I was browsing through the Sunday ads and CompUSA actually had some decent deals. One being a Maxtor 200GB 7200RPM HD for $130. They also have a 2.2GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive but it’s a bit pricey. It’s about the same size as most jump/thumb drives, I figure the more models they come out with that have larger storage the cheaper the older ones will be and then I’ll indulge. Just more things to add to my tech wishlist, I’d rather go wireless first. You wouldn’t believe how annoying it is dragging a wired laptop everywhere.

We love teh bittorrent! Here’s the torrent links for the movie Fahrenheit 911.(A legal download, hah!)

In order to download this movie you will have to install BitTorrent. Those of you that prefer P2P programs you can download Shareaza, (works the same as Kazaa) which also handles BitTorrent downloads.

My first experience with Linux was several years ago when I decided to take an old beast of a computer and tranform it into something functional. Which was not possible to be obtained through Windows. It’s ultimate purpose was simply to allow others access to the internet while I hogged the main computer. On a search to find a compact, solid and stable OS that wasn’t performance demanding and easy to use, I came across a Linux distro called Peanut. Which practically turned my relic into a brand new computer.

Fast forward to a week ago when XP cripples and boycotts my PCMCIA slot along with my NIC. After every troubleshooting technique possible, I went through a series of installs and uninstalls down the line of Microsoft OS’s. All of which were too ignorant to work properly.

After a complete waste of time, I tossed out the Windows disks and installed Debian. I traded in my NIC problems for a sound problem. From what I’ve read, it also seems like it’s a typical problem surrounding Thinkpad 600E’s and Linux, so whatever. Hopefully I’ll fix it at some point.

I’ve been engulfed by Debian. The OS itself is built so intelligently. The apt-get feature to install software packages and other goodies is a nice treat. Adding the laptop to my LAN was a breeze, it’s beyond customizable. I did have a problem with upgrading through apt-get, that and my sound problem are the only hardships I’ve encountered. So, if any of you Linux gurus out there have any tips, tricks, software recommendations and the like, feel free to post them.

So much hype surrounding Google’s e-mail service, GMAIL. Gmail is still in beta, though some with accounts receive invites to send out to others to sign up for an account. Which has created a large following of people begging for invites. Invites are being auctioned off on ebay, other invites are randomly given to lucky refreshers who choose to F5 a webpage for hours hoping to be the lucky winner. I’ve also seen sites setup for people to offer something in exchange for an invite and even an IRC channel created for people who are willing to earn an invite by doing a little password cracking of rar files and such.

I was doing a little surfing, looking for good sites to add to my links, when I came across Starbody in a 6-degrees of a Tampa weblog fashion. I happened to be at the right place, at the right time, when someone was willing to hand out an invite to a stranger. Kimberly of Starbody passed an invite my way and I’ve since had the opportunity to test out Gmail. (Thanks again!)

Gmail has a slick new interface and offers 1 gig of storage, surpassing every other popular web based e-mail service. If I recall correctly, I think Yahoo just boosted it’s storage limit in an attempt to compete with Gmail. The layout is smooth and easy to use. I’m looking forward to it’s final unveiling.

There’s only one thing that I’ve been skeptical about: the privacy policy. It’s not so much the fact that Gmail will be scouring the emails. Anybody with a packet sniffer can intercept e-mail, it’s the fact that it’s searching for keywords to be used in target marketing. I hate ads. I’m curious to see how it will incorporate it’s ads to the user, by inbox or embedded ads? Google does use advertising in it’s search engine, which is quite unobtrusive and at times useful, so I guess I’ll wait and see. Beggars can’t be choosers though, how else is Google supposed to dish out a gig of e-mail storage to herds of users.?

All in all, I’ve been impressed with Gmail thus far and look forward to it going public.

Thanks go out to Dave for suggesting WordPress to me. It took me a little while but the switch from Movabletype to Word Press is finally finished. The only thing I wasn’t capable of doing was the dropdown categories without a ‘go’ button. When I used the code to have the page transferred after selection (the same used for the monthly archives) it wouldn’t validate. I got fed up with fiddling with it and left it as is, it works, just not the way I want it to. A task for another time.

In short, WordPress is a breeze to setup. The only minor obstacle I had (aside from the dropdown menu creation) was adjusting to the new tags. Which, after a few minutes, became much easier.

My major reason for switching was NO MORE REBUILDING. If you have tons of entries, archive monthly, daily, and categorically, you know how much a pain rebuilding can be in Movabletype when making even the slightest of adjustments. One click and it’s instantly published.

