If you’ve been reading this blog then you know it’s very important to keep your operating system up to date for security purposes. It is also very important to keep your other software up to date especially software that connects to the Internet.
Linux distrobutions like Ubuntu, Fedora and Open Suse keep all of the software installed using the systems software installer up to date. Windows does not do this. Some software checks to see if it’s up to date. If it does not you have a problem.
The Personsl Software Inspector by Secunia will check to see if you have critical software out of date and will prompt you to install the new version. I have a very up to date system but I install Secunia PSI and ran it. After a couple of minutes it found that my Skype had a new version. I don’t think I’ve heard of a real problem with Skype but you would not want to take that chance.
I love the Firefox web-browser. One of things I like the most about Firefox are the extentions.
Here are some of our favorites:
FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.
1-Click YouTube Video Download – Download YouTube in a single click. Download YouTube videos in FLV and MP4 (both High Definition and iPod compatible High-Quality)
Delicious Bookmarks is the official Firefox add-on for Delicious, the world’s leading social bookmarking service (formerly del.icio.us). It integrates your bookmarks and tags with Firefox and keeps them in sync for easy, convenient access.
Gmail Notifier – The original notifier for Gmail. Supports checking multiple accounts as well as Gmail Hosted accounts.
Omnibar – Integrates location bar and search bar into one. Shows search and url suggestions. Quickly switch search engine using search keywords. Provides different auto-complete popup styles for compact displays.
If your still using the Windows XP or Windows 7 RC (time is running out for the RC – release candidate) you might want to be thinking about installing your Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade that you preordered back in the summer of 2009 for $49. Didn’t catch that deal? I’m sorry.
There are several methods for upgrading. If you’re current using Windows Vista then the upgrade path is obvious. First make a backup of all of your data. While your computer is ON put in the Windows 7 disk. A setup screen will start. Just follow the prompts. Do not install the new OS over the vista install. You’ll want to start over with a clean install. After install is complete get all of the update then activate your Win7 installation. This is the easiest install. If your installing from Windows XP, Windows 7 RC or from a clean hard-drive gets more complicated. Here’s instructions from Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows.
I known about and have used Evernote a little. Evernote is a web application that saves your text notes, photos, audio note and webpage clips in the cloud to use as reminders and help keep your life organized. I’ve got the phone application on my Nexus One. I’m going to use it more often.
I’ve been using “Powerquest Partition Magic” (a non-distructive partitioning program) for sometime now. Here is a great free and opensource tool that replaces P-Magic. Gparted is a non-destructive that pretty much has the look and feel of P-Magic. The only difference I see is P-Magic runs in DOS and Gparted runs on a Linux GIU. Both good programs but Gparted is free!!!
Don’t you hate it when you buy a new pc and it has preinstalled all kinds of programs you will never use. Even worse half of them start up when your computer starts and slows your new fast computer down to a craw. The PC Decrapifier will uninstall many of the common trialware and annoyances found on many of the PCs from big name OEMs. You get to see the list of items it detects and then choose what will be removed automatically.
Jungle Disk is an application that lets you store files and backup data securely to Amazon.com’s S3 ™ Storage Service. S3 does not have an application So Jungle Disk provides you with one. Jungle Disk creates a network drive in your computer and you just drag folder and files over or you can setup an automatic backup. I’ve been using Jungle Disk foryears and it is outstanding. Jungle Disk use to cost $20 and you could use it on as many computers as you wished but now I think it is some sort of monthly subscription. I think it’s $3 dollars a month. The data backed up via Amazon S3 is very cheap as well.
I would be the first to tell you, “I don’t know the first thing about programming.” I’ve tried and tried to no avail. Being a poor typist and having little attention span are huge problems when trying to learn to
code. I just can’t do it! I’ve tried to learn Python and Rube but I tired of it quickly. I keep think, “Why do you have to go through that to add two number together. What I need is a GUI (graphical user interface). Visual Basic Express is a free version of the popular programing platform. I’m going to download and install it tonight. I will attempt to get something going with it and report back to you.
Software and I am a big believer in O.S. VB Express is not opensource but it is free. I just want to try it and see if I can get anything out of it. Once I get an understanding of how programming works I wiil try to go back to Python. Maybe I will never get it!
Are you secure on the net? May you are! Maybe you aren’t! The Internet
is always being monitored by hackers, bots and other things looking for
computers that have open ports that can be attacked.
I was discussing last night with someone about upgrading Ubuntu to a new version. I said I did not know much about it because I was alway trying new distros and I never keep a version long enough to upgrade. I also said I thought it was very simple. Just a few clicks and that it is done with little worry that it would break anything. I looked at the Ubuntu instructions for upgrading. It was just as I thought it is all done with no commandline or recompiling the kernel. I don’t know about it breaking stuff. I guess it’s like anything else. Some things could break.
