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Free and Open Source Programs on the Mac

Published by
Ken
at 3 May, 2008 in Apple Mac, Related elsewhere and Editorial. 0 Comments

Last week I officially bacame an Apple user with the Mac Mini. As a new Mac user, I was excited and immediately set about looking for equivalent Windows softwares for Mac.

Here are a list of sites to start looking for Mac softwares:

Some of my regular applications already has a Mac version so it is easy to switch over to the Mac version of Firefox and OpenOffice. That’s was about all that I need to switch over immediately.

The Mac is a very friendly and easy to use platform that most could start using immediately without much problem. Long time Windows user may need a little time to adapt. Some may miss some application that is available on Windows only.

For me, the switch was easy, I found (and am still exploring) alternative to programs I used on Windows. So far my only real problem is that an internet banking web site that I use that required Internet Explorer with ActiveX plugin.

In an old post, I asked “What do you put on a new PC?“, now I guess the similar question is “What do you put on a new Mac?”

Popularity: 16%

Alternative Disk/Partition Cloning Tools

Published by
Ken
at 25 April, 2008 in Using Open Source and Utilities & Drivers. 2 Comments

My question today is ‘What are the open source/free alternatives to disk/partition cloning tools like Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image or Paragon Drive Backup.”

The selection has certainly improved and matured since I research this topic more than 2 years ago. Back then a few alternatives (including SystemRescueCD and PartD, Partition Saving) was tested but none gives the comfort that the restore would be fail-proof should the need suddenly appears. The main problem I remembered was NTFS wasn’t well supported at that time. In the end I stuck to Norton Ghost.

Now it is time to return to this topic after installing 2 PCs in 2 days and potentially having to provision 100 more PCs to come.

Let me list the alternatives and I will get back with the result in a few days. In the meantime, if you have any experience, good or bad, with open source/free disk clone utilities, please leave a comment.

  3. UBCD - Ultimate Boot CD for Windows
  5. FOG - Free, Ghost-like Cloning Solution
  8. PING - Partimage is Not Ghost
  9. Linux Rescue Server - this one is interesting from an overall system management point of view.

Wikipedia has a good article to learn more about disk cloning.

Popularity: 19%

Using BlogDesk to blog from your Desk

Published by
Ken
at 9 January, 2008 in Blogging. 2 Comments

Image

Excuse the pun in the title. BlogDesk is a desktop blogging tool (also known variously as an offline blog editor, desktop blog editor, etc.)

Instead of going online and using the web interface to write your blog post, BlogDesk allows you to compose your post on your computer (even when offline). LifeHacker compared a few other blogging tools.

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More small businesses are now using blog as a as a channel to engage and communicate with customers. If you maintain a blog, BlogDesk and help you in several ways which I will outline in this post.

After using BlogDesk for more than a year, I can heartily recommend it!

Continue reading ‘Using BlogDesk to blog from your Desk’

Popularity: 32%

Still Looking for that Integrated Contact, Calendar and ToDo Tool

Published by
Ken
at 29 September, 2007 in Hosted Applications, Editorial and Business & Productivity. 6 Comments

One of the tools that has eluded me all these year is a nicely integrated suite of Contact Management, Scheduler/Calendar/Organizer and a ToDolist.

Having tried many tools - from standalone applications to hosted applications, none of them lasted a month. I’m using some tools of course but I’m not settled down with them (like the way I switched to Open Office and never look back).

My requirements are really simple

  • Open Source or Free would be perfect
  • Would also consider hosted application and pay a small fee
  • Integrated, for example
    • a date (like birthday) in the contact list would appear in the calendar and could also be a todo (send birthday card)
    • a schedule like “Meet with XYZ” will link to XYZ contact information
    • similarly a todo like “Call XYZ” will link to XYZ mobile number
  • Able to import and export to some standard formats
  • Must support Chinese character input

So help me. If you know THAT tool, leave a comment.

And if you still have time, read on for a chronicle of tools I had tried.

Continue reading ‘Still Looking for that Integrated Contact, Calendar and ToDo Tool’

Popularity: 33%

Using Portable Applications for easy OS reinstall

Published by
Ken
at 15 September, 2007 in Portable Applications, Tips & Tutorials and Business & Productivity. 1 Comment

With the wide spread use of removable storage devices (like usb thumb drive, portable hard drive, iPod etc.) came the idea of portable applications.

The idea behind portable applications is simple - store applications on your removable storage devices and run them anywhere by just plugging-in the storage device.

A number of portable applications suites had popped up as a result. The most widely known is PortableApps, but there are also others like

I was attracted to the idea of portable application during the recently re-installation of my notebook with Vista. Through numerous reinstall of operation system over the years, I took note of the necessary steps to backup and restore data for my favourite applications. However the process is still a major hassle - backup data, reinstall applications and restore data.

Portable application side-stepped that hassle because applications are not installed but just copied to folder on a drive. So during a reinstall, I just copied the folder - application and data - to a new drive. Viola! Everything continues to work as before!

After this reinstall exercise, I’m certainly going to convert most of my applications to a portable version. Luckily most of the open source/free applications I had introduced here are available in portable version.

If you reinstall OS often or is just looking for an easily way to move your favourite programs and data around, give a serious look at portable applications. I’m surprised I took so long to get it.

