Would you like to learn to type faster? Do you believe that you can do so while playing a game? If your answer to the first question is yes, then let me answer the second one for you: yes, you can learn to be a much better typer while playing a game. But what if I told you that the game is such a nice, casual game that you will be coming back just to play, whether or not you are interested in typing. Enter: Z-Type

Z-Type is a fun, fast paced browser-based top-scrolling shooter that is controlled via the keyboard, by typing words to blast aliens.

I found this game while researching my ‘Ten must-see Chrome Experiments’ post, and although I was impressed with it, I passed it over for that post, opting to use something else instead. However, when I found myself coming back to this game a couple of days afterwards, it started to dawn on me that Z-Type was something special.

The concept is pretty self explanatory. Each alien ship has it’s own keyword that you need to type to destroy it. Some ships are motherships which fire missiles and generate other ships. Note that once you start typing a word, you cannot switch to another alien until you finish, which can really trip you.

The verdict: a great little casual game. Easy to get into for a quick game (games tend to be very quick). AND it will enhance your typing skills. If you think you are a generally fast typer then skip ‘normal’ and jump right into ‘expert’ mode.

Go here to play Z-Type (browser based).

There is something that makes sense about seeing the weather forecast displayed on a big map, which may be related to the fact that we are all used to seeing forecasts superimposed on big maps on TV. In any case, Full Screen Weather is a free service that will display a detailed map with annotated weather information pulled from the ‘Weather Underground’ website. It also displays a 4 day forecast, weather alerts, and other relevant information. You can also get this service on your Android or iOS device via free apps.

This service is fairly self explanatory; it will autodetect your location or offer you the option to search for the location you seek.

iOS and Android: apps are available. See the screenshot to the right.

The verdict: really nice. Check it out for yourself. You could either use ‘Full Screen Weather’ as:

• A web service for any browser
• Install as a Chrome App
• Install the ‘Weather Underground’ Android app and iPhone/iPad app (which are from the same developers and the do the same thing).

Webnode is a web site and program that allows you to create, manage, and easily control your personal website totally for free. It has a very simple drag and drop interface, loads of customization options for your site, and even a smart tutorial that will offer help when and where you need it.

I can remember when the world wide web was so brand new, and finding out that I could one day have my very own web site out there was a major thrill as a young man looking to make an indelible mark on the world. At the time, however, it wasn’t so easy to just create and publish and connect a new web site, but that has changed over the years along with almost everything else as our information technology makes leaps and bounds every year. Moore’s law may not apply directly to building web pages, but the principle could be called similar, and the end result of that supposition is nearly the same: web pages and sites have become more and more easy to create, edit, publish and maintain. In fact, it has become so easy in recent years that many programs say things like, “It’s so easy even your grandma can do it!” and Webnode says that right on their splash page.

They are correct. There are so many great, easy, free ways to create a web site out there now, one is nearly overwhelmed with the different choices on offer. In particular, if you are creating a personal web page, for your own blog or photo galleries or whatnot, there are metaphoric tons of different programs and sites out there that will help you do so at no cost. Webnode is, in my opinion, one of the best in this arena.

Webnode allows you to sign up for a free account with them, and then create a web site, publish and maintain it, and all at no cost to you other than your regular ISP costs. The process is pretty simple, and it is actually one of the more user friendly web building platforms I have personally tried. However, that is not all that Webnode really has to offer. In addition to making a personal site, Webnode also allows you some free options for business sites, which is pretty unusual for this kind of thing. Most of the web building platforms that have a zero cost out there won’t let you do anything for a business site that is actually useful without paying something at some point. Webnode differs from the pack in that way as follows: You can create a free personal or free business website, and maintain it as long as you want, at no cost. An E-Commerce website is free to set up and free to maintain for 30 days but after that they will make you get a premium account.

So, for personal or basic business use, Webnode is near perfect but if you want any further abilities, like E-Commerce for example, you will either have to get a premium account or find another program. The business site option does offer a premium account too, with some extras added, but the free version is perfectly useful and appropriate if all you want to really do is set up and maintain a presence online for your business. They’ll even help you to use your own domain name if you have one, or help you go purchase one if you don’t, but they don’t demand that you do so either. Another great point worth mentioning about Webnode that sets them apart from other free web building platforms is the fact that they don’t place mandatory ads on your site, and they promise that they never will.

You’ll need to sign up with a name for your site (freewaretest.Webnode.com in this case) and your email address, as well as creating a password. Once you have done so, you’ll get an email asking you to verify your email address, click the link in it and you’re all done with the sign up process. Once the sign up is done, you’ll be led through the basic process of creating your site.

The Webnode system is just great at teaching you how to use it, as well. Tutorial notes and directives will appear from time to time on an as-needed basis, but unlike the horrid PaperClip of Doom that bugs you every ten seconds, even when it’s not useful or appropriate (Hi! It looks like you’re trying to write a steamy letter to your girlfriend. Would you like some help with that?) the Webnode tutorial notes really do only show up as needed. Once cleared, they can be recalled by going to the help section. The whole system is based on drag and drop functionality, so it really is WYSIWYG in the most literal sense. Pick a template for an overall look, specify what generic pages you want created, and then edit them to your heart’s content. Once done, hit publish and POOF! your web site magically appears on the interwebs. This is as simple and easy as it gets, and given the price tag it’s a no-brainer to use Webnode for your personal or basic business page. Until next time, my friends!

Check out Webnode here.

We recently published a big comparison of free ZIP archiving and compression programs on Freewaregenius that looked at many of the more well known (and some not so well known) free ZIP programs out there. The conclusion: we liked HaoZip, 7-Zip, and PeaZip best, in that order.

Since then, some readers have alerted us to two new programs that are worth considering: Bandizip and Bitser, both of which provide a good range of features and functions (see below).

