When you look at the guides over MakeUseOf you will notice that they are all straight and up to the point. Available right now are more than 50 guides about general and specialized tech related topics. Guides that sparked my interest include the Microsoft Office 2010 Ultimate Guide, the Windows on Speed guide and the Facebook marketing guide. I have put other tech guides on my to-read list, including the guide to PC Security, How to create professional reports and docs on word or the ultimate guide to Gmail.

You find a listing of all guides on the official download page. All guides are displayed on the page with their title, book cover and the download count.

Here is a list of all guides currently available for free download:

50 Cool Uses for Live CDs
An Android Guide : These Are The Droids You’re Looking For
An Easy Guide to Build Your Own WordPress Site
An Idiot’s Guide To Photoshop
Bam! Your Guide To Cool Online Comic Books
Best of the Web, Delivered: The Reddit Manual
Computer In Your Computer: How To Use VirtualBox
Go Google: Free Email and More On Your Domain
HackerProof: Your Guide To PC Security
Hard Drive Of The Future: 101 Guide To Solid State Drives
How The Internet Works
How To Build a Gaming PC
How To Build A Great Media Center PC
How To Create Professional Reports & Docs on Word
Learn to Speak “Internet”: Your Guide To xHTML
Lockdown: Secure Your Files with TrueCrypt
MakeUseOf’s Smart Productivity Guide
Microsoft Office 2010: Ultimate Tips & Tricks
New Life: Bring Old PC To Life With Ubuntu [PDF]
Newbie’s Getting Started Guide to Linux
Open Book: Managing Your eBooks With Calibre
Operation Cleanup: Complete Malware Removal Guide
Picture Perfect: Set Up Your Own Photoblog
Set Up Your Blog With WordPress: The Ultimate Guide
Step-By-Step Guide To Using GarageBand
Stuff Happens: The Backup & Restore Guide
The (Very) Unofficial Facebook Privacy Guide
The Awesome Automation Guide for Mac Users
The BIG Book Of iTunes for FREE
The Complete Beginners Guide To Joomla
The Complete Guide To Twitter
The Easy Guide To Computer Networks
The Essential Guide To Digital Photography
The First Unofficial Guide To Dropbox
The Five-Star Guide For Your iPad
The FREE A-Z Torrent Guide
The FREE Mac Manual
The Idiot’s Ultimate Guide to Build Your Own PC
The Internet Guide to the Movie Addict
The Internet Music Guide For The Audiophile
The Laptop Buying Guide 2011
The MakeUseOf Guide to File Sharing Networks
The MakeUseOf Guide To Internet Searching
The MakeUseOf Online Shopping Guide
The MakeUseOf Windows Mobile Guide
The Office Worker’s 101 Guide to a USB Thumb Drive
The Ubuntu Karmic Koala Bible
The Ultimate Guide To Gmail
The Ultimate Windows 7 Guide
The Underground Guide To The iPhone
Virtual Currency: The MakeUseOf BitCoin Manual
Watch The Web: AWESOME Media Center Guide 2011
Windows on Speed: Ultimate PC Acceleration Manual
You Like This: The Facebook Marketing Guide
Your PC, Inside and Out [Part 1]
Your PC, Inside And Out [Part 2]

A click on the Download Now button opens a page with a short description, links to similar ebooks and a download now button that is protected by a password. Normally you would have to subscribe to the MakeUseOf newsletter to get the password or you would need to share the link on a social networking site.

The guys over at MakeUseOf where nice enough to hand out a password for all guide downloads on their site. Just enter makeuseof (who would have thought that) into the password form to enable the download right away.

Each guide comes with bookmarks and a menu to quickly load a specific chapter. The overall design is well done and includes screenshots, headings and links.

The guides are packed with information and contain no advertisement whatsoever (apart from linking to the Makeuseof website that is).

Have you had the chance to read one of the guides yet? If so, which one did you read and what’s your overall opinion?

Twenty years ago, if you wanted to find something out, you’d probably have to visit a library, or look it up in a collection of encyclopedias. If you wanted to buy food, you’d go to the supermarket, or if you wanted to browse for a new TV or gadget, you’d go to an electrical outlet and look around. Now, we can Google virtually any fact we like and get the answer instantly, we can do our grocery shopping online and have it delivered directly to our doors, and for anything else there are a multitude of Internet companies selling electrical goods that offer significant savings to those found in actual shops.

So the question is, with all these services that enable us to do virtually anything from the comfort of our armchairs, are we getting to dependent on our Internet connections? Have you ever wondered what would happen if the Internet were to be disconnected globally just for one day? Is your Internet connection really just as important as your gas or electricity supply?

For many people, especially those who run a business from home, the answer to this question could be a resounding yes! The Internet being down for just a day could devastate a business that operates on a schedule and to tight deadlines. This is why many service providers promise an always-on service with 99.999% uptime, for companies and people who simply must have the Internet at all times. Some people even go to the length of installing more than one Internet line into their homes and offices, just for the occasion when one service goes down. Imagine if you have a small workforce working online. You still have to pay these people, even if they are unable to do their work due to a service disruption. Without electricity, you can run computers on battery backup or a generator for a number of hours, but if your working environment is in the cloud, you’re truly stumped without your Internet.

Many people are also looking at satellite connections and mobile phone technology to provide backups to their primary Internet connections. After all, having more than one cable into your home or office is no good if a construction worker puts a spade through a bundle of cables at the end of your street!

So think to yourself. What would you do without the Internet for a day, or a week? How would you get on? What kind of inconvenience would it be? How much money would you lose? Should you consider backing up your connection with an alternative service?

