Installing Linux (easily) on a Flash Drive

Being able to boot from a flash drive is quite handy at times (for example if you need to rescue some files from a dead computer). Recently I tried a utility designed to make a bootable flash drive. This utility lets you install any of several different Linux versions on a flash drive quite easily. The software, unetbootin, is really easy to use. I’ve got Ubuntu running from  my flash drive now (DSL is another favorite of mine).

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

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Security and Convenience

“Security and convenience are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to choosing a memorable password, and we are sometimes our own worst enemies.” Rebecca Mileham

Cloud Storage: A Comparison

Cloud Storage Earlier, I mentioned a desire to compare cloud storage services. Since the time of that writing, I’ve come across numerous articles comparing various services. Rather than repeating what has already been said, I’ll simply list a number of good cloud storage services and links to a few articles comparing these services. Dropbox Dropbox … Read more

The Importance of Backups

The Importance of Backups

A few years ago I received a frantic email from a friend. At the time, he was a doctoral student finishing his dissertation (an original contribution to human knowledge–in most programs this is the final paper required for a doctorate). Unfortunately the hard drive in his computer crashed. He had no backup copies, and was desperate for help. Eventually, he had to send the hard drive to a recovery company. The company did recover the lost files–but the bill was easily over a thousand dollars!

All devices fail. MAKE BACKUPS! No one wants to redo their work. My friend could have spared himself a lot of grief had he simply maintained reasonable backup copies of his work. However, just having copies does not guarantee safety.

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Should I use WordPress or HTML?

Creating a new website: Should you use WordPress or HTML?

WordPress has been in the news a lot lately. We often see statistics explaining how many of the top web sites are based on WordPress. There’s a reason–it’s really a great tool. However a few people disagree and suggest coding by hand using HTML. Which approach is best?

It depends!

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