I like the way, after setting up the main index template, WordPress automatically configured the archives and comment pages by integrating my design. A nice time saver.

WordPress is a powerful content manager, simple in its appearance but bold in functionality. Combined with all of the plugins that are available and a great support community, WordPress is absolutely superior to the other content managers I’ve used.

Thanks to the Subscribe to Comments plugin from ScriptyGoddess it’s now possible to be notified via email when someone replies to your comment.

I’m going to explore and add some plugins. If you’re thinking of switching to Word Press, try it, I promise you won’t look back.

The laptop is fully recovered, alive and well. First thing I did was pop in Knoppix. Oooh yeah. Knoppix is one of the many Linux-live distros. A fully working Linux distro that runs directly off the CD without the need of installing ANYTHING. No changes are made to the system and it’s fully operable. It’s an excellent way to get a friend, family member, or any neophyte (cough cough me cough cough) acquainted with Linux.

It’s created with on-the-fly compression which enables the CD to hold up to almost 2GB of software on it.

I have three Linux live distros. Knoppix, Gnoppix, and Knoppix STD. Knoppix uses KDE, Gnoppix uses Gnome, and Knoppix STD is fully packed with security tools.

They’re are so many possibilities, good and evil, that can come of these and I highly recommend checking them out.

It has a huge array of drivers for practically anything, ensuring flawless booting.
An extensive library of software including (and certainly not limited to) OpenOffice, The Gimp, Gaim, Mozilla… Basically it covers every area of interest from games, multimedia, networking, office products, HTML editors, so on and so forth. It truly is an endless list.

In addition to this, you might also want to check out TheOpenCD project. An ISO that contains all of the software I mentioned above and then some that’s ready to install and run on your Windows computer.

And they’re all free. Who doesn’t love free things?

Strictly for the paranoid or the nosy. If you’re running a network and are curious to know if your encryption for various software actually works (IM clients, e-mail, etc.) I found a great free program to help identify what things need encryption. However, it’s very easy to abuse this power by spying on other users of your network. Muahhaha!

Just load up NetworkActiv and within a few minutes you’ll be viewing e-mails, IM messages, and web pages that are floating across the network.

If it makes you nervous that someone on your network is capable of reading your e-mail and instant messages there’s two great ways to secure your privacy in these categories:

• Use Trillian which offers encryption for AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, and IRC.
• Encrypt your e-mail with PGP.

With almost every piece of software that’s released these days, comes the option of customization via themes/skins. Sometimes I could care less and other times it’s an absolute must. Take Windows XP for instance, its default theme resembles playschool building blocks. It’s just plain hideous. Luckily enough for XP users you have the option of themes, specifically a Windows2000 look-alike. If that’s not satisfactory enough, there’s a whole world of themes out there for Windows XP that you can pilfer through.

I use a simple theme for XP, Watercolour, only because it matches Trillian Pro’s default theme. With those combined all I was lacking was a nice icon package. First place I go for nice skins and various designs is DeviantArt. DeviantArt is where I had found Carlitus. I found his user page at Deviant and instantly became addicted to his style. His art is just so amazing.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I’ve used his Noia icon sets for a very long period of time now and today, while browsing extensions and themes for Firefox and Thunderbird, I came across themes based on the icon set for both programs. So check out his stuff, it’s great eye candy, and best of all he’s not windows specific, his offering are also for Mac and Linux.

I have to share with you one of my favorite apps ever: Firebird Web Browser, the mother of all web browsing inventions. I made the switch a few months ago when I could no longer handle IE.

IE, oh IE, you and your 3 minute load times. You and your not being able to remember my preferences. You and all your lag and inability to comprehend simple HTML and CSS. Whatever were you good for? Ah, you were there to frustrate users and aid them to search for a better more stable, speedy, usable alternative to your forced presence.

And then there was Firebird.

One (out of so many) of my favorite features neatly packed in Firebird, is tabbed browsing. Say goodbye to cluttered taskbar. Imagine a browsing session performed in a single browser window. Another feature to make clutter almost completely obsolete, Firebird also has a built in pop-up blocker.

It only gets better. Extensions. One of my personal favorite extension is Tabbrowser Preferences. This handy little extension allows you to open all links in a new tab in your current window. And of course, you can change the theme of Firebird.

I’ve tried Mozilla before Firebird, it was just too bloated for me. So I opted to try Firebird and it won me over instantly. Are you tempted yet? You should be. If you don’t believe me, try it for yourself and you decide.