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:

Multiple OS support: My primary computer runs Windows XP but I also own a laptop that’s running Ubuntu. I’d prefer something that works out of the box with both but I’m not averse to a little tweaking if necessary.

Partitioning: Would I need to partition my drive? I’m planning to segregate the data according to its format but can I just copy everything on it or should I create dedicated partitions? Should I leave some space free in case I want to install a portable version of an OS?

Durability: What’s the point in spending all that cash if my HD’s going to conk out after a while? Is build quality a factor and how long can I expect the drive to last?

What do you think of my choices? Have I missed anything out? What are you using for external storage and are you happy with it? Let me know in the comments.

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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.

What makes the Illustrated Dual Boot site so good? It’s the fact that the tutorials are really well written. Any tutorial you choose has exactly what you need to get a dual-boot system up and running, right from beginning to end. Within the tutorial is some information on the tools required for the dual-boot as well as some basic checks before you begin.

Every step within a tutorial is illustrated. This is extremely important because often a step might not make much sense but if you can actually see how it takes place, it becomes easier to do it yourself. Some steps are also accompanied by possible errors you might encounter and how to solve them, another necessity for an installation.

I used the Jaunty Jackalope / Windows7 Graphical Installation ‘C’ tutorial to successfully dual-boot Jaunty and Windows XP. The clear instructions in simple language were easy to understand and implement with no problems whatsoever.

Tech experts probably don’t need someone to tell them how to set up a dual-boot on a machine. However, the vast majority of people using computers are not tech-savvy and having a resource like the Illustrated Dual Boot site reduces their dependence on others to do things for them. This site is also perfect for people who want to take the plunge into Linux but are being held back by the fear of having to install their own OS.

Have you used the Illustrated Dual Boot site anytime? Do you know of any similar resources? What do you think of computer novices using online tutorials to install an OS? Let me know in the comments.

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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.

Updates are posted on the home page, as and when a policy changes. Clicking on a specific link opens up a page with the agreement text. Changes to the agreement are highlighted so that you don’t have to spend time searching for additions and deletions.

A site like TOSBack provides an important service. User agreements are the basis of a trustworthy relationship with a service provider. However, they are often forgotten until a problem with the site arises and then people scramble to read website policies. With TOSBack, a user can stay in touch with policy changes and quickly recognize anything he is not comfortable with.

Do you read user agreements and other policies when you sign-up with a service? Have you heard of TOSBack before? What do you think of this tracking mechanism? Let me know in the comments.

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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.

If you’re into recycling and reusing products, then go ahead and bookmark the site. Even if you’re not really thinking of green living, some of the DIY projects on greenUPGRADER are worth a try on a lazy afternoon when you have nothing better to do.

Do you recycle or reuse things? Is it worth it? What do you think of greenUPGRADER? Let me know in the comments.

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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.

As a final plunge, I opened up the terminal and tried out some commands. Nothing too fancy, just some sudo commands and lshw to display a list of hardware on the machine. This is something pretty new for me but I’m sure with practice some of these commands will become second nature to me.

Did I have any problems this time? Yes, one in particular. When I use the touchpad, it suddenly selects an app as I’m scrolling. This happened to me even with the Intrepid CD so it’s not a Jaunty thing. I’ve bought an optical mouse to use so I don’t have to rely on the touchpad but it is a little inconvenient.

I read through a bunch of tutorials as well and a lot of them talk about setting a separate /home partition during installation. Assuming I have about 25 GB of space after I set my Windows and swap partitions, how should I divide the remaining two partitions? Another thing I read was that the Master IDE hard disk is referred to as hda. But my partition manager only showed the sda drive. Did I miss something out? Or should I just go ahead and install the two OS’s using the side-by-side option and be done with it?

Another dilemma is whether to go with Jaunty or Intrepid? Jaunty seems to have a lot of improvements but is it worth installing so soon or should I hold off on it? Have you installed Jaunty and how are things running for you? Let me know in the comments.

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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.

As a bonus, Vuclip lets you save videos directly to your phone without any format or codec conflicts. When you see a video you like, just enter your name and phone number and click the ’send to phone’ button. Vuclip will transcode the file to the necessary phone format and send it to your phone so you are saved the hassle of converting the file format yourself. Registered users have access to additional features like creating cliplists and video alerts among others.

