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The CRYPT Mag

 

The Times they are a changing!

Some very nice updates have appeared since the last issue of the mag. Maybe it’s because it is getting near to Christmas. Some of the highlights are Half Life2……..a really stupendous game. Gamers have been waiting a very long time for this to appear and it doesn’t disappoint. It did cause a few surprises. The spec for the game was rumoured to be very high, and people were upgrading on the strength of the rumours. Happily, the spec isn’t too draconian, although they do recommend a minimum spec of a 1.2Ghz processor, 256mb ram, and graphics card with at least DirectX 7 on it and 4gb of space for the game. Unfortunately I haven’t any grabs of me getting slaughtered in it, but, rest assured, they will appear………

 

Java

One of the latest security scares has been with the java runtime. Luckily for all of us, there is an update which cures the vulnerability. Download it at Sun’s website as per usual. The file Windows users should look for is j2re-1_4_2_06-windows-i586-p.exe.

http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

 

AVG

Another update is the free AVG virus checker. AVG will stop supporting version 6 in December.

AVG has released a free version 7, so go along to the AVG website and grab yourself a copy to ensure that you stay safe online!!

Anyone who has used version 6 won’t be surprised by the layout of the new version, but the GUI has had a bit of a makeover.

http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/

 

Directory Opus

Another biggie, well, a biggie to me, was the release of Directory Opus 8.

The updated version has had numerous tweaks and features added. The update price is reasonable as well, and is discounted on a sliding scale, dependant on how long you have owned Version 6. For those that wish for a better file manger, they don’t need to look any further!

http://www.gpsoft.com.au/DScripts/Download.asp

 

Weather Pulse

Another of my favourites that has been updated is WeatherPulse. The British preoccupation with the weather is well known, so it makes sense to have this on your desktop to learn what’s coming your way………….

http://tropicdesigns.net/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=1

 

Firefox

Internet Explorer continues to have “issues” with security as well. Step forward Firefox. This is a truly wonderful browser which is rapidly gaining ground on the M$ behemoth. Plugins abound for this browser. Do yourself a really large favour and download this.

http://www.mozilla.org/

 

Mandrake

And finally, Mandrake has version 10.1 official released now. I can’t praise this highly enough. For those wishing a safer environment, and with minimal knowledge of Linux………..this is the one!!!

 

http://www.mandrakesoft.com/

So, that should give you a few things to try and to download while you’re waiting on the next issue.

 

By Ian Urie





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