One solution is to have more than one backup disk. The more disks you have, the better protected you’ll be. With portable disk drives so cheap and easily available, it’s possible to have one backup disk for every day of the week. Label them up with that days Monday through to Sunday, and do a full backup onto each of them. After that, you can do an incremental backup each day, and you’ll effectively have seven backups of your hard-drive. So if one backup fails, you have six more to rely on. The chances of even two of your backups failing are remote, let alone seven. In fact, the odds of that happening are astronomical.

However, have you considered what would happen if your house were broken into or you suffer some kind of damage such as a fire? In these situations you could easily lose your computer and all your backups at the same time. In many cases, the data you own is much more valuable than the hardware, so you should make a plan to keep the data safe at all times. The best way to do this is to have a copy of your data offsite. If you work in an office, you could consider taking a backup disk to work with you. A simple rotation system would mean that you have a copy of your most recent data kept in your desk draw at work. You take a new disk with you one day, and bring home the old one. The chances of both your home and your office burning down or being broken into at the same time is just as remote as all your backups being damages. In addition, you’ll usually have a disk with you in transit, so at any one time you’ll actually have your data in three different places.

Other options include backing up your data to an online service. This can be just as costly as buying disks, and depending on the amount of data could take a very long time to upload and download, especially if you have movie files you want to protect.

You’ll also want to consider using encryption on your disks if you’re leaving personal data on your backups, especially in an unattended office overnight. There are many free programs such as Truecrypt that you can use to encrypt your data backups on the fly, to automatically protect your data.

The Khan Academy offers free educational videos on their site that stay true to that spirit. The team’s mission is to “deliver a world-class education to anyone anywhere”. For now, that’s more than 2100 educational videos with a strong emphasize on Math and Science. All lessons have been created by a single teacher, Mr. Kahn himself.

The videos on site are currently offered in English. The academy is looking for translators and teachers to offer videos in other languages.

All videos that I watched so far are easy to understand, even for users with little or even no experience on the subject. It is on the other hand important to follow the playlist on site, as the lessons may build up on each other. So, instead of starting with complex numbers you should probably start with simple equations or even at the very beginning, at basic addition and subtraction.

Most lessons have a playtime of around ten minutes. They are available for download right on the Khan Academy website. Next to the download are exercises which are only available for logged in users. Creating a user account is free on the other hand, and it is possible to link an existing Google or Facebook account with the service.

Exercises are individually selectable after log in, or directly on the video pages.

Basic exercises display a form on the page where the answer needs to be entered; More advanced challenges may display multiple choice answers and additional tools like a scratch pad. The site keeps track of your progress. Hints are available to help you solve a challenge.

One interesting feature are the badges that users can earn. They are very similar to game achievements and used for motivational purposes. Users can earn badges for correctly answering a set amount of problems in a row, completing a specific amount of exercises or archiving proficiency in a specific field.

Registered users can track their exercise and video watching progress on site, which is another benefit of becoming a member.

Teachers can make use of the videos and exercises on the Khan Academy as well. They can create classes which students can join. They then have the opportunity to watch their classes progress and achievements.

Here are some of the topics covered on the Khan Academy.

• Pre-algebra, Lessons that prepare for the Algebra courses. Teaches exponents, logarithm properties, scientific notation, fractions
• Algebra – Basic algebra to algebra II, includes equations, functions, complex numbers, conic sections and 180 worked examples.
• ck12.org Algebra 1 Examples
• Probability – Best watched after basic algebra
• Precalculus – Should be watched after finishing the Algebra playlist.
• Arithmetic – the most basic math playlist. Includes addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, decimals, percent.
• Banking and Money – Teaches how banks work and money is created. Additional but separate groups include Credit Crisis, Currency, Current Economics and Finance.
• Biology – Includes lessons on evolution, species, cells, cancer, viruses, bacteria, photosynthesis and cells.
• Calculus – Offers lessons on limits, integrals, integrals, Green’s theorem, gradients or polynomial approximation of functions.
• California Standards test Algebra and Geometry
• Chemistry – Atom theory, periodic table, kinetics, acid titration, pH, carbon 14 dating
• Organic Chemistry – Naming examples, Amine, Nucleophilicity, E1 and E2 Reactions
• Cosmology and Astronomy – Earth, Sun, Univers, Parsec definition, big bang introduction, plate tectonics
• Developmental Math – Whole Numbers, Laws, Mixed Numbers, Order of operations, exponents, fractions, integers, polynomials, units
• Differential Equations – Includes exact equations, integrating factors, undetermined coefficients, Laplace Transform, Theorems
• Geometry – Angles, Pythagorean Theorem, Triangles, Cylinder Volume, Heron’s Formula
• Trigonometry – Should be watched after Geometry lessons. Trigonometric functions, problems, polar coordinates
• History – US, French, Vietnam
• Linear Algebra – Matrices, vectors, vector spaces, transformations
• Physics – Includes lessons on motion, Newton’s Laws, Magnetism, Circuits, Fluids.
• Statistics – Will eventually cover all major topics of a first-year statistics course.

Some of the topics mentioned in this little overview may intimidate you. That should not be the case as everything builds up on each other. Plus, the explanation and teaching is really easy to understand and follow, and you can post questions on each video page that other users can answer to help you understand the concepts.

The videos can also be used to teach children those lessons, in addition to the lessons they have at school. This can be supplementary or in advance. It is best if an adult watches the videos with them, especially for the very young ones to be there in case additional explanations or help is needed.

