Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Microsoft, Freeware
by Brad Linder Nov 21st 2008 at 4:00PM
I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.
In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.
To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.
Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
David Becker said 4:18PM on 11-21-2008
To be honest, I tried Live Mesh and I went back to Foldershare, simply because Live Mesh was never responsive enough. Foldershare picks up on new files and changes to files very quickly for me, whereas with Live Mesh sometimes it seemed like it would never notice new files, ever. If they can work that out, with the planned upgrades and features, maybe I'll switch back, but for now I'm happy with Foldershare as long as it keeps working. I really just use it for academic files between my desktop and laptop.
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Mike Cerm said 8:05AM on 11-22-2008
I tried Mesh too, and like you I switched back to FolderShare. I didn't have any performance problems, I just felt like Mesh was overkill for what I wanted to do, and since it was early in the beta process, some of the additional features were only half-baked.
Since they offer overlapping/complimentary functionality, it's pretty clear that Microsoft plans to merge FolderShare, SkyDrive, and Mesh into a more unified system. I look forward to that, because if Microsoft can combine the best of all three, they'll have a pretty great platform.
Jash Sayani said 11:07AM on 11-22-2008
Hey, me too.... Used Mesh, it was not what I expected it to be... And FolderShare did it all. So, I switched back.
Anyways, I had also got a Mail for Microsoft about this and they mentioned that the uploaded files might be deleted during the transformation. So, better keep a backup......
Jonathan Harford said 4:43PM on 11-21-2008
I'm a long-time FolderShare user. What's the current favorite (preferably cross-platform) FolderShare alternative?
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Mike Cerm said 8:05AM on 11-22-2008
What do you need an alternative for? FolderShare has always, and Windows Live Sync will continue to support Windows and Mac, and it's free.
Dropbox is the best alternative I've seen. It adds support for Linux, and some better sharing options, but I'm not sure what else it has to offer, because I still use FolderShare.
http://www.getdropbox.com/
Sri Chilukuri said 9:22PM on 12-15-2008
Try Content Circles (www.contentcircles.com) - a new offering that works on Mac and Windows. It has some additional features such as versioning and it doesn't require you to go to a web site to setup your shared folders. It is pure distributed computing and takes advantage of p2p as well as the Web to enable collaboration and synchronization across firewalls and platforms.
inteller said 4:51PM on 11-21-2008
I would like to see Live Sync and Skydrive merged. This seems like redundant product mix.
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Mohit said 5:21PM on 11-21-2008
The file sharing technology product that is currently known as Live Mesh is simply a technological demo of the synchronization backend that Live Mesh will eventually become. The idea is that, eventually, Windows Live Sync will be the only file sharing product offered by Microsoft with the background syncing managed by the Live Mesh platform.
As for Live SkyDrive and Live Sync, they will actually be merged by about early 2009.
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Joshua said 5:21PM on 11-21-2008
I want to be able to sync 9 different machines at work. Foldershare, or Live Sync is just for two machines.... right?
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Jason said 10:18PM on 11-21-2008
I use foldershare to sync 8 pc's. Half of which are only powered on a couple hours a week. I've never had any issues with it.
My only hope is that when they roll to a new product, they don't simply turn off the old server, but migrate our client software and storage w/out downtime.
zkam said 2:46PM on 11-24-2008
Joshua, Jason and anyone else who can answer...
If you sync multiple PCs on the same local network, is FolderShare smart enough to do a direct (p2p) transfer on the internal network, or does the syncing ocurr over the internet (i.e. outside your LAN)? I've been curious about this, but have never tried it.
Joshua said 2:51PM on 11-24-2008
I havent got ANYTHING to work well. I am going to look into Live Sync more.
The other strange element I want to work is to access processing power when people are only away from their desk. Tried some screensaver tasks. Still trying to figure that one out as well
David said 6:59PM on 11-21-2008
I don't see support for sending files > 2GB still...thank God for RAR.
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fineliner said 8:28PM on 11-21-2008
Anyone knows the right tool for filling my live.space?
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Quikboy said 3:34PM on 11-22-2008
Live Writer. Best blogging tool period. Works on other platforms too.
http://writer.live.com/
Or the beta : http://download.live.com/writer
Neowster said 8:05AM on 11-22-2008
Well, I will think of it this way. Foldershare duplicates content over 2 or more PCs free. And I tend to think of services such as dropbox as more of a remote storage first, than a sync tool.
I am using both. Foldershare for content in "My Documents", less "My dropbox", "My Dropbox" for all current files which are mission critical, and Mozyhome 2.5GB for backup of the really important things in My Documents not in any dropbox.
KEEPING IN SYNC IS AN ART......
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Dale said 10:08AM on 11-22-2008
Live Mesh consumes tremendous resources on each machine it's installed on. It also doesn't appear to completely share all sub-folders and files in the "target" folder. After testing it between just two computers, I removed it primarily due to these shortcomings. It looks to be good in concept and maybe after they get all the bugs worked out and bring it out of Beta I'll try it again. Looks like I'll try Foldershare again
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smikwily said 8:20AM on 11-23-2008
I'm the same as you, Dale. I tried out Mesh, expecting the "next evolution of FolderShare" and all I got was a bloated, unresponsive resource hog that appeared to duplicate everything it attempted to do.
FolderShare is the same thing it was before MS snagged it - a nice, clean, easy to use (well, once you know what you are doing anyhow) syncing tool. I've used it for years and never had issues.
Dan B. said 2:58PM on 11-23-2008
Mesh is just a tech demo, MS has already said the product will never be finalized, and many of the technologies they're developing in Live Mesh are going into their Live Sync product. There's more info about it on Paul Thorrot's website (winsupersite.com), where he also switched back to FolderShare specifically because MS is going to be discontinuing Mesh
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zkam said 2:43PM on 11-24-2008
Like many others here, I've used FolderShare for years. However, at the moment, I'm only using one PC, so there's not much point to FolderShare. I've been trying Mesh, to backup certain folders to the web, (but again, since I'm just using 1 PC, I haven't really tested the syncing part of it).
One important feature of FolderShare that I haven't seen mentioned above, is that when you have it installed, you can also access ANY files on your PC via the web. This is separate from the syncing ability - FolderShare actually lets you browse your computer and access any files (on any attached drive), whether they are part of your syncing setup or not.
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