Related to Technology

Intriguing Interactive Google Doodle for Robert Bunsen

2011-03-31T00:24:00.000-05:00

I don't often make a big deal out of the Google Doodles, but I found the Doodle currently in use to be especially intriguing for a few different reasons. Though Google has used interactive Doodles in the past, this one is (to my knowledge) more subtly sophisticated than the rest. At first glance, it may simply appear to be animated. However, a closer look shows otherwise.

Moving the mouse back and forth across the screen, I noticed that the flame changes color gradually. (I'm using a maximized Google Chrome window on my Ubuntu installation, but I suspect that it will work the same with any modern browser.) I am guessing that this somehow corresponds to the different colors of flame produced when different chemicals are burned, but I don't know for sure - chemistry is definitely one of my weaker areas of physical science.

Also, moving the mouse up and down heightens or shortens the flame correspondingly; due to the increase or decrease of heat that this would produce in a real-life setup of a system like the one depicted, the overall activity of the system shown in the Doodle increases with the larger flame, and decreases with the smaller flame. For me, it was initially the blue liquid moving from place to place through the coiled structure that caught my attention, and helped me realize this was actually a more interactive Doodle, rather than a sophisticated-but-static animation, as I remember the one for Rube Goldberg as being (though now I question that recollection).

That's all for now; awesome stuff, keep it up, Google!

How to: Download templates from Avery (without providing your information)

2010-08-20T22:55:00.000-05:00

Today I was looking for a template to use with some business card paper from Avery. Upon trying to download the template, I realized that it wouldn't let me without me giving it a valid email address. I really didn't want to, but I did anyways. Now, I'm writing this so that others that might happen to read it won't have to worry about giving Avery their personal information.

First, you need to figure out what template you want. Once you have done that, get to the part where it asks for your name and email address. Then, copy the text that's in the address bar of that window. (On Chrome, this wasn't an issue, but when I tried it in Firefox, the form requesting my information opened in a separate window, which made this part necessary.)

Here's where things start to get fun (and maybe somewhat tricky). Paste the text you copied from the address bar of the form's window into a new tab or window, but don't press [Enter] or go to the URI (yet); it needs to be modified to bypass the name and email form.

Look at the URI, and it should start out similar to this:
"http://www.avery.com/avery/secure/us_softwaredownload?locale=en_us&downloadId="

Depending on where you are trying this from, the part that says:
"us_softwaredownload?locale=en_us"
might be different. Regardless, this is the part between the first ampersand and the last forward-slash before it; this is also the part that needs to be modified.

Change it to:
"downloadprogress?tyurl="
and press the [Enter] key, click "Go"/an arrow, or whatever else you use to go to the URI. You should get the download page for the template you wanted; it should say "Downloading..." (or something similar), and provide a link to click if the download doesn't start automatically.

If you do try this, I'd appreciate a comment letting me know whether or not it worked for you. Thanks!

Scan, Convert, Share using Android and ZXing

2010-08-13T12:52:00.001-05:00

So, I had been looking for an easy way to scan a barcode and then share it as a QR Code (even if the original was in a different format). After a while going through several different applications with no luck, I finally realized what I could do.

The ZXing barcode scanner has a "custom search" feature that allows entering a custom URL for searching. I didn't think that I had any use for it, until I realized that I could use it to easily convert data read from a barcode into QR Code format.

Basically, all I did was utilize the same thing that's used by ZXing's online QR Code generator.

Here's how:

Open the Barcode Scanner application.
Tap the phone's Menu Key.
Tap the "Settings" option.
Tap the "Custom search URL" item (you might need to scroll down first).
Fill in the box with: "http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=300x300&chl=%s" (not including the quotes).
Go back and scan something.
Press the "Custom Search" option.
See below.

