45. Halloween treats lurk on
Internet
By Mark Alberstat
With Halloween just around the corner, the goblins and ghosts will be
jumping out from behind trees, ringing the doorbell and asking for candy.
Why not bring that Halloween spirit to your computer?
Whether you are running a Windows-based PC or a Mac, there is a smoking
cauldron full of fun Halloween downloads. The following is a small
sampling of what you can find on the Internet for your downloading
pleasure to haunt your computer or send shivers down the spines of your
co-workers.
One site that is completely - and always - ready for Halloween is the
Ben&Jerry's ice-cream site.
Self-professed lovers of Halloween,
Ben&Jerry's has online games, e-cards, creepy crafts, a screen saver for
Mac and Windows, and much more. Never taking itself too seriously, this
site even has a graveyard of flavours they have tried over the years but
which gave up the ghost for one reason or another.
Scary.com offers a similar but larger
treat bag of Halloween goodies,
including a list of costume ideas and directions on how to make them. The
Bug-ologist costume is among those that may appeal to your little
trick-or-treater.
To really prepare your computer for the holiday, you need a Halloween
theme pack and there are plenty out there.
For the Mac OS X and Classic OS, www.resexcellence.com has a
Halloween theme complete with tombstone menu systems, pumpkins and bones
icons. This site also has several Halloween-themed desktop images,
including Sleepy Hollow with its headless horseman. If you do a search at
www.iconfactory.com for
Halloween, you will also come up with a variety of
Mac themes.
For the Windows side of things, there are a number of sites that feature
ghoulish themes. One of the biggest is at
freehalloweenscreensavers.com.
PC World magazine has a nice one for
downloading at its site. Although the images in this theme pack could be
better, the sounds are well worth a shiver or two. There are also a lot of
themes at unibia.net, including a very
pumpkin-inspired Halloween one.
For Windows-based screen savers, look no further than
screensavers.com.
The Halloween screen saver here won't scare anyone who doesn't mind the
occasional walking skeleton or floating demonic skull.
For Mac screen savers, the dedicated site of
macscreensavers.com will find
you a few, as will the download section of
apple.com.
If you would prefer to play with your ghosts and ghouls, there are a few
sites that offer free Halloween-inspired games.
Cavernsofblood.com has several
games to be played online, including a haunted house with excellent sounds
as well as a few scary jigsaw puzzles. The links page on this site could
also keep you up well past the witching hour.
Hersheys.com/trickortreats
is another site with a few online games for the
younger online ghouls. Although the makers of various Halloween goodies
bring the site to you, the promotional side of the site is not
overwhelming. The domestic witch or warlock might take a peek at the
recipe section, which includes such goodies as Witches' Brew, Chocolate
Spider Web Cake and Yummy Mummy Cookies.
The Mousepad runs every two weeks. It's a service of Chebucto Community
Net, a community-owned Internet provider. If you have a question about
computing, email mousepad@chebucto.ns.ca. If we use your question in
a column, we'll send you a free mousepad.
Originally published 24 October 2004