You can watch all educational videos on the Khan Academy website. This site is highly recommended to everyone who wants to learn or refresh math or science. Could also be interesting for parents to keep up with their children’s school progress.

Windows Update Details

Windows Update always downloads these vital updates automatically. But, you can set up the service to install all or some of the updates as they are received, or to let you review the pending updates before you decide on which to install. Windows Update will provide a Windows PC with:

• The most recent security updates for your OS
• OS updates to improve performance and reliability
• Device drivers from both Microsoft and other companies

Upgrades are different from updates, in that upgrades are new versions of application software, or of the OS itself. Minor version upgrades may be available from Microsoft through Windows Update, but major version upgrades would likely involve a new software purchase, perhaps at a lower upgrade price.

The Microsoft Download Center is a website that contains all the elements of the Microsoft software updating, upgrading, and downloading programs that are both necessary and useful for the continuing operation of your Windows operating system.

The web site contains sub-sites for:

• Microsoft Windows Update
• Microsoft Download Notifications
• Microsoft Store (for both Windows software and MS Office software)
• Microsoft OS Service Packs
• Microsoft Technologies (focusing on Internet Explorer, DirectX, and Windows 7)

Timeline for Windows Updates

Patch Tuesday, the second Tuesday of every month, is the day that security updates are globally distributed via Windows Update and the Internet. Emergency security updates, however, may be distributed any time it is deemed necessary because of a newly discovered exploit that targets MS Windows.

The Internet is the preferred avenue of distribution for Windows Update to PCs, but Microsoft also provides other means for updates to be received by computers with no Internet connection. However, the PC interface controlling receipt of distributions is different for the various versions of Windows:

• Customer access at the MS Windows Update website (Windows 98, Windows XP, Windows ME, Windows 2000)
• Control Panel applet (Windows 7, Windows Vista)

With any OS before Windows Vista, an update that required a PC reboot would display a dialog box every few minutes which would request that the machine be rebooted. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, the same dialog box allows entry of a time period, up to four hours, before another dialog box appears — however, some updates that require a reboot may create a displayed countdown, at the end of which the computer will reboot no matter what the current user on the PC is doing, causing possible problems if data is not saved or the user is in the middle of a game.

Tip: It is possible to prevent the forced shutdown manually with the command shutdown –a in the Windows command line.

If there is an unexpected PC shutdown in the middle of an update download, Windows Update makes use of a feature of Windows system files called Transactional NTFS to enable the system to recover cleanly and to ensure that partially loaded updates are fully loaded before being applied.

Windows Update Levels

There are three levels Of Window Updates: Optional, Recommended, and Important.

Optional Updates, are, of course, optional, that a user can review, and choose to install or not to install. Included are:

• Offers for new or trial MS Windows software
• Updated device drivers from non-Microsoft companies (a driver may be promoted to Recommended level if your system is missing that driver and needs it, or the new driver has major feature revisions)

Recommended Updates are those enhance the computing OS experience, improving performance. Included are:

• Compatibility updates
• Revised contents of Help files
• New features for the Windows OS
• New features for other Microsoft software

Important updates are oriented more toward security and reliability. Included are:

• Security and privacy updates
• Significant reliability updates
• Updates for detection of non-genuine Microsoft software
• Verification of copyright-protected media

Options can be set to download and install automatically both the Important updates (set as a default) and the Recommended updates — with Windows XP, however, only the updates that are classified High-Priority will be downloaded and installed automatically.

Disabling Windows Update

If you want to disable Windows Update, you can disable the service for the PC, or by user-name. For an entire PC, the Group Policy Editor is used to disable Windows Update in the general User Configuration.

For individual users, REGEDIT is used to disable Windows Update in a User Registry key:

• In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer, create a new DWORD key.
• Make the Name of the key NoWindowsUpdate, and set the Value to 1.
• Whenever this user attempts to start Windows Update, an error message will display.

Troubleshooting Windows Update Errors

Windows Update is an essential maintenance element for the optimum performance of your computer. However, errors can occur during the normal operation of this important service. Here’s where we describe what measures you can take if Windows Update stops working on your computer system.

Measure #1: Check Internet Connection

Windows Update depends a great deal on Internet connectivity. First step is to see if you have full Internet connectivity by connecting to several web sites — if able to do so, the next step is to check the reliability of the connection, by checking email, signing on to forums, and looking at videos. If connection seems reliable, wait fifteen minutes and try running Windows Update again.

Measure #2: Start Supporting Services

Windows Update depends on several other services that also must be running on your PC. Check for these other services by clicking on Start, typing SERVICES.MSC, and pressing ENTER. Check in the display of services at the right for the names:

• Background Intelligent Transfer Service
• Cryptographic Services
• Automatic Updates
• Event Log

For each one whose Status is not Running, double-click to make the General tab appear — Startup Type should be Automatic. Click the Start button to change the service to a Running status.

Measure #3: Check Firewalls

The next measure to make sure the Windows Firewall is running, and not a firewall from a company other than Microsoft. To ensure continuous firewall protection, turn on the MS Firewall before turning off any other firewall.

• First, enable the Windows firewall by clicking Start…Run, typing FIREWALL.CPL in the Open box, and pressing ENTER.
• Second, disable any other firewall that may be running on your PC.

Now, try running Windows Update again.

Measure #4: Check Anti-Virus

Start the Security Center applet in the Control Panel, and turn off or disable the anti-virus application listed under either ‘Virus Protection’ or ‘Malware Protection’ section. Try running Windows Update again, and then immediately go back to the Security Center and enable the anti-virus application that had been disabled. Be careful with this measure — temporarily turning off your anti-virus application may allow Windows Update to start up, but, at the same time, doing so will leave your PC vulnerable.