Notes:

The "300x300" part is the size; I found this to be a good size on my Droid Incredible, but you can change it as needed. (It should remain a square, though.)
It doesn't like the "%" (percent) symbol. I haven't found an easy way around this, but I'm sure it could be put into the generator box directly using JavaScript; I just haven't taken the time to figure it out. (Let me know if you do, so I can link to it!)
If you scan something that contains a percent symbol, and it's not working properly, replace the "%" in the URL it directs you to with "%25"; then it should work.

Feel free to comment with tips/tricks/improvements, a better way of doing it, or just to let me know you read this post.

No more social networking for me

2010-08-04T14:06:00.001-05:00

At least, not for the most part. After much thought and consideration, I've finally decided to abandon my social networking sites. That said, I might check back every once in a while, (possibly once a month,) but I definitely won't be participating as much as I used to.

Several factors influenced this decision, and I'd like to highlight a few:

Security. As most people with an interest in security know, social networking can be a very bad thing. I have not had any issues of my own as a result of social networking, but I'd rather stop before that changes (just in case).
Stability. Facebook, now the most popular social networking site, is by far the least usable of the three I'm familiar with (MySpace, Facebook, and myYearbook). Their AJAX code sucks. Their "applications" are a joke. If they can't fix simple bugs, I don't trust them to make sure my "privacy" is secured. Note that I put that word in quotes; I honestly don't believe it exists anymore. To a certain extent, yes, it does; to the extent of having a "privacy policy", absolutely not. That's why I've never posted anything on there that I didn't expect the whole world to see, anyways. Even the "messages" feature hasn't seen anything from me that would be severely detrimental if it were exposed. Either way, I'd rather not support a site that can't even maintain itself, let alone rely on a site like that.
Productivity. I plan on learning programming and attending DMACC; eliminating social networking will eliminate one of my biggest distractions.
Usefulness (or lack thereof). It's quite ironic that I would join a social networking site in the first place, considering that I'm not really a social person.
Communication. If someone needs to communicate with me, they have plenty of other ways to do it; I have Internet access and telephone service (with support for SMS). I'm sure that if someone needs to find a way to communicate with me, they can.

I'm not sure when exactly this will happen, but probably by the end of August, if not much earlier. It wouldn't be unlikely if the end of this week holds the last of my participation. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

A Day Online

2010-02-07T19:44:00.001-06:00

Note: I actually created this a while back, I just never actually posted it. (I did send it via email to some friends/family, though.) Now, although somewhat outdated, I finally got around to posting it here.

So, there I was, standing in the isle, trying to make up my mind on what I should buy to protect my new, $1800 Quad-Core computer, which runs Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate. I wanted to be safe from all the threats there are on the Internet. So, after a while, one of the guys that works at that Best Buy store came over to me, and asked if I needed any help finding anything.

Well, two and a half hours and $440 later, I ended up with a ID Vault, McAfee Total Protection 2009, Webroot AntiVirus with AntiSpyware & Firewall, Windows Live OneCare 2.0, Trend Micro AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware 2008, Norton 360 Version 2.0 Premier Edition, and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009.

After installing them, I decided to do a full system scan with each of them. There was no malware found in any of the scans. So, happy that I was able to figure things out for myself, I went online to download a copy of Photoshop, since I love to edit digital photos, and I've always been told that it is the best program for doing just that.

So, just like my training has taught me, I went to Google, and searched for places I could download Photoshop. I was looking at a few differents sites, one of which was Adobe, and the prices were too high, so I tried searching for download sites that had Photoshop for free. I got lots of results, and even I found one where I could download the product key for free, too!

Surprising, after my download started, I got a pop-up box from Norton AntiVirus telling me that my computer was infected. What the heck! Photoshop!? Who would have thought? Also, the Best Buy guy was wrong – it didn't pop-up in the lower-right of my screen as a little yellow box, it popped-up full-screen as a red and blue flashing window. It must have really been bad, too, because there were twelve exclamation marks after the part that told me I had an infection.

Anyhow, I proceeded to immediately stop the download and scan my computer again by clicking the button to run a full system scan that was in the middle of the pop-up box. It walked me through the process of downloading a program called Vista Antivirus 2008 – it must be really good to, because it said it was the only one I'd ever need. Too bad the guy at Best Buy didn't know about this; I could have saved a lot of money.

