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EA LINK
Beware of its dangers.....
Today I was playing BattleField 2142, which I pre-ordered from EA Link awhile ago. When I selected a server in multiplayer it started loading, like normal, and then suddenly it went back the server selection list, or browser, saying "Invalid CD Key". So I tried loading up another server and again I got the same error. I thought to myself "How in the world does EA Link lose my CD Key?" I went on EA Support and Google, and found out that "Sometimes patching or upgrading EA Link can corrupt the record of your CD key." Just great. EA Link loses my CD key and worst of all I can't uninstall or re-install BF2142. I still don't know why I couldn't uninstall the game, although I think it would be much easier with a hard copy of the game instead of a downloaded version. There is some benefit of getting BF2142 from EA Link though, I got soundtrack and exclusive video with my pre-order. Back to my problem, so I went under "My Games" in EA Link and clicked the install button next to "Ready to install" -I thought it said "ready to play", but I forget since its been a while since I lasted played it. The installer opened up, but after a few seconds of loading it closed on me. I was not able to re-install it. So I went back to EA Support, and it said nothing about re-installing and uninstalling problems that I had - EA Link breaks my program and doesn't tell me how to fix it. So I went onto Google andfound out that before I could re-install BF2142, I had to clean my system of BF2142, not just by pressing the broken uninstall button, but by deleting the records of the install, the system folder, and removing entries from the system registry. So after about 20 minutes I cleaned my system of BF2142. While doing that, I found that there were no entries of BF2142 in the system registry, and I'd still like to know why. I opened up EA Link again and tried re-installing BF2142, but it still closed down when it was loading. I had to delete the temporary install files, and re-download the install files for BF2142 and BF2142: Northern Strike and the patches. After 1-3 hours I had the game installed. Finally! But the point is, EA Linkshould not break my games just because of a patch or update. I hope EA will be more careful in the future, and I hope this won't happen to other games I might order from EA Link, though it may take a while before I consider it a safe way to purchase games.
Some of my favorite search engines are Live Search(Windows Live)and Google. But which one is better? First off, Yahoo! and Ask ......... no I'm not going there. I think Google is trying to become the next Microsoft, but we all hope that will not happen. Google was the best search engine displaying millions of results for the keyword you typed in, but now Live Search is starting to take the lead. Google has so many results due to its age(founded in 199, and Live Search has a ton less since its a lot younger (founded in 2006). But as Live Search(Windows Live)ages, it has many more results, more features, and is soon becoming Google's worst enemy. Google has ad programs, web hosting, email, personalized pages, maps, and many more features. But guess whatWindows Livehas - it has ad programs, personalized pages, email(hotmail), maps, and more features which are in development. Live Search is also gaining more results, and Google is too. One thing I think is a difference is the looks. Google looks like a simple page - white background, a logo, and form field(for searching), However Live Search is more appealing to the eye. It has a colored background, icons that look like Vista icons, and actually relevant websites(probably due to its size). I like Google for email, but I like Live Search for just about everything else.
