Editorial -- 30/Jan/10

I checked this site with my FTP program a few days ago, to see if it was still locked and found that my ISP had finally sorted the problem, only took them a year...........
So hopefully I will get into the habit of updating again. There may be some errors, as I have forgotten how to do some things, it has been so long.

Rob.

Demo game -- Red Ace Squadron Pro

I normally stick to freeware games and utilities for my reviews, but I greatly enjoyed Red Ace and the demo has quite a lot of missions, so I decided to make an exception.

Red Ace is an WW1 arcade type flying game, rather than a simulator. So is easy to learn, using just two buttons and the mouse. There are three training missions and ten full missions that follow a simple story line, five as the Allies and five as the Germans.
Once you complete all ten missions, you can play the master mode, which is the same missions, but with more enemy fighters and anti-aircraft guns.

The graphics are definitely not cutting edge, but they do the job and look quite nice (imop). As my computer is well above the graphics requirements, I did try setting the graphics detail higher. But for some reason this made the plane much harder to control, so I stuck with the default settings.

There does seem to be a slight problem with the menu screens. My mouse pointer was very jerky, which made selection a bit tricky, but that may be an issue with my computer.

The sound effects are reasonable, with some engine noises, firing and crashing effects. The background music is stirring military music.

I managed to complete all ten missions on the easy setting (enemy planes can take more damage and go faster on harder settings) and most of the master mode missions.
The variety of missions kept the game interesting and the dog fights were the best I have played, with the enemy planes moving more naturally, rather than just going in circles after your tail, as is often the case in flying games.

A thoroughly enjoyable demo, I was even tempted to buy the full game but managed to restrain myself. Should you succumb, the full version has 14 more missions and a multiplayer online mode, which I would love to try.

Demo -- Download size 16.1Mb -- Price $19.99 -- Windows 95b / 98 / ME / 2000 / XP

http://www.smallrockets.com/

Is all-in-one security protection the answer?

Beta test of Norton 360 v3.0
17 Jan 09

Please note: this is beta software, so is less reliable than the finished product.

I was given the chance to beta test the next version of Norton 360, an all in one security system. Being penniless, I'm usually restricted to testing freeware, so I leapt at the chance.

Norton 360 strives to cover all aspects of your computers security. It incorporates antivirus, antispyware, antiphising, firewall, secure online storage, drive cleaning and maintenance tools and the option of antispam and parental controls.

Installation was straightforward and mostly automated, with no options. A fairly large antiphishing toolbar was added to Internet Explorer, to help you surf safely, but this can be turned off by right clicking on it.

The main interface is divided into four sections:

PC security, handles virus scans and the firewall.
Identity Protection, guards against identity theft and checks the safety of some web sites.
Backup, performs automated (or manual) backups to hard drive, disc, or online.
PC Tuneup, cleans temporary files etc and defragments the hard drives.

You may have noticed the label CPU Usage, at the bottom of the window. This opens a window that shows the recent history of Nortons CPU and memory usage. Obviously Norton are proud that the software is no longer a resource hog and didn't impact on even my modest computers performance (apart from when the beta software threw the odd wobbly).

The default set up is quite good, with most features fully automated, which would appeal to those users, who want a fit and forget system.
If however, you like to delve around in the workings of the software and set it up, to suit yourself, then it's not so good. When moving beyond the main window, lots of the settings are tricky to find and most features open in separate windows, which is messy and annoying.

I liked the antivirus scanner, which is superior to most of the freeware antivirus software I have tried, producing no false positives, although it did delete three programs without asking. They were a password revealer and two joke programs, so it is acceptable to class them as a mild risk, but Norton should ask before deleting (restored with no problems) items.

The identity theft features I didn't really try, as the web site checker doesn't work with Opera and although the identity safe offered to store a couple of passwords, I prefer to store them in my head.

The backup feature was rather buggy (which is why I have disabled it) on this beta version and tended to slow my computer to a crawl. But I did manage to backup and restore a few MB, to the free online space.

The PC tune up feature cleans your computer of temporary files, internet files and history etc. It can also clean the registry and there is a useful startup manager. The defragmenter appears to use Windows own system and caused a massive crash the first time I used it, although subsequent attempts were successful.

The firewall seems to be good at blocking incoming traffic, but in my tests appeared to let all outgoing traffic past!
I prefer Zonealarm, which queries anything unusual and shows its internet activity icon in the system tray.

While testing I ran a program called Scoundrel Simulator, which simulates the actions of a possible threat, writing to the start up section of the registry, changing your homepage, etc. Norton let it perform all five actions without a peep, which was a bit worrying.

In conclusion, I liked some of the Norton 360 features, the antivirus scanner and PC tuneup tools were good. But I didn't really trust the firewall, I didn't like the interface much and the software does tend to make a lot of decisions for you, not something I'm very keen on.
Personally I wouldn't buy it. But if you want an all in one solution to your PC security and prefer it to quietly look after your computer, without asking any confusing questions, then it would be a good choice.

Price $79.99 -- Down load size 71MB -- Windows XP, Vista.

http://www.symantec.com/norton/360

My head hurts!

Freeware puzzle game -- Rubokube
29-0-08

Rubokube combines the colours of Rubiks cube, with the grid pattern of Sudoku, to produce a game that's simple to play, but hard to complete.
To complete the puzzle, just rearrange all the coloured blocks into 3*3 blocks of the same colour.

