The first time I got impressed was when MIT decided to put its courseware online for free. That was dubbed as MIT Open Course Ware, now its Popular Science that has done it. The magazine that has been publishing articles on science and technology, has partnered with Google to place there 137 years of data online for free!

Although there is no utility to browse through the issues but with the search facility one can find relevant stuff. Google ADs are included off course. Head on to the Popular Science Archive page and read to your heart’s content.

Listening to, reading and finding translation of the Quran is a daily ritual for most Muslims. This can be done using the paper version of the Quran or using specialized software like Quran Reciter etc. Now several websites offer this facility online for free. Tanzil.info is one such website which lets users read and listen the Holy Quran. It also allows users to read translation of the Holy Book in multiple languages.

The interface is attractive and user friendly to use. First time visitors will not find themselves lost in the maze. One can browse through the entire Quran via Suran, Ayah, Juz or even page. Next comes the recitation which can be listened online as well as offline using a separate application. There are 19 Qaris to choose from and the biggest names like Al-Sudais, Abdul Basit and Al-Ghamdi etc are included in the list. A simple mouse-over provides translation in the selected language. A total of 69 types of translation options exist. For example in the English language one can read translation by about 12 people like Marmaduke Pickthall and Mahammad Asad etc.

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, fasten your seat belts to test drive the game of Cricket we have been waiting for, well you guessed it right its called Howzat. You can play an over for free online as discussed earlier in my intro article regarding the game at the Howzat site. After a single over you will be asked to sign up in order to play the full game. A word about signing up, you can do it the old fashioned way or you can use your existing Facebook account, in case you happen to have one (who doesn’t).

During sign up you will be required to select your team form the various options that are available, yours faithfully selected Pakistan off course. To play the game simply click on the Play link and presto! The 14MB something data will be downloaded to your PC. You will see a screen showing details of matches in progress, a list of players on the right side of this screen and off course the much needed chat at the bottom. Click the info button to fetch info about an ongoing match, and then join it or simply hit the join button to jump in to the match.

During this you might as well get invites to join a match or some lone player asking for a match via the chat interface. Other than this you can also create a new match by clicking the New Match button. Playing is simple, if you choose to Bat you have to time the ball to hit a shot. The game allows one to change a player’s location using arrow keys followed by Spacebar press. Similarly, the bowler can select the place where to bounce his/her ball by clicking the spacebar at the appropriate place.

One good feature is the online chat facility, which allows one to chat with his opponent. The sounds are average but then what would you expect from a game like this. Online help is also available, limited options for adjusting the fields are also shown on-screen. It is fun to play, I say give it a try and enjoy.

Almost all of us have played Bejeweled at one time or another, well if not played then at least we have seen people playing it. It is easy, small and addictive. Now comes Halloween Bejeweled, which features bats, bugs, pumpkins, chocolates and other Halloween stuff in place of the usual diamonds, hearts and gems.  The game can be played online as well as offline after downloading it off course. There is simple mode which has no time constraints and the Timed version is a little tough. There is a sizeable number of people playing it online always and stats are displayed on the main page, showing the population count.

In order to play the online version you need to have at least Windows XP and Internet Explorer 7 or later. For the offline version not much stringent hardware is required a Pentium, running XP and 64 MB of RAM.

The rules are simple just make a group of three or more similar shapes, horizontally or vertically in a line. You will get points for this and off course more shapes and items drop from above to fill the void created. It is as simple as clicking your mouse. Bonus points are granted for making a group of four or more shapes, besides Hints and Help is readily available. The trial version costs nothing and the full version is also available for under $10.

Their is a loyal following of Cricket the world over. This game is played, watched, applauded and criticized both on field as well as off field (online). There have been countless releases of Cricket for PCs, boasting of a plethora of features, like choosing your desired team, players, stadium venue, time, pitch and almost everything that one can imagine related to Cricket. All this is good for playing on hardware intensive PCs having gigs of RAM and storage space and off course guaranteed supply of electricity. These games cost a lot and need time and effort to play for example the famous EA Sports Cricket. The only thing lacking in this sphere is convenience.

In today’s time time constrained environment there is need to have a small game, rich in functionality, one that does not require installation, needs no specialized hardware, and has advanced features like ability to play online, form within one’s browser, is even social! Well that is something non-existent as of today. Well actually not for long.

Howzat is a new, to be released game that is sure to become a winner in the coming days. This game has all of the features discussed in the preceding paragraph plus some more. For example one can manage his/her own team, customize players, various batting modes are supported, various types of shots are supported, three bowling modes, fielding setting that are customizable, and itcan be played frm Facebook or Orkut! I

This means it can be played with anyone sitting in the remotest corner of the world with Internet connectivity. The game supports full screen mode as well as reduced window for discretion. This has to be the ultimate kind of game which is short, and hence tempting. Besides this the makers say it is social as people do not like to play alone and is sexy! A game and sexy? How is that? Or Howzat you ask? Well scratch your head to figure it out or wait for its release

Cricket fans will have something new to talk about now after the release of Mindstorm’s Cricket Revolution. By the way Mindstorm happens to be a Pakistani game development studio that has created this very impressive title. The Demo version is available at the Cricket Revolution’s website and tentative release date is 30th October 2009. What impressed me most about this game was its interface, an easy learning curve, help and guidelines besides a host of features.

The game can be played online with other competitors, in LAN mode, offline mode or even for normal bowling and batting practice. Thanks to player ranking you may also be matched to a player of your ranking for a match online, it can be played in a variety of environments i.e day/night etc, and different types of pitches. Teams can also be selected at will. A host of batsmen as well as bowlers actions can be selected to choose from, to make the game more interesting and give more control to the players.

Various events can be viewed since the game records videos and off course the much needed scoring facility is there for recording individual runs. It has its very own community site, player guide, wallpapers, screenshots, forums. The game doe snot have very stringent hardware requirements, it requires a minimum Pentium 4 at 2.0 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 500 MB of space, a 128 MB Video card and DirectX compliant sound card, anything above this is a blessing. A good start for a Pakistani company, we wish them luck.