Computers are Running My Life

Written by Ieuan Dolby


It has happened! Computer games have started to control my life on and offrepparttar screen. No complicated games like Age of Empires, justrepparttar 107689 simple one of Tetris. You knowrepparttar 107690 one, where different shaped and colored bricks fall out ofrepparttar 107691 sky and you have to arrange them in nice lines atrepparttar 107692 bottom? Hopefully withrepparttar 107693 end result of all colors matching in straight lines so that they can be removed and point gained.

Crazy really, it first happened many years ago when I had this stupid bet that I could get more points thanrepparttar 107694 next guy. What that really means is that, "I am going to be up all night playing this game and will be totally incapable of staying awake inrepparttar 107695 office tomorrow, unless of course I playrepparttar 107696 game inrepparttar 107697 office as well". That’s what computer games do to us. We become machines where food and sleep are secondary items to all else. Just keep on playing.............till you drop.

I managed to get through that episode with only a slight increase in my weight and a damaged back from not having moved anything else except my two fingers for a sustained period of time. The latest episode though has created havoc with my life in more ways than one and I am getting seriously worried about it.

I had been playing that game inrepparttar 107698 evening for around three hours and had then gone to bed early for a dreamless and normal sleep. All okay and expected you say? Well,repparttar 107699 sleep was but when I drove torepparttar 107700 officerepparttar 107701 next day things started to happen that rapidly woke me up torepparttar 107702 danger that I was in. There I was in my blue car approachingrepparttar 107703 traffic lights when all of a sudden I swerved intorepparttar 107704 other lane thus ending up stopped neatly behind this other blue car. Behind me, confused and irritated drivers with green and red cars tooted their horns angrily wandering what this maniac was doing. But I? I was happy in that I had managed to getrepparttar 107705 colors arranged and all I needed was another blue car and then we could have a full line................oh, no, what is happening to me? I sat there for a while shivering as it dawned on me that I had enteredrepparttar 107706 game itself, it had taken me over.........I was a brick!

Yeah, and that was not all. I found myself one afternoon staring inanely at a house wall and followingrepparttar 107707 line of bricks along trying to sort out in my mind which pattern was best and which was not. And at my desk I found that I had arranged all files and papers in a neat pattern according to color and size having totally disregarded any format associated withrepparttar 107708 importance of in-going, outgoing, urgency, etc. Extremely worrying to sayrepparttar 107709 least!

I have withdrawn from playing Tetris and other games of that sort hoping that I will stop having these offrepparttar 107710 screen episodes in real life. Inrepparttar 107711 hope that I can return to a normal existence without having off-the-screen battles. Do other people suffer from this or is it just me? The other game that I played to have a break from Tetris was "Prairie Dog". One of those annoying games where you have a choice of guns and dogs keep on appearing onrepparttar 107712 screen. Aim and fire beingrepparttar 107713 next step. Bang, Bang, Bang, another dog bitesrepparttar 107714 dust. Yes, I know, pathetic really, but great fun. Volume up full, there I would be furiously firing at any movement, reloading and starting again andrepparttar 107715 dogs would make a strangled sound as I hit them. But once again I one day realized that all was not well with me, as I used to sit on my balcony and take imaginary potshots at cars as they appeared onrepparttar 107716 road. Or in a busy street I would say "bang, bang" and pretend that I had cleared a path for myself throughrepparttar 107717 crowds.

Benefits to Shareware

Written by S. Housley


Benefits to Shareware Shareware has been fightingrepparttar stigma of being misunderstood for decades. While corporate software giants can no longer ignorerepparttar 107688 marketing potential of a trial version, small software startups are struggling with new listings and bandwidth costs. Businesses and individual consumers need to take a closer look atrepparttar 107689 benefits of taking advantage of shareware marketing. The concept of a trial version is not a new one. Consumer expectations, andrepparttar 107690 need for immediate satisfaction have spurnedrepparttar 107691 industry to realizerepparttar 107692 need for instant software. The availability of file downloads inrepparttar 107693 Internet era, is spurning a revolution of purchasers who never leaving their homes or offices. As a result,repparttar 107694 Internet has takenrepparttar 107695 proliferation of shareware to a new level.

Whyrepparttar 107696 Success? Why developers have succeeded using shareware marketing under poor global economic conditions is fairly obvious. Shareware allows consumers to evaluate an application prior to making a purchase decision. There are no risks torepparttar 107697 consumer, ifrepparttar 107698 trial version does not satisfy a purchasers needs, they do not spendrepparttar 107699 money registering. Evaluatingrepparttar 107700 software prior to purchasing also increases consumer satisfaction as they gain a complete understanding ofrepparttar 107701 software they are ordering and there is little room for surprises. Tryingrepparttar 107702 software before buying is no longer a novelty it is a consumer expectation.

Traditionally, becauserepparttar 107703 barrier to entry is fairly low, companies participating in shareware marketing are usually small and willing to provide personalized service uncommon in large companies. Customers often speak directly with developers requesting feature enhancements, thus improvingrepparttar 107704 software for all. Software support forums with users helping other users have become commonplace. These allow developers to focus on future upgrades, while repetitive user issues can be quickly dealt with. Software developers, who market viarepparttar 107705 shareware method, have revolutionized traditional support models.

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