The following table provides a quick feature overview:

	Bandizip	Bitser
screenshot
Interface	Nice interface, supports drag and drop, a good-looking, customizable context menu. Very cool ‘preview archive’ option in the context menu.	Nice interface, supports drag and drop, a good-looking context menu (which however is not customizable).
Interesting features	High speed archiving/ multi core compression, unicode filenames, can extract multiple archives into multiple folders, ZIPX format support (packing and upacking), multiple icon packs.	Calculate folder size and delete empty folders via context menu, provides AES-256 encryption.
Packs	ZIP (z01), ZipX (zx01), TAR, TGZ, 7Z (7z.001), and EXE (e01)	ZIP, 7Z, Exe
Unpacks	ZIP (z01), ZipX (zx01), TAR, TGZ, 7Z (7z.001), EXE (e01), RAR (part1.rar, r01), ACE, ALZ, APK, ARJ, BH, BZ, BZ2, CAB, EGG, GZ, J2J, JAR, IMG, IPA, ISO, LHA, LZH, LZMA, PMA, TBZ, TBZ2, TGZ, TLZ, TXZ, UDF, WAR, WIM, XZ, and Z	ZIP, 7Z, RAR, ISO, MSI, VHD, GZIP, BZIP2,TAR, LZMA, LZMA2, NTFS, FAT, MBR, SquashFS, CramFS, MSLZ, CAB, CPIO, DEB, LZH, NSIS, RPM, UDF, WIM, XAR, XZ, and Z
Versions supported	32 bit and 64 bit	32 bit and 64 bit
Platforms	Windows, Mac, Portable version available	Windows

This is not meant to be a comparison as such, but an overview. BandiZip is definitely the more serious contender of the two, and I am eager to test it in a head to head comparison with Haozip, which is my favorite compression/archiving program.

In any case both of these will be included in the next update of our Zip Archivers Comparison article.

• Go to the Bandzip website.
• Go to the Bitser website.

XMouse Button Control is a great freeware program that allows you to change what each button on your mouse does. It works with nearly any type of mouse, no matter how many buttons it has, and is very easy to use.

Anyone who knows me even slightly will know that I am an avid gamer. I may not spend the hours upon hours of gaming that the really serious gamers do, these days, but I still make time to enjoy a good gaming session as often as I can. One of the things that is always important in any game, as well as other (nongaming) situations is control. Most games for the PC these days will have a menu that allows you to modify the controls of the game, such as changing what the keyboard keys do or changing the mouse sensitivity. The best games also carry a menu option to change what the various buttons on the mouse do within the game. What happens, however, when you come across a game that does not have these menus, but you still want to make changes to how the mouse works within it? What about using your mouse within other programs besides games and customizing the mouse button functions for that program? That’s where XMouse Button Control (XMBC) comes into play, no pun intended.

Some mice, or other “Human Interface Devices” have software built in to let you remap the buttons and their functions. Some mice have programs that you can download from the manufacturer that will do the same kind of thing. Logitech, for example, has great software for that very purpose. However, if you happen to have a mouse that doesn’t have any software built in, and isn’t a Logitech product, then you’re going to need a third party program, and that what XMBC is for. There are also many programs and games that will allow you to remap the mouse button functions but, for whatever reason, do not recognize the extra buttons on your mouse besides the left and right standard buttons.

The first thing you will need to do is to download the XMBC program and install it. Once you have done so, just run the program and a small mouse icon with a tiny x on it will appear on your system tray. Right clicking on the icon will bring up the quick menu which will let you bring up the settings for your mouse.

The options to customize your mouse are surprisingly extensive and easy to use. You can change any button to mimic another button, which is handy for folks who are left-handed. Additionally, you can also have the mouse buttons mimic keystrokes from your keyboard. You can, for instance, have the middle mouse button mimic pressing Enter on your keyboard, instead of sending a button click to the operating system. This particular option is the one I have found most useful for games, since it allows you to, essentially, have much more control by putting keyboard functions into the mouse buttons. Personally, I use a five button mouse that is pretty generic, and doesn’t have any native options so XMBC is my way to go to customize the buttons. Given that most games, even newer ones, don’t seem to recognize the extra thumb buttons on my mouse, XMBC is an invaluable tool to make sure I get the most out of my mouse while playing. For example, if a game lets me fire a missile using the \ key on the keyboard, I can map that key to the first thumb button on my mouse and have missile control right there, rather than having to move my hand across the keyboard to hit the right key. That may not sound very useful, or may sound incredibly lazy, but in the case of gaming (especially any kind of action in a game), those precious milliseconds that it takes to move my whole hand versus the one millisecond it takes to click the thumb button on the mouse, are invaluable. Those tiny short milliseconds can be the difference between living and dying, as far as the game goes.

In addition to the basic functions of changing which mouse buttons do what, or mimicking keystrokes, XMBC also has some really great advanced options that make it a better bit of freeware, in my opinion. For one thing, you can set up multiple layers of programming, so the mouse will activate a different ‘layer’ (essentially a mouse button profile) automatically, depending on the situation. This kind of conditional programming, along with the ability to recognize different windows and activate different layers just by placing your mouse cursor over the particular window, seriously raises the intelligence of your mouse and expands its usefulness beyond games and into everyday use on your OS. I would recommend XMBC for pretty much anyone who isn’t a complete novice at using a mouse and computer, since it can be useful in so many different ways and in so many different programs. Until next time, my friends!

Compatibility: X-Mouse Button Control supports Windows 2000, XP, 2003, 2003 R2, Vista, 2008, 2008 R2, 7. It was originally designed to run natively on x64 editions of Windows but it is fully supported on 32bit editions too!

Get XMouse Button Control here. Check out the User Forums here and the FAQ here.

What are Chrome Experiments? Simply put, they are interesting bits of coding that use some of the latest open technologies (e.g. HTML5, Canvas, SVG, and especially WebGL) in a browser setting (not necessarily Chrome). The Google Chrome connection comes from the fact that Google have set up a website to showcase these coding ‘experiments’.

This post will feature 10 Chrome Experiments that we loved here at Freewaregenius. Check them out and consider that you may  be looking at the art form of the next century.

Note on WebGL: it is a web based graphics language that utilizes JavaScript to implement 3D graphics in the browser. The experiments below all have a significant 3D graphics component, and some will require a capable graphics card to run.

