Cronos Hourglass
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Under Construction

v1.0B Beta Available!
Download it for Evaluation!

Description

Cronos Hourglass is an event scheduler service for Windows NT 4.0. It is similar to the built-in AT command, but is somewhat more flexible. It installs and uninstalls from the command line. Scheduling commands are loaded from an ASCII text file.

Persons who register this beta version will be entitled to download the full release for no extra charge.

Download

The latest version of Cronos Hourglass may be downloaded from Red Sword Corporation's FTP Server

Registration

Cronos Hourglass is "Freedomware". That is, it is shareware except for political entities who are illegally occupying foreign countries. (Doing our part for social responsibility!)

Non-commercial and educational users may use Cronos Hourglass without charge if they meet the restrictions of the included license (see license.txt). Persons who do not meet the restrictions of the included license have 30 days for evaluation. After that time, they must either register the software or remove it from use.

Registered users get good karma and priority technical support. Unregistered users get no priority on technical support and receive no changes to their karma. Illicit users get bad karma and consent to have their immortal souls claimed by the-programmer-formerly-known-as-Tim, who has started a collection of immortal souls.

Cronos Hourglass may be re-distributed within the terms of the license. Please see the included license for conditions. In the event that the license file is not available for review, please contact Red Sword Corporation for more information.

Pricing

Send your check or money order to:

Red Sword Corporation
1104 Odessa Drive
Richardson, TX 75080

Prices for the current version of Cronos Hourglass version 1.0 Beta are as follows until January 1, 1998:

Volume discounts are available. Send email to redsword@redsword.com for details.

Installing

  1. Download the cronos.zip file

  2. Log into where WinNT 4.0 machine where you want to install the service.
    You must use an account that has sufficient access rights to install and configure a service.

  3. Unzip cronos.zip into any directory where you want to keep it permanently. Be sure to unzip all the included files into the same directory.

  4. Open a dos box within the directory where you unzipped the program. From the dos prompt, run "CRONOS INSTALL". This installs the program as a system service (assuming you had rights to do so).

  5. In the "services" control panel, set the desired startup parameters for CRONOS HOURGLASS. If you want to have it run under an account other than system, or set it to starup automatically instead of manually, set it now.

  6. Start the service. You can do this either of two ways:

    • From the same dos prompt, run "CRONOS START".
    • Start it from the "services" control panel.

Note: The cronos.tab file may not be moved once you've installed the service - it remembers where it was started from. If you have to move the cronos.tab file, stop the service, remove it from the system using the "CRONOS REMOVE" command, then move the application and the cronos.tab file to the new location and re-install it using the "CRONOS INSTALL" command.

Uninstalling

  1. Stop the service. You can do this either of two ways:

    • From the same dos prompt, run "CRONOS STOP".
    • Stop it from the "services" control panel.

  2. Open a dos box within the directory where you installed the program. From the dos prompt, run "CRONOS REMOVE".

Using Cronos Hourglass

Cronos Hourglass reads the cronos.tab file which must be located in the directory where the application was installed. Cronos only reads the application at startup, so if you change the cronos.tab file, you must load the new file. You can do this three ways:

  1. Stop and start the service from the "services" control panel
  2. Stop and start the service from the dos prompt as described in the install and uninstall instructions.
  3. Open a dos box within the directory where you installed the program. From the dos prompt, run "CRONOS LOAD".

The cronos.tab file contains instructions on how to schedule events. Do not remove these comments - they won't be loaded into memory.

Note: Like all system software, this application has the potential to be abused. Be sure to limit access to the cronos.exe and cronos.tab files.

Technical Support

This is a part-time operation, so tech support is not guaranteed and is offered on an as-time-permits basis. Registered users receive tech support priority in advance of unregistered users. Bug reports are accepted from all users and will be responded to as soon as possible.

Please address all correspondence to:

techsupport@redsword.com

Be sure to let us know the make and release (including any applied service packs) of the operating system and give a full description of error you are seeing.

An email list is available for persons who wish to receive notification of updates to Cronos Hourglass. To subscribe, send email to:

cronos-l@redsword.com

Version Info

v1.0b Beta - released 9/15/97
First public release

Known Bugs

v1.0b Beta
When the service is stopped, posts error msg to the event log:
"The Cronos Hourglass service has reported an invalid current state 0"
This has no effect on operation.

Future Enhancements

For the moment, cronos fits our internal needs. If we get enough feedback, we may include the following capabilities:

Think of anything else? Let us know!


Last modified on Monday, September 15, 1997 19:40:12
Viewed on Sunday, June 18, 2000 07:54:08
Red Sword Corporation
http://www.redsword.com/
redsword@redsword.com
972-669-9649