Windows 10 Screenshot.

The year is 2019. Microsoft is about to bring out it's latest windows operating system.

In 2009 Microsoft launched Windows 7. Windows 7 was very well received and hailed as the savior of Windows Vistas failings. Three years later Microsoft released Windows 8 and got it right once again. Not wishing to change Windows 7 too much, in Windows 8 Microsoft concentrated on further refining the interface to make it easier an more intuitive.

Following the release of windows 8 in 2012, Microsoft decided to take the step of remodeling/enhancing the desktop. Amongst the changes for Windows 9, the taskbar was given a 3D effect and all icons were updated to a better design/higher resolution.

Windows 9 was released just before the holidays in 2015. Although it was now pretty, easy to use and intuitive, Microsoft still had some tricks up its sleeve. Microsoft embarked on more ambitious changes to completely alter the way the operating system used multi core processors and the power of modern graphics cards. It took four years to completely transform the core (kernal) of Windows 9, but the world is rejoicing once again the imminent release of a new Windows version.

This is an operating system which not only utilises graphics processor cores for other tasks, but will also properly manage multiple cores so that users could actually make use of their modern 16/32 core processors.

For those of you who can't wait for windows 10 or have already pre-ordered it here is something to keep you going until the release day: A screenshot of Windows X (Windows 10): -click to enlarge-

Latest free virus scanner for your PC 2009/2010

This is just a small post for those who are looking for a free virus scanner 2009/2010.

One of the best free virus scanners of 2009/2010 is the one by Avira (Avira AntiVir)
Download Avira Antivir virus scan free

Another popular free anti virus lots of people use (myself included) is AVG Free Antivirus
Download AVG Free antivirus

Whats new in 2009 is the Antivirus from Microsoft. Microsofts new Antivirus scored highly (although Antivir Free scored better). Anyway, it's a newly available Antivirus and if you trust Microst (the people who gave you windows and the blues screen of death)....
Download Free Microsoft Security Essentials Anti virus

Hope that keeps you virus free.

Is Affiliano a scam?

Is Affiliano a Scam?


If you've come across an affiliate scheme (oh, sorry “program”) called Affiliano and are wondering if it is scam or not, thats easy: Affiliano is a scam. How can I say this? Why do I know so much about Affiliano? Because I lost almost $7000 with it's predecessor Affiliate Junction. I'll get to that, but first it's important to say Affiliano is a scam, don't under any circumstances enter you email and contact details.

Affiliano you see, is either a copy, or (much more likely) a new site by the people who made Affiliate Junktion. It's the same in every way. They say a sucker is borne every minute, Affiliano is banking on the fact that around the world more and more suckers come of age and get credit cards. Don't be so stupid to think that you'll be the smart one. You're the sucker and Affiliano is going to take your money.

So how does Affiliano work, why is Affiliano a scam? It works (or operates) by paying you a commission for every referral you bring in. Affiliano doesn't pay you for conversion, all you have to do is get someone interested. Sounds good right? That's why lots of people are bound to sign up to Affiliano. But don't be fooled. Affiliano is a scam. After someone signs up, you have to spend money on advertising to bring people to the Affiliano web site. This is done with pay per click ads through Yahoo, Google Adsense or similar. Really this only benefits Affiliano because quality traffic (clicks) cost so much these days that you will send just as much if not more than you will make from Affiliano's scam.

But that's not the danger part and not the reason I lost money with the old Affiliano (Affiliate Junktion). It's quite simple. Even if you can get cheap enough traffic and enough suckers to fall for Affiliano Scam to make a profit you then need to get paid. In the beginning Affiliate Junktion paid out, so Affiliano probably will, for a few months, then the excuses start coming... “waiting for our advertising partner to pay”.. “next month” and then after a month “due to our click fraud check payments will be made at the end of next month”. Affiliano is a scam as sure as the sun shines.

If you want to take the time to see what happened to me, read my old blogs about Affiliate Junktion (Blog archive on the right column). I left them in case something like the Affiliano scam appeared. You can apply the same to Affiliano. You'll see that I even managed to get it working for a while, but in the end Affiliate Junktion just closed down, promised to pay the balance and never did. Affiliano is going to do the same and then just start again with another name. Don't be the sucker who fell for the Affiliano scam.