So, as I continued to browse the Internet, I saw a banner on the right side of the screen telling me that if I could shoot the burglar, I would get a new laptop for free. So I aimed the target and clicked the mouse, just as he popped up into one of the upstairs windows of the house in the picture. I got him! Wow, first shot, too! Anyways, it took me to a page where I had to sign up for different offers before I could claim my laptop, so I did. Finally, after spending about $832 on the online offers, I was told my laptop would be shipped to me in six to ten weeks at no extra cost. Even though it wasn't quite free, I'm sure it was worth it, because it said the model, an Acer Aspire ONE, had an MSRP of over $1999.99.

I decided to check my email before I went to bed. I was amazed at what I found – my email address had won the Nigerian National Lottery, the equivalent of $9,990,995.51! All I had to do was respond to the email with the proper information. The email address was a different one than the one I received the email from, though. It was explained in the email that this was for confidentiality reasons, which was fine by me; I'd soon have almost ten million dollars in my bank account.

So, sending the lottery person an email with my full name, birth date, bank account number, marital status, gender, height, weight, race, eye color, driver's license number, and social security number. Then, finally, I went to sleep, happy with my accomplishments of the day I had.

The moral of the story: Protective software is worth nothing if the user is too naive to make use of it.

Disclaimer: All trademarks/brand names/et cetera are property of their respective owners. This post is meant neither to side with or against any mentioned products, but rather to illustrate a point in a humorous manner.

Finally bought a TLDN (actually three TLDNs)

2010-01-21T18:37:00.000-06:00

Ah, yes! I have been wondering for a while now when I would make that leap of geek and purchase a top-level domain name (TLDN), and now I have. I am not giving out the address, though, at least not yet. I still have to make sure I've got it configured how I want it; once I'm ready, I'll be sure to announce it. Granted, since I'm not using a hosting service, it will probably be quite slow... but still might be worth checking out (eventually).

For now, I've got Google Sites, as well as Google Groups; the latter is more useful at this point in time, since collaboration/sharing is my main purpose right now.

Why all the fuss over Google today?

2009-09-05T13:49:00.000-05:00

I've noticed that there is a lot of fuss over Google today. Here is a thread I started.

Just to toss out my theory, it is the day after they filed some official paperwork during Google's startup (1998).

Just a thought. No need to panic.

Identity Security Techniques - Monday, February 2, 2009

2009-02-02T20:05:00.000-06:00

Alright, so, it has been a while since my last post, and today I have an email to share. I sent this email around to my family quite a while back. Be warned that there are most likely typographical errors, and this was written at a time when I was tired. I don't have much time to proofread it now, but I'll do what I can. If you have any corrections, leave a comment and I will give do my best to give you credit for spotting them. Enough said, here it is:

I'm sure you are all well aware of the fact that there are many active people/groups today that would love to steal your identity. This is intended as an informational aide, to help you make your online experience safer.

1. Don't be stupid - Never give out any type of personal information willy-nilly, especially if you get a pop-up that says something like "Enter your SS# here and get a free pizza from Papa Johns!" Okay, that was a lame example. In reality, these types of things can be very hard to detect. There are also sites that look like a legitimate site, such as Paypal, but it really could be a site set up specifically to fool you into entering your personal information, and then using it as the owner(s) of the fake-Paypal-site choose. Often, with these types of sites, your personal information may even be sold to other criminals to be used even more.

