A batch file to delete *.bak files from the Recycle Bin?

[Bill in Co.]

Years ago, the RB worked and was maintained differently than today.
Things have changed.

The /s option means:

/s : Lists every occurrence, in the specified directory and all
subdirectories, of the specified file name.

Yeah, I finally caught that. But what surprised me most was the names and
directories showing up after running it, and that that /s switch HAD to be
used. So, so much for my previous assumptions. Another one of those
smoke and mirrors things, something (roughly) analogous to the TIF, and
"seeing" the cookies listed in there, when in fact, they aren't really there
in the TIF, but are instead in their own folder. Smoke and mirrors...

 

[Bill in Co.]

In Bill in Co. typed on Mon, 5 Oct 2009 15:25:54 -0600:

Well go for it then. The worst that I remember that happens is the
RecycleBin becomes corrupt. So if you are okay with it, that is fine by
me.

Well, I'm not exactly OK with my Recycle Bin becoming corrupt! But so far
it's all working fine, and I'm willing to venture a little (I have image
backups anyway). And it just may be as Jose said, that that (potential)
problem was a ways back with an older OS, etc.

I am once again reminded of ...
"The only thing we have to fear ... is fear, itself" (courtesy, FDR).

(as long as we exercise some due prudence)

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

[Crosspost to OE General]

Why would you want to delete these BAK files when they're an
automatically-created back-ups of your OE data? You should ALWAYS have at
least one (1) set of BAK files available at all times in Recycle Bin, for
safety's sake. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918069

NB: You do NOT need to download/install KB918069...although you DO need to
check-in at Windows Update ASAP (from your headers: Microsoft Outlook
Express 6.00.2900.5512).

If you're concerned about the number of files in Recycle Bin, just decrease
the "Maximum size of Recycle Bin" setting and then forget about it. When
the size is exceeded, files are deleted on a FIFO basis.

 

[Bill in Co.]

[Crosspost to OE General]

Why would you want to delete these BAK files when they're an
automatically-created back-ups of your OE data?

Because I don't need them, as I *routinely* keep an updated copy of my OE
files on another drive. And I have an image backup of everything on top of
that. So I'm well covered.

If I don't periodically delete them, I'll have TONS of OE backup files left
in the Recycle Bin (i.e., each time you compact OE, it increases the number
of bak files stored in there by the number of folders being compacted, each
and every time). So if you use the Recycle Bin to hold some other stuff
temporarily, it can become a bit "unmanageable" (for my purposes).

You should ALWAYS have at
least one (1) set of BAK files available at all times in Recycle Bin, for
safety's sake. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918069

NB: You do NOT need to download/install KB918069...although you DO need to
check-in at Windows Update ASAP (from your headers: Microsoft Outlook
Express 6.00.2900.5512).

I'm using SP3 already, which I believe supercedes that (i.e. SP3 already had
the latest update to OE. I'm at 2900.5512, superceding the 2900.2892 on
that update. But thanks anyway.

 

[Ron Sommer]

[Crosspost to OE General]
snipped

NB: You do NOT need to download/install KB918069...although you DO need
to
check-in at Windows Update ASAP (from your headers: Microsoft Outlook
Express 6.00.2900.5512).

I'm using SP3 already, which I believe supercedes that (i.e. SP3 already
had the latest update to OE. I'm at 2900.5512, superceding the 2900.2892
on that update. But thanks anyway.

snipped

Service packs are not the latest update. They are an accumulation of
earlier updates. PA Bear is running 6.00.2900.5843.

 

[Steve Cochran]

It sounds to me as if you compact too often. I wouldn't bother doing it
except maybe once a week unless you have tremendous traffic and do a lot of
moving and deleting of messages. And one can compact individual folders
instead of all the store at one time.

The reason its there is that many people were (are) losing their messages
when OE compacts (see www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#2), so that was added as a
stopgap measure.

steve

[Crosspost to OE General]

Why would you want to delete these BAK files when they're an
automatically-created back-ups of your OE data?

Because I don't need them, as I *routinely* keep an updated copy of my OE
files on another drive. And I have an image backup of everything on top
of that. So I'm well covered.