Measure #5: Check Accelerators

Check to see if your PC has any Internet accelerators installed to increase the performance of Internet access. Such software can interfere with the operation of Windows Update. Consult the documentation for those accelerators to either disable or uninstall the software. Check the operation of Windows Update again.

Measure #6: Reset the Windows Update Folder

A corrupt file within the Windows Update distribution folder may be causing a problem with Windows Update. The solution is to reset the folder.

• Open a command prompt with the CMD, making sure the command is being Run as Administrator.
• In the CMD prompt, type WuAuServ and press enter (this action stops the Windows Update service).
• Wait for a response that the Windows Update service was successfully stopped.
• Type %windir% in the OPEN box of the Start Menu, and press Enter.
• Right-click the SoftwareDistribution folder, and select Rename.
• Rename the folder to SoftwareDistributionOLD (saving the original contents so that you can revert to them if needed by renaming to the original name).
• Back in the CMD window, type “net start WuAuServ” (without quotes). and press ENTER.
• Use the same steps you used in Measure #2 to check to see if the Windows Update service is running.

Try to run Windows Update — if unsuccessful, rename the SoftwareDistributionOLD folder back to its original name of SoftwareDistribution.

Measure #7: Check System Files

System files may have become corrupted, and you may need to scan the Windows system files to see if they are still correct and accurate.

• In a CMD box (started up in the same way as described in Measure #6), type “sfc /scannow” (without quotes), and press ENTER.
• When the scan is done, close the CMD box, and reboot your PC.

Try running Windows Update when your PC comes back up.

Measure #8: Verify BITS Files

BITS stands for Background Intelligence Transfer Service, and these files are essential to the functioning of Windows Update. It is possible the BITS files on your PC may be corrupted. You can download a BITS repair tool at the MS website:

32-bit Windows

64-bit Windows

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the BITS Repair Tool on your PC, reboot and let the tool run.

Measure #9: Check Support Sites

Check these two Microsoft support websites for descriptions of problems that may be similar to yours, with possible solutions.

FAQ
Problems

If this last measure does not help you to restore Windows Update to its proper functioning, then contact MS Customer Support.

Helpful Windows Update Videos

Other Update Tools

Windows Update takes care of the specific updates to the Windows operating systems, and those to other Microsoft software applications as well — but what about all those other software applications that you have installed on your PC that have just a great a need for up-to-date updates? Here are several update tools that will help you take care of the need for updates by your other software applications.

CTUpdate (WSUS Offline)

Supports all Microsoft operating systems and languages. Users just need to select their operating system and language from the list to download all updates for it. It is optionally possible to create an ISO image or copy the data to an USB device instead of a hard drive. The patches can then be applied once everything has been downloaded.

Windows Update Downloader

Only for pre-Windows 7 operating systems. WUD allows you to download all of the current Windows Updates using a simple interface. All of the updates are contained in Update Lists (ULs) which allows you to choose which updates you want for which version of Windows.

UpdateStar

Update Star is a freeware application that helps you keep track of all the software installations on your PC, checking that the latest patches, fixes, and updates are downloaded for whatever is installed on your PC. This software does not download anything, though.

Software-Uptodate

This monitoring tool checks with an online database to see what’s current for updates for many software packages, and displays a notification when there is an available update (although it does not do the download itself).

Personal Software Inspector

This monitoring software, from Secunia Company, uses a database containing information on over four thousand software applications to inspect your system for weak spots, such as missing critical patches for software installed on your PC. The software, however, does not download anything.

Additional Resources

See also

Fixing Windows Update Error 0x80072ee2
Windows Update Fix
Windows Update Error services not running

Recent problems with blurry fonts got me experimenting again and I discovered a way to disable transparency in Windows Aero. Many Windows 7 users probably now that already but maybe there are some like me who never researched the issue before. Here is the guide that explains how to disable transparency in Aero.

The easiest way to disable the visual feature is to right-click on a free part of the desktop and select Personalize from the options. This opens the Personalization Control Panel applet which can be used to change Windows themes, icons, color schemes and other appearance related settings.

A click on Window Color at the footer of that screen opens a new window with options to change the color scheme. More important for this guide is the ability to disable transparency in the menu as well. Users who want to remove transparency from Aero need to remove the checkmark next to Enable Transparency to do so.

The effect is applied immediately to the operating systems and users should notice that all transparency effects have been removed from the system. A click on the Save Changes button saves the setting.

Update: Windows 7 users who want their transparency back can follow the steps outlined above to do so. Only the last step is different, as they need to place the checkmark again in the Enable Transparency box.

Of course {zip/rar}ing everything is a no-go; nobody wants to have to open an archive before being able to launch an application. So what?
Enter UPX, the reference packer for executable files. UPX compresses executable files (mostly .exe and .dll under Windows), but contrarily to zip/rar/whatever, it keeps them executable, also preserving  their properties (icon, version…). All this at the cost of a completely unnoticeable performance hit when starting the application. Sounds good? Let’s compress everything executable in this Dropbox that is dangerously close to reaching its 2GB limit.