Here’s the list:

1. The WebGL Globes

Animated globes for data visualization. Two globes are offered by default, although you could make your own

Google Search Volume by Language

Displays search volumes in each language as bars on an interactive globe. If you’ve ever wondered what three cities generate the most Google English searches, or whether more Spanish language searches are generated in Madrid vs. Mexico city. Actually, its more of a toy than anything else, but is very cool.

Google Population Globe

2. WebGL Bookcase

For those who miss the days when you went to an actual, physical bookstore to browse books, a ‘virtual bookcase’ in 3D, that will, incidentally, link you to Google books for the book itself, or if not available there to Amazon or Google Play.

3. Google Gravity

You can think of this as a  glimpse of what the Google search page would look like in Krypton (Superman’s home planet), where gravity is much stronger

4. Cube

We mentioned this one previously on this site (see here). Cube is an game that creates playable levels out of Google Maps data. Check it out!

5. Ctrl Paper

This site will let you ‘populate’ its 3D environment with your personal 3D character that you create, and that you could subsequently print to PDF to transform into an actual paper model.

If you have kids you (and they) will enjoy this one.

6. The Wilderness Downtown

This is an interactive music video for The Arcade Fire’s “We Used to Wait” (reminiscent of another interactive music video previously mentioned on this site), and it’s totally awesome.  It integrates with your desktop and will ask for the address of the house where you grew up, and will then integrate Google Maps images of your neighborhood into the video. Is this is a glimpse of the future of the music videos as a genre?

7. WebGL Aquarium

It must be something in the human psyche, that we cannot resist looking at fish doing their thing, which is why I am adding this one to the list. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before, but a great way to showcase WebGL 3D graphics in the browser.

8. 3 Dreams of Black

Another interactive music video style experiment. This one combines modeled 3D environments with 2D animation and video (hence the 3 dreams), and lets you have some degree of control over the vantage point throughout. Most of what you see is being rendered, and is not video. Overall very cool.

9. Streetview Sterographic

A dual Google Map view with a slightly different approach: the ‘streetview’ images are strung together in a 360-degree bird’s eye view, which despite being somewhat odd is strangely appealing.

10. Toki Toki digital clock

This one makes it on the list for originality alone. Such a simple concept.

• Check out the Chrome Experiments site for more amazing code.

I’ve always enjoyed multiplayer gaming experiences far more than single player ones, with some few notable exceptions. It is therefore my custom to try and stay aware of the current gaming community, especially on the net, since that is where the best gossip eventually becomes information. So, when I heard that there was going to be a second Defense of the Ancients (DotA)installment, I was very excited to try it out. Sadly, I was not able to get ahold of a playable version yet, but there’s a wellspring of news on it and I set forth on the internet to scour and devour whatever I could find on the subject. Was it just a rumor or was it, in fact, something real in the works? I had to find out.

You may be sitting there, scratching your proverbial head and wondering why you should care about this DotA thing, whatever it is. That’s easy to understand, especially if you’re not much into playing games in general or PC games in particular. Perhaps you are a gamer and just, somehow, never played Defense of the Ancients. In either case, I will fill you in a bit on it before talking about its sequel. There’s actually a rich and detailed history behind it, as with anything worth one’s time and attention, but I will try to make this the short version…

Long ago, in the dark ages of gaming, a great new era began when a game called “Warcraft: Orcs & Humans” hit the gaming world  and the general populace alike with a massive force. Many of the concepts in this game were new, many were polished versions of long held traditions, but the end result was an undeniable success, and the Blizzard gaming empire rose on the backs of the various characters and creatures featured in their slam hit game. It was a somewhat new thing, called a “Real Time Strategy” in which the player took the role of managing resources, troops, combat tactics, etc. All of this was wrapped in a neat, almost cute package that had just the right amount of gore represented (we gamers were far less voracious in our demands for blood n gore in our games back then) along with some very amusing points. There was even a well written story and a whole world’s history and mythology. It was, in short, a revolutionary success in the gaming world.

Warcraft spawned a sequel, then a spin-off called StarCraft that satisfied the gamer’s need for sci-fi alongside the fantasy slot fulfilled by Warcraft. Then, another sequel, “Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos” and there were expansions for that as well. A host of other games, like World of Warcraft for example, were also big hits for Blizzard. The rich world in which Warcraft’s games were played out allowed for great storytelling and this was a big pull for me, at least. The world was so rich, detailed and popular with more than the average gamer, that a South Park episode was devoted to the World of Warcraft game. With such a success, there was bound to be a big fan response, and the gaming community did not disappoint. A user-created level, scenario or “map” was eventually created, called “Defense of the Ancients” and it was a near-immediate underground hit. It gathered more and more fans and followers, and eventually was even recognized by Blizzard officially as a good thing, not an infringement (as so many user-made mods or additions can be with some companies). Defense of the Ancients was so popular, in fact, that the highly successful free MMO called “League of Legends” was inspired by it, and has been wildly popular to this day, relatively speaking. Both DotA and LoL have a way of mixing RPG and RTS elements, with a touch of tower defense type play as well, such that it is a delicate balance that works brilliantly, in the end result. DotA 2 can be expected to be similar, one would think, without even doing any research.

So, now you have a general idea of where this DotA thing started, and what this Warcraft thing meant to the gaming community. All of that taken into account, Defense of the Ancients II (working title?) has the power and promise to be a great and wonderfully fun success, or an equally abysmal and disappointing failure. It’s not one of those things that will fly in under the radar, it’s going to make a big splash one way or another.

So what can we look forward to in the DotA sequel? Well, the original DotA was created by the players and users of the Warcraft III game, by the sequel is being developed by the famed Valve company. Valve has brought us such major gaming gems as, “Half-Life” and “Team Fortress Classic”. As well as being big supporters of the online multiplayer world, valve is well known for bringing great stories to life in a unique way. This bodes well for the DotA sequel, in terms of the quality and playability we might expect to see. While the first DotA was basically a Frankenstein’s monster of a  map, stitched and cobbled together, changed, edited and re-edited over and over again by the users (also called modders in this case), the sequel will be coming from a very experienced, successful, and talented professional company and will be available for both Windows and Mac based computers.

