20 livewire THE AGE Thursday, March 24, 2011 bleeding edge ZTree displays the contents of hard disks in an ‘‘inverted-tree charles hierarchical structure’’. You can wright find files individually or in groups in a directory, or with just one keystroke, globally on a hard disk or several hard disks. You can view them, tag them, copy them, compare them, search Loyalty still them for text strings, move them, delete them, rename them, archive them using built-in PKZIP and RAR compression, change their attributes, perform grows on ZTree batch operations, turn them into short cuts and so on — in short, manage them, individually or in bulk, with just a few keystrokes. A DOS-style file manager worthy of far greater Despite the fact Kim was attention has its fair share of paying fans. forced to abandon a ‘‘free ZTreeWin, by Kim Henkel (below), has the feel and speed of command-key DOS-era programs. upgrades forever’’ policy and ask for a $10 upgrade fee with the E PROBABLY shouldn’t made a gentle request for us to because it preloads drives, direct- When the young man offered launch of version 2.0 of have done it. Every time write an article about ZTreeWin. ories and files into memory, a to do the job for $25,000, Execut- ZTreeWin in 2009, it remains a WBleeding Edge men- ‘‘This program is my favourite degree of speed and utility that ive Systems declined again. It product that has paying fans, tions a new productivity tool or file utility program and has been would be unfamiliar to most was one of the most dramatically rather than customers. an organising utility, as we did ever since I have been running Windows users. stupid decisions in the history of They spontaneously developed recently with Nemo Documents, Windows,’’ he told us. ZTreeWin has an unbreakable commercial software. a user forum that is now at we seem to ignite our readers’ ‘‘I used XTree way back in the connection with Melbourne. It ZTreeBold for OS/2 came out bit.ly/ej7E1k, a wiki for user- enthusiasm engines and before days of DOS and so it was an was written by a Boronia boy, in the middle of that year. Exec- contributed tips and a semi- long their emails are doing easy progression to ZTree when Kim G. Henkel, and largely mar- utive Systems eventually sold out official wish-list at bit.ly/enpGYk, burnouts in our mailbox. XTree ‘died’. I am not sure that keted by his father, Gordon. Kim to Central Point Software, which to say nothing of a Wikipedia ‘‘Call that a file manager?’’ there is anything else out there Henkel’s formal computer educa- in turn was acquired by Syman- entry and Facebook page. someone will demand to know. that compares with ZTree. It is tion consisted of a six-month tec. It ingeniously engineered a Since version 2.0 emerged, ‘‘Why, my file manager can beat fast, keyboard-driven and per- course in mainframe Cobol, rewrite that comprehensively there have been several major your file manager with one hand forms many functions not completed — characteristically removed XTreeGold’s most val- updates, culminating in a migra- tied behind its back!’’ available in Windows Explorer. for a kid who cut his teeth on a ued features, forcing users to tion to the Microsoft Visual It’s been going on since the ‘‘As far as I can tell from the web TRS-80 computer at 15 — in just give up their treasured short-cut Studio 2008 development plat- days of MS-DOS, when the there are quite a few devoted three months at the Melbourne keys and blinding speed for a form, which allows parallel world was divided into ‘followers’ out there but office of Control Data. tedious drag-and-drop interface. development of 32-bit and 64-bit two types of computer I feel it could do with a It was 1993 when Executive As a test case for inducing cus- versions. The 64-bit version users: those who swore bit more exposure.’’ Systems, the original owner of tomer dissatisfaction, it was an released this month means by XTreeGold and those It’s been almost XTreeGold, got a letter from a absolute triumph. ZTree’s viewer can now open who wouldn’t dream of 10 years since we last young man somewhere in Vic- Ironically, that left Kim Hen- files well beyond the one-gigabyte operating their PC with- wrote about ZTreeWin toria, Australia, begging it to kel free to take the XTree limit of the 32-bit version. out a copy of Norton (ztree.com)—a$30 develop a multi-threaded, 32-bit interface and simple command Although it does work with a Commander. program that has the version of his favourite file man- structure, overcome the 640kB mouse, anyone prepared to learn Those days were look and feel of one of ager so he could continue to use memory constraints of the DOS its command-key structure will brought back to us the DOS world’s most- it with the then newly released version, add the ability to handle enter a Zen-like digital paradise. last week, loved programs, Windows and OS/2. The com- Windows’ Long File Names and when one XTreeGold pany declined on the grounds include more features. The Win- Email feedback on the Bleeding Edge to reader (xtree.com), and that the task was too complex. dows version came out in 1996. [email protected]. Ahead of the game continued from page 15 they launch. Comparing prices Nintendo DS Nintendo DS Lite Nintendo DSi Nintendo DSi XL Nintendo 3DS with something like the number February 24, 2005 June 1, 2006 April 2, 2009 April 15, 2010 March 31, 2011 of tubs of ice-cream the same money would buy should get the already been well informed that This new console continues to Along with new immersive you that the Nintendo 3DS is message across. It is also helpful the latest console due to launch offer dual screens and touch- games, 3D movies are also expec- clearly one innovative step ahead to explain how the prices in Australia, the Nintendo 3DS sensitive interaction with games ted to become available in the of the current competitors, decrease over time and that it hand-held gaming device, arrives and activities, though it is also future. The console also features including its older siblings, makes better financial sense to next week. It is the fifth model in the world’s first console to intro- dual cameras on the back though, in the long run, it inev- wait before buying things. the long-running and best-selling duce 3D gaming without the designed to take 3D images. itably rests with a parent as to Many parents have no doubt DS family. need to wear special glasses. It may not take a child to tell whether that child gets one. NATAGE F020.