Hosting for just $3.88/month! Find out MORE!

Using Portable Applications for easy OS reinstall

Published on 15 September, 2007 in Business & Productivity, Portable Applications and Tips & Tutorials. 0 Comments Tags: , .

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.

File encryption on-the-fly with TrueCrypt

Published on 22 April, 2007 in Security & Encryption. 2 Comments Tags: , .

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’

Wipe all trace with Eraser

Published on 1 March, 2007 in Security & Encryption. 0 Comments Tags: , .

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’

Foxit Reader – PDF Reader on diet

Published on 22 February, 2007 in Business & Productivity. 0 Comments Tags: , .

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’

Open Source at the Expense of Productivity?

Published on 26 January, 2007 in Editorial and Using Open Source. 4 Comments Tags: .

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?

Remote Control with UltraVNC

Published on 30 November, 2006 in Networking. 0 Comments Tags: , .

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’

Share your LAN with Hamachi

Published on 22 November, 2006 in Networking and Security & Encryption. 1 Comment Tags: , .

So you have a LAN in office where you share documents between a few computers. Now suppose you are at home and one of the files is on another PC at work. What do you do?

HamachiOne solution is to get Hamachi installed on both PCs.

Hamachi is not open source but the free version is very usable and I have used it on occassions between office, home and client’s location. (Hamachi had just been acquired by LogMeIn Inc in August 2006, it seems like the free version will continue to be available.)

Hamachi setup Quick Guide

There are a number of solutions available to achieve remote connection, even Windows XP comes with Remote Desktop. But what makes Hamachi stands out is the ease of use. Once installed, you just have to follow the few guided steps to get it up and running.

Continue reading ‘Share your LAN with Hamachi’

OpenOffice Solutions

Published on 8 November, 2006 in Business & Productivity, Related elsewhere and Using Open Source. 0 Comments Tags: .

OpenOfficeI had been using OpenOffice for more than a years now for all my office documents.

So far it had been nothing fancy and I had no trouble doing day to day document processing, spreadsheets, drawing, presentation slides etc. Document exchange with Microsoft Office files is also pretty straightforward. There are some glitches in handling duo languages in English and Chinese in the sample document but but not something that cannot be overcome.

My ongoing objective is to extend the use of OpenOffice to other areas and to introduce the Chinese version of this software to my co-workers.

Today, while checking for update, I found OpenOffice.org Solutions on the OpenOffice.org wiki. The wiki itself is a source of excellent information on using OpenOffice.

There is a Chinese wiki as well. From what I can see, much marketing is still needed to get this tool into the hands of the vast Chinese users. Nevertheless a great start!

Have you started using OpenOffice? If not why not?

Brainstorming a Backup Strategy

Published on 30 October, 2006 in Editorial and Utilities & Drivers. 0 Comments Tags: .

As a small business owner, we often have our heads filled with more immediate concerns. Backup is not one of those immediate concern. In fact, backing up data is one of the often stressed but seldom carried out activities.

I have to confess that I had been thinking about backup since day-one and have yet to do any concrete about it. So I sat down today and did a mind map (using FreeMind) for a backup strategy.

Backup strategy mindmap

So the next steps are

  1. Figure out and decide on what strategy to use
  2. Find the right softwares (free/open source preferred)
  3. Implement
  4. Train users
  5. Monitor and manage

I will be posting the progress and any related softwares that I find. Hope this helps you too.

Map your Mind with FreeMind

Published on 25 October, 2006 in Business & Productivity. 0 Comments Tags: , .

FreeMindSmall business owners often have to deal with alot of decisions, plans, ideas and problems. A technique to aid in organizing, brain storming, problem solving, and decision making is Mind mapping.

Mind mapping is a concept that uses linked diagrams to represents the relationship between ideas. This technique is a useful way to help generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas. (What to find out? Here are some mind mapping books.)

FreeMind is an open source application to help you to create mind map diagrams.

FreeMind

Continue reading ‘Map your Mind with FreeMind’