Well, today when I was using my mac, I needed a good utility to Un-RAR some files that I downloaded. Here, I have listed my 5 most favorite un-rarers. To test the power of these programs, I timed the extraction of a 545.5MB Windows XP installation image, which was placed in a RAR. All tests were done on my 2.0GHz Aluminum Unibody Macbook.

5. Jomic

Test Time: 0:37

Jomic is a comic book reader. However, it allows you to extract files from an RAR, and it is quite speedy at it for something it wasn’t designed to do.

4. The Unarchiver

Test Time: 0:30

This program offers a simple interface and a wide range of compatibility, but sometimes fails to do the job correctly.

3. Stuffit Expander

Test Time: 0:34

This program is simple to use and is compatible with several formats, however once in a while it won’t extract a file that one of the apps below will.

2. UnRarX

Test Time: 0:34

This is my 2nd choice, as it is simple, has a good interface, and gets the job done.

1. SimplyRAR (v 1.09 w/ rar v 3.90 beta 2)

Test Time: 0:33

SimplyRAR is my personal favorite extraction program. It resembles WinRAR very closely, and works very well at extracting and building RAR files. The time with the readily available version, 1.09, was significantly slower than any of the other programs, but when I upgraded the rar version inside of the .app package, it sped up to 2nd place.

After a very, very, very long hiatus, Old-computer is finally back! You may experience some slight performance quirks while I get my hosting situation worked out, but in the mean time, enjoy the website! Also, if you have any suggestions as to what I should blog about, go ahead and shout them out in the comments!

Today, January 24th, 2009, the Apple Macintosh turns 25 years old.

Watch Steve Jobs introducing it back then here.

Well, my “social networking” site turns one year old on January 25th. And to celebrate, I (and the other staff) decided to do a redesign of the site. It still is based off of the fundamental color green, however it’s not as dark, and looks better. If you know the URL of my site, feel free to head on over and take a peek when the new design launches on the 25th, sometime around 3pm est.

Ladies and Gentleman, may I introduce to you, my newest addition to old-computer!

Amazingness! Amazingness is a template that I worked up in a jiffy to try out on a project website I was working on. However, if you fancy it, it is yours to keep, Free! (Just make sure to keep credit where credit is due in the footer.) To download, all you have to do is view source and copy everything from here:

http://old-computer.org/amazingness

I didn’t finish the 25 days of abandonware, and I am really sorry for that. I may release the rest of the days soon. Also, I’m gonna release a CSS template soon, so hold on for that.

Its old. It emulates a space ship. What else is there to say?

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People have been managing money since the beginning of time, now they can on their (old) computer’s too!

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Today I present to you (a not very rare) something that is widely used today… Internet Explorer 1.0. It was designed for Windows 95, so it’s compatibility with newer operating systems is questionable. (more…)

Here is a bit of computer history… DOS 1.0. Good luck getting it installed .

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