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Ubuntu – Day 4

I’m going to do a short written update to my Ubuntu trek, but record my first official “Shotgun Podcast” here shortly.

After only three days, I gave up on Evolution email as my email program. I like the program a lot, but unfortunately, I get way too much spam not to have a better anti-spam solution. So, I downloaded and installed Thunderbird today which while not perfect and far from my Cloudmark Desktop solution on my Windows machine, it is much better than the Evolution method.

Sadly, dial-up Internet is still alive and well

The majority of people I have seen this week have been dial-up Internet users. In every case the appointment lasted longer and cost more money than if they would have been on broadband. In other words, the appointment could have taken only a few minutes. Instead the appointment took so long that it cost as much as three month’s worth of broadband service.

I carry most of the tools for fixing computers on my flash drive but two of the computers were Windows 98 and several of the computers needed updates or other downloads that can only be acquired online.

Automatic Update in Ubuntu Linux – Video Tip

In our ongoing "Ubuntu Week" series of articles, today's tip focuses on computer safety. No matter what operating system you may use, the most important skills you can learn for your computer's safety is updating the operating system. All operating systems, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Solaris, BeOS, etc. offer security and system updates from time-to-time. These updates fix problems found in the software and shore up security holes found through research or hackers.

Ubuntu Linux implementation of Automatic Updates works quite well and is painless to maintain. Today's video tip shows you the steps to take to make sure your Ubuntu system is running the latest in system and security updates.

Ubuntu on the road

I continue to experiment with the Ubuntu operating system. This past weekend, my family and I made a quick trip to the South Dakota Black Hills and I took my Ubuntu laptop along for the ride. My Ubuntu laptop is an older Compaq (almost six years old) that was destined for the trash heap by its previous owner. It no longer performed well for them and required reformatting and upgrading to run Windows XP and other software at any appreciable speed. I rescued it, installed Ubuntu Linux on it, bought the cheapest wireless card I could find, and now I have a completely functional and quick second laptop.

How to use System Restore

system restoreI don't know how we missed posting this tip, but somehow we did so now I'm rectifying the situation.

One of the best features of Windows XP (and now Vista) is the ability to undo many problems that we may cause ourself or the system causes through updates or other unknown situations. It is called System Restore and it allows you to roll back your system to a previous time when all was blissful without losing any valuable data like email, pictures, and other documents.

I’ve heard you say that before

Imagine for a moment (you won't have to stretch very far) that your son or daughter comes home past curfew and you say something like, "I told you to be home by midnight." In reply your kid says, "I know I heard you say that."

Imagine for a moment that you are an engineer who builds bridges. One day a bridge that you design collapses. You confront the builders only to find that they used half of the bolts that you indicated in the design. "I heard you say that we should use that many bolts," comes the reply from the builder.

In each case, the next sentence that follows is an excuse from the offenders as to why they thought this should be an exception.

Mozilla Firefox Revisited

By Rick Castellini 2002. Revised by Adam Cochran 2007

Earlier this summer, my co-host, Adam, decided to do an 'on air' review of a product. The product he chose is Mozilla Firefox, an alternative web browser. Being on the radio and downloading, installing and reviewing software was a new experience for us, but the impression was instant and impressive for both of us.

Mozilla loads most web pages much faster than Internet Explorer and makes a dial-up connection seem snappier. Because Mozilla does not use any code from Internet Explorer, it is inherently less likely to be plagued by the various security holes that Internet Explorer fights against on a daily basis. The software is free and I've put together a list of features and tips that I like about this great little browser:

Another post from Ubuntu

I have been so busy lately, that I haven't had much of a chance to play around with my Ubuntu Linux (alternative to Windows) machine. Last night, I updated to the latest version of Ubuntu Linux 7.04 for free. Compare that to the minimum of $179 you would pay for the basic version of Vista. I was motivated to do the update not only because I promised I would learn more about Linux, but also because Dell released a story yesterday announcing their plans to sell Linux laptops and desktops computer starting this summer. It seems that Microsoft keeps getting hit day-after-day. Where will they be in 5 years? They certainly don't have the stature today that they had 5 years ago.

Properly Uninstall Norton Products

How to get rid of Norton Antivirus:

1. Go to Start – Control Panel (Start – Settings – Control Panel)
2. Open Add/Remove Programs
3. Now you will want to remove the following items:

  • Anything that says "Norton" or "Symantec" in the title.

  • LiveUpdate

  • LiveReg

4. Restart your computer when prompte

512mb is not enough

512mb of RAM is not enough for Windows Vista…any flavor. Vista has been out almost three months now, and I have setup almost a dozen Vista machines. Thankfully, they are rolling out slowly. All the machines I setup, until today, came with 1 GB (1024mb) or 2GB of RAM. And although not blazing, the computer's ran at an acceptable speed.

I just finished spending nearly 2.5 hours setting up a laptop with Vista Basic and only 512mb of RAM. It was painful. Normally, I can clean all unwanted and trial software (crapware) from a new computer, install and update AVG Antivirus, optimize the startup and Internet settings, shut off unnecessary special effects, setup email and test both email and the Internet all in under 1.5 hours. This little laptop required extraordinary wait times to get anything installed or uninstalled. Very frustrating.