Google Play (New) | Hotmail = The Best | 200+ Free Games

It happened while I was waiting for an antivirus scan to finish…

Yesterday during a malware removal job, I grew a wee bit bored waiting for an AV scan to finish, and so I clicked some little-noticed links, and did some exploring. Maybe you’ll be glad I did!

This first link you have probably seen – if you ever played any of the games that come with Windows, such as Solitaire, or my fave – Chess.

Get more games online

I must have seen that “Get more games online” link 500 trillion times. Well, I (finally) clicked it and was taken to..

200+ FREE games from Microsoft (Click me)

.. where I found a whole bunch of those online “Flash games” you play in your browser. Fun timewasters and free! Take a look at the selection, here.

The next link is more obscure, and I found it by exploring the pre-configured “Favorites” in Internet Explorer – which I normally do not use to surf the web (I use Firefox with NoScript).

I have mentioned “Microsoft At Home” before – specifically the ‘learn computing’ video tutorials, but it has been a long time since I’ve taken a look myself. While there, I noticed that the much-maligned Hotmail had been named Top Web App of 2011 by PC Magazine.
What?!

* Hotmail named best web app of 2011 by PC Magazine

“The Hotmail team got some great (and humbling) news recently – Hotmail was named best web application of 2011 by PC Magazine. We were particularly excited to see that people are taking notice of Hotmail’s war on Graymail and the work we’ve done this year to make Hotmail faster. There are a lot of great web applications out there, and we’re in great company, but it was an honor to make the very top of the list.”

Now.. the reason I use Hotmail is because there was a time before Gmail (and I wouldn’t touch AOL), and I don’t like Yahoo! Mail’s propensity for showing ads. I have ignored all the “Advice columns” advice to not use Hotmail – especially not for business – all these years. Now, I feel somewhat vindicated.
I still use Hotmail as my primary personal email as Gmail creeps me out.. the way they read every word.. and show me ads related to my email. Google As Big Brother. Another topic for another day.

More games: Hey.. what is that???

Click me

Introducing Google Play

Now your favorite music, books, movies, apps, and games are all in one place that’s accessible from the Web and any Android device. Discover, buy and share like never before.

*     *     *

Bonus: The Digital Patent Wars

“In today’s intellectual property environment, patents have evolved into weapons of war. In fact, patent lawsuits have escalated so much that many are debating whether patents should be abolished.

Internet Evolution is examining the situation today in a brand new Big Report, “Digital Patent Wars: How Companies Are Suing Their Way to the Top.” Click here to read the analysis.”

I am out of time. Have a good one, everybody! (And don’t spend too much time on those games… ha!)

.. “Graymail”? A new word for me.

Today’s quote: “Be careless in your dress if you will, but keep a tidy soul.” ~ Mark Twain

Hey! The United Nations wrote me today…!

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Deciphering Texting (aka "Lingo")*

Folks– obligations require a re-posting today.

I have an embarrassing confession to make–I don’t always know how to translate what someone has text-ed into English. I need a Text-to-English dictionary. This is just one more fact, added to an already long list of facts, that tells me I’ve gotten old. We didn’t have ‘texting’ when I was a teenager.

At first, I thought texting (aka “lingo”) was simply X-treme Abbreviation. And then, I thought it might be a combination of vanity license-plate Language and X-Abbreviation. This thinking allowed me to read some of what I saw, but not all. I could decipher “gr8″ and “l8r”, but not “ttyl”. It didn’t help that I wasn’t a “text-er” myself (Use a cell phone and give myself ear cancer? Not this fella!).

And then it dawned on me– these kids are using an Adult-proof secret code. They don’t want me to decipher it. The world suddenly made a lot more sense. When I was a lad, my friends and I had used code too.

Fortunately, there are resources available for those of us who are lingo-challenged. If you see “A/S/L”, but don’t understand what it means, you can find out (age/sex/location?) — and if you are a parent concerned about your child and what they’re doing and saying on the Internet and in chatrooms — I suggest you do.

If you’re like me, and just want to learn, and try to increase your “hipness” quotient (or just avoid some terrible faux pas), you will also find these translation resources useful and interesting. My favorite of these online dictionaries is Lingo2Word. With it, you can paste in text, and have it automatically deciphered for you.

Related link: Lingo2Word. “Lingo2word is devoted to demystifying the new Internet shorthand language of Text messages, Chat rooms and Emails. We are devoted to the fun of text messaging in all forms, there is a whole new fun language out there just waiting for you!”

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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