What about the claims and testimonials about how much people are making with Affiliano? Probably just BS. Why would you blindly believe Affiliano? If Affiliano is a scam, they are hardly going to have the morals to tell the truth for their testimonials are they? And even if the Affiliano testimonials were true and correct and Affiliano were not a scam, those totals don't talk about how much people are spending on advertising to get that sort of income. And if they are making that much from Affiliano it simply shows you how many thousands of people are going to be competing with you and forcing the price of traffic up even further.

In the end. If Affiliano did work (and was not a scam), it is unsustainable. Eventually it will reach saturation point and no one will be able to make money or get new referrals. Affiliano, by that stage will have stopped payment for a couple of months and will simply close down. You'll have no way of collecting your commissions and be left high and dry.

Make no mistake. Affiliano is a scam for sure.

Not the Apple fanboi this week. In fact I'm feeling like .. Apple sucks

Turns out my brother was right Apple sucks.

Well, ok he didn't say that, in actual fact he agrees that the Mac is a great piece of technology and although we've had some heated discussion on the Mac vs PC front, we both pretty much agree we want MAC's.

Let me start by saying. I want a Mac. I have owned MACs and understand the value of the Mac OS. I have been patient. I have been waiting a long time to get my Mac. First I waited for Leopard (but couldn't afford a MAC at the time...), then I waited for a new mac Mini (I want a mini because I have a good keyboard, mouse and monitor), I still wasn't able to afford one. Finally I got back into the position of having more disposable cash. I'm ready to but a MAC, except...

... I've run into a snag, one that my brother is quick to point out and he's right. I can't get a machine capable of playing decent games (eg Left 4 Dead) without robbing a bank.

Apple has, you see, a very limited range. To some this is a boon because they don't want a lot of choice. I too think too much choice can sometimes be a bad thing, but at the moment I'm finding the reverse to be true because there simply isn't a Mac which meets my needs.

I want a Mac built with gaming in mind, that means with a decent graphics card. Neither the mini or the iMac have good enough graphics even for last years games.

So tell me Apple, what should I do? I ready, I've got cash, and I'm not asking for graphics super power, just something that would give me respectable gaming performance.

Update: I just purchase a Nvidia Geforce GFX 260 for my PC, putting off my Mac purchase indefinately. Now however I'm thinking, if I buy the right motherboard and CPU (under €200 more), I can make a Hackintosh... something I wanted to avoid. HELP ME APPLE: Make a mid range 'tower' (it doesn't need to be a tower, a cool fresh Apple design would rock!). - Please ..?

Confessions of a Video Game Tester

I am now working as a video game tester (yes, it is the best job in the world).

Here are some random (fictional) bugs I came up with for fun:

- - -

During a test playthrough of 'Urban Darkness' the user noticed a striking resemblance of one of the NPC's to his grandmother. After taking a quick census of the office, it became obvious that she looks like everyone's grandmother. Given that in order to pass the lever you have to bash her head in with a blunt potato peeler then rip out her heart and eat it, do you think that the graphics could be changed a little?

- - -

While testing the game, the user was, in reality, attacked by a horde of mutant alien zombies. By coincidence, the 'Read Me' button on the installer actually started a rather powerful mutant alien zombie ray gun which instantly turned the invaders to dust.

Testing department requests the button be relabeled. Although installation during a mutant alien zombie invasion is an unlikely user path, if it does happen again the user is unlikely to click 'readme' and mankind might be doomed.

- - -

While testing 'Little pink furry animals 3' for girls aged 3 to 6, the user discovered that after the completing the game 32 times his home life was affected (he was no longer able to get an erection). This could (in time) reduce future tester candidates.

In order to alleviate this problem, we suggest a special 'tester' mode should be made available in which squashing those damn furry animals lets the user to unlock a secret 'island of nyphos' level.

- - -

While testing in game menu functionality of 'Left out in Space' the tester noticed that if the player returns back to the game from the in game menu and gets suddenly attacked by a monster, this would frequently result in an uncontrolled expulsion from the rear resulting in a damp messy seat, bad odour and an uncomfortable testing session. The only Fix to this problem seem to be a change of pants. As this was frequently encountered by the user and wearing a nappy was not considered a user friendly workaround, the testing dept. has given this a Critical severity.

Note the user found the title so scary that perhaps a fast key should be implemented to allow the user to quickly and easily call "Mummy !".

- - -

While testing the game the user found an Easter-egg first person game hidden on the DVD. We are not asking for the game to be removed, but rather specifically request the game (called "Castle of the unfeasibly large breasted nympos") not to be removed, as might end up the case.

