In case you are new to DCoT or just haven’t noticed, I’m a bit of a USB drive nut. I like what they can do and the freedom that they give me. I have started making different USB “systems” and my latest is a complete e-mail system on one USB drive. Build a USB Drive Mail System has a fully functioning mail client along with its own SMTP mail server. This will allow you to carry all your e-mails, contacts, RSS feeds, etc. with you and also let you send e-mails without having to worry about whether or not your internet provider will let you connect from outside their network.
The other nice thing about this system is that everything is available for free!
Now here is an idea whose time has come. One of the arguments that I have always hears against open source applications is that there is no support available for them. This has been solved for some open source applications where you can purchase professional support for their applications but this still leaves out out in the cold if you are using some unsupported applications. There are always forums but it can be hit or miss.
That is, until now.
In comes Qunu. Qunu allows you to connect with users via Jabber-enabled IM clients. The way it works, you go to the Qunu website and search for a topic. You will then be shown a list of people who are available to help with your problem. You can select one of these people to chat with and they will try to help you with your problem.
This feels very much like many other help websites except this connects you in real time rather than relying on e-mail or forums. A very cool idea!
The latest addition to the DCoT blogroll family is Nothing but Unix. From their website:
Nothing but Unix news. All related to Unices such as Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Sun Solaris, Minix, AIX, HP-UX, Digital UNIX, SCO Unix, DragonFly BSD, Gnu/Hurd and others. One resource containing basic articles, stories and links of the day. For people which have some free time to be well informed about the basic events and news in this area.
I’ve spent some time digging around their site and it looks like they have some good information to offer. Welcome to the blogroll and search engine!
I have recently been seeing some low ratings on some of my recent posts. I have no problem with people giving me low rating on any post or article that I put on DCoT. What I would like to ask is that if you do rate an article low (or high, for that matter), please tell me why you have given this article such a rating. I would like the opportunity to at least respond to the reason it was rated the way it was or fix the problem if there are issues with the article. Someone who comes to DCoT, quickly rates a number of posts a 1/5 as an anonymous user and then leaves without commenting on these articles does not help me or the other readers.
Sorry for the rant and thanks for your understanding.
And thanks to all of those who do put in comments.
Most of us have been following the recent “free upgrade” promotion stories that have been floating around the internet. For those of you who have not heard about this, here is the Reader’s Digest version:
Microsoft has agreed to provide purchasers of new Vista capable systems with a coupon that will allow them to upgrade to a version of Vista for free or a reduced price. There are time restrictions on the purchase and restrictions on which version of the Vista you would like to upgrade to.
The latest news indicates that if you want to upgrade your new Vista ready system from Windows XP to WindowsVista Ultimate, you will have to pay the full price for the operating system. No coupon. No free upgrade. No reduced price.
This has settled it for me. I was getting ready to purchase a new system within the next few months but I am now going to wait until it comes out in January (fingers crossed, knock on wood, rub the lucky rabbit’s foot, etc.).
Everybody and their dog uses Google these days for searching among other things. Their most recent product is Google Co-op. From their website:
Google Co-op is a platform that enables you to customize the web search experience for users of both Google and your own website.
What this translates into for you as a web user or publisher is simply this. You now have the ability to create your own customized search engine! I have taken the liberty to do just this.
I have created the Daily Cup of Tech Blogroll Search Engine. The concept is pretty simple. Anyone who is in my blogroll will get added to the search engine. People who use the search engine will be able to get results from my website and also from anyone who is in my blogroll!
How do you get on my blogroll? It’s really quite simple. If you have a technology based blog, add me to your blogroll and then send me a link to blogroll@dailycupoftech.com. I will then add you to my blogroll and the blogroll search engine.
If you would like to earn bonus points (I’m not really sure what that means), you could add the Daily Cup of Tech Blogroll Search Engine to your website by copy-and-pasting the following code into your website:
The draft amendment to the law on the protection of minors would have the state to take measures to organize the R&D of new technologies, which might include software that can terminate online gaming at fixed time.
This caught my eye because it sounds an awful lot like the application I wrote about in Stop Applications From Running. So if you do not live in China or can’t wait for the law to pass, you could always use this application!
The article does state that internet addiction is a serious and growing problem:
Government estimates claim that China has about 15.4 million youths among its 123 million netizens. Two million of them are Internet addicts, and the number is increasing rapidly.
This is a terrifying statistic but one that is reflected in North America, according to a study released by Stanford University School of Medicine this month.
Ubuntu released version 6.10 of their Linux operating system. There are some really good additions to this version of the popular operating system. Some of the updates mentioned on their website include:
Tomboy, an easy-to-use and efficient note-taking tool
F-Spot, a photo management tool that enables tagging, photo editing and automatic uploading to on-line web management sites such as Flickr
GNOME 2.16, which in addition to new features such as enhanced power management, makes the GNOME desktop more secure, faster and more stable
Upstart, a replacement start-up manager offering a cleaner design, eye-catching effects and a substantially faster boot time
The latest Firefox web browser, which offers inline spell check support in web forms, easy recovery of crashed sessions, built-in phishing detectors, enhanced search engine management with built in OpenSearch support, and better support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds
Proactive security features, preventing many common security vulnerabilities even before they are discovered
Evolution 2.8.0, which brings new features such as vertical message panes
I am planning on updating the Installing Ubuntu Desktop Series to include the new version and screen shots. Look for this over the next few days.
This version of Ubuntu, commonly referred to as Edgy Eft, will not be available as a CD that you can order. You will have to download it from the Ubuntu website or one of its mirrors.
It is also possible to upgrade your 6.06 version of Ubuntu to 6.10 by following the upgrade instructions located on the Ubuntu website. Please note that you can only upgrade from version 6.06 to 6.10. If you have an older version of Ubuntu, you will need to install 6.10 from a clean install.
Now here is an idea whose time has come. One of the arguments that I have always hears against open source applications is that there is no support available for them. This has been solved for some open source applications where you can purchase professional support for their applications but this still leaves out out in the cold if you are using some unsupported applications. There are always forums but it can be hit or miss.
