Computers are Running My LifeWritten by Ieuan Dolby
It has happened! Computer games have started to control my life on and off screen. No complicated games like Age of Empires, just simple one of Tetris. You know one, where different shaped and colored bricks fall out of sky and you have to arrange them in nice lines at bottom? Hopefully with 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 than 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 in office tomorrow, unless of course I play game in 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 in 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, sleep was but when I drove to office next day things started to happen that rapidly woke me up to danger that I was in. There I was in my blue car approaching traffic lights when all of a sudden I swerved into 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 get 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 entered 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 following 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 with importance of in-going, outgoing, urgency, etc. Extremely worrying to say least! I have withdrawn from playing Tetris and other games of that sort hoping that I will stop having these off screen episodes in real life. In 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 on screen. Aim and fire being next step. Bang, Bang, Bang, another dog bites 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 and 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 on road. Or in a busy street I would say "bang, bang" and pretend that I had cleared a path for myself through crowds.
| | Benefits to SharewareWritten by S. Housley
Benefits to Shareware Shareware has been fighting stigma of being misunderstood for decades. While corporate software giants can no longer ignore 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 at benefits of taking advantage of shareware marketing. The concept of a trial version is not a new one. Consumer expectations, and need for immediate satisfaction have spurned industry to realize need for instant software. The availability of file downloads in Internet era, is spurning a revolution of purchasers who never leaving their homes or offices. As a result, Internet has taken proliferation of shareware to a new level. Why 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 to consumer, if trial version does not satisfy a purchasers needs, they do not spend money registering. Evaluating software prior to purchasing also increases consumer satisfaction as they gain a complete understanding of software they are ordering and there is little room for surprises. Trying software before buying is no longer a novelty it is a consumer expectation. Traditionally, because 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 improving 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 via shareware method, have revolutionized traditional support models.
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