Presents for the Poor! Software Santa recommends some good resources ....

[Software Santa]

games! Games! and still MORE GAMES! Over 500!
Look Here:  http://softwaresanta.com/smf/index.php?board=5.0

Some Select Adventure, Battle, and Shoot-'em-up Games:

The Battle for Wesnoth Interactive / Expandable / (even Multi-Player) Dungeons and Dragons RPG type game: (With Animated Fighting Miniatures - KEWL)
Vega Strike: an Open Source 3D Action-Space-Sim that runs on Win/Lin/Mac systems Vega Strike allows players to explore a vastly dynamic universe where frontiers collide and you're just a pilot trying to make ends meet. How? That's your decision. Vega Strike is designed as a non-linear gaming experience, where you choose what action you want to take.
Abe's Amazing Adventure is a scrolling, platform-jumping, key-collecting, ancient pyramid exploring game ...



Arcade Games and Simulators Some of my all time favorite games are in here!

T.O.R.C.S.  Race / Formula One driving simulator: one of the very best! Race in 50 of the Worlds hottest cars on 20 different tracks: this is One SCHWEET Ride! Oh, Wow!
Rigs of Rods is an Open Source truck, car, airplane and boat simulator Another Driving Simulator that lets you download new vehicles to drive!
Flight Gear Full On Flight Simulator: You can learn to fly with this one!
GL-117 is a WAY more fun flight simulator than Flight Gear is! With Flight Gear you Have to go through the WHOLE Pre-Flight and Tower communication routine to be cleared to takeoff. With GL-117 the jet flies, right off, and goes towards where the mouse is: Totally Intuitive! Easy to Understand Heads Up Display and simple weapons control let even a gaming Dummy like Me perform a kill within 5 minutes!
X-Moto is a challenging cross-platform 2D motocross platform game  Moto Cross Stunts: Hang on to your Helmet: one heck of a ride!
Racer is a free cross-platform car simulation project (for non-commercial use) Another super Driving/racing Sim!
Ultimate Stunts is a remake of the famous DOS-game stunts. Mac X, Windows, Linux WICKED!
SuperTuxKart is a Free 3D kart racing game with many tracks and characters! Fun for All Ages!
TUX Racer is a fun sliding and racing game for Kids!
Armagetron Advanced  Video Game(s): The Light Cycles from the Original Tron!
VDrift is a cross-platform, open source driving simulation made for drift racing
GLtron is the original cross-platform TRON Lightcycles combat game Go watch Tron Legacy!
Musicracer creates 3D racing tracks from your MP3, OGG, WAV or FLAC files! One of my all time favorite games: starting from when I found it (2 months ago)!
Extreme Tux Racer is based off of Planet Penguin Racer/Tux Racer
Danger from the Deep is a World War II german submarine simulator.

Frozen Bubble is a Great Arcade Game in Versions for LINUX/Windows/Mac X 10.3
SuperTux.  Mario Brothers type game: A Classic Side scroller Game good for Hours!
Ri-li is an arcade game: you drive a toy wood engine and collect all the coaches. It is educational, too! I'm totally hooked on this cute variation of the "Snake" game.  There is one rule: don't run into yourself. You touch the arrow key of the direction you want the engine to turn at the NEXT Switch. Having said that: I can ONLY play it on the easy setting!
You say you can't afford the famous "SingStar" music video game?  Go Score UltraStar Deluxe instead!
"Dance, Dance Revolution" beyond your financial means?  Kick up your heels about StepMania: A free dance simulation game for Windows, Mac, and Linux
Not rich enough to be a "Rock Star Hero"? Don't fret: DO FRET with Frets on Fire! It is a game of musical skill for Mac X Intel, Linux, or Windows
Neverball and Neverputt are 2 fun Cross-Platform Skill Arcade Games!
Neverball: you tilt the floor to control the direction of the ball rolling through the maze.
Neverputt is fiendishly simple, and challenging, 3D Mini Golf game. (The length of the cone is the stroke power and you aim by rotating the direction of the cone ... )


Puzzle Games:

3 FREE Puzzle Games for Windows, or Amiga, or ANY Mac System. The Fool's Errand!
Fish Fillets NG is a Puzzle Adventure Game (for EVERY System EXCEPT Mac Classic) (An Extremely Fiendish Puzzle game that may take you YEARS To Figure it all out. {Software Santa had to cheat to keep from going nuts   } One of my favorites!)
Polychromatic Funk Monkey lets you arrange blocks into towering staircases This is one of my favorites, too!
kiki the nano bot is a 3-D puzzle game for Windows or Mac OS X
Pandora’s Gearbox is puzzle game for Windows or Mac OS X
Jetris is an Open Source Cross Platform JAVA 5 Tetris Game Clone
Enigma is a cool puzzle game like "Oxyd" or "Rock 'n Roll" (Windows Mac Linux)

Board Games:

Scrabble3D is a highly customizable cross platform Scrabble game
Capa chess is a Java chess game for ALL Systems.
Domination is Risk (the board game) with very strong AIs.
MyMahj is a 2D and 3D tile game for Windows and Macintosh X systems.

