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Pretty sure it is fully possible to setup a hackentosh on a PC you built yourself. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-install-mac-os-x-on-a-pc-without-using-a-mac/

I've never heard of the tricorder app before. After finding some information about it ( http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/turn-your-android-phone-into-a-real-star-trek-tricorder/ ) and looking at what it does: "sense environmental factors like magnetic flux, acceleration, sound waves and even solar activity...", it seems to me that saying the project has been "killed" by CBS seems a bit premature. The interface and name ("Tricorder") is certainly drawn from Star Trek inspiration, and while I don't see how this harms the Intellectual Property (read: I don't know why CBS won't just let it go, other than a typical corporate knee-jerk response to crackdown on using IP; although I suppose, since it's under Trademark, CBS might have to actively defend their trademark or else they lose it), I also don't see any reason why the Tricorder can't change the interface and name and continue life as usual. Saying that the project is "killed" seems a bit melodramatic when the reality is that the Tricorder app is suspended until they change the name and interface.

(BTW, I thought the "look and feel" of interfaces wasn't covered by Intellectual property. Although, even if true, I suppose the Tricorder creators might not have the cash on hand to defend their case in court, even if they would win.)

A little googling turn up this. Looks like it would have been fun to play with.

That also is not DRM. That is more a matter of device configuration than DRM. It is not about protection on files... it's only about the channel used to get the files on your device.

And you can use any number of applications that let you simply play MP3 files you transfer into the application. Perhaps next time you should look around for alternatives before you complain.

Unless, of course, they take out the HDD and see the capacity, but you can go further and print out a fake a HDD label with a size similar to that of the dummy encrypted partition... This article is a great how-to on truly protecting yourself.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-hidden-partition-truecrypt-7/

You're misunderstanding the way it works. Basically, you create the one partition and then you create the hidden volume inside of it. So if you use the whole drive, then your outer volume will use 100% of the drive. The key is that you have to mount the outer container as read only, and then mount the hidden volume. Otherwise, if you add files and hit the hidden volume, it will destroy it.

I read an article to truly protect you from self incrimination, because regardless of who you are, you will be "forced" to give up your pass phrase or "willingly" decrypt the HDD. With this set up, you can 'willingly' give up your passphrase but for the 'dummy' partition and they won't be able to tell that there is a hidden partition because the space available will only show that of the dummy encrypted partition, not the whole HDD. Unless, of course, they take out the HDD and see the capacity, but you can go further and print out a fake a HDD label with a size similar to that of the dummy encrypted partition... This article is a great how-to on truly protecting yourself.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-hidden-partition-truecrypt-7/

I use BitDefender on my Ubuntu.... it's pretty good for scanning windows machines and external drives. There are a couple AV that run on Linux, not sure about OSX. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/free-linux-antivirus-programs/

Both Facebook and Google uses Linux, not OSX.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-back-up-and-import-ps3-game-saves/

The reason Chrome has Flash integrated is because a significant number of security exploits today are of Adobe products, specifically Flash Player and Adobe Reader. By integrating Flash, Google has managed to integrate it with their silent update system and the Chrome sandbox (sandboxed Flash is in the beta channel). As for PDF viewing, Google wrote their own simple, sandboxed PDF viewer with none of Adobe's issues and shipped it in Chrome 8.
Honestly, this is a lot better than users getting both of these manually and having vulnerable versions lying around.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-best-6-sites-to-get-free-ebooks/
which has links for several others, including:

http://www.manybooks.net/
http://www.feedbooks.com/
http://www.booksinmyphone.com/

There's also a filter subscription for Adblock Plus to block social annoyances: Fanboy Annoyances List (I found it thanks to this article).

There's also a filter subscription for Adblock Plus to block social annoyances: Fanboy Annoyances List (I found it thanks to this article).

Or you learn how to troubleshoot the problems, and are willing to admit that Windows does many things better then Linux?

Name one? And 'Windows does a better job at making sure you are running Genuine Microsoft Software' doesn't count.

Mail server?

Postfix? Qmail? Exim? OpenXchange?

They all run much better than Windows. I have yet to have postfix crash on me--or simply fail to deliver e-mail for bizarre reasons since I started using it in ~2004.

I've had three Exchange servers with issues this month. One was a corrupted message store. Another was a corrupt certificate services store that prevented Exchange from requesting a new certificate which apparently causes it to die instead of using the old one, and finally mysteriously disappearing e-mail. It wasn't entirely Exchange's fault. An incoming message to my client was being rejected as spam. Turns out the remote mail server wasn't sending NDRs--but it did helpfully uncover that Exchange doesn't log rejected messages. Funny how all the Linux mail servers log mail correctly. I can grep through mail.log and find received and rejected messages.

It's very helpful to know when a message is rejected--especially when Exchanges retarded content filter rejects messages as spam and you don't know why because it's proprietary and they have decided you don't really need to know.

