A spreadsheet called 'The Cracker'

roger

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Jun 18, 2021, 7:44:05 AM6/18/21

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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!

R.Wieser

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Jun 18, 2021, 8:28:34 AM6/18/21

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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

roger

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Jun 18, 2021, 9:08:59 AM6/18/21

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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.

R.Wieser

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Jun 18, 2021, 9:35:54 AM6/18/21

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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

Sjouke Burry

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Jun 18, 2021, 9:05:36 PM6/18/21

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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.

JJ

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Jun 19, 2021, 9:35:59 AM6/19/21

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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+.

muta...@gmail.com

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Jun 19, 2021, 3:36:01 PM6/19/21

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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.

Rube Longfellow

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Oct 22, 2021, 6:29:37 AM10/22/21

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On 2021-06-18, roger <tech...@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

Anon Ymous

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Jul 13, 2022, 3:35:52 PM7/13/22

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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

Kerr-Mudd, John

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Jul 14, 2022, 4:21:00 PM7/14/22

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I see Kuma Forth was an option!
(xposted to clf)

--
Bah, and indeed Humbug.