[Software Santa]

There are a LOT of web sites out there! And not all of them are trustworthy, either. It is kind of like the old wild west out there ...

I claim to be one of the internet's "White Hats" - I actively combat spam and spammers in dozens of ways I won't bore you with the dull technical details of ... Wait! If you have a Domain or a Blog you SHOULD Know about Project Honeypot at least ....

Welcome to Software Santa's Recreational hang out, Partner! This here's the Saloon, and then there's our own little "Disney Land" in our ARCADE http://softwaresanta.com/shsmf/index.php?action=arcade , too!

I'll offer you the equipment to help armor-plate yourself for safety out there - for free. I didn't make them: I just found them and tried them and loved them - and shared them with you!

On the Internet:

First Thing: Security Plug-ins!
I recommend Firefox for everyday usage!
Firefox is a better Browser than Internet Explorer. For Win / Mac X / LINUX.

Then go to "Add-Ons" and search for WOT in the Find Addons Tab ....  Free Internet Security from Web Of Trust (WOT) warns you about risky websites! This is also the best Child Safety Plugin Too! (Kept my friend's kids from accidentally seeing a porn site!) Browser Security Plug-in for FireFox/Internet Explorer/Safari 5! Used on all my sites and Browsers, too!

Then I opt out from Tracking Cookies: Stop some Internet Advertising with the Google Advertising Cookie Opt-out Plugin

Then I block ALL Advertising with the "Fanboy's List" or the "Easylist" subscription (whichever is the default) to Adblock Plus, which is a browser extension that blocks advertising on web pages!

If you use a Laptop on Public Network please be aware that a program called "Firesheep" can steal login cookies on such popular sites as Google and Facebook: then they can login AS you and steal your account! There is a Security Addon for Firefox to combat this: HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox extension that encrypts certain sites. This isn't that important if no one else can see your network traffic.

If you are on a Laptop you'll want the Hotspot Shield security and privacy product to ensure your anonymity while online!

Lastly: Check your Plug-ins! Mozilla Plugin Check helps you keep your Browser Plugins up to date!

Here are other Secure Networking Products you may want to look into:
Qnext is a secure P2P communications suite for Windows, Linux, and Mac X Tiger
Tor is an anonymity online program that lets you defend against traffic analysis
Privoxy: a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting privacy
JAP or JonDo lets you surf the internet anonymously and unobservably. JAVA
RetroShare is a cross platform application for secure communications to friends
MUTE is a Cross Platform secure peer to peer file transfer application

Other Good Browsers:
Opera is a Free Cross Platform Browser with great features!
Safari is a Fast Browser for Windows or Mac OS X systems
Google Chrome is a new cross platform browser with a minimal design

File Sharing:
LimeWire: Gnutella peer-to-peer file sharing client for ALL Operating Systems!
Cabos is a FREE Gnutella file sharing program (for Windows 2K+ or either Mac OS)
Pando: free P2P software that helps downloading and sharing large files Win/Mac
Azureus - now called Vuze - is a bittorrent client written in the java language
Phex is a free file sharing program running on the Gnutella Network. JAVA 1.5
Drop.io is the simplest way to share files online. Simple private sharing FREE.
BitTorrent is the global standard for delivering high-quality files over the Net
FrostWire is a cross platform Gnutella Peer-to-Peer client
Myster is a complete cross platform peer to peer file sharing utility in JAVA

Instant Messengers:
Pidgin is a multi-protocol Instant Messaging client for Windows / BSD / LINUX
PlanetaMessenger.org is the universal Instant Messenger fully written in java
Psi is a free instant messaging application designed for the Jabber IM network
Meebo is IM in a web page: chat from any computer with an internet connection
aMSN is a free open source cross platform MSN Messenger clone.


Other Internet Programs:
Simple Machines Forum SMF is the BEST Free Internet Forum Software for PHP/MySQL What I use!
Stream Ripper for Windows and Mac X lets you record MP3s from Shoutcast Streams  What I use!
Cyberduck is The Only FTP and SFTP Browser you'll need! for Mac or Windows What I Use!
Skype is a FREE VoIP Long Distance (Like Vonage®)
ThunderBird! Super Email Client for ALL Platforms! (Except Mac Classic)
Nvu is a complete Web Authoring System like FrontPage and Dreamweaver ALL System
RSSOwl you can gather, organize, update, & store information from any RSS Source
KompoZer is a complete web authoring system for Windows or Linux or Mac OS X
FileZilla is a cross platform FTP Client ... Windows / Linux / Mac OS X
Bleezer is a powerful blogging client that works on Windows, OS X, and Linux.
Wireshark is an award-winning network protocol analyzer for Most Systems
Galerie makes media gallery web pages from pictures and/or QuickTime media files
TweetDeck is your personal browser for staying in touch with whats happening now
BrowserSpy.dk shows you just how much information your browser tells about you
Project Honey Pot help you Stop Spammers before they Even SEE your email address

[Software Santa]

Most of the Security Programs are "Platform Specific" and you should check out the Sub-boards for each OS ....