2. Don't fall for social engineering. This is probably the hardest one of all. Consider the following situation: A co-worker knows your personal email address. One day, you go out to eat with them, and have a casual conversation. It goes something like: Co-worker: "So, you say you like animals?" You: "Yeah, our pets are treated better than our relatives, sometimes. CW: "Well, what kind of pets do you have?" Y: "We have three dogs right now. We had one cat, but it died about five years ago." CW: "Oh, that's too bad... Was it an old cat?" Y: "Oh, yes. It was fifteen years old, and it was also the first pet I ever had." CW: "Oh, I see. What kind of a cat was it? Was it a nice cat" Y: "He was a very nice cat. I don't know what kind it was, we found him on the street and decided to name him 'Bob'" ***RED FLAG HERE!!!*** Okay, so it seems like an innocent conversation, right? Well maybe, but consider this: Almost all (if not all) email providers have a feature know as a "Password Reset". When you first got your email, you probably filled out a form, and on that form was something often known as a "Security Question". A popular security question, and sometimes even the default one, is "What was your first pet's name?" Making sense yet? Okay, let's say you forgot your password. You go to sign into your email, can't remember the password, and then notice a little link near the "Sign In" button - it says "Forgot password?" Guess what this link does? You guessed it, it takes you to a page that displays your security question, and has a couple of text input boxes: One for your answer (Bob), and one for the email address you want your password reset information to be sent to. Whoops. (Note: This particular bit may no longer be valid due to the security threat it would pose.)

3. When giving out personal information online, look for signs that the website you are giving it to might be illegitimate. One common sign that is fairly well-known is the "lock icon". When you go to an online retailer, at the payment screen, there is almost always a lock icon. (A picture of a locked padlock, usually brownish/goldish in color.) The location of the padlock can vary, depending on many factors, but usually the browser being used and the website being visited are the two biggest ones. I usually look for the "ends" and/or "corners". In the "address bar", (where you type in the web address,) the lock icon sometimes shows up on one end of it. In other situations, a common spot is the "status bar" - the bottom bar of the web browser (below the web page). Its location can vary, but typically I find that it tends to be in the far-right fourth (quarter, whatever,) of the status bar (if the status bar is where it is contained). The lock icon might also be found places such as one end of the menu bar (the one with the words File, Edit, View, History, and so on). Note, however, that it should be somewhere within the "frame parts" of the browser; id est, if it is an icon/picture **on the web page itself, but not on the "browser frame" somewhere**, there is a greater chance that you are dealing with a fraudulent site. Some sites, sadly, are as secure as can be, but lack the lock icon. (Not sure about that, either.) Look in the address bar: it starts with something like "http://" or "https://" - the second one, with the "s", means it is secure. In case you were wondering, HTTP(S) = Hypertext Transfer Protocol (Secure). Two more things to watch out for, both involving the text in the address bar. First, look at the part of the address immediately before the ".com", ".org", ".gov", whatever. It should be the site you think you're on. So, if it is "payment.paypal.com", it is owned by the owner of "paypal.com". But if it is "paypal.payment..com", it is owned by the owner of "payment.com" - which should send up a ***RED FLAG*** if you are planning on making a Paypal payment on that web page. Finally, watch for "tricky lettering" in the address bar. For instance, something like "g00gl3.c0m" might seem ridiculously obvious, but something like "paypa1.com" or "paypaI.com" might not, especially depending on the font used.

