Microsoft Encarta Premium 2007 Review

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(More customer reviews)While Microsoft Encarta Premium 2006 marked Microsoft's commitment to the Web - Microsoft Encarta Premium 2007 marks its commitments to its own technology. The new Encarta relies on Microsoft's powerful, flexible, scalable, and adaptable .Net Framework 2.0. There a price to pay, of course: the time it takes to install the product is much longer and the user is henceforth prompted to constantly download security updates from Microsoft. It is also recommended to turn off your firewall and anti-virus products during installation.
More than ever, the Encarta is a breathtaking resource. With 68,000 articles (compared to 64,000 last year), it is much expanded (though about 1000 photos and illustrations and 500 music and sound clips were removed from this edition). Certain, resource-hogging features disappeared from last year (for example: the Read Aloud and Live News functions).
The Encarta caters effectively (and, at $30-50, affordably) to the educational needs of everyone in the family, from children as young as 7 or 8 years old to adults who seek concise answers to their queries. It is fun-filled, interactive, and colorful. Kids have their own encyclopedia-within-encyclopedia, dubbed Encarta Kids with age-appropriate, appetizingly presented content and games to boot!
The 2007 Encarta's User Interface is far less cluttered than in previous editions. Content is arranged by topics and then by relevancy and medium. Add to this the Encarta's Visual Browser and you get only relevant data in response to your queries. The Encarta Search Bar, which was integrated into the product two years ago, and is resident in the Task Pane even when Encarta is closed, enables users to search any part of the Encarta application (encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, etc).
The Encarta's newish Web Companion obtains search results from all the major search engines without launching any additional applications (like a browser). Content from both the Encarta and the Web is presented side by side. This augmentation explicitly adopts the Internet and incorporates it as an important source of reference.
I am not sure how Microsoft solved the weighty and interesting issues of intellectual property that the Web Companion raises, though. Copyright-holders of Web content may feel that they have the right to be compensated by Microsoft for the use it makes of their wares in its commercial products.
Encarta would do well to also integrate with new desktop search tools from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and others. Users should be able to seamlessly access content from all over - their desktop, their encyclopedias, and the Web - using a single, intuitive interface.
The Encarta Premium includes a dictionary, thesaurus, chart maker, searchable index of quotations, games, Discovery Channel videos, 25,000 photos and illustrations, 2500 sound and audio clips, hundreds of maps and tables (with a staggering 1.8 million map locations), and 300 videos and animations. It incorporates numerous third-party texts and visuals (including hundreds of newspaper articles and a plethora of Scientific American features).
The Encarta is augmented by weekly or bi-weekly updates and the feature-rich online MSN Encarta Premium with its Homework Help offerings. Unfortunately, the Encarta still conditions some of its functions - notably its research tools and updates - on registration with its Plus Club. Moreover, last year Encarta released only 26 updates, compared to its annual average of 50-60.
The Encarta is the most comprehensive, PC-orientated reference experience there is. No wonder it has an all-pervasive hold on and ubiquitous penetration of the child-to-young adult markets. Particularly enchanting is the aforementioned Encarta Kids interface - an area replete with interactive quizzes, pictures, large icons, hundreds of articles, and links to the full version of the Encarta. A veritable and colorful sandbox. Those kids are going to get addicted to the Encarta, that's for sure!
Encarta actively encourages fun-filled browsing. It is a riot of colors, sidebars, videos, audio clips, photos, embedded links, literature, Web resources, and quizzes. It is a product of the age of mass communication, a desktop extension of television and the Internet.
Inevitably, in such a mammoth undertaking, not everything is peachy. A few gripes:
As I said, installation is not as easy as before. The Encarta 2007 makes use of Microsoft's .Net technology. As most home computers lack it, the installer insists on adding it to the anyhow bloated Windows Operating System. There is worse to come: the .Net version installed by Encarta 2007 is plagued with security holes and vulnerabilities. Users have to download service packs and patches from Windows Update if they do not wish to run the risk of having their computers compromised by hackers.
Fully installed on the hard disk, the Encarta Premium 2007 gobbles up less than its predecessors but still a whopping 3 Gb. That's a lot - even in an age of ever cheaper storage. Most homesteads still sport PCs with 20-40 Gb hard disks. This makes the Encarta less suitable for installation on older PCs and on many laptops.
The Encarta DVD 3-D tours have improved but they still hog computer resources and are essentially non-interactive. Is it worth the investment and the risk to the stability and performance of the user's computer?
The Encarta tries to cater to the needs of challenged users, such as the visually-impaired - but it is far from doing a good or full job of it.
The dictionary has been greatly improved in this edition. Actually, the Encarta 2007 comes equipped with five foreign language dictionaries and verb conjugating applications. Still, the atlas, English language dictionary, and thesaurus incorporated in the Encarta are somewhat outdated. Why not use a more current - and dynamically updated - offering? What about dictionaries for specialty terms (medical or computer glossaries, for instance)? The Encarta's New English Dictionary dropped a glossary of computer terms it used to include back in 2001. All's the pity.
But that's it. Encarta is a must-buy (especially if you have children). The Encarta is the best value for money around and significantly enhances you access to knowledge and wisdom accumulated over centuries all over the world. The amount and quality of content squeezed into a $50 package (before rebate) defies belief. I am a 45 years old adult but when I received my Encarta Premium 2007, I was once more a child in a land of wonders. How much is such an experience worth to you? Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited".

