Archive

Posts Tagged ‘hardware’

Install Linux on a USB drive with UNetbootin

December 16th, 2008

There are so many reasons why having a Linux distribution on a usb drive can come in handy. Fram having a “rescue” OS on your keyring to being able to install a new distribution on your EeePC, a “thumb drive” Linux has many uses. But getting Linux onto a usb drive can’t be simple. Right? Wrong. There is a tool, UNetbootin, that makes installing Linux on a usb drive simple.

UNetbootin can be used on either Linux or Windows. In this article, we’ll be illustrating the Linux side of things (naturally).

Read more…

Software , , , , , , , , , ,

Calibrate Your Flat Screen Computer Monitor

October 20th, 2008

Computer monitors usually require some manual adjustments after connection them for the first time to the computer system. My newly bought HP flat screen computer monitor was so bright that it hurt to look at white areas for to long. Monitor calibration software programs can be used to adjust the computer monitor settings.

Many computer monitor manufacturers provide a data disk with a free monitor calibration software but there are also multiple free alternatives that can be found on the Internet. One was covered today at the Lifehacker blog. Calibrize is only taking care of the black, white and color ratio of the computer monitor and works on flat screen computer monitors but also on CRT monitors.

It does so by displaying two easy to follow steps. Step 1 is being used to adjust the contrast and brightness settings of the computer monitor. Each step consists of a description that tells the user what to do, a test image and example images that display how the images should not look. The description mentions how the test image should look like.

Read more…

Online Services , , , , , , ,

Print Relevant Information from a Web Page with PrintWhatYouLike

October 1st, 2008

Printing web pages can be quite a headache sometimes. More often than not, half the page is taken up by advertisements, menu bars, empty space, and other information that a user just doesn’t want. You pretty much wind up wasting printer ink on a bunch of junk information.

One way to make printing more relevant to a web page is to use PrintWhatYouLike. The website helps you format web pages so that you can print exactly what you need. Not only does it make printing more efficient and cheap (because you don’t waste ink on junk info) but also it ensures you do your bit for the environment.

Using PrintWhatYouLike is extremely easy. Enter the url of the page you want to print in the box on the website. The web page then shows up with a formatting bar on the left-hand side. The bar has plenty of features, to optimize your printing experience.

Read more…

Online Services , , , ,

T-Mobile G1 First Google Android Phone

September 28th, 2008

The mobile phone company T-Mobile announced a first version of a new phone called T-Mobile G1 just a few days ago. The mobile phone will be the first to make use of the Google Android Open Source plattform. The G1 will be manufactured by Taiwanese company HTC and hit shelves on October 22 in the United States in colors white, black and brown. Europeans have to wait a little bit longer - as usual - before they can get their hands on the phone that is also known as the gphone.

British citizens will most likely be able to lay their hands on the phone in November while the rest of Europe will have to wait until 2009 to do the same.

The G1 phone has some strong arguments on its side. The phone uses an Open Source operating system which will win the Linux crowd over in no time. The QWERTY keyboard comes in handy for everyone who uses his phone regularly for writing.

Read more…

Mobiles , , , , , , , ,

Diagnose And Manage Hard Disks with HDD Scan

July 21st, 2008

HDD Scan is a very sophisticated hard disks diagnosing and managing tool that provides a wealth of information and options to the user. It basically provides the user with information about the hard disks that are installed on his computer, with ways to tests those hard disks and with options to change certain settings of those hard disks.

The program recognized IDE, SATA, Firewire and SCSI hard disks. A click on Tasks > Identity opens a new window that displays all information that could be gathered about the hard disk including serial, firmware and manufacturer among 50 or so additional parameters. Those information can be printed if desired.

Far more interesting than those are the tests the user can conduct. Tests are divided into surface tests for all hard disks and special SMART tests for hard disks that support SMART.

Read more…

Software , , , , , , , ,

Protect PayPal Accounts With VeriSign Identity Protection Devices

July 19th, 2008

I had a rather unpleasant experience with PayPal lately where someone transferred all the money from my account. PayPal was not very forthcoming and I do not know until today how this was possible. One of the first things that I did after this experience was to order a PayPal Security Key. I was contacted by VeriSign, the creators of those security keys, just a few days later and they send me a key as well.

The VeriSign Identity Protection device can be used to add another layer of security to the login process. The PayPal Security Key mentions only eBay and PayPal and I’m not sure if it works with the other websites and services that the VeriSign Identity Protection key works with.

The key is a little device that displays a six digit security code when a button is pressed. That code is active for 30 seconds after which it disappears again. The device has to be activated on the website that you want to use it for by entering the serial number of the device and two six digit codes.

Read more…

The Web , , , , , , ,