Lately, I’ve realized that my computer is full of data and is close to its limit. Normally, I burn data onto a CD or DVD and then delete it off my system. The problem is that over time, the CDs have developed a few unreadable areas. So, I’ve pretty much lost a few chunks of data.

To combat this problem, I’ve decided its time for me to buy an external hard drive. I figure 500 GB is more than enough for me right now. What’s confusing me though is choosing which hard drive to buy. I’ve settled on a 2.5″ drive that draws power from the USB port so I won’t have to worry about an external power source. After a fair amount of research and considering my budget, I’ve narrowed my choice down to these two:

Seagate FreeAgent Go
Transcend StoreJet 25M

I’m getting a lot of conflicting reviews about both drives which is why I’m asking the Ghacks readers to help me make my decision. Here are some of my queries:

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Tags: ask the readers, hard-drive, Hardware, portable storage
Categories: Hardware, ask the readers

Until a couple of months ago, I didn’t know much about dual-booting. Yes, I knew it meant running two OS’s on one machine but beyond that, not much else. So when I decided to go ahead and set up a dual boot on my laptop, I definitely needed help.

I got it in the form of the Illustrated Dual Boot site. As the name suggests, the site is packed with tutorials to assist people with dual-booting their computer to run both Windows and Ubuntu. The tutorials help install Ubuntu versions right from Gutsy Gibbon to Karmic Koala (the upcoming release). For Windows versions, there are installation tutorials for everything from Windows 98 to Windows7.
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Tags: dual-boot, Linux, tutorials, Windows
Categories: Knowledge, Linux, Operating Systems, Tutorials Basic

When you sign-up at a website or install a piece of software, you are often asked if you ‘accept the terms-of-service.’ This is a really long document full of legalese. Most people don’t even bother to read it and just click the accept button. Even yours truly pretty much just skims through these parts. However, when you agree to use a site’s service, you are entering into an agreement with them. So, the least you should do is find up exactly what you’re signing up for and how your personal information will be used.

Even those who read the terms and conditions during sign-up should be aware that website terms-of-service can change at any time. Even website policies often change. The problem is, most people don’t have time to visit 10 or 15 sites regularly and read through terms-of service agreements and website policies.

Thankfully, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital civil liberties group is keeping track of some of these changes. You can see these changes by visiting TOSBack, a site dedicated to terms-of-service tracking. The aim of the site is to show how these agreements change over time.

TOSBack is currently monitoring agreements for 58 popular websites. These include social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, user-content run sites like Flickr and YouTube, as well as online shopping giants Amazon and Ebay among other sites.
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Tags: Online Services, privacy policy, tosback
Categories: Knowledge, Online Services, Security

Do you have a spare sheet of cardboard lying around and are trying to find a use for it? You can turn it into a stand for your laptop. Have a ton of plastic bags lying around? Turn them into a funky bracelet.

Think this is weird? Well, these, and other ideas like them are what you can find at greenUPGRADER, a site dedicated to being green. The site focuses on reusing everyday items to cut down on consumption and reduce wastage of natural resources.

greenUPGRADER has a multitude of do-it-yourself projects for visitors, ranging from simple solutions like the examples mentioned above to big things like turning old gutters into a garden. The site also keeps you updated about the latest products made from recycled materials, a must-have resource for those truly into green living. Some of these products are definitely worth a look, like the notebook made from used bike tires.

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Tags: diy, greenupgrader, recycling
Categories: Cool, Misc, Tutorials Basic

First the good news: My laptop finally has access to a working internet connection so the lack of connectivity is no longer a problem with me installing Ubuntu. Now, after last time’s slightly rocky start, I decided to take things slow and devote more time to my second shot with Ubuntu. The biggest difference was that this time I used a Jaunty LiveCD. Hey, if a new release is out I might as well go with it.

Start-up was easy like before and the first thing I noticed was a different desktop. It’s still brown but slightly plain. Speaking of desktops, I finally figured out that it’s possible to change the background image. I didn’t actually try it out. I’m keeping that for when I finally install Ubuntu.

Apart from the desktop, I played around with OpenOffice. I’m not a big MSOffice user. As long as it gets the job done, I’m open to pretty much any software. The next stop on the software list was the FastStone Image viewer. I wasn’t all that impressed and I’m planning to use XnView once I make the switch. Ditto SMPlayer for my video needs.

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Tags: jaunty, Linux, operating system, ubuntu
Categories: Linux, Open Source, Operating Systems

Almost everyone has a mobile phone today and phones themselves have gone beyond just devices to use to talk to people. Today’s phones come ready with a whole bunch of bells and whistles for their owners to play with. One of these includes support for video.

One of the best resources for an owner of a video-enabled phone is Vuclip. Formerly called blueapple.mobi, this site is like YouTube for mobile phones. Users can stream video clips from different video-sharing sites directly to the phone via the site’s search function or just browsing different categories.

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Tags: mobile phones, transcoding, video sharing, vuclip, youtube
Categories: Entertainment, Gadgets, Mobiles, Music and Video

In my last post, I mentioned wanting to try out Linux, specifically Ubuntu. After much consideration and with the help of the Ghacks readers, I decided to try the Ubuntu LiveCD before actually installing it. However, I first had to bump up my laptop’s RAM, which took a while. It’s tough to get compatible DDR RAM these days.

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Tags: dual booting, Linux, LiveCD, ubuntu
Categories: Knowledge, Linux, Open Source