Review – Super Mario Crossover

If you're like me you still enjoy playing the first Super Mario Bros game from the NES (Nintendo).  What would you do if you could play it as Link from the Zelda games?  Bill from Contra?  How about Megaman, Samus from Metroid or even Ryu from Ninja Gaiden and Simon Belmont from Castlevania, all with special powers and moves?

Welcome to Super Mario Crossover.  I suggest that you stop reading this review and go play it right away.  Come back afterwards though! ;)

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URL: http://www.explodingrabbit.com/games/super-mario-bros-crossover

Review - Sysinternals

I've always found it handy to keep a few system utilities on hand since after all you never know when you're going to need them.  Sometimes though you'd need one or two that were a little more advanced.  That's where the SysInternals suite comes in.

The great tools in this set let you do pretty much anything you could need: there is a utility that monitors file access, one that monitors open net connections, another that wipes files securely off your hard drive, and even one that can be used as a replacement for the task manager that comes with Windows.

Overall I can't think of a reason why you shouldn't take a look and see what's available on their site.  There are easily 30 or so utilities there, all of them are free too.

One last note for fun: the apps are so good and handy that Microsoft went and bought the company!  Enjoy.

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URL: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals

Review – Unlocker v1.9.0

Here's a quick review about a handy utility to have around when working with files on a busy system.  Unlocker does just that to your locked files: it allows you to move, delete or rename your files that are in use.

Ever see a prompt in Windows telling you that the file you're trying to work on is in use?  Annoying isn't it?  Fight back.  Start up Unlocker and point it to the file and choose to unlock it, then do the desired action.  No need to reboot.  Just watch what file(s) you use it on because you could make something crash.

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URL: http://unlocker.emptyloop.com/

Review – 7-Zip v9.20

In a digital world filled with exchanges of information, compression is your best friend.  Save disk space, upload and download files in less time too.  But with so many choices of compression software out there, which one will meet your needs?

I present you with my favorite one: 7-Zip.  It's free without nag screens, it's fast, it's light and bare-bones in the best way possible: no useless features!  This handy program can handle plenty of file formats and offers a simple shell extension paired with a nice file manager style interface in the main app.

I've used it for a few years now (only a few since it's still somewhat new!) And so far I must say it's rather nice and stable, even if the version I use says that it's a beta.  One nice feature is that it can create ZIP files that have higher compression ratios then with other software, yet they stay compatible, for when you want your uploaded files to remain as accessible to your family and friends as possible.

This is one of the first apps I install on a PC and I can highly recommend it to anyone.

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URL: http://www.7-zip.org/

Review - VirusTotal

Having a good anti-virus these days is essential.  Sometimes however it's good to have a second opinion.  Well what if you had 42 of them?

VirusTotal is a nice site to have around for times when you seriously want to scan a file and make sure that it's clean.  When uploading, it calculates a hash of the file and lets you know if it has been scanned in the past to give you the result right away and avoid waiting for the scans to take place, although you can ask it to re-analyze it since newer definitions to the scanning engines have since come out, detecting newer viruses and removing some false positives.

Another nice feature is a shell extension that you can install on your computer to upload and scan files with a simple right-click.  This is optional however, and is available for your convenience.

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URL: http://www.virustotal.com/