Windows Media Player 11 for XP has been released and Microsoft decided to add a WGA check to the installation routine. Once you double-click the executable that you downloaded the tool asks for a WGA check and will not continue the installation until it was checked whether Microsoft thinks your Windows installation is legit or not. We heard about users that had problems with those WGA checks and could not install software that performed checks although they had a legit system.
Windows Media Player 11 Download
Yesterday Microsoft released the new Windows media player 11 silently it seems. You can download the (final ?) version of the Media Player at the official Media Player homepage. This version is only usuable with Windows XP so everyone with a different system won’t be able to use this new version. Guidelines for common actions like installing the player, codec information and playing / burning files can be found in the faq entries of Media Player 11.
Line Rider
Line Rider (flash, download) is a work of art, not a game per se. There is no goal to achieve and the only satisfaction you will get is a to create a animation that is worth recording and uploading to video sites like Youtube. Your weapons: A pencil, a tool to move the screen, the play button, pause button, trashcan and save. You draw lines with the pencil which will later be the course for a little man and his sled.
So you want a forum, huh ?
Almost half of the users (48%) voted yes on the poll that asked if they would like to have a forum at ghacks while 30% said they did not care and 22% decided that they did not want to see a forum here at my site. I will create a forum because the majority decided that way. I would like to ask you what you would like to see in the new forum, which kind of boards for instance
Create Automatic iTunes Playlists with the Filter
One of the blogs that I’m regularly visiting is Connected Internet created by my friend Everton Blair. He writes mainly about the same topics that I write about (with a slight British touch) and once in a while I find a interesting story that I would like to write about at ghacks as well. He discovered a automatic playlist generator for iTunes called The Filter.
IRC Chat Extension for Firefox
IRC, Internet Relay Chat, is one of the greatest communication platforms on the internet. You normally connect to one of the IRC servers using tools like mirc for instance. Once connected you may want to start by receiving a list of open channels on that server and afterwards connecting to some of them. Once in a channel you can chat, privately chat and send / receive files to other users or channel bots.
Play Counterstrike in 2D
Most computer users do know Counterstrike even though they probably never played it. You side either with the anti-terror unit or the terrorist and try to beat the other team by completing an objective or elimination all other players. Counterstrike 2D is a freeware conversion of this popular game. The interface looks and feels like the real thing, you may configure your keys and choose to play against bots or on the internet against human players.
Giganews offers Encrypted Usenet Access
Giganews announced yesterday that they are offering SSL encrypted usenet access as of now. All existing users may upgrade their accounts for $5 and receive the ability to use encrypted access to the usenet and also 10 additional connections to Giganews. You do not need the additional 10 connections unless you have a really fast line at home. I always max out my 16 Mbit connection with ten connections already giving me speeds of 1.8 megabyte per second.
Use the Foxtor Extension for anonymous surfing
There are times when it is safer to remain anonymous on the internet – be it that you want to write something about your current company on the web, live in a country that does everything to prevent it’s citizens from accessing unbiased information or simply for the reason that you do not wish that someone could track what you are doing on the internet. In an ideal world every user should have the right to read and publish on the internet without the fear of loosing his job or life. The world however is not ideal and tools like FoxTor exist to help those people out.