From what I can see in screenshots and other available media, the game looks quite nice, graphically. The images are sharply rendered without being overly complex and are pleasing to the eye. Not much else I can say about it visually, just yet, though. I am dying to get into the game, especially so I can see what the other aspects are like, but that will have to wait. At first, the news I found for DotA 2 seemed to indicate it is in a closed Beta testing phase, which means there aren’t any invites being given out, but the announcement of the project in 2010 was accompanied by a scheduled release date sometime in 2012. So, I kept digging. One site showed me a series of announcements about updates to DotA2 and news about tournaments as late as April 20 2012. This meant, to me, that the game must be available somehow, right? So, finally, on a much more official DotA 2 web site, I found the words: “DotA 2 is expanding constantly, fill out the DotA 2 Survey in Steam to secure your place in the upcoming invitations.” So, without an invitation, I wasn’t able to do an in-depth investigation… yet. However, given the news I have seen, along with the screenshots, I can safely believe that the overall game mechanic will be very close to DotA or League of Legends, right down to much of the details. This will change, obviously, over time but it is what we can expect, I think, initially.

So, It would seem that Steam must be installed before you can play or even be invited to play DotA 2. So I downloaded and installed Steam, since it didn’t cost anything to do so. Given that Steam is merely the platform for Valve games, I didn’t expect the final installation to be a as large a file as it was but the .msi opened and the download went at a decent pace with broadband, and was followed by an automatic update that took only a couple minutes. The account creation was quick and free, as well. Now, this is where it got a bit trickier. Currently, they don’t just let you click a link and automatically download DotA 2, from what I can tell. According to the quote, above and in the screenshot, you have to take the survey about your experiences playing the first DotA, and then, hopefully, get and eventual invitation to join.

They are looking, they say, for a wide range of people to invite and will be sending out more and more of them in the coming months, so get on the ball, and check out the survey. Just answer honestly, and you could very well get and invitation to the current version. It’s not technically listed as a Beta, as near as I could tell, especially since they are holding tournaments, but it’s not open to just jump in and play like League of Legends is, either. Of course, all of that is as of the time and date of this posting, and could be subject to change without notice. I will make updates, on this post, including as many screenshots as possible, as more news comes my way, and in the meantime I have a survey to fill out! Below, I have included the relevant link to get you there as quickly as possible.

Until next time, my friends, keep watching for DotA 2 updates!

• Get the DotA 2 Invitation Survey here
• Get more DotA 2 information at the official blog site here.

Imagine the scene: You’re visiting family and watching YouTube videos (naturally- isn’t this what all families do?) and your mother/brother/father wants to download the video. What to do? Do you hunt around the internet for a YouTube downloader type software? Do you start trying to remember the name of an online service that can do the job?

Here’s the easiest thing you can do: add “pwn” to the beginning of the URL in the address box, and watch as a number of downloading options appear for you to choose from.  “pwnyoutube” is a service that can use the YouTube URL structure to identify your desired video and subsequently offer you a slew of possible video-related services to choose from, including downloading, downloading to MP3, video sharing, etc.

How to use:

(1) Browse to the video you want on YouTube, on any browser.

(2) Click into your browser’s address bar, and insert the letter ‘pwn’ (without the quotes) before ‘YouTube’ and right after the ‘www’, and then press enter. See screenshot below.

(3) A list of services will appear that can be applied to your video. You have your pick of online video downloading services, online download-to-mp3 services, and others. In the screenshot below, we are choosing ‘keepvid’ as the service to use to download.

(4) Once the downloading service page opens, select the quality/format of the video you would like to download, and you’re done. Note: you may be required to allow JavaScript to run on the page.

The verdict: what an awesome, simple. idea. The developers behind this didn’t even bother creating their own downloading service, opting instead to serve a menu of existing download services (which, as far as I am concerned, is brilliant!).

This service is actually called ‘DetUrl’, and if you want another way to check it out aside from adding pwn to a YouTube URL, go here.

There are times when downloading torrents using a torrent client is simply not possible, such as when using a PC where you cannot or do not want to install a local torrent client, or if downloading from networks where torrent traffic is blocked (say by your ISP or network admin), or when you seek privacy so that your download cannot be associated with you, just to name a few scenarios.

Instead, it is possible to use a free Java online applet called BitLet, which lets you download torrents in your browser just as you would any normal file. It promises a high degree of privacy (see below), and runs on any browser that supports Java.

First things first: Will this method bypass blocked torrent traffic?

It should, but I have read reports on the net that sometimes it will and sometimes it won’t. My advice: test it, but give it time to start working, as in my experience many downloads with BitLet simply take a long time to kick into gear.

Step by step:

(1) Find and download the torrent metafile. This is the “.torrent” extension file that you will find in torrent sites. It is typically very small (4K-20K,  or so, although it can be larger).

Technically, all you need is the link to the .torrent metafile. However, it may be better to download the .torrent file locally, just so you know you have the correct .torrent file you seek, as many torrent sites are full of “download” buttons and links that are not .torrent files or that lead to ads or other sites.

(2) Go to Bitlet.org, then

(2.1) Note that Bitlet requires Java to run. If in doubt, go here to check if your browser has it. Next, you may need to give some permissions as illustrated below. Go ahead and run the Java applet and allow it to communicate with the networks that you want it to communicate with (note: if in doubt, go ahead and allow both public and private).

(2.2) In the Bitlet.org download screen, click on “select local torrent” button and browse to the .torrent file you downloaded in step (1). Next click on “download

(3) At this point, you will be asked to browse to a folder to download to, and then the download dialog should open (see below). Wait for it to finish and you’re done.

