Free Shareware

From Wikipedia, “The term shareware, popularized by Bob Wallace, refers to proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability or convenience.”  I have played several games, usually from PopCap, that give an hour of play before you have to buy the product.  There are other shareware that have watermarks on output or limited functionality.  But what about the shareware that are free indefinitely?

Regarding “Puzzability”

Puzzability.com is a very good puzzle game site.  I like it a lot.  They write a lot of Puzzles for clients, including a few books.  What I like the most, however, is the daily and weekly puzzles.  These are Common Knowledge, Say What?, and Step by Step.  I played all three today and yesterday (because the next week starts on Monday).

Stupidity of the Children’s Program

My church has a very stupid children’s Christmas program.  It happens once every year, including this Sunday.  This one had a country theme.  It effectively took one of my worst-liked genres of music and make it worse.  The kids generally don’t sing all that well and it is very painful indeed.  However, there was a girl that did sing a good solo.  She was the exception rather than the rule.

Making (General) Tutorials are Hard

I am trying to create a basic tutorial about using a computer.  This should be fairly easy, but it’s not.  The hard part about it is telling the basics at a level for those that actually would use it.  Capture screenshots and cutting out menus and other parts of the window took me half a day. Then, it’s writing the thing.  I’m on page 6 and I still have a long way to go.

Regarding “Seabiscuit: An American Legend”

Just finished this book.  I highly recommend this book.  It is non-fiction, but it is well-written as a novel.  I read the first part of the book earlier, took a hiatus and started playing games, then I finished.  However, it is all good.  You could not write a non-fictional book with such a compelling story.  All characters were nobodies that rose to stardom.  Many sports movies and books carry the same story with the underdog winning, then something happens and the underdog cannot will for a while, then comes back.  However, it is more compelling with a true story.