Vuclip claims to produce videos that are compatible with 2,000 different phones from various brands. In addition, the Vuclip service is available for more than 130 countries. The only downside is that although the service is free, users might still have to pay for accessing the internet from their phones as well as for data transfer. Of course this depends on a user’s service provider and the type of billing plan.

What do you think of Vuclip? Would you use this site and its services? What features would you like to see the site offer? Let me know in the comments.

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Once my laptop was ready, it was time to try out the LiveCD. I’d contemplated waiting for Jaunty to be released just so I could have the latest release but then decided to go with Intrepid. After all, if things go well, I can always upgrade later.

I downloaded the .iso image from the official image, burned it and popped it into the laptop’s CD-ROM drive after changing the boot configuration so it would boot from the CD. In my first attempt, the CD failed to boot. At this point I’m not sure what the problem is so I put in an old version of the dyne:bolic LiveCD that I’d burned over a year ago.

This time the laptop booted from the CD so I figured that my Ubuntu CD wasn’t burned properly. Since I had already booted dyne:bolic, I decided to play around with it. Everything worked fine for five minutes and then my machine hung. Nothing I did would fix it so I just let the battery drain out. Note to self? Find ‘ctrl+alt+delete’ equivalent in Linux.

By this time, I re-burn my Ubuntu CD but I insert it into the CD-ROM with some trepidation. The CD takes a while to boot and for a few moments I think it’s hung again but then I get the welcome screen and I calm down. I select the ‘try Ubuntu without installing’ and wait for the CD to finish booting.

The first thing that greets me is the brown-toned screen that I’ve seen in most Ubuntu screenshots. Not that I have anything against it but I don’t think I could look at it day in and day out and not be able to change it. I fire up Rhythmbox and to my Winamp-accustomed eyes, it does not look like a great media player. However, I’m not complaining and I try to play a few songs through my attached pen-drive. Yes, I know mp3s are not supported out of the box but it was a bit of a rude awakening.

I decide to shut down my laptop and work on it later, But first, I need to disconnect the pen drive. In Windows, I’m used to the ‘Safely remove hardware’ option but I don’t see something similar here. So I right-click the drive and select ‘unmount’. It disappears from my screen but the drive light is still on. I do a quick search on the net and find that everything’s okay. Unmount is the right option and with some drives, the light stays on after that.

All in all, I’m pretty satisfied with my first Ubuntu run. It wasn’t perfect but it wasn’t a disaster either. I’m planning to experiment some more with the LiveCD over the weekend and see what else Ubuntu has to offer. Any tips for me?

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The current configuration of the laptop is a little slow though so I’ve decided to put in some cash and increase the RAM. Now, all that’s left is to figure out what to actually do with it. The first thing that popped into my mind was to use it to learn Linux. I’ve been a Windows user my entire life and although Linux appeals to me, I’ve never actually tried it out. My desktop is used by other people besides me and I wasn’t allowed to install Linux on it.

I have a vague idea of what Linux is and its running but I’m still pretty unsure about other things so I decided to ask the Ghacks readers for their advice. Here re some of the questions I’m searching for answers to:

Should I consider dual-booting?
I’ve heard stories of Linux not being able to recognize drivers and such so I don’t want to have to find that my system won’t work without having some way of going back and fixing it. My graphics card is a NVidia GeForce 4 420 and I also have a Linksys WPC11 Network Adaptor card.

Can my laptop handle it?
Even after upgrading, my laptop will have a configuration of 1.8 GHz with 1 GB of DDR RAM. Also, my hard disk has a capacity of 40 GB. Assuming I leave about 10 GB for the Windows partition, is 30 GB enough to run Linux comfortably?

What distribution should I choose?
If I do go ahead and install Linux, I’m tending towards Ubuntu. It seems to be the most popular distribution and has a lot of support available for it. Another distro that appealed to me was OpenSuse but I’m not too sure about it.

How important is it to have an internet connection?
My laptop won’t really be connected to the internet (unless I can figure out a way to get a connection). Is this a drawback to using Linux?

For now, that’s about it. I’m looking forward to all your answers. Have I missed out any other important questions that need to be addressed? Let me know.

Update: Thanks for all your suggestions. I’ve decided to try Ubuntu as a LiveCD for some time and see how I feel before I install it. Wish me luck.

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In the early days, the only way a student could find a cheaper textbook was to buy a used copy from someone who had taken the same course earlier. Now, with the internet, you can search for textbooks online and buy them from the online store. However, if you want to score a good deal, it’s best to use a service like Campusbooks.