Popularity: 30%

File encryption on-the-fly with TrueCrypt

Published by
Ken
at 22 April, 2007 in Security & Encryption. 2 Comments

TrueCrypt

In the last post I described how to securely and permanently remove a file from the disk drive using Eraser.

Now what happen if you need to securely store, not delete, any files? In this post, we will introduce another open source tools that will help you do just that - TrueCrypt.

With TrueCrypt you can protect your sensitive data, create a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mount it as a disk. You can also encrypt an a hard disk partition or a device, such as USB flash drive. The encryption is done automatically and transparently in real time. The author calls it an on-the-fly-encrypted volume .

TrueCrypt

Continue reading ‘File encryption on-the-fly with TrueCrypt’

Popularity: 30%

Wipe all trace with Eraser

Published by
Ken
at 1 March, 2007 in Security & Encryption. 1 Comment

Eraser

Regular readers will know that I keep a keen eye on security and protection on private data. Previously I covered using KeePass to store password (of course the best would be to keep everything in the head), using Tor and Privoxy for anonymous browsing and setting up a VPN to share data using Hamachi.

In this post (and the next), I want to share some tools that will secure your data on your harddisk.

Eraser is an open source security tool which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns.

Why do you want to do this?

Eraser

Continue reading ‘Wipe all trace with Eraser’

Popularity: 31%

Foxit Reader - PDF Reader on diet

Published by
Ken
at 22 February, 2007 in Business & Productivity. 0 Comments

Foxit PDF ReaderAdobe Acrobat Reader is bloated and slow? You are not alone to think so.

Instead of a providing a simple PDF reader to view PDF documents, Adobe want you to download a nearly 30Mb package just to read a PDF document. Do I really need the associated applications installed to provide update and photo album?

For my new notebook, I decided not to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. I knew there were many alternatives around so I went looking.

Given my inclination to run a purely opensource desktop, I started out looking for an open source pdf. It is interesting that there is an opensource PDF creator but there isn’t any open source PDF reader, at least not for the Windows platform.* (Wikipedia has a list of PDF softwares)

From reviews online, it seem like Foxit Reader 2.0 for Windows won many accolades so I went for it directly. The free version allows reading of PDF files, just what I needed to replace Adobe reader.

Foxit PDF Reader

(*UPDATE: found 2 opensource PDF reader but not tested, Sumatra PDF and Apparition. Look like they are in the early stage of development but certainly worth looking out for.)

Continue reading ‘Foxit Reader - PDF Reader on diet’

Popularity: 26%

Open Source at the Expense of Productivity?

Published by
Ken
at 26 January, 2007 in Using Open Source and Editorial. 4 Comments

One major stopping block for business to use Open Source softwares is the steep learning curve in learning a new software. Time spent on learning new software tool (whether open source ir not) is time wasted on business productivity.

This money-time trade off is a main driver of commercial softwares. A locked-in is created once a user is productive with a software and the cost to change is higher than continue paying for it.

As a small-business owner myself, I’m frequently under the pressure of productivity. Not only my own productivity but also my staffs’ as well. Therefore it wouldn’t be realistic to enforce opensource softwares on my staffs at the expense of productivity.

But what about myself?

My Windows-Start-All ProgramsFor myself, I’m willing to spend a little time to further the goal of seeing opensource on the desktop. And I’m excited to report that I’m almost there!

Take a look at my Windows XP All Programs menu on the left. With the exception of Windows XP itself and Rising Antivirus, the remaining are free or open source softwares.

I reluctantly switched from ClamWin to Rising because extra vigilant is called for in the hostile China network environment. (Imagine even the broadband provider is trying to sneak in spywares. Despicable.)

GIMP and Inkscape is my latest goal to wean myself from the twin graphic pillar of Photoshop and Illustrator.

When I replaced my HP notebook recently, I decided to have GIMP as the exclusive image editor. This morning I completed the duo by installing Inkscape.

Having handed off most of my business critical graphic work to my staff, I can now afford to spend some time experimenting these new tools on less time-sensitive projects.

Is switching to Open Source at the expense of productivity?

At this point, I’m afraid the answer is qualified yes. I’m not sure how I can quantify and justify my time spent on using open source alternatives except for the fact that I’m an enthusiast and am willing the “pay the extra”.

It is a qualified yes because the answer applies to the case of switching to an open source alternative in the place of an existing, productive, commercial product.

What is your experience of switching to open source? Is it self-imposed? Company imposed?

Popularity: 30%

Remote Control with UltraVNC

Published by
Ken
at 30 November, 2006 in Networking. 0 Comments

UltraVNC

In the last article, I introduced Hamachi, a free software to easily create a VPN. Hamachi works even when computers are behind a router, so you can easily use it between office, home and anywhere.

UltraVNC is another useful remote tool and it is open source. If you have use tools like PCAnywhere, UltraVNC is something like it. UltraVNC allows you to connect to and take control of a remote computer.

Used together with Hamachi, you can connect to a computer behind your office router without having to set up special port forwarding in the router. (In the UltraVNC website, there are some other solutions to accomplish the same thing. I have not tried them since Hamachi+UltraVNC works for me.)

The advantages of using UltraVNC with Hamachi are

  • Encryption. Hamachi already encrypts all traffic by default. So UltraVNC traffic are encasulate within.
  • Private IP. Connect with private IPs and not available on public IP network (for computers behind router).

Let’s take a quick look at how to use UltraVNC.

Continue reading ‘Remote Control with UltraVNC’

Popularity: 43%