If I don't periodically delete them, I'll have TONS of OE backup files
left in the Recycle Bin (i.e., each time you compact OE, it increases the
number of bak files stored in there by the number of folders being
compacted, each and every time). So if you use the Recycle Bin to hold
some other stuff temporarily, it can become a bit "unmanageable" (for my
purposes).

You should ALWAYS have at
least one (1) set of BAK files available at all times in Recycle Bin, for
safety's sake. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918069

NB: You do NOT need to download/install KB918069...although you DO need
to
check-in at Windows Update ASAP (from your headers: Microsoft Outlook
Express 6.00.2900.5512).

I'm using SP3 already, which I believe supercedes that (i.e. SP3 already
had the latest update to OE. I'm at 2900.5512, superceding the 2900.2892
on that update. But thanks anyway.

If you're concerned about the number of files in Recycle Bin, just
decrease
the "Maximum size of Recycle Bin" setting and then forget about it. When
the size is exceeded, files are deleted on a FIFO basis.

 

[Richard]

Go to the recycle bin and arrange files by type. Then all the bak files will
be together. Simply highlight and delete.

 

[BillW50]

In Bill in Co. typed on Mon, 5 Oct 2009 23:54:26 -0600:

[Crosspost to OE General]

Why would you want to delete these BAK files when they're an
automatically-created back-ups of your OE data?

Because I don't need them, as I *routinely* keep an updated copy of
my OE files on another drive. And I have an image backup of
everything on top of that. So I'm well covered.

If I don't periodically delete them, I'll have TONS of OE backup
files left in the Recycle Bin (i.e., each time you compact OE, it
increases the number of bak files stored in there by the number of
folders being compacted, each and every time). So if you use the
Recycle Bin to hold some other stuff temporarily, it can become a bit
"unmanageable" (for my purposes)...

Back in the days before the RecycleBin was here. I used to have a Trash
folder and I would just get into the habit of moving instead of
deleting. I dunno, but maybe that might serve you better than the
RecycleBin does?

 

[Richard in AZ]

In Bill in Co. typed on Mon, 5 Oct 2009 23:54:26 -0600:

[Crosspost to OE General]

Why would you want to delete these BAK files when they're an
automatically-created back-ups of your OE data?

Because I don't need them, as I *routinely* keep an updated copy of
my OE files on another drive. And I have an image backup of
everything on top of that. So I'm well covered.

If I don't periodically delete them, I'll have TONS of OE backup
files left in the Recycle Bin (i.e., each time you compact OE, it
increases the number of bak files stored in there by the number of
folders being compacted, each and every time). So if you use the
Recycle Bin to hold some other stuff temporarily, it can become a bit
"unmanageable" (for my purposes)...

Back in the days before the RecycleBin was here. I used to have a Trash folder and I would just
get into the habit of moving instead of deleting. I dunno, but maybe that might serve you better
than the RecycleBin does?

People who use the Recycle Bin to store files are the same people who store critical paper files in
their garbage cans.

 

[BillW50]

In Richard in AZ typed on Tue, 6 Oct 2009 07:38:10 -0700:

People who use the Recycle Bin to store files are the same people who
store critical paper files in their garbage cans.

Good point Richard. ;-)

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

What Ron & Steve said.

Your computer is NOT fully-patched at Windows Update!

Tip: Better to have one (1) back-up set and not need it than the other way
around.

Repost:

[Crosspost to OE General]

Why would you want to delete these BAK files when they're an
automatically-created back-ups of your OE data?

Because I don't need them, as I *routinely* keep an updated copy of my OE
files on another drive. And I have an image backup of everything on top
of
that. So I'm well covered.

If I don't periodically delete them, I'll have TONS of OE backup files
left
in the Recycle Bin (i.e., each time you compact OE, it increases the
number
of bak files stored in there by the number of folders being compacted,
each
and every time). So if you use the Recycle Bin to hold some other stuff
temporarily, it can become a bit "unmanageable" (for my purposes).

You should ALWAYS have at
least one (1) set of BAK files available at all times in Recycle Bin, for
safety's sake. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918069

NB: You do NOT need to download/install KB918069...although you DO need
to
check-in at Windows Update ASAP (from your headers: Microsoft Outlook
Express 6.00.2900.5512).

