Why dual-boot? Try Ubuntu flavour inside Windows

Do you know what Ubuntu is? If you know that it is one of the most popular Linux distribution, you might be tempted to give it a try. But then you may not be willing to change your existing operating system for giving it a try. Wished if there was any spare PC to install Ubuntu and check what this OS has to offer, which is so widely talked about on the internet?

If you are among those who are afraid to install Ubuntu on their PC, here’s a way how you can taste Ubuntu on your own PC without having to create a dual-boot or harming the existing Windows, which is infamous for crashing every now and then.

Wubi: The way to Ubuntu

An open source application Wubi allows you to install and taste the Ubuntu flavour on your Windows system. Wubi is an Ubuntu installer for Windows that takes you inside the Linux world with a single click. It allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu like any other application.

Convert your PC into a web server

When I was new to computers and the internet, I used to wonder how websites were available. And once I knew that sites are hosted by web servers, I wanted to have one of my own to host my own site. I thought it would be difficult to have a web server but now i know it’s not that difficult. It’s really easy to have a small web server on your own PC.

What do you need to convert your Windows PC into a web server ?

• Web server application like Apache and Windows Server
• Database server [optional]
• Mail server [optional]
• FTP server [optional]
• Broadband internet

Get a web server application

The web server that’s very popular is Apache. But handling it on your own can be a bit tricky. Instead, we would like to use pre-configured packages which will gives us Apache, My SQL (database server) , a mail server and a FTP server.

NetServer: It is the most easy-to-use server package that I have come across. It’s controls are very indicative and can be easily tweaked to create your own aliases [domain names]. It also has My SQL database server, FileZilla FTP server and a mail server. The only minus point– you won’t get the latest applications as the package has not been improved since years. But this will not be a problem for us.

It does not require installation. Just unzip the package and run the server by clicking the NetServer icon. This works with Windows NT/2000/XP. It should work with Vista as well. [Freeware]

XAMPP: It a more popular server package. But I found it difficult to configure and handle. It is also free and does not require installation. It is available forWindows, Linux and Solaris.

WAMP: It is also a Windows freeware but requires installation.

Now you need to configure the server. I will tell here just about NetServer which I feel is the easiest to handle for enthusiasts like us.

Calm down your DVD drive

[Windows Only] Do you ever get annoyed by the loud noise that your CD/DVD Drive makes? This is because the optical disc in the drive rotates at a very high speed, not at all necessary unless you are transferring data to or from your optical media. If you are working on a laptop, things get even worse because the optical drive is way too close to you and is attached to the entire body. You do not only have to tolerate the loud whirring noise, but also bear with the vibration.

Nero DriveSpeed is one of the solutions to the problem, which lets you control your DVD or CD drive’s read-speed so that you can keep excessive drive noise at bay. After you load a disc into the drive, you can run DriveSpeed in either Silent or Fast modes. If you are watching a movie or listening to some music, you can select the Silent mode for a quite entertainment. If you need to transfer data and files quickly to your hard drive, choose the Fast mode.

Nero DriveSpeed is a freeware for Windows. It works with Windows XP/ Vista/2000 and ME. After installation, DriveSpeed can prompt you whenever you insert a disk and you can choose whether to run in Fast or Silent mode. Nero DriveSpeed is freeware, Windows only, and less than 750KB in size.

Download Nero DriveSpeed

[Via LifeHacker]

Get yourself on your favourite magazine cover

Do you want to get yourself on the covers of your favourite magazine? This may require you to do something extraordinary. But if you can’t wait till you have something as a valid achievement, you can get your own copy right now. And for that you don’t have to work hard with image editing software. Just log on to Magmypick Magmypic and grab you own copy.

It’s fun to get yourself on your favourite mag cover, even if it’s just a fake copy. Sometimes trivial things also make you feel very good.

Here is my avatar on the cover of National Geographic.

Get yourself on magazine cover at Magmypick Magmypic.

Carry your Linux on thumb drive

In the last post, I mentioned how to carry your applications in your USB stick but it would work only for Windows. Linux fans can also take their essential on their thumb drive, rather they can get an entire operating system. They can install a complete Linux distribution on a USB drive. How? Read this post on LifeHacker

Booting Linux from an external drive with the applications and settings of your choice has never been easier after this week’s release of Puppy Linux 3.0. Like Damn Small Linux, Puppy is small enough to fit on a USB thumb drive, and like Knoppix , you can boot it from CD. Puppy can also add your favorite open source applications to the desktop and save multiple user profiles back to your writable CD or thumb drive, too. Let’s take a look at how you can take your operating system, apps, data and user settings to go with Puppy Linux.

What You Can Do with Puppy

The two main uses for Puppy Linux (or any Linux live CD) are to:

• Rescue files from the host PC’s hosed hard drive or perform various maintenance tasks (like imaging that drive)
• Compute on a machine without leaving a trace—like browser history, cookies, documents or any other files—behind on the internal hard drive

While there’s a wide range of Linux live distro’s available, Puppy Linux is a fantastic option which offers a full computing environment with rich graphical apps like the Mozilla Seamonkey suite, Word and Excel equivalents, calendar, chat and photo editors, too.

Carry your PC on a thumb drive

Every day new technologies are coming and with every passing minute our dependence on them is growing. Many people prefer carrying their laptops in their backpacks. If one is not willing to carry that load to places, he can easily get a computer to work almost everywhere. But then there is a problem. You may not always get a computer that meets your requirements.

Thanks to the large amount of memory at our disposal in pen drives, we may not need to carry a laptop place for being able to surf, word-process, read mails and store files the way we want to.