For people who have no time to scour multiple websites or don’t know all the resources for buying textbooks online, Campusbooks is extremely helpful. When you look for a book, the site searches multiple sites like Amazon, AbeBooks, eBay, and other similar sites. Then, the search results are neatly displayed so you can check whatever interests you. Once you select a book, you are directed to the online store to make the payment.

Users can search for a book by name, author, keyword, or ISBN number. Additionally, they can browse by category. When search results are displayed, a summary of the lowest prices is shown first. The next two sections in the results page are the lowest prices for new books and used ones. Search results include international editions as well, which are often cheaper than books in the US. A search for a biochemistry book showed a 100$ price difference between the US and the international versions.

Campusbooks has a lot of other services. Users can sell their old textbooks to other sites or go one step further and donate textbooks. The site also offers to alert a user when the book he’s looking for becomes available at a particular price. With Campusbooks, it’s easier to find the cheapest textbooks available.

Have you ever used Campusbooks? What do you think of this service? What other sites do you know of to get textbooks and other school supplies cheap? Let me know in the comments.

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One way of accessing files is to use an online clipboard like CL1P. This website allows you to put up data using a unique url that you yourself choose. No sign-up or registration required.

Once the CL1P url is ready, you have plenty of options. The first thing you can do is set the clipboard to take plain or rich text formats. Alternatively, you could turn it into a messageboard. After that, you can either type in your data, or upload files and pictures. The maximum upload limit is 30 MB.

Once your clipboard is ready, simply save it. CL1P has the option of password protecting your page, which comes in handy if you want only select people to be able to view your link. CL1P pages stay active only for seven days which is a slight disadvantage if you want to keep your page around longer.

CL1P is fairly versatile. For example, a user can edit his clipboard if he wants to. Another plus point is the ability to print the clipboards. While this may not be helpful if you’ve uploaded something that cannot be printed, it’s worthwhile for text and images.

Are you comfortable with the idea of an internet clipboard? Would you use CL1P? Let me know in the comments.

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If you’re looking for Photoshop tutorials, Vunky Search is the place to go to. This site labels itself as the ‘Fast and Furious Photoshop Tutorial Browser’ or in other words, a Photoshop search engine. Both in looks and function, Vunky Search resembles one of the many multi-torrent search engines out there.

When you look at the homepage, you notice the links to popular searches. Below that are some of the featured tutorials for the day. If you’re searching for something specific, type in a search term. If you’re browsing around, just ‘randomize’ or click on a link that interests you. The selected tutorial opens in its original site with no hassles.

Vunky Search currently indexes 88 tutorials but I expect this number to increase over time. Some of the tutorials are simply superb. One more thing I’d like to see is tutorials for more software like Paint and the GIMP. After all, not everyone uses Photoshop.

What do you think of Vunky Search? How do you think the site can be improved? What’s your favorite image tutorials site? Let me know in the comments.

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Google has introduced a new Gmail feature termed as Mail Goggles, which has been described as a breathalyzer for email. Essentially, this feature lets you send out an email only after you pass a little test i.e. a math problem. This feature is part of the Gmail Labs set, which is a testing ground for new Google features.

If you want to use Mail Goggles, you will need to enable it. To do so, log into your Gmail account and go to your account settings. Once there, click on the ‘Labs’ tab. Scroll down to Mail Goggles and select ‘Enable’. Save your changes and go to the “General’ tab to customize your Mail Goggles settings. Here you can decide what time you want Mail Goggles to be active and the level of difficulty of your math problems.

I find Mail Goggles quirky yet effective. Of course if you can easily solve math problems after you’ve had a few drinks, this feature is not for you. But otherwise, it’s still a pretty handy feature. What do you think of the Mail Goggles? Let me know in the comments.

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One grouse that people might have is if they purchased a song or album online only to discover that another store was offering the same track for a lesser price. That’s where the Mp3StoreGuide can be a real boon. The brainchild of the Mp3Tunes creators, the site is basically a way to check online store prices and find out which store if offering the best rate.

Stores are grouped into three categories; those that carry major labels, minor labels, and stores offering subscription services. Each store has information like average price, song bitrate, country of service, whether the store offers free tracks, etc. Mp3StoreGuide offers users the option of searching each site individually or doing a comparison search.

To test the website, I did a search using both popular and indie artists. A search of U2’s ‘New Years Day’ yielded 67 results while a search for ‘Heaven’ by Hail Social threw up 25 results of which some results were of other songs. Not bad, if I might say so.

