I didn't have much time to work on reviews this week but I found a couple of items you all wrote me about. Be sure to tell me all of your freeware adventures so I can share them with everyone.
I did include some search tips this week to help you find that special freeware that you want.
Thanks Lesley. It's a great game and it's also an advertisement from Microsoft. Not a bad one because I didn't even notice it at first. The game is extremely challenging and I had to give up from frustration.
Come and visit Scott's little slice of the net. Make your yourself at home and browse through all the freeware listings. Scott also hosts the Freeware Revolution forum, of which I'm proud to be a member.
Most of the freeware reviewed there has been tried by Scott himself. You've gotta respect that.
Here's an easy way to search for what you need at FreewareArena ...
Search Snapfiles Freeware - best organized and best comments
I think Snapfiles has the best organized freeware website. They also typically have no shortage of people who comment on each piece of software. Snapfiles is very similar to Download.com but at least they do separate out the freeware from the payware. They have lots of advertising but they've gotta make a few bucks to keep the gears greased.
Here's an easy way to search freeware at Snapfiles ...
NoNags has a great collection of freeware and you can trust them. They support the site by having a paid membership. I'm not sure what advantages that brings, but they offer most downloads to everyone. You gotta love that.
Here's an easy way to search freeware at NoNags ...
Search alt.comp.freeware - advice and new finds
Some of the best advice on freeware is always found at the alt.comp.freeware newsgroup.
Not only do they chat constantly about freeware, they also provide a great website at PricelessWare List. Their list of the year's best freeware is the best in the world in my humble opinion. Anything you find there is bound to be good.
Here's an easy way to search the newsgroup for info ...
If you ever have a question about any freeware application, or are looking for freeware for a specific job, go to ACF (news://alt.comp.freeware) to ask. You will rarely find this group at a loss for words of advice. One easy way to join the discussions at ACF, is to join them at the Google Groups site. Most of the people at ACF use a news reader application to access the group.
Here are the most recent comments
To view or reply on a comment, click on the blue name
The best part of this newsletter for me is the comments. Thanks for speaking up!
I recently received this email from Ann. I'd like to see if anyone here can recommend existing software that fits her dream. I've got a couple of ideas that may work.
Thanks for venting Ann.
Letter from Ann:
Hi Clif,
Never write or email but thought ...heck, I want SOMEONE to hear me lol! So here's my brilliant idea.
You mentioned 2 free site advisors and my brilliant idea IS:
Have some brilliant program writer, make a site BLOCKER....FREE, FREE, FREE please.Heck, make Microsoft and Mac etc. put it on ALL THE NEW computers they sell from now on!
It would BLOCK ALL SITES THAT DON'T HAVE A GREEN CHECK MARK...that would do several things:
1 Would show only the GOOD websites and give them the attention and clicks they deserve!
2 The lousy and ad pop up, virusy sites would HAVE TO clean up their act! That's why I want it free and preferably on every new computer for the poor newbies ( that I was not long ago ), who don't have a clue as to what to add to protect their computers.
3 Whoever does the program would be loved by computer users and hated by virus loving, computer crashing idiots....you'd never know that I'm a nice Christian woman, would you lol.....sorry, but I'm passionate about fairness and getting rid of hmmmmm, dare I use the word idiots again lol.
4 Not only would the PROGRAM be loved by the PROGRAMMER would be loved and more than likely get a great job offer from some big computer company lol.
5 The bad sites would shrivel up and die from lack of use!
Gary at Internet Fixes continues to amaze me with hundreds and thousands of tips for your PC. Whatever your operating system, or how you use it, a visit to Gary's site will soon have you saying "So that's how you do this!".
2. My comp has been incredibly slow for a while now. i thought it was an installed software's problem, but now I’m sure it's permanent, since the software was uninstalled. I own an HP 3200 AMD Athlon with 512MB Ram and it runs Windows XP Home edition. I have tried lots and lots of software like registry cleaners, I have Zonealarm and Norton with windows defender, and Malware Guard and have used CCleaner recently as well as Spybot S&D and ad-aware, and a-squared. But somehow, even after lots of bad files and viruses etc have been deleted my comp is still very slow. Please Help. Thank you!
