Tech Toys

I was pottering around the web yesterday looking for some news on filesharing; it might sounds sad but the daily soap opera of the RIAA’s never ending battle with the heinous forces of the lovers of free music downloads really gets me interested. In fact it’s better than any soap opera because the characters are real. Anyway, I digress.

I stumbled across what turned out to be a pure gem of a site: www.officialares.com. Not only is this site the best place to get an Ares download, it is also a fairly comprehensive repository of news and information on filesharing and related issues. I spent a good hour there just reading the back news which is wittily written and interesting. The writers don’t take themselves too seriously and the world of the Ares download is seen as it should be: a slightly edgy but fun place to be.

The reviews of the various available Ares download packages has to be worth something on its own. Not only are the reviews well written and informative, but their independence really shines though: these guys really don’t mind telling us when they don’t like something, and I really appreciate that honesty. This isn’t just a site about the Ares download, it’s a site full of useful and fun information on the subject.

What others are saying:
Ares.html
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The restaurants in Phuket offer a stunningly (and often confusingly) large range of fantastic dishes at very attractive prices. Looking for restaurants in Phuket is like looking for hay in the proverbial haystack; finding somewhere that isn’t a restaurant in Phuket would be an admirable challenge.

Patong is Phuket’s tourist area and here the food isn’t as great. The simple reason for the drop in quality and hike in price is that the locals don’t go here. The locals eat out a lot and they are excellent judges (and executioners) of those restaurants in Phuket that fall below their exacting standards. Locals will generally eat out in areas like Phuket town and you would do yourself a favor if you followed their lead.

It is worth bearing in mind that higher costs do not always indicate better quality. The best food – especially the local favorites – can be found on the street stalls and will cost less than the equivalent of $2. If you want to go up market then that’s fine, but don’t do it on the account of the food’s quality. Some of the Western restaurants may not follow this pattern so closely.

If you’re going to the restaurants in Phuket then be sure to look out for the wondrous and masterful seafood. You’ve never seen such big, juicy, succulent food. Yum!

Predicting the future is a difficult business, even for someone like me. What might help is a little intake of some psychedelic hallucinogenic substance. What about something that is growing, oh I don’t know, just over there? That’s right, pick that Salvia Divinorum plant. Yeah, that’s that baby.

Salvia Divinorum has long been used by Shamans, priests, doctors and even the general public to induce a hallucinogenic effect: Salvia has been a pretty useful tool over the ages for those wanting help on their spiritual quest. Some experience leaving their bodies and traveling in the astral world, while others report traveling back in time or to a point in the future.

Salvia is still legal in almost all countries and US states (though this is likely to change sooner rather than later) and is widely available over the Internet in both its raw, natural leaf form and in its stronger concentrated form weighing in at 10x, 20x and 60x strength.

Free is good, right? The best things in life are free, after all. Well almost always; it is still worth considering the age-old adage that there is no such thing as a free lunch. In this case there is no such thing as a free Ares download.

While there may be no upfront cost when you use Ares Destiny the collateral damage that the software could cause is great. I’ll come to these other costs shortly.

Ares Destiny looks rather good from the start. Not only is the website slick and well designed, the download process is trouble free and easy. Installation is a breeze. Simply put you will be downloading your favorite music in no time at all.

So far so good. Ares Destiny works pretty much like other versions of Ares – although the interface is a little dated – and there’s not much that can go wrong.

Those ‘other costs’ that I was talking about? Ares Destiny comes pre-packaged with the Dealio as serving software. Whilst Dealio might be touted as a ‘price comparison toolbar’ it is, in reality, a nasty piece of malware that you most definitely will struggle to remove from your computer. For this reason it is advisable to steer well clear of Ares Destiny if at all possible.

I can wholeheartedly recommend Ares Vista, and indeed I will to all of my friends.

I was new to this whole music downloading thing until this morning. I decided in a fit of inspiration to download some Spice Girls songs (I love those girls); since there has been so much in the news about filesharing recently I decided I would do this for free over the Internet.

Then I realized that I didn’t have the first idea what I needed to do. So I went to my trusty friend the search engine and typed in some magic words.

After a few minutes of reading I decided to jump in (I’m not the most patient of characters). I decided that Ares Vista was the one for me, not least because it was guaranteed to work with Windows Vista (the others offered no such assurances). I downloaded, installed and saddled up.

