Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on September 03, 2009 by CyberNet.

I think that in the future we will be encrypting a lot of our data because, well, most of it probably won’t be located on our own machines. When all our files are in the cloud encryption will be important to ensure the security of our data, but up to now most people have never worried about encrypting anything.

Free solutions for encrypting files and hard drives are available, such as TrueCrypt, but it’s not always the most user-friendly thing to set up. The free (and open source) DiskCryptor is pretty straightforward though. This solution will encrypt hard drives, flash drives, and even CD/DVD’s. Unfortunately DiskCryptor is restricted to encrypting entire drives, but for some people that won’t be a problem if the sensitive data is kept on a secondary drive. Or, of course, DiskCryptor supports the encrypting of your boot drive if you want to go that route. Personally I encrypt all my drives except my primary (bootable) one.

What about performance? Here’s the claim they make on their site:

On the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU, data encryption speed amounts to 104Mb/s per core. The maximum speed of reading the data from a single hard disk, equals to 80Mb/s, thus consequently, one can work with up to 5 different disks without the loss of performance, when using the aforementioned type of processor. In case if your disks are not operating under a constant high load, then it is possible to work with even higher number of disks, and on a weaker system, without losing the performance.

That’s pretty impressive, but those particular stats are for a quad core processor. On a dual core that should still mean you can read from two drives simultaneously even if they are at maximum load. So you shouldn’t see too much of a performance hit just because you’re encrypting your data.

Here’s a list of some other features they highlight:

• Disk partition encryption of any configuration, including boot and system partitions.
• Choice to select an encryption algorithm: AES, Twofish or Serpent. Cascaded modes are available as well.
• Full support for dynamic disks.
• Full support for encryption of external USB storage devices.
• Ability to create encrypted CD’s and DVD’s.
• High encryption performance, comparable to efficiency of a non-encrypted system.
• Support for hardware cryptography found in VIA processors.
• Support for disk devices with large sector sizes, which is important when working with hardware RAID.
• Automatic mount of disk partitions and external storage devices.
• Extended configuration possibilities of booting an encrypted OS. Support for different multi-boot scenarios.
• Full support for 3rd party boot loaders (LILO, GRUB, etc.).
• Ability to place boot loader on external medium and to authenticate using the key medium.
• Support for key files.
• Support for hotkeys to dismount partitions, initiate emergency system stop, etc.

DiskCryptor works on Windows 2000 up to Windows 7, and is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

DiskCryptor Homepage (Windows only; 32/64-bit; freeware)
[via FreewareGenius]

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on July 30, 2008 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

A few weeks ago we wrote about a Firefox extension that could post to Twitter right from the address bar, and it impressed me to say the least. One commenter, who goes by the name lilmoder, cleverly pointed out that you can do the same thing in Opera using its keyword search functionality. I was rather amazed with how the whole thing worked, and then I started to think about the possibilities it had.

Why this is Opera-only: Opera has “POST” capabilities for keyword searches, which Firefox isn’t capable of doing. For that reason the trick I’m about to show you only works in Opera.

After I found out about the trick I decided to see if I could update the status of multiple social networks simultaneously, and after a little digging I found just what I was looking for. Using a single keyword “search” in Opera I’ve managed to update Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, LinkedIn, Identica, Friendfeed, and several more social services simultaneously. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

So how do you do all of this? It’s actually simpler than you might think. We’re going to make use of a free service called HelloTxt that will do all of the dirty work for us. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Create and configure a free HelloTxt account. To configure your account go to the settings, and enter in your credentials for each of the services you want to update the status on. Part of the configuration screen should look something like this:
   
2. Pull up the mobile version of HelloTxt by visiting m.hellotxt.com. You must visit the mobile version in order for the trick to work. Make sure all of the services you want to use are checked. If they aren’t you may need to go back to the HelloTxt settings and configure your services.
   
3. Right-click in the text field where you would normally type your post, and choose the Create Search option.
   
4. Enter in a keyword that you want to use to post your messages. I’m going to use the keyword “post”, and you should take a look at the next step to see how the keywords work if you’re not familiar with them. I recommend going with a keyword that is 4 letters or less so that it is simple to use.
   
5. Now it’s time to enjoy the simultaneous posting to all of your favorite social networks. In Opera’s address bar type your keyword followed by your status update, and then press Enter to submit it to all of your social networks!
   
6. Look, it really worked:
   

So that’s how you can do some quick and easy posting to your favorite social networks right from the Opera address bar. One thing that you’ll probably notice is that every time you do post an update you’ll be taken to the HelloTxt page that tells you whether the posting was successful for each of your services. That might not be optimal for those of you wanting it to happen transparently, but it is nice knowing that each status update was done successfully.

–Adding/Removing Services–

If you ever decide that you want to add more services you’ll need to go through each of the steps (starting at step 2) again. This is because the submission URL changes depending on which services you have enabled at HelloTxt, and the easiest way to grab the updated URL is by recreating the keyword “search”. Before doing this you’ll need to delete the existing keyword search for HelloTxt by going to Tools -> Preferences -> Search, and then deleting the corresponding entry. I’m guessing you won’t be doing this too often because you probably won’t be adding/removing services all the time.

–Overview–

Opera might not be as extensible as Firefox is, but that doesn’t mean it falls short in functionality. After seeing this work in Opera I’m actually wishing that I could do the same thing in Firefox, but unfortunately Firefox’s keywords don’t have “POST” functionality with them.

