Book Description
We are fast approaching a time when all our private communications will be monitored as a matter of course - just in case we might have some criminal intent, politically incorrect thought or uncommon belief. The files we store on our home or work computers and the messages we send over the Internet are fair game for those who would snoop into and record our private lives. The only way most of us can reclaim a modicum of privacy is through file encryption and security programs designed to keep prying eyes away from our secrets. Fortunately, there are many programs that are not only incredibly effective in guarding our privacy but are available absolutely free of charge. In this book, Michael Chesbro (The Complete Guide to E-Security, Privacy for Sale) outlines some of the most popular freeware encryption and security programs available. You will learn how to determine which programs are best for you, how to securely destroy files and the advantages of file sharing. The cost of using these programs is zero. But if you don't learn to use them, it could cost you your privacy or even your freedom. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A first-rate, highly recommended book
Freeware Encryption And Security Programs: Protecting Your Computer And Your Privacy by Michael Chesbro (senior counterintelligence agent with the U.S. Department of Defense) is an invaluable and "user friendly" guide to several of the most popular and widespread freeware encryption and security programs. Freeware Encryption And Security Programs teaches the reader how to use these programs to encrypt private files, work files, email and more. No programming expertise is necessary; only the desire to put in a little extra effort to confound prying eyes overly inquisitive noses. A first-rate, highly recommended book for anyone fed up with the lack of security on the internet. ... Read more

Book Description
Los programas freeware son herramientas sin ningún tipo de limitación de uso ni costo. Con ellos podemos hacer lo mismo o mucho más que con las herramientas comerciales, sin gastar un centavo. Sistemas operativos, paquetes de oficina, reproductores de audio y video, navegadores, herramientas educativas, y utilitarios para optimizar y personalizar el sistema son algunos de los ejemplos. Usted tiene en sus manos una completa selección de los mejores programas gratuitos destinados a cada necesidad y uso, con explicaciones paso a paso para dominarlos. Además, en el CD que acompaña al libro podrá encontrar las aplicaciones comentadas, listas para instalar y usar. ... Read more

Amazon.com
In Wetware the chip mold virus destroyed the sentient robots called boppers. But the virus itself has spawned a new life form called moldies. The moldies are beings made out of a sort of malleable plastic called imoplex. Humans and moldies live in an almost-amicable truce, but radicals (and not-so-radicals) on each side wouldn't hesitate to use--or destroy--those on the other. When a moldie called Monique becomes ensnared in a grand plot that seems to be either the work of anti-moldie humans or anti-human moldies, everyone becomes involved in an effort to either save or destroy the Earth.Book Description

Rudy Rucker has seen the future. . .and it is extreme.

The Godfather of cyberpunk--a mad scientist bravely meddling in the outrageous and heretical--Rucker created Bopper Robots, who rebelled against human society in his award-winning classic Software.

Now, in 2953, "moldies" are the latest robotic advancement--evolved artificial lifeforms made of soft plastic and gene-tweaked molds and algae, so anatomically inventive and universally despised that their very presence on the planet has thrown the entire low-rent future into a serious tailspin. So the moon is the place to be, if you're a persecuted "moldie" or an enlightened "flesher" intent an creating a new, more utopian hybrid civilization. Of course up there, there are other intergalactic intelligences to contend with--and some not so intelligent--who have their own agendas and appetites.

This is scientific fabulation at its most brazenly inventive--funny, cutting-edge and deeply informed. No writer alive puts it all together like Rudy Rucker.Artificial life forms made of soft plastic and gene-tweaked mold and algae, moldies are evolved robots in the year 2053--anatomically inventive and universally despised. In a sleazy, low-rent future, sexual fraternization with moldies is strictly taboo--a societal sin that is of no concern whatsoever to Randy Karl Tucker. A Kentucky boy who has seriously strayed from the Heritagist religion1s stern teachings about the evils of artificial life, Randy feels a definite something for Monique, moldie bookkeeper and maid at the Clearlight Terrace Court Motel But Monique1s sudden and inexplicable abduction from the planet--coupled with unsettling revelations about Randy1s own dubious origins--is dragging the degenerate flesher and all those around him into an ugly, conspiratorial mess. . .even as it pulls an unsuspecting humanity ever-closer to a stunning encounter with intergalactic intelligence. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Not Free SF Reader
Evolution continues rapidly in Rudy Rucker's freeware.From bops, big bops, little bops through meatbops we have yet another life form appearing in freeware, and it is sentient mold.

These moldies, being more organic, can interact with humans differently, and in some cases very closely.

More of the burned out beach bum and borg style can be found here.

