Last week I test drove one of the most amazing games I have ever played. First, you must understand, I am focused only on accurate car racing games, having played GP Legends for years without ever having completed a race. No, I don't like all those other "fake" racing games, where cars do all sorts of tricks they cannot be pulled off in real life. The more realistic, the better, even if I eventually crash because of the difficulty.

So, when I was wandering around a conference last week and came upon the offering by iOpener, I knew I was on to a game of an even higher calibre. The company, based in Germany and associated with the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands has coupled computer gaming, the Internet and satellite navigation to provide you with the chance to race virtually in real motorsport races with real drivers in real time.

You do not have to have the three surround screens and the racing cockpit iOpener provided for the demonstration I saw. A good gaming wheel, pedals, a fast Internet connection, along with the software and iOpener account suffices to mimic reality. Wear a helmet if you must.

For now you can participate in previously held races. Iopener has teamed up with the global promoter for the FIA World Rally Championship to put telemetry and satellite navigation sensors in cars participating in the series of races. IOpener and Black Bean Games have then collected the continuous stream of positioning and telemetry data from the competing cars to create unique simulations of each rally.

Players at home can then compete in the already completed race, allowing them to compare themselves with the professionals. Last October the company went a step further with beta testing the concept.

During the weekend of October 24 to 25 at the Zolder Circuit in the Netherlands, 5,000 participants racing from behind their computers at home in real-time live competed with FIA GT driver Bas Leinders in his Matech Ford GT 40 during a practice session for the FIA GT Championship 2009.

I have now been accepted as a beta tester for RTR, the first iOpener Enabled game, by SimBin. I will test out the game this coming weekend, when the wife goes off to see her family and I get to use the key code they supplied me with. I will try out a stored game. I know I am going to fail, but when I fail - that is crash - no harm is done. The company's aim is to make you addicted. I can hardly wait.

For those in Bermuda who want the chance to beta test the game, there is a live event on March 11, which, with my current focus on family have banned myself from attempting. IOpener will test RTR using a BMW Z4M racing at Zolder. Go to www.iopenermedia.com to sign up or to www.real-timeracing.com

In a pretty complete compilation PCWorld.com has picked the 112 best free downloads, sites and services. Out of those the magazine's superstars are Adobe Reader, Craigslist, Flickr, Gmail, Google, Mozilla Firefox and Wikipedia. Those are well known by most.

The magazine has also picked out 10 other classics it says not everyone uses, but should. Here is the list in alphabetical order, with my comments.

Ad-Aware Free is simple to use and does an excellent job of detecting and killing spyware as PCWorld describes it. However it has failed for me in the past in detecting some spyware. I have switched to Spybot, used in conjunction with the free version of AVG antivirus software as an effective combination. One commentator of the selection also recommends Malwarebytes and Microsoft Security Essentials as another no cost combination.

Audacity is an open-source program for recording sound as well as editing it. However, my attempts to get clean recordings of my records and tapes have so far failed to produce a clean sound: I will make the attempt again to see whether I have messed up the setting.

I agree that BitTorrent is a great file-sharing client. It is easy to use and to control. I give it my thumbs up without hesitation. Dropbox is another story. I tried this free syncing application out for a week before dropping it as too heavy and invasive. I never really knew if my files were synced between three computers I shift between on a daily basis. I find carrying a portable hard disc around much easier. Still, some may find Dropbox useful.

Evite is great for the party person with lots of friends. It allows you to create and e-mail party invites and track RSVPs online with easy. I wish I could use it more. FreeConference.com allows the small business owner with scattered staff or suppliers schedule and make unlimited conference calls. What more could you ask for?

IMDb.com is a well known movie review database that carries a surprising amount of information. I have occasionally used it for years. Originally it was quite sparse but is now very, very thorough.

I cannot say enough about OpenOffice.org I have recommended this full-featured competitor to Microsoft Office often. Here, I do so again. You do not need to pay for a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation program (eg PowerPoint), a database and a vector drawing application. The best part: OpenOffice is seamlessly compatible with Microsoft Office.

I have also previously recommended the GIMP, a free alternative to Photoshop. It is not pretty and takes some time to learn, but then so does Photoshop CS4, which I am pretty good at using. Getting Gimp beats plunking down the equivalent of a flight to the US to get a versatile photo editor.

I must admit I have not used Trillian Basic before, but I plan to due to the rave reviews I have heard elsewhere. Trillian provides a single interface for communicate with users of many other popular

instant messengers, such as AIM, ICQ, IRC, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger. You do not have to worry which one your user has.

Send any comments to elamin.ahmed@gmail.com