Here is another site I’ve dug up as a result of my bloghopping. Months ago, Online Tech Tips mentioned about IconFinder, a search engine that does what it says it does — find icons. And, surprisingly, after months since I last visited it, the engine is still in beta. Will they ever move to a stable version? Nonetheless, the free icons you can find there are very impressive in terms of its design and quality. I like the fact that for every icon listed, you also have the option to download that icon in different sizes, just ready for you to select. The engine also allows any user to add tags to the icons to improve its meta info.

The best feature of IconFinder, as pointed out by Online Tech Tips, is the fact that while you enter your keywords into its search form, IconFinder immediately provides you with other suggested keywords related to your search. This list appears right below the search text box, and makes it convenient for you to click on those words if you’re interested in using those suggestions.

What I’d like to see in IconFinder is a way for me to find icons within the same sets, for example if I find a Home button image that I like, I would also like to get a link to other similar button images that match the Home button theme.

My browser bookmark de-cluttering resumes….

I couldn’t believe it at first, but it’s true! Yeah, I know it’s an old game, but it’s still a simulation game, and I love simulation games! Anyhoo, I was on the lookout for more free downloadable games by Bullfrog when I stumbled onto Electronic Arts’ SimCity web site, and apparently they are letting us play the online version of SimCity Classic for free (they call it SimCity Live). The site was nice enough to include a quick start guide and in-depth instructions on how to play the game, just in case your SimCity skills are rusty.

Like any other good web sites, you will have to register first and get your e-mail account verified before you can access the game. The registration was quick and easy, and I didn’t have to give out personal information other than my full name and my e-mail address. The game itself was fast to load (at least on my computer), and a cool feature is that you can save your game! Another interesting thing is that there is a section within the SimCity site, called Waterski Challenge, which you can also play through your browser. I’ll be trying that one out later.

One bummer though, you can only use Internet Explorer to play it, so for us Mozilla-based browser lovers like Netscape Navigator and Firefox, we’ll have to give in to IE if you so desperately need to play this game.

Either no one blogged about this, or I must have been living under a rock for not knowing about the existence of Open Source Web Design. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure I have come across the site, although it never really got my attention until someone I know developed a web site using Multiflex-3, one of the amazing free web templates that are hosted in OSWD. There is a WordPress version of this template ported over, although the WP version doesn’t look as snazzy as the original.

OSWD is an excellent site for free web site templates if you are going for a business- or serious-type look.

While downloading a mobile version of The Sims 2, I suddenly went nostalgic and had the itch to play two of my favourite DOS games from 10 years ago, Theme Hospital and SimTower. You can imagine how elated I am when I found that these games are now available for download, free! I downloaded Theme Hospital from Best Old Games, and got Sim Tower from Abandonia. Both of these sites have a huge collection of popular DOS-based games way back when, like Theme Park, Final Fantasy, SimCity, Bubble Bobble, Warcraft and Civilizations — all of them were must-installs in my dearly departed Pentium MMX powered PC.

The only challenge with playing these games on newer PCs is that they may not be compatible with your sound card. I downloaded DOSBox to see whether it solves the issue, and after an amount of tweaking, I did manage to get decent sounds coming out of the game.

If you do decide on downloading the games, maybe you can do those free download sites a favour like I did. Get a couple of sponsored posts on your blog, then donate your earnings to those sites.