3. I have a problem with my son's computer that I hope somebody can help me with. It is a Compaq with Windows XP SP2. It sometimes runs very slowly and the cooling fan runs quite loudly. Other times it runs and sounds normal. I used msconfig to turn off the programs that I didn't need running and am constantly running virus and antispyware software. I also use Cleanup! regularly.
5. I gave my laptop to somebody to fix my blue screen of death and now I have this error message - when I start the system - Windows - System Error - A duplicate name exists on the network. Please would somebody help me with this.
6. I just discovered 20 of these files in the C: root directory in one of my computers and have never seen them there before. This is what the file name looks like: sqmnoopt00.sqm through sqmnoopt19.sqm I did a Google search on it and it appears to have something to do with MSN Messenger 8.0. If that's the case, I did install the 8.0 beta version about a week ago - which originally worked, but no longer does. I haven't uninstalled it yet.
7. My problem recently has been when I boot my pc up I get this black screen asking if I want to start Windows XP or XP Professional and give me the options to pick of the 2. I never had this problem until 1 day ago and I tried to do a system restore but it seems to had been disabled and all restore points erased anyways any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
8. When trying to log onto my laptop with Windows XP Pro I get the following message: Unable to log you on because your account has been locked out, please contact your administrator. How can I log on?
3. I've been battling to send faxes since I switched to DSL (via digital/analogue landline) I can't get my fax printer to recognize my PCI soft 92 modem. Any suggestions?
5. Yesterday I added some memory (RAM?) and was very careful to ground myself and I didn't use any tools - magnetic or otherwise. When I rebooted the keyboard and mouse didn't work
6. I recently got a couple of BSOD's with the 0x000000D1 error, irq_not_less_or_equal. I ran the debugging app that Microsoft offers and it found out that the wanarp.sys is to blame for the error.
IF01122 Any attempt to access files on the old HD shows a message that the HD is not formatted. Other utility programs (Norton) show the HD has no partition. What happened and what can I do to retrieve my files, favorites, and Thunderbird E-mails??
Thanks to everyone who commented on the articles last week. You gave me more ideas and some good advice. If you see comments on an article, you will be missing out if you don't click on them to take a look.
If you commented last week, check to see who commented on your comment!
Here are a few links from Mark's CoolSites Newsletter. Be sure to visit his site and see the rest of his links this week.
August 24 2007 COOLSITES Newsletter # 127 by Mark Donaldson
New. freenigma adds privacy technology (with strong e-mail encryption) to your favourite webmail service: http://www.freenigma.com/index.html
DigitalBucket.net provides a web interface that can be used to store and retrieve data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. Free 1 gig account: http://digitalbucket.net/
New. VDownloader. Download videos from Youtube, Google Video and similar sites. Warning allows downloading from adult sites: http://www.vdownloader.es/
COOLSITES is a list of safe, fun, useful, informative and just plain cool websites and programs that are FREE, FREE and FREE. All of the programs and websites I list are free. If I list anything that is so good but isn't free I will list the price with it.
You need a free 2.8 GB Gmail account to access many of the cool features at Google. After more than two years in beta testing Gmail is open to the public. Just go to http://gmail.com and sign up for an account.
I think Gmail works best in the awesome Firefox browser. It's free, easy to use, and it's way more secure than Internet Explorer. My favorite thing to do is to customize Firefox so that it does much more than IE ever could. You can select new button controls for your toolbars, install extensions to add new features, or change the look of your browser with themes - the way Firefox looks and works is under your control.
Wow! Over 800 people and still growing! I invite all of you to record your locations on this map. You can include as little or as much information as you wish. I think you'll enjoy seeing yourself there.
Here's a small look at my frapper map.
Write your own review
I get many of the reviews in the newsletter from the readers. You don't have to be a genius or computer guru. Just answer a few questions and send me a review. I'll probably put you in the newsletter.
What do you have to say?
Just tell me what article you are talking about and leave me your comment.
I just found this awesome paper plane throwing game. Thought you might like it. 
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