But there ARE a few utilities that are cross platform ....

It would be best for you to check the sub-board for your OS under the main System Repair and Other Utilities board ...

Here are the few "Top Picks" from this board ...
Mactracker is a database of every Apple/Mac model (Windows or Mac X) And Interesting History notes ....
JDiskReport analyzes your disk drives and collects several statistics JAVA 1.4.1
Zipeg is a free alternative to WinZip / WinRar / StuffIt. For Windows or Mac X Free replacement for "WinZip"
SystemRescueCd is a Linux system on a bootable CD-ROM for repairing your system.
Krut Computer Recorder lets you record audio and video from your computer screen
JaBack is Automated Data Backup Software and File Backup Software Win/Mac X
Duplicate Files Searcher will find and delete duplicate files on your computer. Very Useful!


I use this one weekly: CNET TechTracker is a free utility to check all your software is up to date. It shows me updates for my Applications! (Must Register FREE with CNET ... )

[Software Santa]

Presents for the Rich or the Poor!  Software Santa recommends some good resources ....

There are a LOT more here Than I listed! Check out the board: Free Resources for ALL!

Did you know about these?

Healthy Wage PAYS YOU to Lose Weight! I'm getting $100 for the 60 pounds I lost! I'm down to a Healthy Weight with Healthy Wage! I started Jan 11th Last year! And if you've seen me recently you KNOW I look much better! THIS IS WHY!

HEAP (Home Energy Assistance Program) for Low Income folks pays your Energy Bill! Every Year I apply for this Federally Funded Grant and get a $273 credit on my SDG&E Bill! My Gas & Electric Bill Still is -$10.18 ... So if you are Low Income you need to go get the toll free number from that topic and Apply!

Weatherization Assistance Program does FREE home energy efficiency improvements! Another Federally Funded Grant for Low Income Renters OR Homeowners ...  FREE Weatherstripping. If it is NOT a flat roof: Attic Insulation. If the Refrigerator is older than 16 Years: you get a NEW Energy Efficient One (I DID! I Got a new Energy Star Kenmore 2 years ago!) New Porch Light. New Interior Light Fixtures. Low Flow massage Wand type Shower Head. (Got it. Check: 3 of them. Got it!) JUST APPLY!

Get your FREE Credit Report: FOR Real (FreeCreditReport.com is a SCAM!) Yup! Check ALL 3 of your Credit Reports FOR FREE (Once a Year). Pay no one for your Free Reports!

Get Cash from taking Online Surveys! ONE real Survey Site amongst all the Cr@p! I HAVE gotten Checks from this Company over the Years: about $100 worth all told. You can Securely Apply HERE: RIGHT NOW! 

I've NEVER had Survey Savvy sell me out and I trust them enough to refer you to them.  I REALLY have enjoyed being a member of the SurveySavvy.com community and thought you might find it fun as well.  As a member, you can make a difference by participating in online surveys, focus groups, as well as other interactive studies.

SurveySavvy.com is unique from other companies because their patented referral program pays you an average of $2.00 for every survey your referrals complete and an average of $1.00 for every survey their referrals complete. This is cash you can earn regardless of whether or not you complete any surveys.

To sign up, click on the following link: Secure Sign up for Cool Surveys!
(Yes: the Sign-up page IS a 'Secure' page - these people ARE Serious about Guarding your personal information, I swear!)

Missing Money dot Com helps you find Money you may have left behind or lost (2 links!) Experts estimate 1 in every 8 people in the U.S. have some missing money. 65 Billion in unclaimed wealth! Common types of unclaimed property include: Bank accounts and safe deposit box contents, Stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and dividends, Uncashed checks and wages, Insurance policies, CD's, trust funds, Utility deposits, escrow accounts. FREE!

FatWallet Forums: free stuff! Get cash back when you shop the internet, too!
Coupons.com lets you print out coupons to save money
Shield's Up is an online Security Scan to check for Internet Vulnerabilities! My Mac Showed up as total stealth AFTER I changed the built in Firewall settings!
1-800-GOOG-411 - Google's new 411 service is free, fast and easy to use.
Diplodocs has User Manuals available online for many devices! Did you lose the Manual? You MIGHT find it Here!
midomi is the ultimate music search tool because it is powered by your voice. Can't Name that Tune? Sing or hum it here and it'll Name that Tune FOR You!
Paper Toys are 3D Paper Cut-Outs and they are FREE at PaperToys.com FUN! Rainy Day activity for Kids, Too!
Cubeecraft (pronounced “kyoob-ee”) papercraft toys are FREE to download More Fun! Rainy Day activity for Bored Grown-ups!
You can hunt for Easter Eggs all year around with The Easter Egg Archive
Free iPhone Apps! This is for all my friends with iPhones.
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) is a nonprofit consumer organization
NetIP.de provides Internet Protocol Information and a GEO-Location Service

That's just a few of them!