I'm using SP3 already, which I believe supercedes that (i.e. SP3 already
had
the latest update to OE. I'm at 2900.5512, superceding the 2900.2892 on
that update. But thanks anyway.

If you're concerned about the number of files in Recycle Bin, just
decrease
the "Maximum size of Recycle Bin" setting and then forget about it. When
the size is exceeded, files are deleted on a FIFO basis.

 

[Richard]

[Crosspost to OE General]
<snip>

You should ALWAYS have at least one (1) set of BAK files available at
all times in Recycle Bin, for safety's sake.
See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918069

NB: You do NOT need to download/install KB918069...although you
DO need to check-in at Windows Update ASAP (from your headers:
Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5512).

I'm using SP3 already, which I believe supercedes that
(i.e. SP3 already had the latest update to OE.
I'm at 2900.5512, superceding the 2900.2892 on that update.
But thanks anyway.

Hi Bill,

Your OE should be at 6.00.2900.5843 since 11 August 2009. Numerous
vulnerabilities were discovered in several Windows core components.

Microsoft released 9 new security updates on August 11, 2009.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/updates/bulletins/200908.aspx

MS09-037 Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL)
could allow remote code execution
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973908
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms09-037.mspx

MS09-037 Description of the security update for Outlook Express
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973354

I would suggest that you go to the Windows Update site, choose Custom,
and download and install all critical updates. Also check the optional
software category for Update for Root Certificates (KB931125).

Windows Update website
http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us

HTH. (Hope This Helps.
--Richard

 

[Richard]

Yeah, I finally caught that. But what surprised me most was the names
and directories showing up after running it, and that that /s switch HAD
to be used. So, so much for my previous assumptions.
Another one of those smoke and mirrors things, something (roughly)
analogous to the TIF, and "seeing" the cookies listed in there, when
in fact, they aren't really there in the TIF, but are instead in their
own folder. Smoke and mirrors...

Hi Bill,

First, Jose gave you the /S (subdirectories) parameter explanation as used
with the DIR command. If you use the /S with the DEL command, it will
"Delete specified files from all subdirectories", as you found out. Just
wanted to clarify that. You mentioned watching the list of deleted files.
With DEL, there is also a /Q quiet mode switch that does not list the files.
The only reason the /S switch "HAD" to be used, is because you were in the
Recycler folder, and the *.BAK files were in a subdirectory. In Recycler, do
a "DIR /AD /S" to see the folder names with SID (Security Identifiers). The
SID is a combination of several things. It begins with "S-1-5-21-", which is
followed by your computer's GUID (Globally Unique Identifier), and the last
four numbers are your user account number, after the last hyphen. The
special Administrator account ends with 500. The regular user numbers begin
with 1000, for instance I'm logged onto the *1007 account, User 8.
(1000+0 = User 1, etc. Computers think nothing is the first something.

To quickly change to my user directory, I use this: CD \Recycler\*007

Within that folder is the hidden "INFO2" file, and a super hidden
"Desktop.ini" file. The INFO2 file has the filenames that are displayed in
Recycle Bin. The actual files are renamed, beginning with "D" for deleted.
(They have to be renamed, since you cannot put 2 or more files with the same
filename in the same folder.

How the Recycle Bin Stores Files
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/136517
Excerpts:
When you delete a file, the complete path and file name is stored in a
hidden file called Info or Info2 (Windows 98) in the Recycled folder.
The deleted file is renamed, using the following syntax:
D<original drive letter of file><#>.<original extension>
Examples:

New file name:
Dc1.txt = (C drive, second file deleted, a .txt file)
INFO file path:
C:\Windows\Desktop\Books.txt

New file name:
De7.doc = (E drive, eighth file deleted, a .doc file)
INFO file path:
E:\Winword\Letter to Rosemary.doc
- - -

Yes, you can see cookies in TIF (Temporary Internet Files) folder, but they
have artificial filenames from: %UserProfile%\Cookies\index.dat

And the other files you see in TIF are not actually in the TIF folder
either, but in sub-sub-folders. The display in TIF comes from:
%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\content.ie5\index.dat

And you probably have tons of zero-byte files in the subfolders that are not
listed in the TIF display, and don't get deleted when you click the Delete
Files button in Internet Options. Zero byte files do not occupy even one
cluster of disk space, but exist entirely in the MFT (Master File Table),
on NTFS (New Technology File System) formatted disks. (Usually.