Centralized authentication server?

Apparently you don't know that Linux supports Kerberos just like Windows. There's also Samba to help with Windows clients. There's RADIUS which Microsoft finally got around to updating in Windows 2008--but it still sucks. Let's not forget the 'one password everywhere' awesomeness that is an SSH key or GPG key.

DNS?

Yeah--that's what all the big DNS providers do--they run Windows. Because deploying a cluster of Linux DNS servers is sooo much more expensive than licensing a cluster of Windows DNS servers. Who supported AAAA records first? It wasn't Microsoft's DNS server.

File server?

How's the new SMB 2.0 working out for you? I don't have those problems with FTP, SSH+FTP, SCP, RSYNC, TFTP, SSHFS, NFS, on Linux. What else does Microsoft support? Uh...SMB and...uh...NFS sorta?

Use the correct tool for the problem. As far as that particular problem, that one might actually require a call to Microsoft as it sounds like a failure in the logging of the error (Unknown Error)

Yeah--good idea. Call Microsoft. You can either pay $x00 dollars per-incident, or you can get into their partner or enterprise programs and get free support--but the licensing and partner programs cost hundreds to thousands of dollars.

In Linux, I can usually look at the source for the error message and figure out what's going on--or Google. Strace is handy too. If it's C (I can't read C for crap), I can fall back to Google or call Canonical or call Red Hat, or call any one of the professional linux service shops throughout the US.

if it is a persistant problem then I would call them, if not, oh well. Though I am pretty sure you made up that error message, and I have seen forum posts like that.

Yeah it's made up. It's pretty similar to a real error message I've run into. Like: this one. This one was fun back in the day...

All I want to be able to do at this point is make regular backups to a regular external HD

grsync?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grsync
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/grsync-simple-gui-rsync-easily-linux/

6 Android Websites You Should Check Out

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-android-websites-you-should-check-out/

For this reason, it’s important to find a few Android websites that can keep you up to date on your Android device. Recently, I wrote an article about 5 Awesome Android Applications That Could Make Life Easier, and now I’d like to tell you which Android websites I’ve found useful in my experience as an Android user.

That is a list 6 sites that sell android apps that do not include amazon. If you don't want to sell your apps on amazon, there are more than one alternative of where you can sell your app.

I read the article and it doesn't explain anywhere how someone without a mobile can text anyone.
I mean, maybe they're using an online text messaging service, but that seems unlikely, as you might as well send them an email

Maybe an idea floating around for sometime now?
I know it's also a Chrome extension.

> http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/windows-7-libraries-%E2%80%93-and-why-you-want-them/

A big fad ROFL. I really rolled laughing on the floor. That is exactly how soft links are working.

Make a folder in your $HOME called "Pictures", open that folder. Now plug in your USB hard drive, open it. Drag&Drop the folder with your additional pictures from the hard drive in your "Pictures" folder at $HOME. Now choose to create a link. Voila, you have a Windows 7 style "Libraries".

Btw, since Linux mount the hard disk not as a random letter (i.e. D: or E: or H:) but with the name you give for the hard disk (for example, my usb flash have the name 'usbpictures', it will mount the flash on /media/usbpictures) the link will stay valid whenever you plug the same usb hard disk in.

Microsoft is really good at selling 1970 technology under different names to people. Hurray for the marketing.

I think that he was confused by the time that he wrote "Because libraries actually puts everything in one location" because they, er, don't:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/windows-7-libraries-%E2%80%93-and-why-you-want-them/

What they do do is make stuff appear when viewed in one particular way (via the Explorer) as being in the same location. Useful if the only way you ever access stuff is via the Start menu; not so much if it isn't.

The funny thing is that NTFS has supported the equivalent of Unix soft links for ages:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896768.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=205524

it just hasn't made it easy to create them.

And none of it was purchased through your iPhone. You can purchase music on a computer and transfer it to the device, but there's no way to get non-iTunes music through the device itself.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-to-sync-music-to-your-iphone-without-itunes/

Google has the other ways to do it if you actually care.

I figured you were joking. "How do I hold all that down at once?" I thought.

Alt+SysRq then press S, U, then B one at a time. R also looks like it might be necessary?

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fix-unresponsive-or-frozen-computers-with-keyboard-shortcuts/

It should be frowned upon because it is unethical to go around and try to poach staff....

But they didn't. Reframeit is the one who went to Google. Reframeit is the one who asked them to look their site (thus explaining the registrations coming from google employees).

And how many employees does Reframeit even have? One or two? Shouldn't it be natural for Google to simply assume that those one or two guys who came to them and asked them to take a look at their site -- simply wanted to get a job at Google?

Like I've said before, reframeit doesn't even make the top ten of any list I've seen (if you can actually find one where reframeit does appear -- I'll eat my words of course. I can admit when I'm wrong).

