Board Changes

In the last two days, there have been over 40 spammed topics on the forums. Due to all of the automated spam bots attacking the forums, I have disabled the right for normal members to start new topics on the General Discussions forum. However, it is possible for members to reply to existing topics. Members of staff are still able to start new topics, so there really should not be much of a noticable change except for the lack of bots.

Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream

Final Fantasy VII is one of my absolute top-two favorite games. Ironically enough, this game also has a complete remix of many soundtracks from within the game just like my other absolute top-two favorite game Chrono Trigger. The title of this remix is called Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream.

If you have played the game, this is a must for you to download. Actually, if you just like listening to game music in general, it's really good from what I have heard so far.

Enjoy!

Gadwin PrintScreen

If you constantly create screenshots from your computer, you may be interested in using this program called Gadwin PrintScreen. There are several programs out on the internet already, but I like this one most of all. It's convenient, out of the way, and does exactly what you would like it to (or at least for me).

There is a professional version that allows you to make annotations in your images, but the free version (4.3) is very nice in my opinion. Check it out if you want.

Super Metroid Redesign

Super Metroid, from the Super Nintendo game console system is one of my favorite games. It thrills me to see that dedicated fans will put so much time and effort into loading the ROM of the game on their computer, and editing it to recreate their own version of it called Super Metroid Redesign.

You will need an emulator to play the game, but I don't think ZSNES emulator will work. Check out the website for more details on it.

So yeah, the game is completely different from the original, including the physics of the game as well. I don't want to spoil anything, but if you are a Metroid fan, you must check it out.

Google Chrome

Today there are many web browsers, and Google has just entered the arena with their own, Google Chrome. After watching Google's public presentation of Chrome, I'll share some of the main topics of how things are laid out. To see a video of it, simply go to their website and click the "Learn more..." link on the page.

Chrome's appearance is very simple. Google had in mind that they did not want the browser to interfere with the user. Instead, it is the content on the pages that the user notice the most, not the browser iteself. At the very top of the screen is where your tabs, browse options, and settings are laid out.

Although bookmarks can be set, Chrome is very sofisticated and will remember websites you have been to before, which pages you like to view, and will even assume what you are trying to do before you do it.

The address bar at the top is not only an address bar, but also a search engine at the same time. Depending on the context, Google Chrome will assume if you are accessing a website or trying to search for something.

When you make a new tab, you'll immediately see the web pages you are likely to go to next. This is also what the default homepage is set to. Of course though, if you would like to change this, it's certainly possible.

Now, with the technical stuff. Perhaps the most impressive feature of Google Chrome is that the tabs do not act as tabs would in other browsers. With other browsers, if there was ever a problem in one of the tabs, you risk having the entire browser to crash. In Chrome, the tabs themselves act as separate processes, so if one misbehaves and dies on you, your other tabs are safe and sound. You may even refresh the misbehaved tab to resume where the problem last occured.

For more information on Google Chrome, you'll simply have to check it out for yourself.

Note: This is a beta version and there are flaws. If you do use it, please report the bugs and help Google out to fix them quickly. There are also some security flaws from what I have gathered, so don't test it out just yet unless you feel confident enough.

Pidgin Messenger

Pidgin
Free and open source messenger. You think that Trillian offers a lot by being able to communicate with people about 5 messengers? Well, this supports much more. If you ever use the Google chat system when you check your email, then you'll also be able to chat with your mail buddies there also without having your browser open and checking mail. You can also use this on most operating systems. Here's a full list of the chat services it supports:

• AIM
• Bonjour
• Gadu-Gadu
• Google Talk
• Groupwise
• ICQ
• IRC
• MSN
• MySpaceIM
• QQ
• SILC
• SIMPLE
• Sametime
• XMPP
• Yahoo!
• Zephyr