Instructions to delete phantom files from Temporary Internet Files:
(This works with IE6. Not tried with IE7 or IE8, but should work.)
* You will need to log off the computer and back on, in step 9, so you need
to disconnect from the internet and save any unsaved work first.
1. In Internet Explorer, click Tools, click Options, click Delete Files.
(There is no need to delete cookies, they are not actually in TIF.)
2. Close TIF, close Internet Options and close Internet Explorer.
3. Click Start, click Run, copy next line, paste into Run box, tap Enter:
%UserProfile%\Local Settings
4. Right click in that folder, choose New, choose Folder, name it: TIF2
(Steps 3 & 4 only need to be done the first time you do these things.)

5. Goto Start> (settings)Control Panel, Internet Options.
6. Under Temporary Internet Files, click Settings button.
7. In next dialog, click Move Folder.
8. Expand folder tree until you see TIF2.
Folder Path:
+(C
+Documents and Settings
+[YourUserName]
+Local Settings
TIF2

9. Click TIF2, click OK. Follow screen instructions.
10. After you log back on, follow steps 5, 6, 7, and 8 above again.
11. Instead of TIF2, Click Local Settings, click OK. Follow prompts.
12. That's it. TIF was moved into TIF2, and back out. Phantoms gone.
- - -

Tool: "Process Explorer" Download (1.6 MB)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
"Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open?
Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which
handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded."

HTH. (Hope This Helps.
--Richard

 

[Richard]

I don't use OE, but I opened it, compacted, saw the .bak folder in
the RB.

I went to a CMD prompt, typed in:

dir c:\recycler\*.bak /s

and then found all the .bak files, and see the most recent ones from 5
seconds ago were dc something.
What do your .bak files look like using this command?
Do the .bak files from the compress start with dc?

Hi Jose, (and anyone else still following this thread?

All deleted files are renamed, beginning with the letter "D" for Deleted.
The second letter is the drive letter, in your case (C drive. The numbers
after the drive letter, (according to Microsoft KB,) begin with zero for
the first file ever deleted, and increment by one for each file deleted
thereafter. [Note: My experiments indicate otherwise. See below.]

My numbers are currently only in the 400's, since I usually SHIFT-DELETE
files that I am "sure" I do not need, so they don't go to Recycle Bin. The
extension on the end is the same extension as the original, which is why
you could locate the DC*.bak files from the Outlook Express compaction.

Files have to be renamed before being moved to the Recycler subfolder, or
you would not be able to delete another file with the same filename without
overwriting the first one, which means you would not be able to restore
said file. The original paths and filenames are stored in the hidden INFO2
file, and keyed to the DC*.* files.

I created a New Text Document on my desktop and deleted it:

At Command Prompt, I used: CD \RECYCLER\*007
to switch to my SID user number subfolder, and it appeared as: DC418.txt

At Command Prompt I used: TYPE INFO2
In INFO2, the deleted file appears with this path\filename--
C:\Documents and Settings\Richard\Desktop\New Text Document.txt

Later in INFO2, it appears double spaced as--
C : \ D o c u m e n t s a n d S e t t i n g s \ R i c h a r d \ D e
s k t o p \ N e w T e x t D o c u m e n t . t x t

SID stands for Security Identifier. It includes the Profile group, the GUI
(Globally Unique Identifier) of your computer, and the last part after the
final hyphen, is the User number. The built-in Administrator is 500, and
created users are numbered beginning with 1000, so my SID with 1007 means
I'm the 8th user, which also means there were 7 other user numbers that had
been used before we pulled this computer out of the box. (Hmmm...

You can see other SID's in the registry here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\SOFTWARE
\Microsoft
\Windows NT
\CurrentVersion
\ProfileList

I then typed:

del c:\recycler\dc*.bak /s

The dc*.bak files were deleted, they did not show up in my RB anymore,
OE still works, recycle bin still works.