Personal NOTE: in this game, um, how do you pass the 'satisfy all the bitches' level as we don't seem to be, er, 'large enough' (yes, we ARE still talking about the game).

- - -

While testing the user encountered difficulties with the nudity and simulated sex scenes withing the game. The resulting arousal caused discomfort (amplified by the testers tight Jeans) and could have been embarrassing if anyone noticed. We acknowledge this might be quite an uncommon user path because although it was 100% reproducible with male testers, it was only actually a problem because we are all really well hung.

- - -

While testing the user found that the game sucks. Dude, are you kidding me?

- - -

While testing the user found that during installation, if a sodium silicate vessel containing H2O was emptied over a fellow user, said user emitted profanity an responded by breaking the keyboard over the other users head.

In this case the install was interrupted and the game failed to install as intended is this intended?

Safari vs Firefox

I recently reinstalled my OS. I just did a fresh install of Windows Xp, not because I like it but because I don't yet have the funds for a MAC and my computer wont run Vista (or Windows 7 for that matter).

I took the excuse to try a different Browser. I installed the latest Safari browser from Apple. It's got some great features. You can browse you history using cover flow with safari. It shows reasonable size previews of the websites you've visited in a flowing bookcase like way (the same way iTunes does it), making it a breeze to find a size you visited the other day even if you don't know what it is called.

Safari also shows you twelve of your most often visited sites (or you can 'pin' your favorites) as a preview every time you open up a new tab (ctrl+t).

Apart from that (and a bunch of other feature I probably don't know about), Safari has a great apple-like interface consistent with itunes and OS X.

However despite this (and being an avid Mac OS X fan) I think I like firefox more. Firefox just worked more like I do. I appreciate the logic in putting the tabs up in the title bare to save screen real estate, but I still like the firefox way better.

I didn't notice too much speed difference, I think 'sometimes faster-sometimes slower' is probably appropriate and really this is not a big deal for me.

I guess I just like having a home button available by default (although it wasn't too hard to turn this on in safari) and the way 'find' works in firefox.

I'm writing this in a Safari window, but I think I will install Firefox any day now. I might try to keep using Safari long enough to make sure my dislikes are not born out of habit. If Safari doesn't grow on me, then I'm going back to Firefox.

One thing is for sure, they are far superior to IE. Why anyone would still use Internet Explorer is beyond me.

Yes, I guess I should try chrome (I once tried opera, but liked that not one bit), at lease the underlying technology implemented in chrome looks excellent, I just want to see if Safari is better than Firefox (or Firefox is better than Safari) first.

I'll keep you posted.

The end of Affiliate Junktion

It turns out that Affiliate Junktions excuses for non payment were founded on something more sinistar. On Sat 7^th of Feb 2009 Affiliate Junktion posted the message on its website:

“Dear Affiliates,

I would like to start by thanking you all for hard work on the Affiliate Junktion Affiliate Program.

Due to the change of direction and global economic changes, Affiliate Junktion's strategic business goals can no longer support the Affiliate Junktion referral program.

All Affiliates have been notified by email and in the news section of the control panel on February 5th and given 2 days notice as per the Terms & Conditions set out in the Affiliate Junktion Affiliate Agreement.

Please accept our apologies for the sudden termination of this program. “

My bet is that through a number of factors the system stopped working for them (and of course their affiliates of which I am one).

I for one really thought they had something. For a number of months I was making a theoretical (I say theoretical because Affiliate Junktion never paid it out) profit of $100 a day. In the end Affiliate Junktion wound up owing me around $6,500.00.

I still believe there must be a good way to make money online, just, as it turns out, Affiliate Junktion is not it.

EDIT: Now there new one: Affiliano, Is Affiliano a scam? Yes, like all the rest.

Affiliate Junktion, a scam after all? Only time will tell.

I am way overdue for an update on Affiliate Junktion. Many people visit my site because they want to know if Affiliate Junktion is a scam. I’m beginning to think the answer might not be so easy to find.

In the beginning I couldn’t get the Affiliate Junktion system working. I thought Affiliate Junktion was a scam for sure. Then I managed to get my advertising cost right down and started to make a profit. At one stage I was earning NZ$300+ per day! Well, at least my account with them was showing that.

Here’s the thing, my first check was right on the money. I had earned 1,226.00 for my first month adn that is exactly what Affiliate Junktion paid. The problem is that Affiliate Junktion went through a website update and used that as an excuse to delay payments. The first of many. I only received my first payment about three months later.

