Favorite Files

1. 7-Zip (32-bit)
2. AIMP
3. Audacity for Windows
4. Bzeek
5. Connectify
6. Emerge Desktop
7. Google Chrome for Windows
8. IrfanView
9. Opera for Windows
10. Songbird
11. TagScanner

Recent Posts

1. 
   Review - AVG Anti-Virus Free

   2012 12.0.1901 (Dec 28, 2011)

   Such as it is, it;'s ok. But in my honest opinion I think all of these virus scanners are somewhat pointless. I've run without antivirus for nearly 2 years, the only virus I did get was ironically when I was had some antirvuris installed that I was evaluating. neither it nor the other 3 anti virus apps I tried saw it let alone fixed it. They seem to spend more time bringing up false positives and stopping advertising cookies than anything useful.
   I'll go back to running withuot anti virus and monitoring things myself. AVg just slows you machine down without actually doing much as far I can see.

2. 
   Review - LibreOffice for Windows

   3.5.0 Beta 1 (Dec 17, 2011)

   In some ways it gets better with each release, yet in other ways I find it deeply frustrating.
   I NEVER EVER use the spreadsheet, database or presentation elements yet I have to install them. each tiny patch involves downloading the whole damn thing again - good luck with that on dialup!
   The way it manages and uses templates is just so complex and involved, and just not obvious in any way.
   Doesn't handle password protected forms on template, doesn't handle that well at all.
   I still have to say that overall I think what IBM did with OpenOffice to make Lotus Symphony is great, ok I stil have part of the same issue, but overall it just works and so much more integrated and easier to use.
   Find Libra Office layout dull and old fashioned -it really needs updating.
   However, Symphony aside, Libra is the best Office suite money can't buy and for 99% of real world uses, as good as Microsoft Office (in some ways better)

3. 
   Review - The KMPlayer

   3.1.0.0 (Dec 12, 2011)

   Oh dear oh dear, where do I start.
   
   i've been a user of KMplayer for years, it's always installed side by side with VLC, with KMPlayer being, in my opinion nicer looking and offer better playback options, sounding and looking better. (VLC does have it strengths too though)
   
   Sadly, very sadly this is a disaster of a railcrash of a program.
   
   Firstly - It tries to install poxy crapware, Ask toolbar for example, despite saying no to the installer it went ahead and installed it anyway. Asked if I wanted Pandora TV, no thanks, but it installed it anyway.
   
   Now it starts seemingly is just a storefront trying to entice you buy crappy looking chinese games that look they're designed to appeal to 10 year olds.
   Couldn't get it to stream or play anything until I'd added a "library", even then it failed dismally to stream anything at all.
   The uninstaller supplied may as well have been a button that just laughed when you pressed it - left bucket loads of files and registry entries, didn't uninstall the ask toolbar or pandora either.
   
   This used to be absolutely fantastic and I used to recommend it to everyone. Now, now it's just bloated malware in my opinion, somewhere underneath is the player I once loved, but it's so deeply buried under crap to be useless.
   
   Avoid avoid avoid avoid. If you still have version 2.9 or below, keep it safe but do NOT touch this one.

4. 
   Review - Stardock Tiles

   0.98 Beta (Nov 18, 2011)

   em... I've watched the videos, read the information on the Stardock site and I'm still not sure what this is and more to the point, not really sure why It useful or why I'd need it.
   
   All I can think is that it seems like Ubuntu Unity for windows (and that's not good)
   
   Can anyone enlighten me as to what this actually is or does, the website doesn't make it clear at all, is this Virtual Desktops like, Unity like, Rocket Dock like?

5. 
   Review - Bzeek

   0.9.186 (Nov 12, 2011)

   usage idea: You're in a hotel room and your laptop has a wired connection to the internet, but want to share that connection with another laptop, smartphone, ipod, wifi camera etc, or:
   
   You have a spare computer in your office and would like to set up a wifi network for you, or visitors to be able to use, or.
   
   Maybe you just realise that whilst you pay for internet, you actually USE very little and therefore are kind and generous enough to let people use your connection when you are not.
   Either way, great idea, nice app

6. Comment - More Windows 8 features: PDF reader, Internet Explorer 'Immersive'

   0.9.186 (Apr 6, 2011 - 5:01 AM)

   XP, bah! My 500+ employee organisation still uses Windows 2000, we're planning to "upgrade" to XP, sometime in 2012!

7. Comment - More 3D TVs launch, this time from Panasonic...but it's still kid's stuff

   0.9.186 (Mar 11, 2010 - 7:47 AM)

   3d tv.. dear oh dear.
   
   Just look at how nerdy the people in the screenshot look and isn't it lucky for them that none of them are already wearing glasses.
   What happens when friends come round and they run of the nerdy specs for them to wear, they'll just get a headache watching a blurred picture.
   Not forgetting that 3d makes the screen darker they'll ramp up the brightness of the set to compensate which means that when you take the glasses you'll burn through your retinas!
   
   3D TV is like 3D cinema pointless at best, annoying at worst. It's just a gimmick to get more gullible idiots to buy new tvs.

8. Comment - Nokia's N-Gage can't survive against iPhone, will be shut down

   0.9.186 (Oct 31, 2009 - 12:07 PM)

   the more I think about this article headline the more I too think - "what has the iphone got to do with anything"?
   
   Maybe one day mobile gaming will take off on phone handsets, but the iphone, palm pre, symbian, gizmondo, winMobile device just isn't there yet.

9. Comment - Nokia's N-Gage can't survive against iPhone, will be shut down

   0.9.186 (Oct 30, 2009 - 5:19 PM)

   that is NOT a suprise. the Nokia phones I've used and owned have been good phones, but awful gaming machines. they're just not games machine, they're not designed to be - they're phones.
   
   N-Gage was trying to shoehorn a gaming platform onto hardware that wasn't designed for it.
   
   Iphone games though.. jees, another platform NOT designed for games. marginally better than nokia in that the "buttons" and "d-pad" can be anywhere, but c'mon it's not a games machine either, no matter how you look at it, games on iPhone/iPod touch don't work that well with the touch screen and even less well with accelerometer.

10. Comment - Scrabulous case D-I-S-M-I-S-S-E-D

    0.9.186 (Dec 16, 2008 - 5:00 AM)

    sadly, they've changed the board (see above screenshot) from the old scrabble to this one, and added 8 letters not 7. It's not as good.