This is so ridiculous. They say they founded their company in 2006. They only registered their domain in 2007. Their patent filing is so fresh, it still says "patent pending".

Personally, I've been making tools like this one since 2001 (and I know I wasn't the only one at the time). Mind you at the time, I didn't have the Twitter/Facebook share buttons (but now, everybody has those -- so it's not like they have anything unique). Besides, the guy complains about the Twitter and the Facebook buttons they both have in common, but if you look closely, you'll see that reframe has five select boxes, and Google has four buttons, and not only is Google only using buttons (instead of checkboxes) -- it has two share buttons that reframe doesn't even have (and it's missing three options that reframeit has).

And don't get me started on those screenshots, they're way too small to read fully (even if you do view image). And the first three screenshots have the same complaint duplicated (so aside from the arrows, I'm guessing that we're missing two of his complaints).

And then, look at what he ends his blog post with.

In any case, pairing a Web annotation service with the leading search engine puts Google at the head of the Web annotation long tail, of which Reframe It, Diigo, JotSpot and others are a part.

Excuse-me!? I've never heard of Reframeit.com. Does he have third party citations to back up his claims? Traffic stats? User reviews? Anything? Personally, I have, and reframeit doesn't even make it in the top ten.

And what about jotspot.com? Weren't they bought out by Google two or three years ago. Shouldn't this guy know this if he's in the space? Besides, it's not like jotspot would even qualify as a good web annotation tool, it was way too feature-rich to be in that category the last time I saw it.

The form factor is a bit wonky. Adding just a little more functionality would have made it worth twice as much. Right now it looks like you have to depend on the community to provide delta-updates, they want you to dump 4GB. There are numerous tools for gathering your own wiki subset.

Personally, for printed documents, I like using my own version of a font called Charis SIL, which is an updated version of Matthew Carter's (Verdana, Georgia, among many others) 1980s Bitstream Charter font (which was made open-source in the early 1990s) with good Unicode support. The font doesn't have really good hinting, so it may not look as nice on the screen as a fully hinted font like Verdana (but that's changing because today's autohinting technology is a lot better than in the 1990s when Verdana came out), but it looks really nice when printed.

There are a few other nice open source fonts out there. Gentium, also hosted by SIL, is another very attractive font.

If you like Verdana, Tahoma, Georgia, and would like Comic Sans (and a couple others, such as Microsoft's take on Times Roman and Microsoft's Helvetica clone Arial), you can easily install them in Linux, since the fonts are a free download.

Some useful sites I've found are:

• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx
• http://www.nirsoft.net/
• http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/10/31/portable-wscc-simplifies-access-to-sysinternals-nirsoft-utiliti/
• http://portableapps.com/
• http://portablefreeware.com/
• http://www.getusb.info/55-portable-apps-for-making-a-usb-super-stick/
• http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/portable-software-usb/
• http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/09/02/24-killer-portable-apps-for-your-usb-flash-drive/2
• http://www.emergingtechs.com/posts/35-portable-applications-every-tech-needs/
• http://www.simplehelp.net/2008/07/21/15-portable-apps-to-help-troubleshoot-pcs/

Using mostly these sites, I've come up with a very useful collection of apps and utilities totalling under 2Gb, which easily fits on a flash drive with room to spare for data. One example is winaudit, which will generate an extensive report when run on a pc. You can save the reports on various pcs to your flash drive in various formats (pdf, html, text, csv), bring them home, and go over them in more detail to see what needs to be fixed or updated on the various pcs you encountered.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tech-fun/how-to-turn-this-computer-off-dell-tech-support-audio/

fyi, Brawndo is the Gatorade like drink in the movie Idiocracy that replaced drinking water. I would put that as 9 insults - 8 being Brawndo and 9 for a reference to Idiocracy.

*Spoiler alert* - They used it to water plants and the electrolytes (salts, typically sodium and potassium) were killing them.
*/Spoiler*

Personally I have no great love for Apple or any great hate of them, even though I was once a fanboy (Apple ][ forever!). For one, I think a lot of their hardware is overpriced in the same way I think a BMW or Jaguar is overpriced - you pay a premium for a premium brand and reputation, but it still does essentially the same thing as something much cheaper. Some products like the macbook air are cool but flawed - odd jacks and sealed case for instance. Apple continued a tradition of removing features it deems obsolete, and in the case of the Air it was an Ethernet jack. To be honest, I've used my PC laptop's Ethernet jack exactly once in the past year, and that was to replace my wireless G router with a wireless n router, so I consider this a non-issue, but the case where the Air is your only machine that could be a problem since most Ethernet routers need to be wired to set them up (I don't know about AirPort, but Belkin and LinkSys do).

Your wife should try google - here's the first hit I got searching for ipod to PC.