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on April 29, 2008 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

This article might seem familiar to some of you because we’ve covered shutdown utilities quite a bit in the past, but rest easy knowing that this is going to be different than anything you may or may not have read. We’re going to cover some of the best shutdown programs and tips out there since, as Ashley has pointed out, this coming Saturday is Shutdown Day.

By shutting down your computer you can save a lot of energy, which is merely money in the bank for you! If you’re one of those who leave your computer on 24-hours a day then think about the money you could save by shutting down your computer overnight. It’s estimated that 25% of people leave their computers on at the end of the day (whether it be at work or home), and so a simple shutdown would be very much welcomed. Heck, we’ve already seen how much money Vista saves because of its various power schemes.

Alright, let’s jump into the different ways to shutdown your Windows computer…

–Shutdown After BitTorrent Downloads Finish–

I’m sure many of you have left your computer running overnight to download something from the BitTorrent network. That’s definitely understandable considering how long it can take somethings, such as Linux DVD’s, to finish downloading especially when you don’t have a fast Internet connection.

One of the most popular BitTorrent clients, uTorrent, has a feature buried within the Options menu that you may not have seen before called Auto Shutdown. Check it out… you can have uTorrent shutdown your computer when the downloads complete:

–Schedule and Shutdown From Anywhere–

I have a server that I like to shutdown at night before I head off to bed, but one of the problems is that it’s not connected to a monitor or anything. So what I end up doing is remotely shutdown the computer from a web interface using Shutter, and thanks to a little port forwarding on my router it’s actually accessible from outside of my network. Don’t worry, you can specify a username and password so that some joe schmo from your local cafe isn’t rebooting your computer every 10 minutes. 😉

(Click to Enlarge)

To setup web access beyond the computer you’re on you’ll need to pull up the options, and there is a tab called Web Interface that you’ll need to jump to. You’ll want to change the Listen IP from the 127.0.0.1 to the IP address of the computer, and it’s probably easiest if you leave the port set to 80.

Tip: There’s also a Screenshot option that you can select on the web interface which is really nice. It will show you a screenshot of your desktop at that moment, which is handy when you don’t have a monitor hooked up!

–Shutdown After Firefox Downloads Finish–

Maybe it’s not a BitTorrent file that you’re downloading? No problem. If you’re using Firefox you can have it shutdown your computer after all downloads in the browser finish. All you’ll need is the Auto ShutDown extension.

Once installed the extension will place a “Shutdown” checkbox in the download window, which essentially gives the browser permission to shutdown the computer once the downloads complete.

If you really get into using this you may want to checkout the options it has to offer. You can change around how it works quite a bit, but the default settings will be fine for most people.

–Bulk Shutdown Computers–

Have too many computers that you need to shutdown? PowerOff Beta has an option available where you can specify multiple computers that you would like to shutdown according to IP address, name, or by browsing for them. Naturally you’ll need to know any usernames and passwords for the computers you want to shutdown… otherwise we would all be having too much fun randomly shutting down people’s computers. 😉

(Click to Enlarge)

–Shutdown Shortcut–

Looking for a blazingly fast way to shutdown your computer? What’s faster than creating a shortcut that you merely have to double-click? There are a lot of different options available when shutting down your computer via a shortcut, and so I’m just going to point you in the direction of our fairly comprehensive article on creating the shutdown shortcuts.

–Overview–

So I think you’re all set for Shutdown Day on Saturday, May 3rd! Shutdown your computer, get some fresh air, and then come Sunday you can stop hyperventilating from the severe withdrawals you went through.

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on July 14, 2010 by CyberNet.

One of the features I’ve grown accustomed to on my Mac is being able to scroll in any window without first having to bring it to the foreground. The OS is smart enough to realize that I probably want to scroll the window underneath my mouse regardless of whether it is the foreground window. Why is this important? On my multi-monitor set up that means I can be writing an article on one screen and have a product’s website open on the other. I can continue to scroll up and down on the website while the focus stays on the window I’m writing with, and therefore makes it easy to continue typing the article.

Microsoft doesn’t operate Windows in the same fashion, but with a with WizMouse you can get the same functionality without compromising a lot of your system’s resources. When running the app uses just 1.7MB of memory, and is virtually unnoticeable. The overall experience, however, is the opposite… it is very noticeable. After just a day of running WizMouse I was already feeling like I was working on my Mac.

WizMouse will also come in handy if you use some apps that don’t support a mouse wheel. It will convert your mouse wheel actions to scrollbar commands that the program should be able to understand.

This is a must-have app in my book, but that is largely because I’ve grown so accustomed to how it works on the Mac OS. It’s possible that some people may find it annoying, but I’m definitely not one of those people.

WizMouse Homepage (Windows only; 32/64-bit; Freeware)

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on May 28, 2009 by CyberNet.

RocketDock is definitely one of my favorite application launchers because of how well it is designed to mimic the functionality of the Mac Dock. It can also be extended with skins to change the appearance, or with docklets to add more features.

The most popular addon across all of the different categories is the Stacks Docklet with over 800,000 downloads! As you can see in the screenshot to the right this emulates the Mac version of Stacks very well, and it’s pretty hard to tell it apart from the Mac Dock if you’ve got the right skin.

The addon hasn’t been updated in a little while, but that doesn’t mean development has stopped. In fact the developer is currently working on rewriting the Stacks Docklet, and if you’re feeling adventurous you can jump in on a pre-release version.

Stacks Docklet Homepage
RocketDock Homepage

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com