Indeed, it does work. (Clever idea with the /S switch BTW.

There are, however, 3 potential problems with that method. If there is more
than one user account on the computer, that method will delete everyone
else's *.BAK files. It is better to change directories to the proper
subdirectory under Recycler. The 2nd problem is that file information in the
INFO2 file does not get properly updated, and may end up with a lot of
orphaned entries taking up space in INFO2, which will keep growing. The 3rd
minor problem when deleting with wildcards is that besides the INFO2 file
and various deleted files renamed to begin with the letter D, there is also
a Desktop.ini file. For instance, if you used DEL D*.* to delete files, that
would include Desktop.ini, which is a super hidden file, that is not allowed
to be deleted without changing attributes, so the DEL command would fail. Of
course that can be easily avoided by using DC*.* instead of D*.*, but if
working with Recycler on (E drive, DE*.* would catch Desktop.ini too.
(I mention these points for those who may try other combinations.)

Back to the number 2 problem. Each time a file is deleted to Recycle Bin,
the file size of INFO2 increases by 800 bytes, and is not reduced whether
the DC*.* files are deleted from Command Prompt, or by opening the Recycle
Bin window and deleting one or more files there. However, when you right
click Recycle Bin and click Empty Recycle Bin, the files are deleted, and
the entries in INFO2 are also eliminated, and INFO2 is reduce to only
20 bytes. So, the solution to an ever growing INFO2 file, (on a limited
space drive,) is to simply use the Empty Recycle Bin option on occasion.

As noted before, when you delete a file, the path\filename appears in the
INFO2 file twice, with double spacing of the second entry. When manually
deleting the file from RB or the DC*.* from Command Prompt, it no longer
appears in RB, but the entry remains in INFO2, slightly modified. The drive
letter "C:\" in the first instance of the entry is deleted-- ":\"

Back to the number 1 problem. To keep from deleting every users' Recycler
content, simply navigate one subfolder deeper, or include the particular
user number folder in the delete path line. I tried using *007 as my user
number folder in the batch del path, rather than the very long SID number,
but it didn't like that. It did allow the wildcard in the CHDIR path:

CHDIR C:\RECYCLER\*007
DEL Dc*.txt
exit

I had Recycle Bin window open when I activated the batch, and the single
test TXT file vanished after about a one second delay.

A 4th problem appeared. ("What a day I'm having."

When deleting DC*.* files from Command Prompt or Batch, after the last file
vanished from the Recycle Bin window, the Recycle Bin ICON did not change
from the Full to Empty icon. Folder refresh had no effect. The right click
"Empty Recycle Bin" item was grayed out. I had to create another New Text
Document, delete it, and then Empty Recyle Bin, before the icon changed to
empty, (and INFO2 dropped to 20 bytes again.)

Keep in mind that NTFS formatted volumes have a RECYCLER folder, but FAT16
(VFAT) or FAT32 formatted volumes have a RECYCLED folder. (VFAT is the long
filename version of FAT16.) Each volume (partition) will have its own
Recycled or Recycler folder. Each user will have a separate sub-folder in
each Recycled/Recycler folder. Each user's desktop Recycle Bin will show
deleted files from his user number subfolders on each partition. Floppy
drives and USB flash(thumb) drives do not have a Recycle Bin safety net,
but USB hard drives usually do have a Recycled or Recycler folder, (as long
as Windows sees the drive as Fixed Disk, not removable media.)

I repeated multiple times and even rebooted to be sure.

The number after the dc in the name keeps increasing, but you can set
that back to zero in the registry if you think it starts to get too
big, and I don't know what too big is.

Besides the above experiments, I also deleted the INFO2 file, and it was
re-created the next time that I either deleted a file or opened Recycle
Bin. That did not reset the numbering of files back to zero.
[Note added: I later found a way to reset the numbering. See below.]

