    Cracker'.

    Try googling anything with spreadsheet and cracker in it and you get a zillion links for unlocking password protected excel files!

    I have tried looking through DOS program archives, wikipedia spreadsheets articles etc. and can find no mention of it.

    Did it really exist or is it just my age playing tricks on me?

    It existed; the only versions I've been able to find were for CP/M
    and non-DOS OS's like Xtal DOS (?)[2].

    Searching for "The Cracker" "New Star Software" yielded a few old articles
    and ads, but I haven't seen anything on Archive.org or elsewhere as disk
    dumps go for MS-DOS.

    I did manage to find disk images for Amstrad PCs[3] (CP/M) which I tried to boot on the MiSTer, but I know nothing about CP/M or Amstrads in general, so
    I failed :-D

    BTW, does anybody know of a definitive archive of MS-DOS software? I've
    find many sites that list a lot of DOS apps but they all seem only
    partially complete; either that or MANY dos apps I remember never existed!

    BTW, does anybody know of a definitive archive of MS-DOS software? I've
    find many sites that list a lot of DOS apps but they all seem only
    partially complete; either that or MANY dos apps I remember never existed!

    You can usually find what you're looking for on Archive.org. They have
    massive software collections from most vintage systems, including MS-DOS.

    [1]:https://cpcrulez.fr/applications_util-the_cracker_2.htm [2]:http://www.spreadsheethistory.com/post.aspx?id=C9CFD8FD83D4FCC3 [3]:http://www.amstrad.es/forum/viewtopic.php?\
    p=69830&sid=e9d59db012b5bfa1cf87c50c231c472c#p69830

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Anon Ymous@21:1/5 to roger on Wed Jul 13 12:35:51 2022
    On Friday, 18 June 2021 at 12:44:05 UTC+1, roger wrote:
    I'm pretty sure the spreadsheet I use to use on DOS was called 'The Cracker'.

    Try googling anything with spreadsheet and cracker in it and you get a zillion links for unlocking password protected excel files!

    I have tried looking through DOS program archives, wikipedia spreadsheets articles etc. and can find no mention of it.

    Did it really exist or is it just my age playing tricks on me?

    BTW, does anybody know of a definitive archive of MS-DOS software? I've find many sites that list a lot of DOS apps but they all seem only partially complete; either that or MANY dos apps I remember never existed!
    Cracker was a spreadsheet program for the Tatung Einstein TC01 computer (and maybe others). Can be used in emulation from the Tatung Einstein Reborn site http://www.tatungeinstein.co.uk/
    Hope this helps

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