Not Rudy's finest hour
With all the predictions and future strangeness this comes off as Sodom and
Gomorrah: the characters are mostly seriously morally challenged ( bright like Molly).
It comes off with the feeling that it was written by a person on pot having a dream that turns rapidly into a nightmare.
The ideas of using
aperiodic tiles as computers has so far not had anything but virtual fruit like this.
Written before the current quantum computing doctrines came in
and AI went out of fashion, this novel has a genealogy of humans and moldies
and some sexual content that might be too much for a lot of people.
The two other novels I've read by Rudy Rucker were much better than this one.

Stuzzy
I've never thought of Rucker as a great writer, but he never wants for interesting ideas.While his characters tend to be fairly broad and cartoonish, the bright colors of his invented slang and weird technology make for a nice pleasant brain buzz.

In "Freeware", Rucker continues his little AI saga begun in "Software" and "Wetware".The boppers (the little AI robots featured in the first two novels) are all dead, but their spirit (or at least their core software) lives on in the "moldies", who are basically big pieces of self-aware floppy plastic infected with a stinky fungus.Of course what Rucker immediately wants to investigate is: Can you have sex with a moldie?The answer, of course, is yes.

The plot meanders through the backstories of its various characters (which also help shed light on the events which have occurred since "Wetware"), shows off the interesting abilities of the moldies (some of which require some suspension of disbelief), showcases exciting new fictional mind-altering drugs, and eventually comes to the Big Reveal, which I found fairly interesting.Although this sort of thing (I'm not going to say WHAT sort of thing) has certainly been done before, I don't think it's ever been done in quite this fashion.

One major complaint I have about the book is its rather abrupt ending.Rucker wraps things up here in about two pages, as if he was in a rush to finish.A bit more denouement would have been nice.

Basically, if you've read and enjoyed the first two "Ware" books, you're likely to find this enjoyable as well.Anyone who HASN'T read the first two books is advised to start with the first book, "Software", which is a rather short (150 pages) and breezy read.

freeware review
In this novel Rudy Rucker creates an original, twisted world where moldies (artificial life forms) and humans live amongst each other.Rudy creates a surfer/stoner dialect that could quite plausibly be a future lingo, like our generic, hip, MTV influenced lingo. Although I love Rudy's world and writing style I must admit this book was somewhat of a letdown.It was very captivating at times but those times were often followed by idle narrative. Plus the novel jumped around.It's like when you're watching a captivating sitcom, and right at the climax "to be continued" appears; tune in next week.The plot would then start a new chapter with a new character's story.Rudy would be careful to work in each character into the overall theme of the book though.I think if Rudy cut out all the idle, boring parts (that would be about half of the book) it would be a good novel. Some of Rudy Rucker's other books got better reviews so I would recommend you read those books.

Too ugly for me
The best part of this novel is the ending - not just the fact that I got to the end, but the actual story in the last couple of chapters. For the rest I found the story appallingly ugly. Was Mr Rucker using bodily functions and, especially smell, that most pervasive of all senses, to demonstrate a symbiosis developing between humankind and the moldies (an invention of humankind)? But everytime I found some part of the story that seemed to catch a bit of my interest I found it snatched away by the ugliness again. There was also the matter of the time sequencing shown by the dates at the start of each chapter - I found myself having to go back again and again to try to understand how the events actually unfolded. (One of the aliens at the end of the novel does have a time independent (?) existance that Mr Rucker might have been trying to prepare us for - but I just found it a labour). A novel with a really interesting time sequencing is Piers Anthony's 'Chthon' and this unusual word - chthon - does pop up in 'Freeware'.

I was disappointed in this novel because I enjoyed Mr Rucker's book on infinity, 'Infinity and the Mind', with its fascinating concepts of different sizes of infinity and the elegant ways in which these can be demonstrated. I also enjoyed his novel 'White Light' which is quite different to 'Freeware'. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Exhilarating SF tour de force---brings "cyberpunk" from the neck down
This volume collects three of the four novels in Rudy Rucker's intellectually stimulating and thoroughly enjoyable *Ware series: Software, Wetware, and Freeware. The arc of these three novels carries the reader from the dawn of the 21st century, when humanity's lunar robots reprogrammed themselves for freedom and consciousness, to the middle of the century, the radical future of artificial life, and beyond. In Rucker's mostly optimistic vision of the near-future, robots (from the Czech word for "slave", remember) give way to self-directing boppers (and human-dominated asimovs), who in turn pave the way for the quasi-organic moldies, who themselves become the staging ground for something far more transcendent. Meanwhile, humanity tries as best it can to keep pace with its new neighbors while inadvertently catalyzing their evolution from time to time. An exhilarating intellectual romp!

Rucker's novels work on so many levels that it beggars description. His intellectual and philosophical speculations about the nature of conscious life itself provide the skeleton, his joycean linguistic inventiveness enrobes his fresh ideas in strange flesh, and his sheer joy at being embodied succeeds both in animating his creation and in bringing the genre of science fiction, which has long been decidedly cognitively top-heavy, from the neck down. This is science fiction for people who love the raw stickiness and smelliness of physical existence. Moldies and Meatbops, or, more properly, the novels collected therein, easily ranks as Rucker's SF masterpiece.

