Month: May 2010

Keeping your computer running smoothly can be hard work, but there are lots of programs designed to clean up your PC, as well as protecting it from malicious attacks.

No one likes viruses, and I like being able to easily find duplicate files and make sure I haven’t picked up any spyware from anywhere. What I don’t understand is why most of the programs I use to do this highlight cookies as ‘threats’, even when they’re not.

Cookies can be malicious, but the majority are fine and actually make using the web a faster and more comfortable experience. Deleting all of your cookies will mean any sites you left preferences on will have forgotten them next time you visit, so why would you want to do it?

Presented with a long list of cookies, most people will have no idea which are good or not, and I have never used a program that helps. Claiming that all cookies are potentially risky is disingenuous at best, and makes people feel needlessly panicked.

So if you perform a security scan on your PC and all it finds are some ‘potentially risky’ cookies, don’t worry: unless you’ve visited some dangerous websites, your cookies will be fine, working to make your online life better!

Attention Nokia gamers: head over to Digital Chocolate’s page on the Ovi Store and you can get five of the developer’s top games free of charge. Like many titles from this publisher, these games are pretty off-the wall but they’re great fun to play.

The line-up of free games in the promotion, for Symbian S60 3rd 5th Edition devices, includes the wacky Crazy Penguin Party, where your mission is to get your penguin to the finish line by flying in jetpacks, bouncing him off sleeping polar bears, free falling and collecting stars to win extra points.

The massively popular Tower Bloxx: New York is also included in the promotion. Here you need to drop blocks to make a towering apartment building without it toppling over. The game includes five Manhattan districts in an all-new Board Game mode. Other game modes include Time Attack and Challenge.

Rollercoaster Revolution is now available for free, too. The game lets you build your own rollercoaster rides. You can add all kinds of hair-raising elements, such as jumps, loops, drops, water splashes and cave tunnels, to create white-knuckle experiences for your passengers. There are 99 different tracks and a multiplayer mode, so it’ll be a long time before you get bored.

If you like Tower Defense-style games then make sure you download Dictator Defense for free. This strategy game sees you try to defend your homeland from and invasion of evil dictators, across 40 levels. There are nine different kinds of enemy to ward off, but thankfully you’ve got a bumper arsenal of fun weapons at your disposal.

The final free game in the promotion is Nightclub Fever. This one charges you with the task of building your own disco empire.  You get to set up and manage clubs in a range of party cities, including London, LA and Tokyo. The game gives you control over everything from the layout of the club to the kind of music that’s played there.

I suggest you snap these games up as quickly as you can because they’re only free for a limited time!