ON COMPUTERS | BY BOB AND JOY SCHWABACH
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September 2007, Week 3 |
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FREE SPY CATCHER
We have used the old version for years and run it first thing every
morning. The new version 1.5 now works with Vista as well as earlier
versions of Windows. We have been using it every day and sometimes twice
a day. When Joy downloaded the new version and ran the first scan,
SpyBot found 58 pieces of spyware on her H-P desktop machine. The
previous version had typically found five to 10. Both of us found the
spy shield function works so well, that when we run SpyBot now, it
usually comes up with no spies found.
The new version works on its own and/or with Internet Explorer, Firefox
and
We have found that with this spyware blocker and the AVG Antivirus
program, both of which are free, our computers have been running
cleanly. You can get SpyBot at
SpyBot.info and
AVG Antivirus at
Free.Grisoft.com. Both programs are
the best of their type that we've tried. ONE MOVIE, ONE TAKE
The new Canon camcorder that comes out in October will contain a
40-gigabyte hard drive, letting the shooter store 15 hours of standard
video or 5.5 hours in high definition. With a whole lot of planning you
could theoretically shoot an entire movie in one run.
THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT
There is a truncated free version of the best-selling game Peggle at the
maker's Web site, PopCap.com
or MSN.com. It's an action-filled
pinball game that has been downloaded more than 5 million times. It was
voted one of the 100 best games ever by PC Gamer magazine.
MSNBC.com featured Peggle among the
"Five Most Addictive Video Games of All Time." It's so popular you can
view YouTube videos that people have posted to show off their
high-scoring games.
The free version displays in a box on most screens; the full deluxe
version is full-screen. The PopCap Web site will prompt you to download
the deluxe version for $20 and lets you play an hour of it as a preview
for no charge. You can go for it or not, as you choose. We chose.
When Electronic Arts releases its Soccer 08
game in October, players on Xbox or PlayStation 3 will be able to
download a free feature that lets 10 people connect at once. They can
form into two teams of five each and knock virtual heads. (What about a
referee?)
MEET THE PLAYERS
Most computer game players are not teenagers, but are, in fact, well
into their adult years. Here are some of the numbers:
Information Solutions Group recently surveyed more than 2,800
white-collar workers about playing games at work. About one-fourth of
those admitted that they play games at work. (By the way, this
percentage is exactly the same as found in a different survey Bob
remembers writing about more than 20 years ago.)
Thirty-five percent of senior executives admitted they played games at
work (computer games, they mean). Eighty-four percent said they played
computer games between 15 minutes and an hour a day. Best of all, 14
percent admitted they played computer games during conference calls and
business meetings. (We've been to meetings like that.)
Many office workers admitted they started their day by playing a video
game. (Oops, that's how we start our day. Guilty, guilty, guilty.)
BOOKS
"FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual" by Susan Prosser and Geoff Coffey;
$35 from MissingManuals.com.
FileMaker Pro is an insanely popular database program, not least because
it works the same on either Windows or Mac machines. It's powerful
enough to manage a substantial business or a small country.
It is full-featured and relatively easy to use. But, like any large
program, there are complexities and depths that few users ever plumb.
Manuals that come with
NOTE: Readers can search several years of On Computers columns at our
web site: OnComp.com. We can be contacted by email at
JoyDee@OnComp.com
and
BobSchwab@gmail.com
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