I think I need a bigger office.

tommyrot ... haven't you heard about "Liebermann Inc"? They are notorious for making outlandish claims about hardware and software but without actually delivering anything. What they did deliver was simply rebadged and no different from anything else already on the market.

eta: how can you trust a company that claims--or at least, infers--they have trademarked H20?

Kaylee: By the way, the eighty-ten's the same machine. They changed the plating, hoped no one'd notice!

Grr. So annoying! I just bought Scrabble for my computer (Mac, so it was more of a PITA to find a version) and was all "Whee, yay!". Except two problems: one, it requires putting the CD in EVERY TIME (ew?) and two, it takes up the WHOLE screen while playing it--can't have anything else open. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Many games do one or both of those things. The first is to make it slightly tougher to use the game without purchasing a copy. Civ III does both.

I want to cut a machine off from most internet access, while still allowing it to upload windows and McAfee updates, so that windows and anti-virus and firewall stay patched. (Even though it won't be used for other internet access, it is networked with computers that are used for internet access, so needs to stay protected.) It seems like this could be done by banning all ips via the firewall except the appropriate micrsoft and mcafee ips, plus the appropriate local and isp ips. Where I get a complete list of ips for microsoft and mcafee is another question. I can get listings for the obvious URLs, but the problem is that windows update, office update and Mcafee update download bits and pieces from all sorts of URLs and FTP sites that have their own ips aside from the standard one. I'm going to e-mail Microsoft and Mcafee tech support, but surely this has been done before. Any thoughts - aside from getting rid of windows ad McAfee.

Thanks

Many games do one or both of those things. The first is to make it slightly tougher to use the game without purchasing a copy. Civ III does both.

And I guess I understand #1, though I still don't quite approve--especially since given that I've got an iPod, I'm not used to carrying CDs around anymore! But #2? There's no excuse for that. Sure, give me an OPTION for that, but...I wanna be on the internet! Or IMing! Or playing music! Or something!

Grr. So annoying! I just bought Scrabble for my computer (Mac, so it was more of a PITA to find a version) and was all "Whee, yay!". Except two problems: one, it requires putting the CD in EVERY TIME (ew?) and two, it takes up the WHOLE screen while playing it--can't have anything else open. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

I'm sorry you already paid for it. I normally recommend paying for and downloading X-Words Deluxe to Mac Scrabble afficionadoes. It doesn't come configured exactly like a scrabble board due to copyright issues, but you can define your own boards and letter frequencies very easily, emulating the real board perfectly. I even found a text file on the internet of the Full Scrabble Dictionary and imported it as the program's dictionary, so I get the full Scrabble experience with 9 levels of computer opponents and all that jazz.

it requires putting the CD in EVERY TIME (ew?)

You can try making an image of the CD with Disk Utility and mounting it to play. Most CD-based copy protections are too smart to fall for that, but some do.

Hmm. Any non-Mac suggestions for something like Gris was talking about above? I'd love to have a good Scrabble program.