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Microsoft Encarta Premium 2007, the #1 best-selling encyclopedia brand, provides more up-to-date content and more engaging multimedia than ever before. Whether you're searching online or offline, it's the trusted way for everyone in the family to easily find relevant and reliable information on just about any subject.

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Norton Internet Security 2006 Review

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(More customer reviews)Late last year when my subscription for updating "Norton Antivirus 2005" was about to expire, I decided to update my software to the more complete "Norton Internet Security 2006" in the belief that this would be a superior overall product with the addition of a personal firewall and a spam-blocker bundled with the latest version of NAV (Norton Antivirus). For many years, I had been using ZoneAlarm (ZA) for a personal firewall, so before NIS (Norton Internet Security) could be installed, ZA had to be uninstalled. Once installed, NIS appeared to work very well for about two and half months. Then, I started to notice several problems: other applications were running more slowly and it was taking an increasing amount of time to turn my PC off. Then, not long thereafter, I started to notice more troubling issues with NIS: namely, I had scheduled it to run NAV once a week to do a complete virus scan on all of the files on my PC. When this scheduled task would begin, it would stop functioning after checking about 25% of the files on my PC. The window that would appear during the weekly-scheduled virus scan would remain open, but there was no update to the number of files being scanned and the hard-drive on my PC was not in use indicating that NAV had frozen. If I attempted to shut down the weekly scan, the window would close, but it would then become impossible to start a manual virus scan without rebooting because NAV would report that a scan was already in progress. After rebooting the PC, which was also highly problematic as several NIS files would not shut down (including one called "ccApp.exe"), I could start a manual virus scan, but it would result in exactly the same frozen result as with the automatic weekly virus scan. The PC shutdown problem always occurred whether or not a scheduled or manual virus scan had been initiated. It would take at least 5 minutes for my PC to shutdown. The first file that would not shutdown was Symantec's file "ccApp.exe". After the shutdown window was acknowledged to end the locked file, the PC would remain in a frozen, pre-shutdown state for several minutes before several other frozen files also finally shutdown.
Having previously installed the 2003 version of "Norton Systemworks" (NSW) several years ago, I attempted to use that application to repair the problems that I was observing with NIS. However, this had no affect. I then considered upgrading NSW to the 2006 version, but when I saw the number of negative reviews describing numerous problems associated with that product, I decided against it. I then also decided to see what others had written for reviews for NIS 2006 and NAV 2006. For both of these products, the reviews are predominantly negative as well.
Being a software engineer myself, it is my opinion that Symantec is no longer sufficiently testing its software products before releasing them for sale to consumers. Many people (myself included) have maintained a high opinion of Symantec's NAV application because previous years' versions have been highly stable and reliable. However, the obvious lack of sufficient testing by Symantec for the 2006 versions of NAV, NIS and NSW have changed that opinion. It is clear from my own adverse experience with the 2006 versions of NAV and NIS, as well as many other people who have had bad experiences with these products, that the 2006 versions of NAV, NIS and NSW are unstable and unreliable. Given the fact that NAV 2006 would always freeze when attempting all of PC's files, there is no actual guarantee that it was actually scanning live internet activity to ensure that no virus, worm or trojan horse could infect my PC.
Finally, after attempting to improve the situation by shutting down other automatically loaded applications upon boot-up to no avail, I decided that the only solution was to uninstall NIS, including its bundled NAV. Upon doing so, my PC no longer operates at a snails pace and it shuts down within a few seconds (as it had always done prior to installing NIS 2006). I then installed McAfee's antivirus software (not the bundled version) and reinstalled the latest free version of the ZA firewall. It is obvious that Symantec has transformed its once very reliable and stable NAV into an unstable & unreliable piece of bloatware that will greatly diminish system performance and integrity. For this reason, I have no choice but to rate "Norton Internet Security 2006" with 1 star. If you are considering purchase of this product, I would highly advise that you first investigate other vendors' similar products. I would also advise that you don't necessarily purchase a bundled application, which may have similar bloatware problems as Symantec's "Norton Internet Security 2006".

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Enjoy your connection to the world. Norton Internet Security 2006 gives you the confidence to travel the Internet like never before. A comprehensive set of award-winning tools, Norton Internet Security automatically blocks hackers, viruses, and spyware. It filters out dangerous phishing email and annoying spam, while its powerful firewall gives you full control over incoming and outgoing Internet traffic. Privacy controls protect your personal information and parental controls give you the power to block unsavory Web sites and shield your children from harm on the Internet. And should your operating system or browser have a security hole, Norton Internet Security is there to handle resulting attacks. More powerful than ever, Norton Internet Security 2006 is also faster, smarter, and easier to use. With Norton Protection Center—a one-look control panel for all your security tools—you can review your security situation and lock down your system with an optimal security configuration. You can also run a system-wide security scan at any time with the click of a button. With all these tools working for you, you're free to get connected, stay connected, and use the Internet however you want.