1. Download UPX from SourceForge and extract it to <upxFolder>.
2. Open a command prompt and browse to <upxFolder> (you can find the command prompt in Start > Accessories or run it via Windows+R, then “cmd”. Use “cd FolderName” to navigate the filesystem).
3. Run upx.exe to have a look at the options available. I’ll use -9 but you can adjust this (for example if you feel a performance hit on an old machine –I don’t–), and -v to have verbose output. Now, navigate to the folder of a program you want to compress and run your freshly-baked command:
   "<upxFolder>\upx.exe" -9 -v *.exe *.dll
   (replace <upxFolder> adequately, and keep the quotes around the path, or spaces will cause problems)
4. You’ll see the files being compressed, the compression ratio, as well as the occasional “AlreadyPackedException: already packed by UPX“, or “CantPackException: .NET files (win32/net) are not yet supported“, or “IOException: read error: Invalid argument“. These errors are all OK, UPX just notifies you that it left the file untouched.

Woot, you already gained 50MB by just compressing big ol’Inkscape.

Of course you now want to do this on ALL the executables in a folder. But you’re lazy, and the perspective of running this line inside hundreds of subfolders leaves you bleak. Lucky you, I’m lazy too, so I dug Stack Overflow to assemble a script that will do the operation recursively.

1. Paste this in a text file (of course adjusting the main line like we did before) you will rename to something like upxRecursive.bat
   for /r /d %%x in (*) do (
pushd "%%x"
"<upxFolder>\upx.exe" -9 -v *.exe *.dll
popd
)
pause
2. Move this batch file inside your Dropbox folder, launch it and see the magic. This will take a long time on a big folder filled with executable files, but will seriously slim it down. In my case, I saved 400MB (from 1.7GB to 1.3GB), leaving me with plenty of space for more crap.

Final notes:

• UPX has been in development for a long time and is praised for its extreme stability and reliability, but could possibly leave you with some exotic executable files that won’t run after compression. I personally never occurred to me, but accidents happen. In this case, use "<upxFolder>\upx.exe" -d problematicFile.exe to get an uncompressed version. Note it won’t be byte-identical, if you want to be able to get back to byte-identical versions, you should add the --exact switch at compression time.
  By the way, the folks at PortableApps.com pack all the software they release with UPX. Reassured about its reliability?
• People familiar with the win32/pe format will know that .exe and .dll are not its only valid extensions. The full list is “.exe .dll .cpl .ocx .sys .scr .drv”. However, I don’t recommend compressing sensitive files like control panel extensions or driver files, and this is why the line I suggest targets only dll and exe files. Compressing VLC is OK because you can reinstall it if UPX butchers it. Compressing critical software is not.
• I’m just repeating my previous point, but don’t want to see angry comments from people doing crazy things with this. Again, don’t do this on all C: , it -will- wreck your system. Compress executables when you really need it, and inside folders containing only reinstallable applications if things go wrong.
• UPX is multi-platform. My article focuses heavily on Windows because this is the platform where my use case comes from, but you can of course adjust this idea/script for Linux (plus you will probably have access to a saner scripting language than batch).
• EDIT: as pointed by John T. Haller in the comments, PortableApps offers AppCompactor, a graphical frontend that relies among others on UPX.

Ronan is a geek and musician living in Montreal. He likes scaring wary sysadmins with 2GB folders full of false positives and writes about software, music and life at flying molehill.

A life without Flash would mean to make the system more secure. But which consequences would it have in terms of usability? Are there websites and services that would stop working completely or partially? To find out we need to take a look at the functionality of Flash. Why is it installed on so many computer systems and what are the core services that are offered in Flash?

What is Flash being used for?

There are not any official statistics about Flash usage on websites, at least none that we could find during our research. We were able to identify the following sectors in which Flash is being used:

• Media Streaming: Mainly video and audio players that stream videos on websites.
• Games and entertainment: Many games are created in Flash.
• Advertisements: Flash ads are a common occurrence on the web.
• Services and sites: Some site use Flash for specific services, like a chat for instance, or on their whole website.

HTML5 introduces media streaming capabilities which should reduce the need for Flash in that area. Youtube for instance is offering an experimental HTML5 video player that can be used instead of the Flash player to view the videos on the site. There are also some options to either replace the flash player in a web browser with a media player that is installed on the computer system. Firefox add-ons like Media Player Connectivity replace the Flash player, some display the output in the web browser while others redirect it to the local media player.

Games on the other hand cannot be played if Flash is not installed. The same is true for advertisements (which most Internet users probably won’t miss at all. The services and sites on the other hand depend largely on the user’s personal web surfing habits. Flash player might still be needed if websites with Flash exclusive features are accessed.

Can you live without Flash?

It is quite possible to not install Flash. Alternatives at least are available at least in the media streaming sector. Not all media sites might work though but the way is paved for a Flash less future. Casual gamers on on the other hand have barely any other options. Java might be an alternative but the majority of games are served in Flash.

What’s your opinion on the matter? Do you use Flash? Do you have plans to stop using it in the future?

In this article I will discuss what the security mode feature does and what the different modes are. By the end of this article there should be no confusion as to which mode your Samba setup should use.

What are security modes?

I like to think of security modes as a means to inform the server just how a client will authenticate. You know about authentication from many sources. You can authenticate at a local level, as part of a domain, using Active Directory, and more. How you authenticate is generally dictated by your IT department (or by yourself if you are personal or home user). Because of the different types of authentication, Samba needs a way to know how this authentication is going to happen.