Make full use of your USB stick

Your USB stick can double as a portable computer — that too the slimmest of the world. There are a number of executable applications available for various purposes. These executable applications do not require installation and can be run either from disk or from external storage devices like a USB drive. I prefer executable applications for the ease of using them without making your computer cluttered. This allows me to have any number of applications even if I may use it rarely.

Who should one use portable applications on USB sticks?

• Who are always on the move and need to carry their applications and files along with them.
• Who need to work on several computers, maybe at home or offices, or has to keep using many computers at home and office.
• If the user account is a restricted one, allowing only limited control. In such a case one is not able to install any application of choice.

Where to find portable application to be run from USB?

PortableApps is the best place to look for portable applications. The site also gives you a convenient Portablapps Suite for easily accessing applications on your USB. This suite comes in three versions.

Standard Suite: It comes with several applications pre-installed to get started immediately. It includes ClamWin Portable (antivirus), Mozilla Firefox – Portable Edition (web browser), Gaim Portable (instant messaging), OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite), Sudoku Portable (puzzle game), Mozilla Sunbird – Portable Edition (calendar/task manager) and Mozilla Thunderbird – Portable Edition (email client).Lite Version: It includes AbiWord Portable (word processor) instead of OpenOffice.org Portable. This helps save lot of space on your stick. This should be your pick if you do not need Office Suite and a word-processor is enough for you

Base Edition : It includes just the backbone platform where you can install your own portable applications. This is the one if you want a fully customized version. You can download portable applications from PortableApps and install them on it.

You may also just download the appliations and install them in your USB drive without the PortableApps Suite. This wil, however, require you to go to the folder and click the application icon to start it. You can also install other executable versions of applications like Audacity (Audio Editor), BitDefender (Anti Virus) to run from USB.

Plug-and-play desktop

Now a days, all monitors come with plug and play facility that allows you to use your monitor by simply plugging it to your computer. There is a similar thing that will convert your pen drive or any USB drive into your own plug-and-play computer.

Install MojoPac with desired applications on your pen drive. Now whenever you plug this USB to a computer running Windows XP in an administrative account, you immediately get your own desktop on that computer.

Here onwards you can work as if you were on your own PC. Once done, you can unplug the device without leaving any trace on the host computer. MojoPac can be installed on any USB 2.0 compliant storage device.

Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron is marching closer to April launch

Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron is marching closer to its scheduled April launch. Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu operating system, has released the 5th Alpha of the next generation of the popular Linux distribution. Among other things, Alpha 5 comes with a new installation option: Users can either run and install Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 5 using a LiveCD, or they can use Wubi to install Ubuntu to a partition from within Windows. No reboot necessary.

Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 5 is available for download now. But since this is still pre-release software, we wouldn’t recommend installing it on your primary machine. You know, unless you like using undercooked software on your primary machine and potentially losing data.

[DownloadSquad]

Access files easily with My Documents Toolbar

My Documents in Windows is intended to be your default place to save your documents, music and videos. If you are among them who use it almost all the time for saving and accessing your documents, music and videos, you better get more control of it. By using simple tricks, you can customize My Documents folder to work the way you like. You can also get a toolbar to access you drives and folders more easily.

Get easy access to My Documents

If you use My Documents for filing documents and also storing music and videos, you must be accessing it frequently. By getting a My Documents Toolbar on you Desktop, you can save yourself of one double-click.

Get My Documents Toolbar on the Desktop

1. Drag the My Documents folder lying on your Desktop to the extreme left, right or top of the Desktop depending upon your choice.
2. Once you drag the My Documents folder to an extreme edge of your Desktop [when the mouse doesn't move any further], a toolbar will appear.
3. Just drop the folder there to get your My Documents Toolbar.

Six free disc burning applications

On its own, Windows is a good-for-nothing operating system which lacks all the essential applications that one requires on a system.
I had suggested to you in an earlier post some open-source alternatives for word processing, web browsing and editing photos. Taking it further, today I bring to you some free media burning softwares to burn CDs and DVDs with more control.

1. Deep Burner

I mention this burning software on the top because it’s there on my system. Apart from a free version, Deep Burner also comes in a paid version. But the free version is sufficient for a general user who needs to create data CD and DVDs, burn music CDs and also ISO (CD images). It lets you create multi-session discs , which means you can add some file or music to an existing CD. But this burning software does not write video CDs.

http://www.deepburner.com/ (Download Link)

Assemble a PC under Rs 25,000

This is what I found while browsing, a PC that remains within Rs 25,000. The price does not include a genuine Windows. You know better what to do, or go for Ubuntu or any other Linux or OS.

Since the last time we did this article, the shift to dual-core processors has been near-complete. Single core processors have become virtually extinct, and with prices of powerful dual-core processors dropping below Rs 3,500, you don’t need to consider anything else.

Another trend is that AMD is being replaced by a series of cheaper Intel C2D budget processors offering very good value for money. Keeping all this in mind, we present to you our latest iteration of the Rs 25,000 machine. As usual, wherever prices/specs have remained unchanged, we have simply carried the products forward.

This is the specification of the PC suggested.

Specification Table

Components	Model	Price (Rupees)
Processor	Intel E2140	2,975
Motherboard	Biostar GF7050V-M7	3,350
RAM	Kingston DDR2 800 MHz	2,200
Sound	Onboard 5.1 Realtek ALC662 audio codec	N/A
LAN	Onboard, 10/100/1000	N/A
Graphics	Onboard Nvidia GeForce 7050	N/A
Optical Drive	Lite-On LH-20A1P	1,275
Hard Disk	Seagate 160 GB	2,275
Monitor	Viewsonic VA1930WM	9,450
Keyboard/Mouse	Microsoft Keyboard and Optical Mouse Set	695
Case	Zebronics Bijli i648 (400W PSU)	1,550
Speakers	Creative SBS 370	1,200
	Total	Rs. 24,970

Read the article on Tech2.0