Blogging and Podcasting

I really enjoy learning about new technology. For the past year or so I've become addicted to listening to various podcasts (especially ones about technology and security.) They are part of my daily routine. I listen to them while walking on the treadmill in the morning or listening to them as an alternative to commercial radio (the steam of advertising annoys me) while driving to and from work.

Podcasts offer me the ability to select the programming I really enjoy while stimulating me to learn more and/or try out various links, software or procedures I come across.

Recently two things are starting to interest me more. One is blogging and the other is podcasting. While I have been blogging little by little each month, I really don't understand much about the overall blogosphere and world of blogging. The other area of interest is Podcasting. While, I'm not thinking that I want to start my own podcast (at least not for a while), I am intrigued by the technology used to create them and have begun to study how they are put together. My sincere appreciation goes out to those who put in many extra effort and hours to produce this content.

If you find yourself interested in these two areas as well, here's a link I learned about from Todd Cochrane's podcast at geeknewscentral that you want to check out. "podcastFAQ.com" is a site dedicated to providing information about podcasting and you'll find it at http://www.podcastfaq.com.

Who knows, maybe one day I may have my own podcast... hmmmm..... Well at least for now, I'm going to learn more about publishing a blog others can benefit from.

Point me to other tips you come across and feel free to let me know how I'm doing. I appreciate your comments and love to hearing from you.

Note: Todd Cochrane's podcast can be found at http://www.geeknewscentral.com. I find his site and podcast to be very informative (he makes you feel like your part of his family!) Give him a listen!

Just Installed PCLinuxOS for my folks

This past weekend, I used one of our old desktop computers to install a copy of PCLinuxOS 2007. I took this updated system over to my parents house for them to try out as an alternative to their aging Windows XP system (I was about ready to re-load the OS on this one.)

To get it ready to use, I ported over a copy of their existing Bookmarks from Internet Explorer and then imported them into Firefox (so that they could have the links they were used to getting to.)

I must say, overall the system now boots really quickly. And even more impressive is how responsive it is now when surfing various internet pages over lower speed DSL.

I choose this distribution of linux, because I liked what I experienced when I used it. Everything I was accustomed to doing on the internet worked right out of the box (such as streaming youtube videos and other forms of audio files.) It uses the KDE desktop and the folks at PCLinuxOS have have made the desktop and menu's look a lot like a general windows system (which I think will be easier for them to get used to.)

I'm expecting this setup to be so much more secure that what they are accustomed to experiencing on Windows XP (my folks were constantly being subject to spy and malware installations.)

First off, the OS is linux (linux is not subject to as many exploits.) Secondly they are not logging in with a root equivalent account (so it's difficult for anything malicious to enter the system now.) Thirdly Internet Explorer is no longer being used. Firefox is now the main browser (a much more secure browser, I even added Ad-blocker plus to keep down the amount of advertising that was being streamed to them.)

The old computer I loaded this on only has 256mb of ram, and a 40mb hard disk. However, PCLinuxOS 2007 (a Mandriva* based install) runs really well with this (I did experience a bug with the OS's auto temp setting which made the OS think the system was overheating causing it to shut the system down when it really wasn't getting hot). To make it a simpler transition, I also placed desktop icons of Open Office Writer (word processor) and Calc (spreadsheet).

So far, its a tremendous improvement over the current performance of their Windows XP home edition and they seem to be pleased with it. I'm going to let them run on it for a while to see if they like it. If so, I'll convert the rest of their files, hook up the scanner and the printer.

Here's a link to the PCLinuxOS website. Also, here's a great link for getting the best out of any PCLinuxOS install.

http://www.pclinuxos.com/
http://www.howtoforge.com/the_perfect_desktop_pclinuxos_2007

What's your experience with PCLinuxOS or other Linux Distributions? It appears to be a great OS to bring life back into old systems.

(* Note: 2/5/08, I originally mis-represented PCLinxOS as being Debian based, however it is actually based on Mandrake/Mandriva, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCLinuxOS#Relationship_with_Mandriva_Linux for more info.)

The Perfect Ubuntu Desktop

I came across this link. I thought it was an excellent howto on setting up a great ubuntu desktop. Most items I had, however, I discovered a few as well. If you're interested in getting Ubuntu running give this link a test run.

http://www.howtoforge.com/the_perfect_desktop_ubuntu_gutsy_gibbon

Let me know what you think?

File hosting - another alternative

Here's another alternative for Free File hosting.

Online storage for your files. Box offers web-based access, sharing and protection of your documents, photos, and files

Mitch Keeler of Webhostingshow.com says this is one of his top choices.

If you try it, let me know what you think?

You can find them at http://www.box.net/

Easy Website Publishing (excellent price)

I stumbled upon a site where you can create a personal web site/blog for a great price (free!) I created a website using it just a few minutes ago... check out gresak.webnode.com. They'll give you 100mb disk space and 5gb of bandwidth usage.

The system was very easy to use. It has fast editing and you can use drag-and-drop items from the tool bar. From what I can tell Webnode is completely free.

Check it out and let me know what you think... Post your new website link so that others can check it out as well...

http://www.webnode.com/en/

Safer internet surfing experience?

If you'd like a safer internet surfing experience, consider adding the "NoScript" add-on to your Firefox browser.

There's just way too many bad guys out their that would like to find a way to exploit your system. Malicious code from a web site can do this to you via allowed java, adobe flash, Microsoft Silverlight, Active X type scripting.

For a while now, I've been listening to Steve Gibson (Security Now podcast) and he strongly recommends that you disable scripting. However, if scripting is disabled there's a strong chance that many unknown websites you visit will not work correctly. Well there's a great Firefox add-on that can assist you. NoScript allows JavaScript, Java (and other plug-ins) only for trusted domains of your choosing (i.e. your bank, or other routing sites you've come accustomed to trusting.) This "whitelist" based pre-emptive blocking approach prevents exploitation.

Check it it out by searching for "NoScript"

Tools | Add-ons | Get Extensions
In the search bar, type in "noscript"

Here's a direct link to it... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722

I've just installed it. I'll provide an update later.

Let me know what you think about this topic or this product?

Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

Over the weekend I re-installed Ubuntu Linux on my home computer in a dual boot fashion. I'm really impressed with how well Ubuntu Linux performs on my older T3985.

I enabled the Compiz graphics and now my ATI video system can do awesome desktop Grahpics. I also purchased an additional 1gb of ram and a 500mb Buffalo USB drive recently. I'm hoping to use Ubuntu as my primary OS for surfing the web (Linux/Firefox is a much better combination for avoiding spyware/bad scripts from sites.)

I'll create a new vmware version of XP to do testing, company vpn, etc...