Posted in March 2007

Free Vista 32-Bit Compatible Firewall!

Finally, for all of us who are running the 32-Bit version of Windows Vista – there is a free firewall application for us. Granted, the built in Windows Vista firewall is pretty good. It’s better than XP’s and does a good job of providing basic security, however a more robust program is needed for the firewall I think.

PCTools has just the thing. It’s late and I’m tired so here’s the link, I’ll update this post maybe when I get the time and strength.

http://www.pctools.com/firewall/

Another option is Comodo Personal Firewall:

http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

ZoneAlarm Free:

http://www.filehippo.com/download_zonealarm_free/

And of course, I recommend these two Anti-Virus solutions for Windows and Windows Vista:

Avast! Home Edition

AVG Free Anti-Virus

Source: Windows Connected

Infra Recorder now for Vista!

Finally the free and open source burning program, Infra Recorder, has been built for Vista.  I really like this program because it’s easy to use, it’s free, and it accomplishes all of my burning needs.

Here’s the changelog for version 42 revision 1.

Here’s the download link: Infra Recorder 0.42.1 

Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn Beta Preview

OSNews had a link to this great review of the new beta from Ubuntu.  The new version of the stunning Linux OS is still slated for an April release date.  The review comes from the Only Ubuntu Linux blog and includes some screenshots.  Below is their list of new features for Feisty:

New features in Feisty Fawn

Migration assistant: The new migration tool recognises Internet Explorer bookmarks, Firefox favourites, desktop wallpaper, AOL IM contacts, and Yahoo IM contacts, and imports them into Ubuntu during installation. This offers easier and faster migration for new users of Ubuntu and individuals wanting to run a dual-boot system.

Easy-to-install codec wizards: A new guided wizard for installing codecs not shipped with Ubuntu gives users a safe way of installing codecs they can legally use to view multimedia content.

Plug and play network sharing with Avahi: This new feature allows users to automatically discover and join a wireless network and share music, find printers and more.

Kernel Virtual Machine: On x86 systems with the Intel VT or AMD-V extensions, Kernel-based Virtual Machine support (KVM) allows users to run multiple virtual machines running unmodified Linux. Each virtual machine has private virtualised hardware: a network card, disk, graphics adapter, and so on. We have also added VMI support, which provides optimised performance under VMWare.

Faster searching with Tracker: Tracker is a search tool much like Beagle. Both programs will be available in the repositories.

Networking Improvements: New in Feisty is Network Manager, a simple way to find and connect to wireless and wired networks.New Zeroconf support makes it easy to network desktop computers without needing servers to assign IP addresses or names.

Artwork:For Feisty all new artwork is trickling in, including a new background image, and a usplash image that has more ‘bling’.

Help Center:In order to make Help more accessible, a brand new Help Center with a easier to use interface that is more stylish.

Print and sound support: Jetpipe, a new printing architecture for thin clients, greatly improves on previous technologies.Sound support in applications is also dramatically improved with the PulseAudio sound server.

Thin client management: Administrators can now manage thin client connections to a server more easily.

VPN: Easy VPN access with NetworkManager.

New Gnome control center

Desktop Effects: Graphical Desktop Effects will be made extremely accessible, with one click activation in the system menu.

ImgBurn Releases New Version

There’s a new version of Image Burn out and it looks like they’ve done some nice bug fixes and added a few new features.  I installed it with no problems and I think it’s a great little program.

Download ImgBurn 2.3.0.0

Mozilla’s New Add-Ons Site!

Mozilla has finally updated their add-ons site with a new look and better functionality.  The number of extensions and themes have been dramatically reduced so that the quality of extensions and themes can be upheld.  So only the themes and extensions that Mozilla deems of high quality will appear on the site.

The left-hand sidebar has more links now for better navigation and the search feature is at the top of the page so you can easily find what  you’re looking for.  There’s also a cool little picture preview feature they’ve added.

Enjoy finding new add-ons!

Firefox Add-ons

Firefox 2.0.0.3 and OpenOffice 2.2

Well it looks like you can now download the new security update to Firefox 2.0.0.3.  Mozilla had to release this quickly because of some stubborn security risks that remained in 2.0.0.2.  You can get the new version here:

Download Firefox Setup 2.0.0.3

Also on the OpenOffice front, they updated their wiki yet again to display a potential release date of March 28th.  You can download the 4th RC here:

Download OOo 2.2 RC4 – Softpedia

MS March 2007 Vista Compatibility Update

I just found this link on ActiveWin, it looks like Microsoft has released an update to Windows Vista that addresses several stability issues with various software programs and games. Looks like a pretty nice little update if you ask me. I’d highly recommend it.

Vista Compatibility Update Page

Download x86 Version for Vista

Download x64 Version for Vista

Microsoft SyncToy v1.4

This is a really cool program that I just found a great reason to use.  I have a lot of personal data files on my flash drive and I wanted an easy way to sync these files with a sync folder on my hard drive.

I downloaded the SyncToy and it works perfectly for this type of situation.  You have multiple options for how you want your syncing to occur.  So definitely download it and play with it until it works just right for your needs.

Download MS SyncToy v1.4

My Escapades into Linux…

kubuntu-header.png

So a few days ago, I broke out my many Linux CDs & DVDs. I have downloaded 4 or 5 distros recently and I wanted to test a few of them out on an extra 40GB hard drive I have on my old Dell computer. It’s a P4 2.4GHz with 768MB Ram and a 64 Meg graphics card – nice little machine – works very well with no problems.

I did my research and decided on the Ubuntu Edgy Eft release. It installed perfectly. Then I read something Linus Torvalds said that he hates Gnome and loves KDE. So I figured if the creator of Linux’s kernel loves KDE, I should probably try it out… and since I don’t use Macs and Gnome is more emulated for Mac style I should probably just try KDE. So I installed Kubuntu 6.10 from the DVD distribution I downloaded. It installed great.

I tried to install a nVidia third party graphics driver so I could get Beryl XGL working but that failed horribly due to lack of experience on my part and some bad instructions online. I had to reformat my installation again…

Round 2

After installing Kubuntu again, I found some better instructions on how to get a third party graphics accelerator installed here. Then I found a great wiki on how to install XGL & Beryl so I can get cool desktop effects. VERY FUN!

I couldn’t believe I actually got Beryl working on my Kubuntu installation… I was SO excited! Still am. It’s so great to have a free OS with free software, free tools, free help, free EVERYTHING and it works so well and is secure and safe and fast and fun. It’s a challenge to learn the Konsole (command line) and how to install stuff but once you get the hang of it and if you don’t mind researching on the internet how to do stuff it’s not that bad.

The Future

I’ll be posting more about my escapades into the Linux world as I discover more cool stuff. I’ll be sure to let you all know what I find. I don’t think Linux is ready for the mainstream world yet. If Linux can be as powerful as it is today and change to become an OS that my dad can use….. then it will be ready to CRUSH Microsoft. That’s what I think :)

Firefox 2.0.0.3 to 2.0.0.4

Mozilla is going to very quickly release an update to 2.0.0.3 because of some high security threats that were left behind for 2.0.0.2.  They plan to have builds available on Wednesday.  The next regular security/stability update will be 2.0.0.4.

Source: Mozilla Dev News

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