PC Mag freebies are no more

YOU REMEMBER HOW it was... every cover of PC Magazine hyped the latest Windows version, and inside the magazine (and in the next several dozen issues), Ziff-Daves released cool free utilities to fix the annoyances of the OS they praised in the cover. In a sense it was like getting a free coffee at a restaurant after a big dinner, it helped to digest both the food and the bill.

I run a pair of these utils on a daily basis: Netpersec, and EndItAll2. The first is a nice tiny tcp/ip bandwidth meter that sits in the systray. The second is a nice program to end all running processes (including those hidden), leaving only the windows shell, so you can run a defrag, for instance. I got both freebies from pcmag.com's site, at this place and here.

I guess I should consider myself lucky, because you can't anymore. I mean, you can, but you have to be careful you are not tricked into clicking on the "Download now" link on the above URLs, you get a pop-up asking you to pay $19.97 for the gift of having one-year access to the online "utility library".

This, once again, proves my philosophy that I learned long ago, when it comes to anything-on-the-net: GIWYC! ("Grab It While You Can"). What is freeware today, might not be tomorrow. What is there today, might be gone tomorrow. (By the way: If you're lucky and google for enditall2.zip, for example, you might still be able to find a copy online somewhere, but I'm not suggesting anyone breaks ZDNet's IP).

This continues the recent trend of charging for everything. Let's see... CNN wants $4.95 a month for the privilege of seeing their "CNN Newspass" video streams, the NY Times wants $2.95 for EACH ARTICLE you read from their archive... TheEconomist.com wants $19.95 a month for access to their online archive!!. Hey, that's not fair, suddenly you need a lot of money!

At least I now have something I can brag about. See that $19.97 program? I got it 6 months ago, for free (and legally!). µ