4. What you should do if you receive a phishing email.. Okay, first off, for a definition of "Phishing", read the first paragraph or two at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing Got it? Okay, good. Common examples of phishing scams (well, like the ones I always get) are ones that start out by saying something like (but worded *much* more professionally): "Hey, you are the person on the will of this dead guy we just found, Tim Jiminy. It says to give you all his money. He was a millionaire, so, because of the large amount of money we need to give you, we need you to send an email to 'jimjohnson@specialtylawfirminsomerandomcountry.com' and include the following information: your name, date of birth, address, phone number, and checking account number that you want your money deposited in, along with the password to it, to avoid any glitches along the way. Oh, and you (legally) only have seven hours from the time this email was opened, or the money will not be distributed." Okay, so what have you all been told to do with this type of email? Probably something like "delete it, and don't reply". Well, this might work, but it's not the best thing to do. Think about it: How are the cops supposed to even think about catching this psycho if they don't know he's doing it? Here's what I do, and encourage you to do, too. **Firstly, never reply.** Sure, if everyone that got this email replied to it, it would be a massive flood coming to the spammer/phisher's account, trigger the attention if his ISP (Internet Service Provider), and get their internet access terminated. But, since there's no way to make sure that that is what will happen, (and I guarantee you that, likely, no one else would reply,) it will confirm to the criminal that the email address he has sent the bogus email to exists. Then guess what? All of his buddies get to know it, they sell it to others, and eventually, you get spam like this from hundreds of senders. **Secondly, (if it is a phishing email,) forward it to the Anti-Phishing Workgroup.** Look at http://www.antiphishing.org/report_phishing.html for a nice (and short) tutorial on how to submit such emails to them. What I do is right-click on the email, and select "view full headers". (Yours might be a bit different.) After they are displayed on my screen, I click somewhere in that box and hold the [Ctrl] key and tap the [A] key, then release the [Ctrl] key. This selects the full headers. Next, I right-click on the highlighted text (the headers) and select "Copy". Then, I click the "forward" button and type in "reportphishing@antiphishing.org" (without quotes) as the "To:" address. Then, above the (to-be-)forwarded email, I type in something like "The headers are:", and press the [Enter] key a couple of times. Finally, I right-click where the cursor is, and select "Paste". Wha-laa! The headers of the original email are there for the wonderful APWG workers to use to track down the culprit of the spam. **Third, (optional, but builds karma,) send a copy of the email's headers to the company that was being impersonated (if applicable).** So, if instead of getting an email about some dead guy, it ends up looking like it came from a bank, and is asking you for personal information, look on the bank's website, and find a link with something like "Contact Us" as the title. From there, look for an "Abuse" section, or something similar. Email the spam with the headers (as described above or on the APWG's website) to the email listed on the bank's website for such occasions. **Finally, if you really want to, file a complaint with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).** For more information on that, visit: http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx

My new signature image - Sunday, January 04, 2008

2009-01-04T18:12:00.000-06:00

Well, it has been a while since my last post, and there's not much new for me to type about (that I want to type about).

However, while on a forum, it was inadvertently brought to my attention that the signature image that I had been using was inaccurate. So, here is the new, corrected image:

That's all for now.

My first Linux script contribution - Thursday, November 13, 2008

2008-11-13T20:18:00.000-06:00

Hey, this is the first script that I am posting for the Linux community.

The comments explain pretty much all that I know about it. Please, please, please read the file until you see the line that says:
#### End of mandatory reading
It contains important information - such as the one (so far) known bug.

Here it is: Beeps (It's the only file inside the archive.)
Is it pointless? Probably.
Is it fun? I had fun with it.

Enjoy!

First "real" Post on this site; Here's the deal - Sunday, October 5, 2008

2008-10-05T13:29:00.000-05:00

Okay, all those posts labeled as "Archive-type" are actually posts that were on my Yahoo! 360 blog, but since I have had so many issues with their blog hosting system, I have switched to Google's system (Blogger).

I hope it works out better than Yahoo!'s.
That's all for now!

Technical Difficulties Sunday, October 05, 2008 (Posted on Su_2008-10-05 as Archive-type post.)

2008-10-05T13:28:00.000-05:00

Well, I failed to post on Friday as I said I would, and I apologize for that.

I tried to post both then and Saturday, but with no luck. Now I am posting using a different web browser to see if it works.

I may switch my blog to another blog-hosting site.

Praying - Thursday, October 02, 2008 (Posted on Su_2008-10-05 as Archive-type post.)

2008-10-05T13:26:00.000-05:00

I have to admit, I'm not usually as religious as I feel I should be. Tonight is a bit different. What I have just done might make this an important day in my history. If I've done what I think I've done, I will be ecstatic to know that spare time in my last four years has not been spent poorly. (There are (at least) two companies that will most likely not be happy if I have done what I think I have done.) But I have to wait to know for sure. I will find out tomorrow at school. I plan to post tomorrow either way, revealing my findings if I have succeeded.