Note the following:

• Downloading: It may take a long time for your download to start; possibly a lot longer than it would if you had been using a local desktop downloader such as uTorrent. Try waiting a while even if the status button is red.
• Multiple downloads: You can download multiple files simultaneously
• Privacy: BitLet is private, or at least it WANTS to be. I quote “there is really no way for us to associate that information with you and/or your IP address (and we like it that way)”. The information they do have is not specific to you personally; see their privacy policyfor more info.
• Uploading/seeding: You may be uploading/sharing the file with others as you download (see the red up arrow). Click on ‘settings’ to change the max upload speed, although the minimum you can choose is 4K/sec. If you want, leave the download dialog open after you are done downloading to seed.
• Bookmarklets: for Firefox and IE, go to this page to get BitLet bookmarklets that can be used to download any torrent file via BitLet from any page. For Chrome, check out the new BitLet Chrome Extension.
• Pausing and resuming: you are able to pause and resume the download as with any torrent client.

The verdict: a nice service if you need it. Can be somewhat unreliable and slower than a local client such as uTorrent (torrents can take a long time to start downloading, and may be slower to download than in a local client), but on the other hand using BitLet may mean the difference between downloading and not downloading at all, and in any case you can use it when you need it.

Check out Bitlet here.

If you’ve ever had to create a large number of folders or an intricate folder structure to then you know that it can be a laborious, manual process. With free program Text2Folders, however, the process can be significantly automated, requiring the user either type in the names of the folders (and/or subfolders) that are needed, or import a text file that contains the desired folder names, and the program will do the rest.

This is a pretty self explanatory program, although its worth noting that you can also create subfolders as well, as per the screenshot below.

The verdict: I found this program recently when I wanted to create a whole lot of folders, and it did the job brilliantly. Simple, portable, and very useful program if you need this sort of functionality. Recommended.

Version tested: 1.0.6 build 1

Compatibility: WinAll

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (~480K).

We take thumbnails for images and video files for granted in Windows Explorer. Unless, of course, we do not have them. If you have media files that display icons instead of a thumbnail preview, then you probably feel mildly annoyed to say the least. Rest assured: Media Preview is a free, small utility that will make Windows display thumbnails for every conceivable video format. What’s better, it will do so at the click of a button, without fuss or complications.

This subject is dear to my heart, because I had previously written a how-to article on how to add thumbnail previews to MKV and other video formats in Windows. The article used all free software, of course, but was involved many steps and was sufficiently involved to warrant my writing a step-by-step guide on how to do it.

Not so with Media Preview, where all you need to do is run the program, check the video formats that you would like to have thumbnails for (see screenshot below), and apply.  NOTE: if you lose the thumbnail preview functionality for video formats that were previously there but no longer work after applying Media Preview, go back and check them again.

Note that you will need to either (a) browse and open folders that contain the videos that need thumbnails generated to do so, or go to the ‘testing’ tab in the config panel pictured above, and drag and drop folders to generate thumbnails en-masse. Check the ‘recursive’ box if you want recursive folder processing.

The verdict: a simple, beautiful program. If you want media file previews and you don’t have them, Media Preview is the easiest way to do it.

I would have liked for this program NOT to cause video formats that are unchecked to lose their previous thumbnail functionality after applying it, and forcing me to use it to process formats that previously were displaying thumbnails just fine thank you very much. Hopefully they will fix this in a future version.

I’m still holding out for a program that will let me change the thumbnail for individual files, by moving the snapshot time backwards or forwards. If anyone knows of a software that can do this please let me know.

[Thanks go to reader Panzer for the tip about this program]

Version tested: 1.2.2.169

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, or later. 32 bit and 64 bit versions available. BE SURE to download the appropriate 32 bit or 64 bit version for your machine.

Go to the program page to download the latest version (~ 5.66 megs).

If you love point-and-click adventure games then check out Scarygirl, a free, browser-based game that is very easy to get into and get the hang of the controls, and is moreover a delight to watch.

The story: ScaryGirl is “abandoned and washed up on a deserted peninsula”, and determined to “find the man behind her haunting dreams”. Apparently just a typical teenager . Luckily for her, she has a giant green octupus guardian who gives her cryptic advice. Actually, she meets a host of characters who give her such advice.

Gameplay: you walk around and interact with people, collecting ‘fish’ to replenish your energy, and avoiding meanies. The key is to interact with characters who will give information that will be represented visually and ‘stored’ as an icon on the left side of the screen. Actually, these characters launch ScaryGirl on mini missions that, once completed, will unlock new levels. Along the way she will need to collect or build objects that help achieve certain tasks as well.

Saving your game: finding certain ‘portals’ will save your game. At some point, you will be given the option to create an account online, which can preserve your progress across sessions and across different computers.

The verdict: I was attracted to this game’s beautiful visuals — did I mention that these are delightful? The game itself is fun to play and does not require a huge investment in time and energy to get into and play. Recommended.

Play ScaryGirl.

With the explosion of information and news sources that is the hallmark of the internet, application developers are coming up with creative ways to browse and read the news, adding functions such as customization, Geo-mapping, and social sharing and discovery to your reading experience, just to name a few. Moreover, if you subscribe to RSS feeds to get your articles delivered then you should check out some of these services, as some are similar, though not the same.

This article will present four free apps that offer novel approaches to perusing and consuming the news. These apps are: Newsmap, News360, Hubii, and Comunitee.

The four services listed below

1. Newsmap: a bird’s eye view of the news
2. News360: a customized news stream, delivered to your PC or your device
3. Hubii: your news, pinpointed (by publisher) on a Geo-map
4. Comunitee: follow the news with a community of like-minded people

1. Newsmap: a bird’s eye view of the News

Newsmap presents news articles as checkered boxes, magazine style, that pack a lot of information into a relatively small area. But what it really does is filter the news, which is done via tabs that you can select or deselect, as well as a handy searchbox. The top row of tabs lets you filter by country, while the bottom row filters by topic. All of the topics are color coded for easy identification, and popular articles are displayed more prominently and in larger font.

Newsmap is a great way to get your news at-a-glance. If there was something I could wish for, however, is the ability to filter out specific sources of news.

