Lessfeet

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.

I am always talking about Opensource

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.

ShieldsUP is a site from the security and harddrive expert Steve Gibson at GRC.Com.

ShieldsUp scans your computer to see if there are any vulnerable ports
on you computer to exploit. See if you computer is vulnerable.

Steve along with Leo Laporte host a security podcast call Security Now which covers many advanced security topics.

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.

You can setup a dual boot Windows-Ubuntu Linux system  no muss, no fuss. You hardly need any technical skills at all to this with WUBI (Windows Ubuntu Installer). There is a WUBI installer on all Ubuntu Disk but you have to have some skill to create the disk or boot to the disk but you can just download the WUBI directly. Once you have downloaded the executable file just double click on the file inside of Windows and follow the prompts. WUBI will prompt you to restart your computer and take out the disk then you’ll see the computer will ask you what operating system you want to boot. Choose Ubuntu and hit enter. Login and there you have it, Linux. No repartitioning required!  It’s very easy!

Carbonite is an online data backup solution. I’ve been using Carbonite to backup the data on my desktop for a years because of the price and all the data you want for $54.95 per year per computer. I have a lot of MP3s and photos to back and the all you can eat pricing is great if you have a lot of data.