Move a block, by clicking on it and then using the arrow keys to move the entire row. As you can see from the picture I've already completed two colours and proceeded to finish the game less than a minute later.

If you enjoy Rubiks cube, this should be entertaining. If like me, you enjoy Sudoku, it will probably drive you mad.

Freeware - Download size 4.35MB - Win ME, XP, 2000, Vista

http://www.yoyogames.com/games/launch/59785

Clockwise, or anticlockwise?

Optical illusion

Note: If you find optical effects disturbing please skip past the next image.

This effect works really well, just blink, or move your head to the left, or right, to alter the rotation of the Ferris wheel.

Stack 'em high.

Free online Flash game -- Super Stacker.
23-Nov-08
In this simple, but entertaining game, you must stack a variety of squares, triangles and circles. You can stack them however you like, but the stack must be stable for ten seconds, to complete the level.

There are twelve levels, with some quite tricky ones toward the end. The time you take for all the levels produces your score, which you can submit online. I took about ten minutes and was ranked about 440th

Note: You will need Flash enabled in your browser and loading time is approx nine minutes on a 56K connection.
The game loads a thirty second advert before the game begins to load (you need to click play at the bottom of the advert, twice).

http://www.thegamehomepage.com/play/super-stacker/

History through the eyes of those who lived it.

Eyewitness to History.com

History made interesting. Rather than a dry description of events, this site provides eyewitness accounts of important historical events.
The site covers ancient times, up to the mid 1970s. As well as text reports, there are a few videos and some voice recordings (the voice recordings require Real Player).
A very interesting site, I'm still working my way through it.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com

Drive Sentry, one of the new generation of antivirus software.

Drive Sentry v3.1.2.32 -- free for home users.

Drive Sentry is one of a new generation of antivirus programs, using not only virus signatures to protect your computer, but also a community based whitelist of trusted software and HIPS (Host Intrusion Prevention System), which monitors the behavior of programs and intervenes if the code appears to be performing suspicious, or malicious activities.

Drive Sentry is a pretty hefty download, at 42MB and the installed size is 260MB!! (look in documents and settings -- all users -- application data -- drivesentry)
After installation, Drive Sentry updates its definitions, or synchronizes its data base, if you want to be geeky. The update took quite a while on broadband, so I would imagine that Drive Sentry would not be practical on dialup.
For the first 30 days Drive Sentry will update using "trickle feed" technology, which updates in the background, after that it switches to manual updates, although you can upgrade for a fee.

Drive Sentry runs in the background displaying an icon in the system tray. Right clicking the icon gives a menu, or double clicking opens the main window.
Drive Sentry monitors your computer while you work and displays a popup if a new program is run, or if a program tries to perform a possibly virus like activity, such as writing to the registry. You then have the option of allowing, or blocking the activity, rather like setting the rules for a firewall.

You can perform a virus scan of your computer, with the options of a full, quick, or custom scan. Suspected infected files are quarantined, rather than deleted, which is just as well, as it quarantined seven files on my computer, but only one was a threat (the Eicar test virus). So treat scanning results with caution.

Drive Sentry did have a few problems. The interface is a bit buggy, never displaying the righthand side of the window correctly. I thought this could be because my monitor runs at 800*600, but altering the resolution made no difference.
There was also a problem with the use of system resources. Most of the time Drive Sentry would use 10 to 15MB of memory, but sometimes this would jump to 150MB and it would be using 90% of the CPU, slowing my computer to a crawl, with the only cure being a computer restart.

Overall, Drive Sentry has some good ideas, I particularly like the system of granting program permissions. But it needs some more development and the system resources problem makes it too unreliable for everyday use (IMOP) and I wont be keeping it on my computer.

Free for home use -- Download size 42MB -- Win 2000, 2003, XP, Vista

http://www.drivesentry.com/


Important notes: Uninstalling Drive Sentry proved tricky, it just didn't want to go, lol. It caused Windows to crash very badly and I eventually had to use safe mode to remove it.
I always create a image of my drive before testing this type of software, so it wasn't a great problem, I just reloaded the image to repair Windows. But I would not advise trying Drive Sentry, unless you take similar precautions.

Puzzled, perplexed, confused, I am????????

This picture puzzle was sent to me by Jan.
The picture rearranges itself every ten seconds, or so.

Count the men and wait!
Count them again after the picture has changed.

The number of men has changed, where does the extra man come from, or go to?

I've watched this for ages, I even took the picture apart in my editor, but I still cant figure it out. If you know the answer drop me a line.

Update 06/Sept/08
Free game -- Command & Conquer Red Alert*.

To promote the imminent release of C&C Red Alert 3, Electronic Arts are giving the original version of Red Alert away for free.
I haven't actually played the original version yet, but I am a big fan of Red Alert 2 and C&C Generals.

From the few images I was able to find, the original version looks quite similar to version 2, if not quite as polished in the graphics department. So it should be a good strategy game and will run on a low specification computer.

The download is rather big, at two 500MB disc images, but depending on your browser, you can pause the download, to spread the load on your bandwidth over several days (which is what I'm doing, broadband is great).

Red Alert will run on Windows 95/98/Me/XP and possibly Vista. The web site has tips for getting Red Alert to run on XP and Vista.

http://www.ea.com/redalert/news-detail.jsp?id=62

Additional note: I have now tried Red Alert. It's showing its age rather, but is still playable, although I did have to fiddle with the control options, as my computer was too fast (never thought I would say that!).
Red Alert 2 and C&C Generals are much better games and not very expensive nowadays.

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