2. News360: a customized news stream delivered to your PC or your device

News360 uses ‘semantic analysis’ in order to evaluate the impact and relevancy of news articles that it presents. It will also want to scan any or all of your Google Reader, Facebook, Twitter, Evernote and Google+ accounts in order to find out exactly the kind of topics and news sources you like, and then use this information when serving your articles.

One of the interesting things about News360 is that it will provide many sources that cover the same item, with the intent of giving alternative points of view more-or-less in the very same spot, although I wish I could have it filter out some sources so that these are never listed. Other bells and whistles include relevant videos and photos, a real time relevant Twitter feed, and highlighting of people and organizations in your articles that you can use to get extra information on these entities.

New360 is available as a web app, as an extension for all the major browsers, and as an app for your Android, iOS and other devices. One of the best features is the ability to save news items for later OFFLINE reading on your device (in a manner similar to recently mentioned app Pocket).

3. Hubii: your news, pinpointed (by publisher) on a Geo-map

All politics, as they say, is local, and the News is not that different. Hubii identifies your IP location and displays a ‘Mapazine’; i.e. a Google style map that displays the location of publishers as well as their published news stories and articles simultaneously on the left sidebar. Note that the publishers are pinned to the map, and not the location of the news events, which is a bit counterintuitive at fist.

Hubii also allows users to subscribe to individual publishers, RSS style, and view them on a normal, non geo-tagged screen.

4. Comunitee: follow the news with a community of like-minded people

Comunitee is a web service that wants you to share news stories and articles with your friends and other Comunitee users, to have followers and to follow people, etc. — in short, to be a social network for news.

Comunitee begins by asking you to identify your interests, which is done by selecting what you like from a wide range of tags that it will show you. The next step after that is inviting friend to the service. Lastly, you can read, star articles that you like, leave comments or questions on articles that can be seen by others on the service.

Overall, it’s an interesting concept, but I could not help but think that the service should try to piggyback more on Facebook (in the same way that Goodreads does for example) rather than reinvent so much of the (Facebook) wheel.

We would love to hear about your experience with these. Also, if you know of other apps or websites that are similar please let us know in the comments section.

Createfunnylogo.com is a fun little web site that allows you to create your very own search page and customize it’s look and style, for free. The resulting page is a fully-functional search page that you can use to launch all your web searches.

There’s no real way to arrive at any specific or accurate number, really, as far as how many ways there are to customize your experience on the computer in general and the web ins specific. Createfunnylogo.com is one of those ways, and if I say so myself, one of the better ones. To my way of thinking, this kind of site is measured on how much fun it is, how easy it is, and how repeatable it is. Createfunnylogo.com scores well in all those areas, in my opinion.

There are three basic steps to using the Createfunnylogo.com web site. First, you must type in your name, or the name of the search engine you wish to ‘create’ as a customized page to the Google search site. This can be anything you want, really, it doesn’t have to actually be your name, but that’s what I did for the purposes of this article and the screenshots shown here. Once you type in your name, or whatever name you have chosen, you must then choose from a list of logo styles. These styles include famous logos, from all kinds of places. For example, one of the logo styles used is a star wars style. If you pick this style, your name (or whatever you entered in the name box) will show up on the search page in the star wars style lettering. The final step to the whole process is to copy the URL for your resulting custom search page and then send it to friends or put it in your blog or on your website.

This kind of fun little tool does not really do much in the way of productivity but let’s face it, productivity is not the only important thing in the universe. It has always been my opinion, and that of others as well, that no matter where you go on your journey through life (including cyber space) you should always try to have a little fun along the way. This could make a good kind of special ‘gift’ as well, if you want to show a relative or other loved one how much you think of them or that you care about them having a good day, you can create a search page logo with their name and send them the link for it, which they can then pass on to their friends. Another way it could be used would be as a joke or just as a fun way to keep a search page looking fresh.

Google has always been interesting when it comes to their logos, as anyone who frequents the main Google search site regularly can tell you, and this particular site is a nice little addition to the history of Google as well, even if it is a footnote. One might look at the site and determine it to be worthless, but I would argue that its worth is in the ability to make someone smile, and that’s something we can all use a bit more of in our lives. As a great man once said, “A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” and I hold this to be true today as well.

So, go and make your own logo. Post the link for it on your Facebook page or on your blog. Send it to people in email and ask them to use it. Start a family league to see who can come up with the funniest logo and get the most people to use it. There’s no limit to what can be done with even a one-liner joke like this if you are really bored and exceptionally determined to waste your time and someone else’s. Personally, I am all for it. Until next time, my friends!

Make your own logo at www.Createfunnylogo.com

Consider the PC that you are using right this minute. Chances are there are apps, services, and processes that are running in the background that you do not need right now, that you seldom ever really need, or that you do not really need at all.

Jetboost is NOT intended to help you identify these, and will not try to optimize your system in the long term; rather, this free app is designed to be launched on-demand, in an ad hoc basis when you need it. It will automatically select a number of services and processes that you are unlikely to be using, let you edit and/or change these, and then shut them down, with the aim of speeding up your system so you can run that game or demanding program with full power and griding your PC to a halt. Jetboost will later revert your PC to its previous state.

How to use this program: run it, then select one of the two profiles (‘For Game’ or ‘For Work’), and click on ‘Start the boost’ button. Before you do so you can inspect the processes and services that it will deactivate, and recheck them or add more to the disabled list. You can even create your own custom profile that you can easily access again later on.

What kind of processes or services will it disable? The program will display these in a list, and you can get information on each right from the program interface. These include, for example, services that enable you to access another computer remotely, services that enable Windows Media Player to connect to other computers on the network, and others that you may not need right then and there.

Is it easily reversible? Yes, at the click of a button.

Does it work? the answer to this important question is: we are not sure. Since it was designed for gaming, we tested the default ‘gaming’ profile using a graphics benchmarking tool “Heaven DX11 Benchmark”. There was an improvement in minimum FPS from 2.9 per second to 3.7 (see screenshot to the right), but we only had access to a very powerful machine, and variations would have probably been larger if the machine was challenged to begin with. We do not know the extent to which this outcome is significant (sorry). On a subjective level, the computer seems a lot zippier and faster, but of course that doesn’t really mean anything.