Now, from a Windows perspective (and the reason why Samba exists) there are only two types of security level: Share level and User level. But because Windows has multiple ways of authentication Samba needs to break the user level down further. So, as far as Samba is concerned, these levels are called modes and there are five modes: user, share, domain, ADS, and server. Let’s take a look at each of these.

user

The security = user mode is really the easiest to understand. From the Samba server perspective, the only things that matter (with regard to user mode) is username/password and the name of the client machine. This mode works very simply: If the Samba server accepts the username/password of the client then that client is able to mount shares on the server.

share

The security = share mode the client will authenticate itself against a share on the Samba server. Unlike user, when security = share authenticates against a share, that means that client only has access to that share. When using this mode the client sends a password along with each share request. If the password authenticates, the client has access to the share. If not, no access is granted. The authentication process is like this:

1. The client sends a session setup request that includes a valid username.
2. Samba records this username.
3. Client issues a tree connection request and the share the client wishes to connect with.
4. The users password is the then checked against the username. If password matches, the client is given access.

domain

The security = domain provides a means for storing all username/passwords in a centralized, shared account. This account is then shared between domain controllers. So when Samba uses this mode of security it has a domain security trust account and forces all authentication requests to be passed through the domain controller. When using this mode the configuration requires a second parameter. So the configuration will look like:

security = domain

workgroup = DOMAIN_NAME

You also have to join the domain using the net rpc join -U ADMINISTRATOR%PASSWORD command. Where ADMINISTRATOR is the name of the administrator account and PASSWORD is the password for that account.

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As you might expect, this is the Active Directory mode. Samba added ADS functionality at release 3. Using ADS mode is only possible if the Active Directory server is run in native mode. When running in ADS mode Samba will need NT-compatible authentication data – in other words Kerberos. So your Samba server will need to have a working Kerberos system installed. When using ADS mode, your Samba configuration adds another line like so:

realm = YOUR.KERBEROS.REALM

security = ADS

server

The last mode is security = server. This mode is generally not used any more because it basically sends username/password authentication to another machine. If this other machine is down, there will be no authentication. This mode presents numerous problems, which is why it is often not used. One of the more serious problems is that once a connection to the password server is made, that connection can be left open for extended periods of time – thus a severe security issue.

Final thoughts

Now you should have a better understanding of the security modes for Samba. Which do you prefer? Which modes are you locked down to within your company? Samba is a very flexible tool that can be used in many different environments. Hopefully Ghacks is helping you to implement Samba more easily.

Upon installation you might not immediately notice the improvements. They are there and eventually these improvements will impress you. So instead of you having to wade through the distribution to witness these improvements, I will highlight those that will have certain impact on the user…whether directly or indirectly.

Bluetooth Support

You might be wondering why I am starting with a feature that isn’t used by everyone. The main reason is because this is the update that might excite users (at least mobile users) the most. With the latest release not only has bluetooth support matured, but tethering support has become almost foolproof! So now that laptop can tether to your cell via usb. But the improvements don’t end there. One of the issues, prior to 12, that plagued Linux bluetooth users was battery drain. Now bluetooth services are run “on demand” so that thirty seconds after the last bluetooth device was used, the service is suspended.

Network manager improvements

Another large step forward is with the Network Manager. Although this is the best of the best Linux network management tools, it still had room for improvement. What has been improved is:

• IpV6 support.
• Better shared, static, and system-wide connection support.
• Easy to configure bluetooth tethering

Out of the box tablet support

This will come to the surprise of anyone that has had to get tablet support working with Linux. Fedora 12 will work without having to muck around with xorg.conf! Tablet pressure sensitivity, handwriting recognition, and many more features will work, out of the box! This is big news for anyone who wants to use a tablet PC with Linux.

Updates improvements

For those of you who grow more and more frustrated with the constant barrage of updates with a Fedora distribution, you will be happy to know that Fedora has made some serious improvements. First RPM now uses XZ compression (instead of gzip), so packages are smaller. Also, the Presto plugin is now enabled by default. Presto uses RPM deltas which only use files that have changed. Between XZ and deltas file downloads are considerably smaller and updating is noticeably faster.

Bug reporting

One thing to keep in mind is that Fedora is a cutting edge distribution, so bug reporting should be a task most Fedora users follow through with. Fedora 12 makes this task very simple. When an application crashes data is automatically collected (without the user having to run back traces and such). With the help of the new Abrt tool, reporting bugs is about as simple as possible. The user doesn’t even have to go to Bugzilla to report a bug!

Graphics

There have been a number of improvements for graphics with Fedora 12. One of the more important updates is the experimental drivers that give 3D support for graphics cards without the use of proprietary drivers.

Clustered Samba

Another exciting addition is the GFS2 Fedora 12 Samba allows you to  have multiple instances of smbd across different nodes of a cluster. With this you can export a gfs2 filesystem through one or more nodes in the cluster. Clustered Samba will provide high-availablity of the Samba service.

Final thoughts

This is just a taste of what Fedora 12 is brining to the Linux table. There is a veritable plethora of new features available with Fedora 12. For a complete list, take a look at this Wiki page for an all encompassing  look at the feature list.

Scientists at University of California, Berkley have actually accomplished this task. They have successfully attached tiny electrodes and other electronic parts on to living insects. Through these implants, the bug can now be maneuvered through a laptop.

The engineering principle behind is not very difficult to understand. Since we human beings can’t exactly one-up nature on engineering, this is a sort of hack in to the system. It’s like installing a malware that takes control of your computer and then the malware creator manipulates your system through the implant.

The bugs are implanted with the electronic parts at the pupal stage or around the time when they retreat inside the pupa. This way, they actually grow up with parts implanted in them. Then when they are fully grown and take flight, the electrodes transmit electrical pulses in to their nervous system and muscles. So in case the controller wants the bug to veer left during flight, the electrodes charge the left  muscles to make them work harder and the body turns left. Is it is just me or does this sound eerily similar to the way human beings were controlled in The Matrix?