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Battlefield 2 Review

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(More customer reviews)I read S.Hogan's 'irritatinginferior' review and felt compelled to add my two cents.
I think he didn't give the game enough time or just isn't very good at it because i'm having a lot more fun with it than he is. Vehicle transport is a big part of the game and sure its annoying if a bunch of guys on your team leave without you, but you can request a vehicle drop from your commander or wait for a new vehicle to spawn, or... move on foot.

Problems he had with identifying enemy units in-game are no longer an issue, anyone within a reasonable distance from you in the game.. say 40 feet or so, has their name and color to indicate friend or foe, at all times, you no longer have to aim at someone to find out. Not to mention the uniforms and skin color are usually different.
Some games are dominated by those who get to the planes and helicopters first, but Ive found thats only the case if your playing on a smaller map (and if the pilots are good). With enough players on the map there will be too many ground targets for air vehicles to keep up with and they will ultimately be shot down. There are some very skilled pilots that play this game and they take it very seriously. If you enjoy flight simulators this would probably be worth a go. Ive seen some really impressive videos of pilots in this game, there are several different types of jets and helicopters, if you can't fly very well but want to fight from above I would suggest getting a joystick or just playing as a second gunner.
The game can be a bit choppy at times, mostly dependent on your system. Check the system requirements before purchasing the game, this will not run very well on older systems, but does take full advantage of some of the newest video cards available. I recommend at least 1GB ram to play, 2GB would of course be better but not necessary.
camping or 'baseraping' is a problem as stated, but thats due to the nature of the game. If the enemy is taking over a base you might not want to spawn there because of it, but if you think youve got a shot at stopping them then you might try to spawn there at your own risk. No one likes to die right after they spawn but you can play smart and minimize this.
Gulf of Oman is a fun map, but not my favorite. Seemingly everyones favorite is 'Strike at Karkand'. Its played more than the others anyways. Overall there is a good variety of maps, with all the expansions (special forces expansion comes with the deluxe edition, there are two other expansions downloadable from EA online, Armored Fury and Euro Force) there are plenty of maps to choose from and most offer a variety of gameplay options, meaning it wont always be the same fight, same choke points etc. most of the maps are pretty good, there are some custom maps available as well.
The sniper does seem pretty weak compared to some other games but I think its balanced pretty well. If you enjoy playing as a sniper it wont be the strength of the gun that annoys you but the lack of a extra-zoom feature. there is only one standard zoom length for the sniper rifle. This of course varies between each sniper rifle and there are 2 unlockable ones available as well.
Speaking of unlockable weapons, there are a total of 14 unlockable weapons, 2 for each 'kit' wether it be for the assault kit, sniper kit, anti-tank kit etc. The unlock weapons do seem to be better than the original but they all have different specifications so some people prefer the stock weapons, I am not one of those people.

S.Hogan said the only difference with special forces was zip lines and jetskis, but this is not true. With special forces comes the addition of some new armies including British SAS, Russian Spetsnaz and Insurgent forces. They each have their own set of weapons, some weapons overlap but the difference in stock weapons for various army types (including the USMC, MEC, and Chinese of the original game) is pretty good. Not only is there a fairly realistic variation of weapons per army but vehicles as well. As a British SAS soldier you would be more likely to drive a Desert Raider buggy around, whereas if you were an insurgent force you would drive a pickup truck with a turret gun.
Special forces also introduces Grapple hooks and Zip lines. Night Vision on a select few maps, as well as tear gas as a standard weapon with the support kit. (The gas mask becomes critical in those situations.) There are also new maps with special forces, and new vehicles etc.
"Incredibly slow loading times between games" This is absolutely right. Some servers will play a map 2 times then load a new map, the load times occurs between switching maps, so it is wise to play servers that will stick with a few maps with lots of rounds between load times. Some servers play just one map all the time, so there is a very minimal load time. On average it seems to take about 4-5 minutes to load up a game, the games last anywhere between 5 - 40 minutes depending on various factors.

"So, I payed $40 for 2 days worth of pointless gameplay. " This guy obviously didnt put enough time into the game. With a little practice and getting to know the maps/kits/weapons/vehicles, squad/commander tactics im sure he would have found it at least a litte more enjoyable, personally I can't get enough.

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Lock and load, soldier! Battlefield 2™ Deluxe Edition features the fully updated original hit game plus the Battlefield 2: Special Forces expansion pack. Engage the enemy on their home turf, at the world's most dangerous hot spots. You have all the tools you need to get the job done—tanks, strike jets, assault carriers, you name it. In the Battlefield 2: Special Forces expansion pack, you fight the battles you don't see on the nightly news. Become an elite soldier or insurgent in intense online battles while unleashing the latest weaponry on land, in the air, and at sea. With authentic Special Forces firearms, a full arsenal of technologically advanced gadgets, and night-fighting stealth tactics, the covert armies give you even more weapons in your fight for a new world order.

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