>MargM wrote: >> Just been directed to www.oldversion.com for a goldmine of prior versions of almost anything. I just downloaded Adobe v6 reader which I think works alot better than v9. Something new fangled isnt always better ! >> MargM >> List Admin Then at 05:43 PM 2/08/2009 +1000, Tony wrote: >Hi MargM, >Just clicked on your link and got an instant message from Norton (my >anti-virus software) to say that the site was 'unsafe'. Don't know >exactly what that means, but it might be worth checking. >Tony Hi Tony, Good luck with Norton. I'm interested in what your message means too. I'm having a lot of trouble with Norton lately. I have Norton Internet Security (NIS) but it is about to run out of subscription. So had to buy it again, and was advised by show that it has now updated to "Norton 360", so I bought that but after installation discovered that it lacks the former easy-click function to instantly block all internet traffic. I really do value and often use (whenever actually not actively working on web - email or browser) the block/allow function. I tried asking Norton if some little utility was known which I could add to do that .. seeing the new version of software I'd just paid good money for lacks it. But seemingly "No", so I'll have to go and buy another NIS even though I just paid for the Norton 360 which I was told superceeded it. Yet before I go and buy another NIS, which will doubtless be another/later version to the one I've got installed on computers, I wanted to know from Norton could they please confirm that the latest version of NIW *still* will have this 'Block Traffic' feature?". I've had to be asking that question more than one - and still have not got an answer. This is a very simple question, one might think. I'd be interested if you can get any answer from Norton on a technical question like your "Don't know exactly what that means". Is www.oldversion.com really a dangerous site, or is your Norton's program giving you a furphy about that? Where is there an online test site which we can submit the URL = www.oldversion.com to for independent assessment of this? In the meantime, another such archives place you can try is called the "Wayback Machine". I've been researching the past history of Homebush Bay and I've had reasonable success with the 'WaybackMachine' service. Some very extensive historical research accompanied the development of Olympic Park at Homebush Bay - e.g. pre the 2000 Olympics. I am interested in what the place was like before the current array of big stadiums, international hotel and growing assortment of highrise. In the "Sydney Olympic Park Masterplan" of May 2002 part of the "key planning and development principles" was stated as "to conserve aboriginal heritage". In particular, they ran an Aboriginal History and Connections Program (AHCP) for three years which achieved a thorough researching, archiving and documenting of the history of Aboriginal connections to the Homebush Bay area. Bits and pieces re this were 'published' at the time on (former versions) of the website. Since then it has sadly all disappeared from the current Olympics Park Authority website. I've watched the history of it unfold. First known as the Olympic Coordinating Committee, which began in 1995, there was for many years little or nothing available on the the webpages about history. I began to try and find the way back with this: http://web.archive.org/collections/web.html At that try their "Advanced Search". In general this service tells you: "Surf the web as it was - The Internet Archive Wayback Machine puts the history of the World Wide Web at your fingertips. The Archive contains over 100 terabytes and 10 billion web pages archived from 1996 to the present. To start using the Wayback Machine to surf the web as it was, just type a URL (a web site address) into the box above, click the Take Me Back button, and start exploring the past." Searching there on www.oca.nsw.gov.au (you need to know 'former' URLs if such have in fact changed .. and that could be a bit of a problem sometimes. But in my example it does give 180 results (the first began saving it in 1998). Searching there on the subsequent URL (= www.sydneyolympicpark.com.au) also shows another 198 results (from 2002 onwards. This URL change in this case occurred because the OCA was scheduled to "devolve into the Sydney Olympic Park Authority" effective July 1, 2001. There is some overlap though - it was announced that "The Olympic Co-ordination Authority (OCA) closed 31 June 2002" but the OCA website remained through to the end of 2003. From August 2002 a Sydney OIympic Park website also appeared, and both co-existed for a time ... so in cases of overlap periods it can be useful to check both sources. Just how many of these web archivers are there, I wonder. The archives for large corporate websites may be full of all sorts of bugs and incompletely .. but they are certainly better than nothing. Another service, which probably is high quality and checks it's archived stuff, is called "Pandora" but I think it is much more selective in what on the web it conserves. Unless somebody *does* conserve the web it is all destined to vanish sooner or later as any part of it depends on some web server being turned on. And whatever is turned on will one day be turned off. Cheers, John in Sydney

Ooops, seem to have duplicated some of John's careful reply - the problem with reading last emails first. Regards Ian Jordan 2009/8/2 John <[email protected]>: ... > http://web.archive.org/collections/web.html > > At that try their "Advanced Search". >