The verdict: a single click optimizing engine. I love that the (a) this software automatically suggests services and processes to disable, (b) that it lets you create custom profiles, and (c) that it is reversible at will.

What I recommend to you is this: if you have games or apps that are grinding your computer to a halt, try this software and see if it makes a difference, and let us know about your experience in the comments section below.

Version tested: 1.1.0

Compatibility: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 (Developer Preview), including both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Go to the program home page to download (~2.89 megs).

MixZing Media Player  is a great application for Android OS 1.5 or higher, that will allow you to manage, play, and otherwise interact with your music, video, and playlist files on your Android device. It is free to download and use, and has tons of useful features, such as audio tag editing, acoustic fingerprint identification for untagged audio files, and new music discovery based on your listening behavior, to name a few.

MixZing Media Player (MZP) is one of the coolest apps of its kind out there. It does all the things you would expect from a standard media player but also has a few bells and whistles that make it worth any mediaphile’s time and data allowance to consider. Among these are a graphic equalizer for your audio files, Internet connectivity for lyrics and other tag information, and a Pandora ask Mood Player that will automatically create custom playlists and sessions based on your recent music tastes.

MZP reads and employs media tags, which you would expect, but it also has a feature they call Music ID, which will scan and analyze the sound wave data on an audio file, and attempt to recognize it even if it has no tag information or has the wrong tag information associated with it. Additionally, MZP can do a lot of things automatically for you, based on the tag information that is present on your files. That means, kids, that you should attempt to make sure your files have the proper and accurate tag info before doing much else with them. MZP has a built in tag editor, as well, that will let you manually modify the tag information on any given file, should you need to. This is especially handy for those songs that are not present in any common data base, like local bands or more esoteric ones that few people have heard of, like independent labels and such.

MZP Supports MP3, AAC, MP4 and OGG files, so no matter what format your songs are in, MZP is quite likely to be able to play them. Once you have the right tag info on your songs, you can then have MZP do lots of fun things. One of those fun things is called the MZP Mood Player, which will take a look at your listening history, analyze the tags that are present on those songs, and attempt to build a playlist for you of songs that you enjoy more than others, or songs that are part of a specific “mood” like ‘soft’ or ‘bouncy’ or whatever else you can think of. in addition to the Mood Player, MZP will make use of the tag info on your songs by looking on the internet to find similar artists and songs on things like the Indaba Music site, that will hopefully fit your taste. This is a nice way to discover new music and music from indie artists that you may enjoy the heck out of but would not have heard of without the MZP. The program can also use the identified tag info to search the internet and it’s various databases for lyrics to the songs you have or the one you are currently listening to, and display them on your Android’s screen. It will also try to find things like discographic histories and current news about the band or artist of said songs, as well. This particular feature is still being developed but they already have lyrics available for millions of songs, and are adding more all the time, based on user input. This is a great way to settle the old argument of, “Did they just say ‘I am the satan’ or ‘I am the egg man’ on that song?” and can prove the end to similar discussions.

While tag information is useful in so many ways, it is still no replacement for your own organizational skills and/or desires. With that in mind, MZP offers you a file browsing option that will let you look at your songs and videos directly in the folders they are stored in, either on the internal memory or the microSD card (if you have one installed). Other automatic options include the ability to save playlists for you (in case you forgot) and to even restore ones that you may have deleted, whether by accident or design. Another nice manual feature is the Lock Screen Widget that will allow you to control the MZP playing functions even while your Android device’s screen is locked. That’s a handy feature to me, just because my phone is usually set to lock the screen after about 30 seconds and most of my songs are a lot longer than that.

MZP has all of these features, and of course, all the more standard ones you would expect to find on a media player like shuffle, repeat, etc. To my way of thinking, this is a great application and one that is definitely worth a look from anyone who enjoys listening to must on their Android device. Future plans include expanded support for things like video files, and possibly even karaoke files (although the developers were not available to comment on those rumors at the time of this article). Even without any newer innovations, however, MZP is worth your time to try it out and see if you like it.

CONS: as with most of the free apps on the Android and Google Play, it does have some adverts, which can be removed by paying for a registered version of the program, but it is not required to do so, and I have not had any issue with the program even when I was unable to get a signal or internet access on the phone, as opposed to some other players that will require you to be connected to the internet (and use up your data allowance) just to access the program.

All in all, I think MZP is one of the better apps of its kind out there, and I would surely recommend it to anyone who is looking for a more advanced, powerful, feature rich application than the standard audio player that comes with Android’s OS. Give it a try and tell me what you think about it in the comments section here! Until next time, my friends.

Get the MixZing Media Player here.

Abandonia is a great website that will let you download and play classic video games that are no longer being supported, no longer under copyright, or have simply been abandoned by the original developers and owners. You can find many classic games there, like Battlechess, Civilization, or Gunship 2000, and it’s all completely free.

There’s always been a controversy among gamers as to whether or not a certain type of game is worth playing or if it’s just for chumps or fad followers. Specifically, there’s a kind of game software that the original developers are no longer laying claim to, basically. These games are called ‘abandonware’ because they have been ‘abandoned’ by the original makers or owners. There are literally thousands of games that fall into this category. Look at the amount of games that comes out every year lately, and you’ll get an idea of what we’re dealing with. The number of games that are being created every year has gone up, rather than down, and the capabilities have gotten better over time, but for some of us, no game made today will ever have that nostalgic feel to it that the games we played as kids will have.

In much the same way as my younger friends love Mario, I have a soft spot in my heart for games like Battlechess or Archon. These are games that I spent a lot of time playing, as a kid, with family or friends, as well as solo. I can remember how excited I was when my father would bring home a new program, I would pester him for hours to let me try it until he would finally give in and let me see the new program before he even had a chance to look at it. I would spend hours and hours trying to figure out not just how to play these games but to also figure out how they worked and what I might learn from them, as far as computer programming went.