The bug that is being shown off at this point is a Beetle. The developers of the system, Hirotaka Sato and Michel Maharbiz, talked to the Neuroscience Magazine and told them that they had successfully demonstrated remote control in free flight through an implantable radio-equipped neural transmitter.

Attempts to do things similar to this have been going on for several years now and it has already been tried on insects like cockroaches. But this the first time ever that man has been able to extend this kind of control on an insect. This is not necessarily a good thing though. However, as with every scientific achievement, what comes off it will depend on how we use it. And the identity of the people who are funding it already gives us a large enough hint as to what the purpose of this project might be.

The project is being funded by the Pentagon. More precisely, it is being funded by the US Defense Research Project Agency (DARPA) and they themselves have been trying to build a Nano Air Vehicle or NAV.

thankfully this is still in the realm of Sci Fi

These NAVs would be small enough (less that 7.6cm and 10g) to go to places undetected and carry out reconnaissance missions in urban areas mainly. Even though we have advanced enough in the field of nano-technology to make the insect-implants, we are still unable to build something like that completely on our own.

So the military hopes that the beetles would act like micro air vehicles and give them unprecedented advantages during war.

Thankfully, nothing like that is possible immediately because the control  implant is all that the insects can carry during flight. Any more weight and they will not be able to lift it with their wings. So things like a camera and a GPS transmitter are still quite far away from being implanted on to these insects, which would be the only way they could be of any use in war. They can still carry chemical and biological weapons but that would violate existing war laws.

It’s funny that they are expected to abide by the law during a war. The developers are saying that this is only the initial stage and practical cyborg insects are anything between two to 10 years away. [BBC news]

Some of these terms might seem very basic to a few readers and some of them not so basic. It is important, however, that we are all standing on common ground and not having to “google” a term all the time. This article will not be exhaustive, it will cover a few terms. In later “Get to know Linux” articles we will cover more of these terms. Without further adieu, let’s proceed.

~/ or users’ home: This is the directory, created when you either install your operating system or create a new user (with the right arguments), that holds all of your personal data. This directory is created based on what is in the /etc/skel directory. This is the one directory your user has full permissions in. From the command line, the fastest way to get to this directory is to enter the command cd.

Kernel: This is the heart of Linux. In fact some purists will tell you that this IS Linux and everything else is nothing more than various applications built to run on top of Linux. The Linux kernel is a true preemptive multi-tasking kernel, is written in C, and is the single largest “application” on your system. Without the kernel you would not have a Linux operating system. “Back in the day” you would hear Linux users talk about “rolling their own kernel” or “compiling their own kernel”. This referred to building a kernel to meet specific needs. At one time this was almost a necessity for many users. This is not so much the case now as the modern kernel contains just about everything you would need.

Distribution: A distribution of Linux is a bundled variation of Linux. There are a number of major distributions such as: Ubuntu, Fedora, SuSE, Debian. There are also a far greater number of minor distributions: PCLinuxOS,  Linux Mint, Elive, Gentoo, etc. Each distribution has its own selling point. For example: Ubuntu is one of the best known distributions for new users. On the other hand of the spectrum, Gentoo is for highly experienced users. You will often here the term “distro” used in place of “distribution”.

Terminal, Console, or Terminal Emulator: This is where commands are entered. There are really two places this is done: In a terminal window or a Console. Often these terms are exchanged, but there is a difference. A terminal window is generally a small application (like gnome-terminal or xterm) that allows you to enter commands. The console is actually the command line version of the Linux interface. To get to what is typically called “console mode” you would either have to go to a virtual console (using <Ctrl><Alt>F1-0) or log out of X and kill your graphical log in (such as gdm). When your monitor shows nothing but your bash prompt, you are in “console mode”.

X: This term stands for X Window System. In simplest terms, X provides the graphical interface for Linux. Of course it is much more complex than that. The X Windows system alone wouldn’t offer you much functionality as X only provides the framework for the GUI. Running only X would give you a grayish screen, a cursor, and not much more. What you don’t see is that X provides the very foundation that enables your window managers and desktops to do what they do. You will often here the phrase “Log out of X” which, for the purposes of the end user, means log out of your desktop.

Package Manager: One of the key selling points for distributions is which package manager they use. A package manager is the system which applications are automatically installed, removed, and generally managed on a system.Two of the major package management systems for Linux: dpkg and rpm. The dpkg was originally for Debian systems but is now employed by Ubuntu and others as well. RPM was created for the Red Hat Linux distribution but now is used by Fedora, SuSE, and others. Each of these systems have both command line tools (such as apt and apt-get for dpkg, and yum for RPM) and GUI tools (such as gpk-application for RPM and Synaptic for dpkg).

Final thoughts

There you have a few of the terms you should be familiar with when using the Linux operating system. We will continue with more terms at a later date. If you would like to request terms to be defined (or if you would like to request a Linux topic in general), please feel free to contact me.

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.

Of course you will have to have a kernel that is compiled with IPv6 support. Most modern Linux distributions already have this built in. You also have to have your IPv6 addresses handy. I use this simple web-based IPv6 calculator. With that tool select the IPv4 to IPv6 conversion and you should be good to go. So with everything in hand, you are ready to configure.

IPv6 support

First make sure your kernel supports IPv6. To do this you can first run the command:

sudo lsmod|less

and search the listing to see if ipv6 is there. If not try loading it with the command:

sudo /sbin/modprobe ipv6

Now issue the lsmod command to see if it is there. It should be.

