I have taken a number of classes to learn a variety of languages (French formal classes, Korean, Modern Standard Arabic to name a few), and have forgotten most of them all. Learning on the computer has been a new and fairly positive experience for me. The package comes with a number of elements: the base software, the particular language elements to plug into the base software, audio companion CDs for review offline and a USB headset/microphone.

My criteria for security suites is pretty simplen- install seamlessly (I run Windows 7 64bit), I want no problems, hicoughs or glichesn- I want a small footprint, not a system resource hogn- I want the product to run in the background the vast majority of the time and be relatively unnoticed unless I want to interact with the productn- the suite needs to be configurable, in other words I want to be able to set the level of security, white and black lists, schedules, disable on command if I find it necessary, etc.

I’ve been a PaintShop user from way back when it was a JASC product. It has always been the less expensive alternative to Photoshop with much of the functionality. I have had mixed feelings about the Corel versions as they tend to be slower loading with a fairly large system footprint and in the more recent versions almost as cumbersome and confusing as Photoshop. This current offering continues to suffer from those flaws (but only enough to cost them one star in the rating) though still offering the features that I have always valued in Paintshop.

Ever since Corel bought Paintshop Pro, I have been looking for an acceptable alternative without success (this product included, since it is far too expensive). Painter is a fairly powerful art program targeted at those that are involved in serious computer generated art, not the casual artist of picture tweaker. The selection of media, from brushes to palettes, including charcoal, pencil, marker and paper, weaves provide the user with many options.

Always on the lookout for an alternative to Microsoft products, just because I like to spread the wealth and promote competition, I had high hopes for this product. Installation went smoothly, and initial tests of the product were encouraging. My hope was for a suite of products that would be a plug and play substitute for Microsoft Office, the standard for office product suites in today’s market. The product performed well in that most of the controls were easy enough to find (if the user is moderately familiar with Microsoft Office 2007, something I still find myself struggling with on occasion).

I am not an artist, not an animator, actually, I’m lucky if I can draw a reasonable stick figure, but given the opportunity I opted to get this program for chance to create even a simple animation for my website. The learning curve scared me at first, but the tutorials made it pretty simple to get started. I have not mastered the skills as yet, but was able to create some simple videos pretty fast.

Let’s say that your computer has no protection suite and you have never used a competitor’s product, you will probably never know the difference and your system will be adequately protected from the worst scum of the universe. That is probably the strongest recommendation that I can bring myself to give for this suite. I will start with the good on this review, because there is not really that much to say.

In brief,n- the software installed without problem on my Windows Vista 64 laptop,n- the GPS dongle works as intended, but must be outside to get lock on satellites (as expected)n- trip plotting is reasonably efficient, but not perfect (I’d like to see an option that minimizes changing freeways as long as it does not add more than a few miles to the overall trip distance, that would be really useful in packed urban areas like Los Angeles with numerous interchanges)n- works as well as my Garman nuvi 760 with the big exception of the form factornnThe bottom line question is ultimately, Is it useful?

I have been through a large number of PC security products over the years. Within the past few years there have been a number of new products on the market, a good thing as I had begun to despair at Norton and McAfee products as overly controlling, system hogs. My criteria for a security product is that it shield me from hazards (lately that needs to include websites known for attacks).

In brief,n- the software installed without problem on my Windows Vista 64 laptop,n- the GPS dongle works as intended, but must be outside to get lock on satellites (as expected)n- trip plotting is reasonably efficient, but not perfect (I’d like to see an option that minimizes changing freeways as long as it does not add more than a few miles to the overall trip distance, that would be really useful in packed urban areas like Los Angeles with numerous interchanges)n- works as well as my Garman nuvi 760 with the big exception of the form factornnThe bottom line question is ultimately, Is it useful?