Disclaimer: This is not a paid review. Its not even a proper review. I only say what I see. If you disagree, then in the true spirit of Monty Python please tell anybody but me...
I've been downloading a number of free videos and pictures from the usenet. And in case you're wondering, they are training videos on the "Art of applying decoupage to your bonsai". One little problem is that my wife won't let me print the pictures out cause they may disturb the kids, and as she quite pointedly said to me "Exacly where do you plan to stick that?". Well anyway, small problems aside, the files are in "rar" format, for which my Winzip couldn't decipher, and although the newsreader (Newsrover) could have decompressed them I was having a few problems with that also.
Now typically these days when I google something I include the words "free" and "open source". This brings out the best of the internet: free information.
In this case I googled "opensource rar archiver" and 7-Zip came up fourth. I downloaded the 741kB exe. It operates as an added function to your 'right mouse click' menu. So if you have files to compress, you select them and right click, select 7-Zip, and do whatever. It did the trick, so try it out at 7-zip.org .
As an aside: has anyone noticed how extensive the internet has become for free things? An astute, or reasonably capable computer user can operate, today, their entire system, all common software needs including an operating system (to replace Windows), with not only free software off the 'net, but supported software with user forums.
As a starting point: to replace MS Outlook or Outlook Express use Mozilla Thunderbird. Internet Explorer is free but also has a replacement from the Mozilla/Firefox realm among others (apologies to programmers/developers if quoting incorrectly I'm not an expert on this or anything). MS Office has a complete replacement set, which I have been using for quite a while, in Openoffice.org. The programs operate in a very similar manner, and allow file conversion to and from a range of common formats.
What I am leading to is that on a global perspective, probably without any significant planning, we are heading towards utopia. Free knowledge accessible to all* (or anyone with a computer and internet connection).
Be inspired - and - shine.