For buyers of music online, Mp3StoreGuide is a gem. It’s fast, easy to use, and gives results. The bonus is that the site displays only DRM-free song results. Moreover, the source code is freely available to users who might want to modify it to suit their tastes.

What do you think of the Mp3StoreGuide? Do you like it? How do you think the site can be improved? Let me know in the comments.

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DEG’s figures aren’t just for outright sales of DVDs, but also include DVD rentals and Blu-Ray disc sales. Rental revenue stayed nearly constant from previous year’s figures but sales pretty much took a nosedive. While it’s easy to blame dismal sales on the old monster of piracy, I personally think there are a lot of factors for this loss. Here are some of them.

Economics: There’s no denying that DVD sales have in part been affected by the recession. With money starting to get tight, fun spending is the first to be cut and DVDs are definitely not ‘essential’.

Content: For me, barring 2-3 flicks, I can’t think of many movies that I found memorable this year. So I don’t see the point of owning them on DVD because I certainly don’t want to watch them over and over.

Digital Downloads: Nowadays, plenty of TV shows and movies can be legally purchased in a digital format of your choice. In the case of TV shows, consumers have the option of purchasing only the episodes they want. This is a definite advantage over buying an entire season on DVD for a few episodes.

Transition to High Definition: Falling prices of HDTVs, Blu-Ray players, and discs means that a lot of people no longer prefer to invest in standard-definition media like DVDs. It’s similar to tapes dying out once CDs became more affordable.

I’m not much of a DVD person myself. If a movie catches my fancy, I’ll watch it in a theatre. If not, I can just wait a few months and catch it when it’s broadcast on cable. What about you? Have you bought less DVDs this year? Why do you think sales are down? Let me know.

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With ImageLoop, creating a slideshow is very easy. You can either upload a bunch of photos from your hard drive or import them from an online service that stores photos. The only requirement is that all photos must be in JPG format. Fancy a Flickr photo that isn’t yours? No problem, ImageLoop lets users import photos from Myspace and Flickr just by typing in the username, not just their own.

Once the photos are uploaded, you can customize the look and feel of your slideshow, and add descriptions to your photos as well. Once the slideshow is ready, you can email it to your family and friends or use one of the available embed codes to publish it on the internet. ImageLoop also allows you to decide just who can view your slideshow by changing the access levels. If you want to go back and change the accessibility, you can do that too.

ImageLoop is free to use but it does require registration. This is obvious otherwise users would not be able to edit their slideshows. Once registered, there are no limits on the number of slideshows a user can create.

As far as ease of use is concerned, the service ranks highly. The compatibility with social networks also scores well. Another bonus is the ability to use photos that do not belong to the user. However, this is a double-edged sword because if a user posts a slideshow with copyrighted pictures, he or she could get into trouble.

Overall, I think ImageLoop is a good service, especially for people always sharing pictures with their friends over social networks. What are your thoughts on ImageLoop and photo sharing? Let me know in the comments.

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That’s why I love MrsFixit. The brainchild of a woman who decided she’d had enough of paying for fixing things and rolled up her sleeves to do things herself. After sharing her tips with her friends, she put them online to share with other people, especially women.

MrsFixit is full of do-it-yourself solutions for getting things done around the home. From female oriented subjects like alternative uses for common substances and kitchen tips to installing a lighting system or a guide to plumbing, the site ahs tips on pretty much everything, including working outdoors.

The instructions on MrsFixit are fairly easy to follow. Every project includes a note on the tools you need for the task as well as detailed stepwise instructions on how to go about the job. The site also has its own newsletter, and a store to let you make purchases where you can often get discounts on products. In addition, MrsFixit has her own show, which is broadcast all over the USA.

Although the site is primarily aimed at the female gender, these tips are handy for just about anyone. I don’t know many guys who can install a toilet bowl and I’m the kind of person who believes that everyone should know how to do basic repairs irrespective of their gender.

What do you think of the tips on MrsFixit? Have you tried any of them out? Do you know of any similar sites? Let me know in the comments.

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piZap is an online photo editor that offers something more. To be more specific, piZap lets you have fun with images. The flash-based application is ideal for people who love to manipulate their pictures and make them goofy. You can upload a file from your computer or play with one of the demo images on the site.