Many of these games didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me as a young child, and I was often delighted when I could figure out even a small part of how they were supposed to work. I believe that messing with these kinds of programs when I was young helped greatly to give me a more analytical, logical skillset than most other kids of the time. Push key A on the keyboard and action B happens on the screen. This sort of basic cause and effect rendered in the form of a game was instrumental in building my computer oriented sense of the universe I lived in at such a young age, I still believe these games have merit today. Who knows, maybe they can help your kid in the same way they helped me. Maybe you will just find joy in playing the games you remember from yesterday, or maybe you just want to see what all the fuss was about way back in the dark ages of computer gaming.

Whatever your goal for abandonware might be, Abandonia most likely has you covered. They have an extensive database of abandonware, including titles and descriptions for more than 1000 games. Each game has its own link that will help you download it, as well as an information page giving more information about it such as the year it was made, or any other programs (like DOSbox) you might need to run it. The whole site is layed out very sensibly, and there is a great community of abandonware gurus and fans that frequent the site in the forums who are glad to help any way they can.

All in all, I think Abandonia is a great free website and a perfect example of what the web can provide to both modern audiences as well as historians in cyberspace. Go take a look yourself, and maybe you will find that game you used to play back when you were a kid. Until next time, my friends.

Check out Abandonia here.

The Last Stand: Union City (TLSUC) is a great 2D, web based flash roleplaying game. It is a survival horror game which pushes the bounds of what one can expect from a flash game, and provides hours of gaming goodness at no cost.

The Last Stand: Union City is a game that I only found out about recently, but I feel is worth sharing. Generally, I am not a huge fan of flash based games, although I do enjoy some of the casual web based games out there.  Lately I have been playing a lot more of these casual flash games because my current laptop is a little underpowered in the graphics area.  For example, my laptop just doesn’t have the graphics power to be able to play great games like Fallout 3, which (for those who don’t know) is a very popular post-apocalyptic roleplaying game with lots of zombie shooting action. It also happens to be one of my favorite games so of course I was a little sad to find out that I can’t play it on my current laptop. I was, therefore, very happy to discover TLSUC.

The easiest and most basic a way to describe TLSUC is that it is very much alike Fallout 3 combined with Resident Evil, on a two dimensional flash platform on the web.  That simple description doesn’t really do justice to the game, its complexities and depth.  To begin live there are two different modes to play game and each has its own appeal.  The easy or normal mode is less complex and challenging than the hard mode because the latter requires your character to get food and sleep in order to survive, whereas the former does not.  In either mode there is a surprising amount of realism to the game despite the fact that it is two dimensional.  For example, turning on your flashlight or firing a loud weapon will attract enemies to you, just as it would in real life. This attention to detail is apparent throughout every aspect of the game.

The pros of TLSUC are many and varied.  As mentioned, it is totally web based on the flash engine so you do not need to install the game and can play it from anywhere that has an Internet connection.  Also, because it is a flash game the requirements to play it are relatively low.  Even so, there are lots of complex actions to perform besides moving and shooting so it does not bore you quickly, like so many casual flash games can.  The graphics, while two dimensional are actually pretty high quality and very engaging.  The blood and violence are quite satisfying but can be turned down or off if you desire.  Again, the little details are not spared, right down to things like showing the clothes and equipment that you’re wearing on your character, rather than having the same character with the same appearance throughout the entire game.

There is also a very complex character development system that should be recognizable to any serious RPG player.  As you kill enemies and accomplish goals you will gain experience points that can then be distributed to different skills and attributes that will help you survive and progress to the next level. You will be given various different quests throughout the game, which will lead you through a fairly familiar post-apocalyptic storyline, mostly revolving around survival and finding your loved ones.  Along the way, you will also be able to pick up a companion or two that will help you in combat.  You will spend much of your time searching for items that will help you survive, such as weapons, food, armor, and quest items.  There is even a pretty nifty lock picking system that will simulate taking a lock when you want to break into something.

The cons, or downsides, of TLSUC are pretty few and fairly inconsequential.  There is “premium content” offered if you want to put real cash into the game, but as is standard these days, it is not required.  That particular feature could be viewed as both positive and negative, since it helps the developers to continue making great games for us to play. The other possible downside is that the game is a web based so you would not be able to play on a computer that does not have Internet connection. It does, however, have a save game feature so you can keep your progress from session to session.

All in all, I was very impressed with TLSUC as a game in general, as well as a zombie survival RPG.  Because it is two dimensional and flash based it is a nice alternative for those of us who cannot play the really pretty 3D games at the moment. I would recommend this game two anyone who enjoys shooting zombies, hacking zombies into pieces, or skulking through abandoned houses and city parks to find supplies.  Go give it a try, and see if it is for you. After all, if you don’t like it, I can always refund your boredom. Until next time, my friends.

Check out The Last Stand: Union City here.

WeTransfer has to be one of the easiest, least involved and complicated FREE services for transferring large files on the internet. Simply drag-and-drop files up to 2 GB (one file or many, it doesn’t matter), and add the emails of up to 20 of your friends, who will receive download links (without seeing or otherwise knowing about each other). The files will be hosted for 2 weeks, no registration required, and you can use the service as many times as you want.

PROS:

• Casual, low involvement. You don’t have to register, just upload and send links to people
• 2 Gigs is excellent and versatile. Upload multiple files back-to-back.
• The user experience: drag and drop. Stylish and nice looking, if that matters at all.

CONS:

• No pause upload option. Interrupted transfers will go all the way back to square one.

Visit WeTransfer.

I’m always amazed as to the kinds of applications game developers can come up for Google Maps, and this game is a great example. Cube takes real-life maps from Google Maps and uses these to model playable levels. For each level, you are assigned a task which involves transporting a ball-like object to a target or targets within the game environment.

This game apparently aims to spread awareness about certain aspect of Google Maps, which it explores through different levels. And while Cube looks and feels great, it is not really much of a game: the levels are all reminiscent of the “ball and hole” games on the iPhone or iPad, without the gratification of the gravity/tilt controls that works so well on those devices.

Still, Cube is enough of a technical achievement to warrant that you check it out and show it to friends. Just don’t expect hours of engaging gameplay.

Check out Cube.