This alone would not have been a problem. The next thing to happen was an ‘anti fraud’ deduction made to my commission. Basically, Affiliate Junktion payed me less than half of my commission and said that was because of anti fraud measures and canceled leads.

When you think about it there is no reason for someone to go to the trouble of making a unique ip address and a new email address to sign up through my links. If someone was trying to defraud Affiliate Junktion, then they would do it through their own links wouldn’t they? I was sending Affiliate Junktion traffic I had generated through advertising. Why would someone try to defraud Affiliate Junktion through random advertisments?

But it didn’t stop there… a few months later I was owed just under NZ$12,000.00 in commission, the result? When Affiliate Junktion finally did pay, I only received NZ$4,532.00.

The hardest thing is that Affiliate Junktion was paying later and later. I have been waiting over three months for the currently owed commission and until I actually receive a payment from Affiliate Junktion, I don't know how much they are going to give me.

Perhaps this is part of the plan all along. If Affiliate Junktion can manage to keep people on the hook for long enough then they have months of people advertising their system. This could be long enough for Affiliate Junktion to grow exponentially.

I would like to give Affiliate Junktion the benefit of the doubt, heck, I want it to work so I can make some money using the Affiliate Junktion system.

The thing which is making me suspicious is that the excuse they used last month was pretty dodgy. They claimed they needed to wait 2-3 weeks to get paid by their advertiser before they could pay out commissions. But that’s not the biggest problem. I emailed Affiliate Junktion 4 weeks after this to ask when the payment would be made and the excuse they gave me was the exact same one (word for word) as 4 weeks earlier. I now have to wait until the 28th of February 2009 to get my commission (for over four months earlier).

So, for now I have stopped my Affiliate Junktion advertising campaign. I’m going to wait until I have been paid in full before I continue. Actually I need to wait until I get paid by Affiliate Junktion to know how profitable it was and because, quite frankly, I need the money. I also want to wait because I want to know if Affiliate Junktion is a scam for sure. I don't want to advertise a program that is not going to work.

I believe that Affiliate Junktion could still be genuine. Perhaps they are just trying to pay out slowly to maximize their income by earning interest on their affiliate’s money for a couple of months before they pay out. I can't imaging this wouldn't actually be hurtful to Affiliate Junktion so don't really think thats it.

In any case I can’t in good conscience promote Affiliate Junktion at the moment. I suggest if you’ve heard about Affiliate Junktion but haven’t joined then don’t do anything right now. Check back here in a month to see what happened.

If you are already an Affiliate Junktion member in the same boat, you might want to consider being cautious and perhaps not investing a lot in advertising at this point.

At the end of the day the only people who really know how this is going to play out are those at Affiliate Junktion.

EDIT: Now there new one: Affiliano, Is Affiliano a scam? Yes, like all the rest.

No new Apple Mac Mini disappoints, utterly

I’ve been waiting for a new mac mini. Waiting, for over a year. I’ve always wanted a Mac mini because the mini does what other Macs don't (save for the Mac Pro); the mini allows you to get an Apple Mac and still use your existing monitor and keyboard.

I, like most people was eagerly awaiting a new Mac mini which (we all thought) would be announced at the 2009 Macworld Keynote held yesterday. The new Mac mini (theoretically) was to finally have respectable graphics capabilities (using the same graphics processors in the new Macbooks). We all thought such a mini would be announced, we were wrong.

I’m so disappointed because I was going to buy two minis (one for me, one for my wife).

I have long been a defender of Apples ‘people don’t know what they want until you give it to them’ attitude because (and I really don’t care who wants to argue the point) they make great products. More or less: everything you want, nothing you don’t. The mac mini was (almost) everything I wanted without having to buy a new monitor/keyboard which I already have. So where is the new Mac mini? What have you done with our new mini apple?

Some people even went further and predicted a product between the Mac mini and the Mac Pro. Something with more processing power and graphics clout than the mini but not quite up to the specification of the Mac Pro and therefore a better price. That is actually the machine I want because I just need some decent graphic capabilities. I want a little mini computer (not a big ugly tower) that runs Mac OS X and can play games with some respectability.

I also used to defend Apple Mac’s limited product line. Too much choice can be a bad thing, but Apple should realize, not enough choice often IS even worse!

Apple, where is the new mac mini? Or don’t you guys ‘get’ playing games?

Apple, you know what? I am now soooo tempted to build a hackintosh humph!