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Today's Featured Game

Microsoft Mahjongg

ESRB Rating:E - Everyone
My Rating:Ages 6 and up
Genre:Puzzle
Fun-O-Meter:4 out of 5 Stars
Summary:The free version of this game contains advertisements
Simple Mah Jongg games have been available for nearly every operating system out there, and it's great to see Microsoft stepped up to the plate with one of their own. They did a wonderful job on it too, making it a must have for fans of solitaire Mah Jongg games.

Brief thoughts:The only potential issue here is that the game's premium version is only available via a subscription. If you're not interested in the few benefits that offers, then there's nothing to worry about.

Today's Featured Glossary Entry

Thread (programming)
Every program is ultimately a list of instructions that the computer can understand and execute. Normally, they walk through their instructions one by one, until they either reach the end of the program or an instruction to exit.

Threading changes this behavior by spitting off part of the program into its own "miniature program" called a thread. Each thread runs at the same time as the rest of the code, allowing the program to effectively do multiple things at once.

This is especially useful for lengthy or complicated tasks, as one thread can do the work while another keeps the user informed about its progress. Without this approach, the program will become unresponsive when it's busy chewing on something.