Ares Vista really was a bit of a dream come true for a new user like me. Not only was the program really easy to use, but it also took me through the various simple steps required to start downloading. In a few minutes I really had got the hang of Ares Vista and of filesharing in General. I cannot sing its praises loud enough.

What others are saying:
Ares Vista surprisingly easy to use
Nice results with Ares Vista

The Law of Attraction is relevant to you.

Have you ever experience that very strong desire or feeling that you want something a little bit different? Do you feel like you know the solution to something but the way to get to that solution is a little bit ‘off track’. Have you been told by friends and family to forget your crazy ideas? Of course. Everyone is in the same boat in this regard: friends and family (and you, on occasions) have a very pessimistic outlook on like and they are not able to see the power of positive thought. Everyone has an inbuilt innate ability simple to change themselves and the world around them by positive though.

The name for the process undergone when powerful thoughts achieve powerful aims is Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction aims to bring back your positive thoughts from where they have been buried deep inside your mind and soul – the place you hid them when you wanted to fit into society.

There is no black magic involved in understanding the Law of Attraction; the basis of the idea is simple enough. What is needed is a lot of faith, immense courage, and oodles and oodles of positive thought.

This is a brief review of the excellently implemented Ares Ultra, a godsend to new users of Ares and to experienced users that just want a simple piece of software that just works. Ares Ultra doesn’t just work, though, it does much more.

From the simple uncluttered interface (that you can configure if you require) to the smooth way in which downloads and uploads are executed, you know that this is a seriously slick piece of software.

One bonus – and possibly a deal maker for some – is Ares Ultra’s ability to play nicely with AOL. This is often a sticky point with filesharing software, but there are no problems here. Well done Ares Ultra!

Ares Ultra’s simplicity may also be seen as its downfall to some users; those that may not enjoy the simplicity are those that want to use the more powerful functions that the software has to offer. Finding is sometimes a bit of problem! Other than that, this is highly recommended.

The latest naturally occurring drug to come under the spotlight of the legislative body at the state Senate is Salvia Divinorum. This harmless sounding member of the herb family was used by native Americans as a mild hallucinogenic. Recently use of it in the concentrated form – potentiated Salvia – has increased. A small dose of the concentrated form of salvia induces a unique hallucinogenic state unlike that caused by other hallucinogens.

The bill that is currently making its way through the state Senate will see the sale of Salvia to those under 18 made illegal and punishable by up to 6 months is jail and carrying a fine of $1000.

There is strong feeling about the drug – which currently completely legal in many US States and in countries across the world – and on the part it might play in society. Says one commentator: “Salvia use among college students and teenagers is part of a larger drug abuse problem our society needs to address.”

“I think free music downloads has been very important for a long time” says Jim Guerinot, talent manger whose clients include, among others, the rock band Nine Inch Nails. The band itself oversaw the ‘leaking’ of a number of tracks from its 2007 album ‘Year Zero’, the last one produced with a major-label.

This year Nine Inch Nails have gone one step further and released their latest album entirely free. Free music downloads is definitely alive and kicking.

The Nails’ move comes after 2007 saw Radiohead partake in some free music downloads love with their “In Rainbows”; 2007 also saw the introduction to the fray of We7, a free music downloads download and streaming service for which, rather astonishingly, Sony has agreed to provide its entire back catalogue.

But feelings on the results of free music downloads are mixed; Radiohead’s Thom Yorke recently told a paper that his band’s pay-what-you-want offer was a one-time thing. “I don’t think it would have the same significance now anyway, if we chose to give something away again”.

Apple’s recent announcements regarding the status of the new 3g iPhone have been interesting enough to whet the appetite of many fans and potential customers. To further add fuel to this particular fire AT&T have been rumored to be offering a cut-price version of the 3g iPhone in return for new customers taking on a 2 year contract. With the average iPhone user running up a $100 tab each month due to the higher priced data and calling plan, this is a shrewd move that will provide AT&T with excellent profits.

But it must do something to compete as other phones are starting to compete with the 3g iPhone for customers’ attention. AT&T needs to use the momentum and media power of the release of the 3g iPhone to pull lucrative customers away from rivals like Verizon Wireless (VZ), Sprint (S) and T-Mobile (DT).

Predictably AT&T and Apple both refused to comment on this news.