How do you make pictures funny? piZap allows you to add text via thought bubbles, put in stickers like emoticons or different parts of a face from the available options. You can also add effects to the picture or just paint over whatever you want. The options are endless. Here’s a photo I played around with.

Okay, it’s not great but don’t let my lack of creativity stop you. If you’re happy with how your picture looks, click ‘save’. The site then allows you to download the file, embed it on a website, and lets you post the image directly to most of the social networking sites around like Facebook, Twitter and the like.

One additional advantage to piZap is that you can have your picture printed on products like mouse pads, mugs, posters, tee shirts, calendars, etc. and then purchase them off the site. Of course, if you’d rather have someone else print the photo for you, you’re welcome to do that.

I quite like the site. It offers something different and is totally free. No registration required as well. Plus the site is really easy to use. I’d say the site is definitely worth a visit. How do you like piZap?  Do you find it interesting? Let me know in the comments.

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To solve this problem, I usually standardize the volume of all my audio files. To do this, I use a little program called MP3Gain. But if you do not want to add to the endless list of software installed on your computer, you can opt for getting the job done with a browser-based application. One such tool is Vloud.

Vloud allows you to upload any mp3 or wav file to the site and change its volume according to your preferences. Using the site is easy. Select the desired volume you want your file to have from the options light, loud, louder, and loudest. Then, upload the original file and wait for the changes to take place. Once the file is ready, you can listen to it online or download it to your hard drive.

The site is not without its limitations. One of them is that the uploaded file can be a maximum of 10MB. This is not a problem if you’re uploading individual songs but won’t work if you want to use a concert recording for example. Another thing I didn’t like was that the volume settings were too vague. A ‘loud’ setting does not really tell me how my file is going to sound after conversion. So I’d have to keep trying different settings till I found one I liked.

Overall though, Vloud is quite useful especially for people who do not want to be burdened with things like bitrates, decibels, and frequencies. Plus, for those who only require to change file volume once in a while, using an application like Vloud makes more sense.

What do you think of Vloud? Is it worthwhile using a web app on your audio files? What other similar tools do you know of? Let me know in the comments.

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Since this is Ghacks, there’s a pretty good chance that your ‘must-have’ is tech-related. If it is, why not share your wish with the rest of us? Maybe you want a new souped-up computer for your gaming needs, or that fancy new mobile phone. How about the latest portable media player?

Another point of interest is whether you envision yourself owning the desired gadget soon. If not, what’s stopping you? Is it the lack of finance, logistical difficulties (like the product not being available where you live) etc. Or is it that you simply can’t justify buying the gadget because you already have a similar one in perfectly good condition.

I’ll start the ball rolling on this one. One thing I really want to have is a good portable media player. I was supposed to get one this Christmas but things haven’t worked out as planned since the person who was bringing it has been unable to do so. Now, I’m starting to have second thoughts.

What about you? What’s on your wishlist for the holidays? Let me know.

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Of course, as gaming companies have gotten smarter, so have the gamers. Gaming piracy is still rampant on the Internet and torrents are one of the fastest ways a person can get hold of a pirated game. In fact, TorrentFreak recently released their list of the top 10 most pirated games of the year, which made for some interesting reading.

At the top of this unofficial list is Electronic Arts’ Spore. The game has been downloaded 1.7 millions times since it was released in September. The top position can be attributed to the game’s ridiculous DRM, which allowed a user who purchased a legitimate copy to install the game only three times. Spore also holds the distinction of being the most downloaded torrent on Piratebay for a full week, a rare feat for a game.

Other games released this year that have made it to the list include Fallout 3 (#8), Far Cry 2 (#9), and Pro Evolution Soccer (#10). The second to the seventh positions on the list are occupied by older games like the Sims 2, Crysis, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, etc. In most cases, these games were available on torrent sites well before their actual release.

The general trend in gaming piracy seems to be greater the copy protection, the more chance a game will be pirated. Price is also an issue that encourages piracy. If I’m paying $50 for one game, I wouldn’t want to have my gaming experience restricted in any way. Another factor that promotes piracy is that games are often not released worldwide at the same time. So while a U.S. resident gets first crack at a game, the same title may only be available for purchase to someone across the world after some months.

Ironically, piracy can sometimes be used as an indicator of a game’s popularity. Almost all of these games occupy a position in the ‘best-selling games list’ released by Amazon. What do you think of the top ten games on the list? Is there a game you expected to see on it? What would you like gaming companies to do to ensure that games don’t get pirated? Let me know in the comments.

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