To all a good night.

My registrations - Friday, September 19, 2008 (Posted on Su_2008-10-05 as Archive-type post.)

2008-10-05T13:22:00.000-05:00

Hello, anyone who reads this blog (that probably means no one) -

I am active on the Internet in a handful of spots; if you want to find me, (even if you don't,) here are some profile pages of mine:

Hacker Learning Network

LinuxQuestions.org

Linux Forums

Ubuntu Forums

Hardware Logic

Facebook

Instructables

And here are two of my badges:

Have fun.

A sad sight to see - Sunday, September 14, 2008 (Posted on Su_2008-10-05 as Archive-type post.)

2008-10-05T13:19:00.000-05:00

It really is sad to see how ignorant people are these days.

Just take a look at the site http://home.comcast.net/~SupportCD/FirefoxMyths.html

Almost all of his information is inaccurate, irrelevant to his argument, or both.

He apparently didn't read his sources very well (at least not the ones that I read).

He states clearly in his site:

No I do not hate Firefox

However, here is part of his site (removed parts not relevant to my post) that is farther down the page:

Emailing Rules:

3. Non-Windows Users - Do not send me any emails! I honestly do not care about what you have to say.

4. The Examples are NOT the Sources! Do not send me any emails about the Examples!
5. Excuses will NEVER be added to this page! Do not send me any emails including any excuses.
6. I have heard just about every argument imaginable and I am extremely tired of repeating myself.
7. Do not send me long useless emails giving your opinion on each Myth, I really don't care.
8. Do not claim to know or imply my intent, only I can state this.

Now if you have a testimonial or an intelligent comment and not something that 20 other mindless fanboys have not already knee-jerk ranted about feel free to email me: OptimizeXP@comcast.net

Notes - Non-Windows users and Fanboys are apparently illiterate.

Okay... Then why is Microsoft itself behind a Linux firewall?
Obviously, this is one of those people that has no varied, real-world experience with computing.
My guess is that this person has never even tried Linux, much less anytime recently.

Also note how this person tries to dismiss anything that goes against their thoughts, not even giving them a chance. The reason is probably that they just don't want to admit to being wrong, whether or not they are. Sure, the vast majority of the population dislike being wrong, but anyone that is not a coward will admit to it (if they are).

Google runs on Linux. Last I heard, Microsoft is behind a Linux firewall.
Software developers other than Microsoft do exist - for excellent reasons.

Final thoughts: I will probably be "blacklisted" if my blog is found by the owner of Firefox Myths. Cowardly, eh?

The Mojave Experiment - Thursday, September 11, 2008 (Posted on Su_2008-10-05 as Archive-type post.)

2008-10-05T13:17:00.000-05:00

Okay, I've been browsing the website of The Mojave Experiment, and found out what I already knew: Ubuntu still triumphs over Vista.

First video: Security

The Mojave Experiment brags about how Vista gets fewer malware infections than XP SP2 in the same time period. No kidding, anything would! Besides, malware coders probably get tired of dealing with easy stuff like Windows.

It also talks about parental controls. It wasn't clear to me in the video if Vista could block specific websites, but I know that Squid and Dansguardian combined on Ubuntu can. As for the restricted logon times, it would probably take a little more work to do the same thing in Ubuntu, but not much. Just make two scripts; one to disable and one to enable the child's account, and schedule them with cron, at, or gat (a front-end for cron and at).

Second video: Compatibility

I have not experienced compatibility issues with Ubuntu, but in my experience with Vista, "compatibility mode" doesn't work with any of the five to ten programs I've tried. XP's compatibility mode worked better for me than this - it had a success rate of about 50%.

As for the hardware, The Mojave Experiment talks about having the following statistics:

Cameras = 500+

Printers = 2000+

Media players = 150

As for Ubuntu, the numbers are less, but when you consider that you can set the cameras and media players to be read as a "mass storage device", I'm guessing it really would boost that number. Also, for any hardware, you could always just use "NDISwrapper" and use the Windows driver. Lastly, these are just the ones that have been submitted - for instance, the "Cases/Cooling" on the Ubuntu HCL only has 6 items - this is obviously far, far from accurate.