Configuration

The file you want to configure will be the standard network interface configuration. Remember you are going to configure for static IP addresses. The file in question is /etc/network/interfaces. Most likely this is either not configured (if you are using DHCP) or set up for IPv4. We are going to blow that away now. We are also going to add something to this file that will ensure IPv6 is loaded properly and that your networking us making use of the new address scheme.

The details of our configuration:

IPv4 address: 192.168.1.10

IPv6 Address: 2002:c0a8:10a::

IPv4 gateway: 192.168.1.1

IPv6 gateway: 2002:c0a8:0101::

Now let’s add this to the /etc/network/interfaces file. The new file will look like this:

#IPV6 static configuration
iface eth0 inet6 static
pre-up modprobe ipv6
address 2002:c0a8:10a::
netmask 64
gateway 2002:c0a8:0101::


Notice the “pre-up” command. That is where we ensure that IPv6 is added to the kernel, otherwise you run the risk of attempting to use an IPv6 address in a system that is looking for an IPv4 address.

Now you will want to restart networking with the command:

/etc/init.d/networking restart

You should now have an IPv6 address enabled.

Testing

Before you assume everything is working, let’s make sure first. You can check your IP routing with the command:

ip -6 route show

The above command should return something like:

2002:c0a8:0100/64 dev eth0 proto kernel  scope  link src 2002:c0a8:10a

You can also check by pinging with the ping6 tool. A good IPv6 address to try is the Google address. Issue this command:

ping6 ipv6.google.com

If IPv6 isn’t working you will get error:

Network is unreachable

If IPv6 is working you will see the standard ping results in your terminal window.

Final thoughts

It’s only a matter of time before IPv6 is the defacto standard for network addressing. When that happens you do not want to be behind the curve or you’ll lose out fast. Make sure you know how to configure your Linux servers for IPv6 static addressing. You’ll be glad you do when the time comes.

In Plain English is a video series on Youtube and the common craft website that explains concepts in plain terms so that everyone, even someone who has little to no knowledge about the concept can understand it.

Their latest video is for example explaining RSS Feeds. How would you explain RSS feeds to someone who never heard about the concept before. The videos do an excellent job of explaining these concepts in plain terms. There are basically four topics (Green, Money, Society and Technology) to chose from. The technology category contains explanations of Twitter, social media or wikis among others.

All videos are made without computers and do not show a single computer screen or hardware. You can watch all videos either on the Common Craft website or at Youtube directly.

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.

Sleep Talking, a new system that is called internally Somniloquy has been designed by computer scientists at UC San Diego and Microsoft Research, combines the energy saving benefits of sleep mode with the responsiveness of awake mode. An USB prototype has been created that acts as a low end computer system impersonating the host computer on the network. The prototype comes with the ability to wake the host computer system if necessary. This can be an incoming call using voice over IP or a P2P download that filled the internal flash memory of the USB prototype so that the contents have to be written to the host computer system.

Tests that the researchers conducted resulted in power savings between 60 and 80 percent depending on the use model compared to idle state which is

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?

I am currently trying to learn French and German and often find myself using many computer-based resources to ease my learning, some obvious, like dictionaries, and some not-so, like podcasts.

Dictionaries

Different languages generally have different online dictionaries. For German, I often find myself using dict.cc, whilst for French, I use Reverso. The best way to find dictionaries is to Google, but one option to definitely consider is the ever-growing Wiktionary. Effectively every language has a Wiktionary and whilst it can be difficult to navigate, it is quite large and the range of languages makes it amazing.

Verb conjugators

Verbix is another web-based tool. It allows you to conjugate verbs, and even supports irregular ones.

The free web-based tool supports verb conjugation in 97 languages, ranging from Afrikaans, to Milanese, to Old English to Welsh! They offer Windows shareware which supports over 300 languages.

Verbix also offers a tool too which analyses text and guesses its language.

Podcasts

Podcasts are a very useful way to perfect your listening.

It is very useful for me to hear a native German or a Francophone to speak.

Browsing iTunes will obviously bring up many possibilities.

My suggestions? For German, use Slow German. For French, try One thing in a French day. Naturally, I can’t make suggestions for other languages!

Vocabulary trainers

One of the best ways to learn is purely to repeat.

Many vocabulary trainers are available. These allow you to input words, or use preprepared word lists, and then be tested on them. The trainers compile statistics so you can identify weak points etc.

For OS X, try the freeware Vocab. A wide-range of options exist for Windows users; ProvaLingua seems popular. Another option, which also works under Linux, is this program.

Wikipedia

I already mentioned that Wiktionary exists in many languages, but so does Wikipedia.

To improve your knowledge of a foreign language, try reading an article on your native language Wikipedia and then on a foreign one. It won’t be the same word for word, but many ideas will be similar so you should be able to pick out some key words.

Wikipedia is also a good way to find technical vocabulary in a foreign tongue.

Users who double-click on the msi file directly will also install the application but with the possibility that it will not run properly on the computer system. Take a computer program that requires the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5 for example. If the user has an older version of the framework installed setup.exe will download the files needed and launch the installation of the compatible framework and launch the installation using the msi file afterwards.

If the user installs using the msi file the installation will go through without problems but might experience an application crash or warning message while starting the application. It is therefor recommend on end user systems to always install applications using the setup.exe file if both a setup.exe and xyz.msi are available after unpacking the software program.

There are even some msi setup files out there that will not perform the installation upon execution but request an installation using the setup.exe file instead to ensure that all necessary components are installed.