Another observation. I opened (C folder, went to Tools, Folder Options,
View (tab) and unchecked "Hide protected operating system files
(Recommended)", and "Recycler" appeared in the (C folder, with normal
folder icon. When I opened Recycler folder, ALL user subfolders had the
EMPTY Recycle icon. Then I opened my *1007 subfolder, and lo and behold,
instead of DC*.bak filenames from my last OE compact, it displayed the
original filenames, the same as the Recycle Bin display, and the menu bar
had: File> Empty Recycle Bin. I then opened the Recycle Bin window from my
desktop. The status bar at the bottom of that window said 41 objects,
324 KB. (The size of the INFO2 file.) The status bar at the bottom of the
*007 window said 41 objects, 96.8 MB. (The size of the deleted files, not
counting INFO2.) Strange.

More weirdness. Opened C:\Recycler\*500 folder. It had identical content as
the *1007 folder. Also opened C:\Recycler\*1009 folder, an alternate user
account, which also showed the same 41 *.bak files. Is the Outlook Express
compaction putting backup copies in each of the Recycler subfolder?

Back to Command Prompt. CD C:\Recycler\*007, DIR, showed all 41 files. Then
CD ..\*009, DIR, did NOT show those files, but 7 files from Dc1.url to
Dc7.url, (which were 7 microsoft supplied links in favorites I didn't need
with that user account.) Then CD ..\*500, DIR, No files. So, the three
Explorer view subfolders behave the same as the Recycle Bin window. Weird.

Pressed WinKey+L for fast user switching... Logged onto other account.

In 1009 account, which does not have administrative privileges:
Set folder Options to show hidden and protected system files
In C:\Recycler
*500 ordinary folder icon - Access denied (likewise Command Prompt)
*1007 ordinary folder icon - Access denied (likewise Command Prompt)
*1009 recycle (empty) icon - showed 7 deleted url links
Changed Folder Options back to hidden. Switched back to Richard account.

Another observation. The numbering of deleted files had previously been in
the 400's as noted above, but has apparently been reset, because the 41
files run from Dc1.bak to Dc41.bak now. Did that happened the last time
that I deleted the INFO2 file? I had rebooted before the OE compaction.

Back to the drawing board:
Moved all *.bak files from Recycle Bin to Old_bak folder on desktop.
Back to command prompt at Recycler\*007, INFO2 filesize: 33,620 bytes.
Attrib -h info2
Del info2
dir /a [confirmed it is gone]
Opened desktop Recycle Bin
dir /a [now showing 0 byte INFO2]
created New Text Document.txt, deleted
desktop RB icon changed to full
still open RB window empty, after F5 refresh still empty
[Without the 20-bytes offset, RB cannot display INFO2 information.]
dir /a [0-byte dc43.txt, DC number increased, 800-bytes INFO2]
[If it had the 20-bytes offset, it would be 820-bytes - no display]
closed RB window, emptied recycle bin
dir /a [20-byte INFO2 - so emptying recycle bin re-creates INFO2]
created/deleted another text document
dir /a [0-byte Dc44.txt, 820-bytes INFO2]
[re-creating INFO2 does not reset DC numbering back to zero.]
Closed all windows except Command Prompt.
deleted INFO2 [desktop RB icon still full]
RESTARTED COMPUTER

After restart, the desktop RB showed the correct EMPTY icon
created/deleted New Text Document.txt [RB changed to full icon]
appeared as Dc1.txt, 800-bytes INFO2
Emptied recycle bin, 20-bytes INFO2 [RB changed to empty icon]
A-OK

INFO2 Summary:
1. Deleting INFO2 results in a file that does not display RB contents.
2. After Emptying Recycle Bin, 20-bytes offset and display restored.
3. Restarting computer after deleting INFO2, resets numbering of files.

Note: Contrary to MS-KB, numbering did not begin at zero, but one.
(But Microsoft could claim the deleted INFO2 was number zero.

Here are some links to some of the KB technical articles:

Article explaining Security ID's (SID's), etc.
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/152001

Differences Between the Recycle Bin and the Recycler Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/171694
Excerpt: "The Recycler folder contains a Recycle Bin for each user that
logs on to the computer, sorted by their security identifier (SID)."

How the Recycle Bin Stores Files
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/136517

Wow. What started as a short note, just kept growing, and growing...

(Triple click here, to be of good cheer.
--Richard

P.S. No animals were harmed in the making of this message, but Jillions
of electrons were horribly squished through wires.
- - -