Cameras = 361

Printers = 212

Media players = Not specified

Third video: Organization

The Mojave Experiment highlights three things in this video: the search capabilities, the 3D Flip function, and the file previews.

I'd say that Ubuntu is a fair amount behind in the search department, way far ahead in the 3D effects department (via Compiz-Fusion), and on-par to slightly behind in the preview function.

Fourth video: Windows Media Center

Elisa (a download for Ubuntu) has all the features of the player parts of Windows Media Center, while MythTV has more features (according to what I have read) than Windows Media Center does for the recording side of things.

As for the "panoramic stitch", the photo he showed after the stitch was not panoramic - but you could do what he did or do a "panoramic stitch" in Gimp.

Fifth video: File Backup

Honestly, I can not speak about file backup on the Linux front: I have never used such features. However, of all the versions of Windows I have encountered, none that I have tried System Restore with have worked.

Sixth video: Gadgets

Ubuntu has gadgets of its own, though I have never used them.

Microsoft asking for it; Information to be released - Sunday, August 31, 2008 (Posted on Su_2008-10-05 as Archive-type post.)

2008-10-05T13:16:00.000-05:00

Microsoft is barking up the wrong tree, as the saying goes.

Look at the linked page:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/

If they were to win a lawsuit like that, I am predicting that there would be lots of riots.
(Okay, protests, not riots.)

Also:

Look back here at the beginning of June, 2009. I plan to post some batch files I finished in April or May of 2007.

I will also explain why I am not posting them now.

A few reasons why Linux is better than Windows - Thursday, June 19, 2008 (Posted on Su_2008-10-05 as Archive-type post.)

2008-10-05T13:15:00.000-05:00

Here are my main reasons why Linux is better than Windows (numbered for clarity, not order):

As-is, without needing any downloads/updates, features of the operating system (by default):

1. Free/Illegal to make "unfree"/ISO image available online (legal)/Encouraged to make copies and distribute/redistribute.

2. Drag-and-drop to reposition the placeholders for open windows on the taskbar.

3. Contains virtual desktops.

4. Get two CDs of the operating system shipped to you at absolutely no cost by providing a name and address.

5. Huge amount of dedicated (and "official") community forums/support.

6. Contains an office suite.

7. Multiple languages selectable at boot time.

8. Low minimum system requirements.

9. Contains package management software.

10. Single CD install

11. Can be tested (fully functional) without installing

12. Can hot-plug PS/2 keyboards and mice

13. Contains Perl (Practical Extraction and Report Language)

Note:

--Ubuntu (one of the latest-and-greatest of Linux) had all of these features by December 2007
--Windows Vista Ultimate (the latest-and-greatest of Windows) had none of these features by December 2007

Make your switch today!

Linux(es) on a flash drive - Tuesday, April 29, 2008 (Posted on Su_2008-10-05 as Archive-type post.)

2008-10-05T13:10:00.000-05:00

I now have persistent KNOPPIX (bootable), Back Track 2 Live CD (bootable), and Damn Small Linux (QEMU in windows) installed on my 4GB USB flash drive. It took a while to get all of the settings right, but it was worth the time. I can't find any way to use an emulator to boot the drive (not a disk image) from within Windows.

Yes, I like Linux better than Windows, but I am still much more familiar with Windows. I have only started with Linux less than a year and a half ago, whereas I have used Windows since January of 2000.

The main reason I prefer Linux over Windows is what I have to pay for the latest and greatest of each - if I want Vista Ultimate, I would have to pay $300-$500 depending on where I shop. Ubuntu, Kubuntu, DSL, KNOPPIX, (which I use,) and most other versions of Linux are available for download for $0. That's how I decided, considering that support for Linux is excellent.