The Best ThatCyberPunkHasToOffer
Each Of these books are masterpieces of what good modern Cyber Punk should be. If your thinking of just getting one of these books, its inevitable that your going to want the others as well, so do your self a favor and just buy this colectioninstead. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a collection of AI-related freeware with 5000 megabytes of free source code and documentation, stored as compressed arcchives on two ISO9660 CD-ROMS. Included is an entire CD-ROM full of interpreters and compilers. ... Read more

Book Description
Handpicked Software for Mac OS X is your hands-on guide to the best new software. It's packed with more than 100 reviews of the latest releases from major developers, as well as some outstanding applications you've probably never heard of. The bonus CD-ROM contains over 100 programs, including tryouts of popular commercial programs (like Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and LiveMotion), plus must-have applications, indispensable tools, and utilities to help you unleash your creativity, track your finances, personalize your Mac, work faster, optimize your system, keep your files safe, and get the most out of OS X. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

a must for your library, and next to your Mac...
This book saves one money since it's does the research to sort out the good values.It allows you work faster, optimize your mac, track your finances, and just plain work faster.Get it! And the bonus is that is comes with a great CDrom for $ 18.00!

A must for your library.
This book along with it's included CDrom quickly earns it's worth in saving you time by telling you what's a good value for spending your money on andgetting, and not.It's lay out, approach, and suggestions are on target.Get it!

A wonderful Reference Book!
After purchasing the book, I was amazed at how many applications are already available for the Mac OS X.No one can say the Mac OS X doesn'thave enough software written for it.The software disk is a big plus as well.Good job Robert! ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from GUI Program News, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2007. The length of the article is 557 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: FREEWARE MAKES WINDOWS VISTA RUN FASTER IN ONE CLICK.(Advanced WindowsCare Personal from IObit )
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: GUI Program News (Newsletter)
Date: March 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 18Issue: 3Page: NA

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
B> The Web Wizard's Guide to Freeware/Shareware teaches readers how to safely take advantage of free software available on the Web. From learning where to find safe and useful software to understanding how to install and use it, this quick and easy-to-understand introduction to freeware will help readers take advantage of all the low-cost, high-quality software available on the Web.This book explains how to locate reputable software on the Internet, instructing readers on where to look for software reviews and familiarizing readers with different downloading scenarios. It also discusses anti-virus software and how to ensure that all downloaded files are scanned.The Web Wizard Series from Addison-Wesley is a series of brief, introductory books written by instructors on Internet and Web programming topics of interest to anyone who wants to create web pages. Each book includes an easy-to-read, full-color design featuring plenty of hands-on examples and exercises, and is written in a concise and practical manner so readers can use the technologies in no time. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education), published by T.H.E. Journal, LLC on May 1, 1988. The length of the article is 1534 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: The Office of Academic Computing (OAC) at Ferris State University (FSC) in MI, oversees microcomputers on campus and offers training in computer skills to Ferris faulty and staff. A major component of the training workshops is the kit of software tools each participant receives. Cost is a primary factor in selecting the word processing, spreadsheet, and database manager programs for the kits. Cost prompted FSU to use freeware-shareware programs that can be distributed and cost only a nominal fee to become a registered user. The OAC has more than 18,000 freeware-shareware programs on file and has selected ExpressCalc Version 3.1 as its toolkit spreadsheet, PC-Write Version 2.7 as its word processor, and PC-File+ Version 1.0 as its database manager.

Citation Details
Title: Teaching computer literacy with freeware and shareware. (Ferris State University's Office of Academic Computing)
Author: R. Dale Hobart
Publication: T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education) (Refereed)
Date: May 1, 1988
Publisher: T.H.E. Journal, LLC
Volume: v15Issue: n9Page: p78(4)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is a journal article from Information Economics and Policy, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Using perfect foresight and adaptive models, this paper examines the effect of competitor asymmetry, consumer sensitivity to incentives and adaptive processes on freeware strategies and competitive outcomes. Four roles played by freeware in competitive markets are identified - it can be a mechanism to build or speed up the growth of a network without the need to lower prices on the commercial version, a deterrence mechanism, a hindrance to a rival's network building efforts, and a coordination device in the presence of forward looking consumers. We determine the optimal prices of the commercial version, the decisions to introduce freeware and the freeware qualities for both competing firms. ... Read more

Product Description
Una seleccion de los mejores programas gratuitos que se pueden encontrar en Internet, comentados y explicados en detalle. Mas de 50 alternativas de calidad para llevar adelante las mas diversas tareas sin gastar un centavo. ... Read more