IT Notes for Reference

I recently installed Linux Ubuntu 8.10 on a second hard drive I had on the side and decided to dual-boot Ubuntu with my already installed Windows XP Pro OS. What I've seen so far of Linux Ubuntu has been quite impressive and It may make me consider leaving Windows XP Pro behind, excpet when needed for certain games and such. I see much more flexibility and performace with Ubuntu. This Linus Distrobution has been tailored toward those users who are new to Linux. Although there is still a bit of learning in this new environment, I see as an excellent choice for those looking for an alternative to the Microsoft Windows environment. www.Ubuntu.com

Just when you thought WPA encryption would be a sold choice for Wireless Wi - Fi Security, it becomes breachable .  It looks like a couple of security analysts have currently partially cracked WPA encryption.  They were able to intercept data from the Wi - Fi Access Point going to the client system after breaking WPA with TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) combined  encryption. WPA ( Wi - Fi Protected Access) is an update to the very insecure WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) standard.  Although at this time there are no know successful attacks against WPA , it does show that it would be possible to partially crack WPA to intercept data from an coming from an Wi - Fi access point. Researchers Crack WPA Encryption

I had to finally migrate to a bigger Hard Drive yesterday due to my Lord of the Rings Online Install growing to over 11GB. I was currently on a 40GB PATA HD and was approaching my limit after the install of LOTR Online. I had an 80GB PATA HD on hand that I was using to image my Windows XP 40GB HD. I imaged my 40GB HD with Acronis True Image 8.0(older version) onto a networked folder on my other system(Mercury), which took about 2 hours(cheap router). I then Used Acronis True Image 8.0 to restore the image onto the 80GB Hard Drive. It installed in about 2 hours or so and was I left with a 40GB active, bootable partition and a 40GB unallocated partition. I then created a new NTFS partition on the unallocated portion and expanded the active partition to merge with the new, blank one. In the end I was left with a bigger 80GB NTFS, active and bootable Windows XP partition. I realize there are probably much easier ways of doing this with various applications....but this is what I had ...

I've recently been using Sun Vm Virtual Box to run various smaller Linux distrobutions on top of my Windows XP Pro install. I realize that there are other similar programs out there with many more features available, but I've been impressed with Virtual Boxes' simplicity and functionality. So far, no problems and it does what it was developed to do! Oh yeah it's also free! http://www.virtualbox.org/

I really have enjoyed the switch over from Adobe Reader to Foxit Reader for viewing PDF files. Adobe Reader has become more bloated over the years, so I was looking for a simple, light and quick way to open and view PDF files. The answer so far has been Foxit Reader. Foxit Reader Download

I've been hearing a great amount of comments and information about Google's new Browser, which is currently in Beta, Google Chrome.  I downloaded and tested the new Browser and was impressed with the Beta version so far, although I don't think I'm going to abandon my beloved Mozilla Firefox 3.0 Browser just yet!   Google Chrome announcement

Recently, I've been improving my Linux knowledge and skills with Linux ZenWalk 5.2 The main reason why I like ZenWalk is use use of the XFCE Desktop Environment. XFCE is a faster and lighter version of your typical KDE and Gnome Desktop Environment. It really is a good choice for lower end systems. At this time I am currently using a 400MHz Celeron PC with ZenWalk, and is running well. I beleive it is a good choice for Linux newbies. There are a lot of unused and obsolete systems out there, so this Linux distrabution may be a good choice to bring some of those back to life. Linux ZenWalk XFCE Desktop Environment