Emergency Boot CD

Create yourself an Emergency Boot CD (EBCD) with a download from the website of the creator, Mikhail Kupchik, and make it another handy tool in your computer maintenance toolbox.

Download your emergency bood CD image here.

EBCD will be very useful when you need to:

• copy/move files (with long names, not necessary in CP437 encoding) from/to the disk but OS which can handle them (windows, linux…) cannot boot. In particular, you may create a backup copy of normally installed and configured Windows and later restore Windows from such backup copy. So, in the case of fault OS itself and all software and its settings can be restored in 5-10 minutes
• perform emergency boot of Windows NT / 2000 / XP. When the loader of this OS on the hard disk is damaged or misconfigured, you are able to load OS using another, standalone loader from this CD
• recover master boot record of HDD. This allows to boot OS after incorrect uninstallation of custom loader (LILO, for example), which made all OS on your PC not bootable
• delete, move, copy to file (image) and re-create partition from file. Image transfer over network is also supported: so you may configure one PC and then make contents of harddisks of other PCs same as contents of the harddisk of the first one
• change password of any user, including administator of Windows NT/2000/XP OS. You do not need to know the old password
• recover deleted file, even file re-deleted from Windows Recycle Bin, and, in contrast, wipe single file or a whole disk so that it will be impossible to recover it in any way
• recover data from accidently formatted disk. Sometimes it helps to recover data from the disk, damaged by a virus
• recover data from a floppy disk, which is not readable by OS. Format 3.5″ disk for 1.7 Mb size.

Also the disk includes full set of external DOS commands, console versions of the most popular archivers/compressors. Moreover, emergency boot CD includes minimal Linux distribution (Rescue Linux distribution) which may be very useful to a professional user. (Note: you need to download a windows executable file to create the iso image before it can be burned to cdrom.)

Watching hi-def DVD’s without HDCP compliant hardware

Many people have bought new equipment ready for the hi-definition movie era. This may include servers or flat-screen TV’s all of which may have been labelled as “HD ready” – they may even have the HDMI connectors (hi-def media interface) ready and waiting. BUT…. The movie industry seems intent on ensuring a stringent level of copy protection, and so there is another protocol that must be supported in your media playback system: HDCP, or high definition content protection. If any of your components does not support HDCP then you will not be able to watch your disk at high resolution. The resolution could be downgraded to a lower res, or even not play at all. So, check the documentation for your components, your screen, and make sure that you have bought equipment that supports HDCP.

What do you do if you don’t have HDCP? Well, you will be forced to accept low-res viewing at best; OR, you can remove the need for HDCP support at all by removing the applied copy protection at source.

Essentially this means ripping the DVD to hard drive, or when hi-def DVD rewriters become affordable, producing a cloned DVD without content protection.

So, how do you do this? Well, there is a set of commercially available software called “AnyDVD HD” from a company called SlySoft. In fact they have a range of ripping software for all types of DVD’s and CD’s. I guess they haven’t been shut down by the US Government under pressure from the MPAA or RIAA because the company isn’t based in the US.

Please check the legality of such software in the counry or countries you intend to use it in, as I couldn’t possibly condone the act of being a Naughty Person and breaking the law…

How speedy is your Broadband?

Check your upload and download speeds for your home broadband connection by visiting the Speedtest website.  This site shows a dashboard and a map of a number of servers that you can interact with worldwide.  You are able to save a number of timed tests and share them with your friends.

How to install Apache, PHP and MySQL on Linux

“This tutorial explains the installation of Apache web server, bundled with PHP and MySQL server on a Linux machine. The tutorial is primarily for SuSE 9.2, 9.3, 10.0 & 10.1 operating systems, but most of the steps ought to be valid for all Linux-like operating systems.”

The article is written by Richard Laffers of laffers.net © 2005 and issued under a Creative Commons Licence.

Linux application equivalents

When taking the plunge and moving from Windows to Linux, there my be a feeling that you are leaving some of your favourite programs behind; however, in the Land of Linux there are many equivalents and alternatives to those favourite Windows applications. Check out the article in LinuxQuestions.org wiki.

Learn 10 good UNIX usage habits

Adopt 10 good habits that improve your UNIX® command line efficiency — and break away from bad usage patterns in the process. This article takes you step-by-step through several good, but too often neglected, techniques for command-line operations. Learn about common errors and how to overcome them, so you can learn exactly why these UNIX habits are worth picking up

Power Shell for Windows

Now for both Vista and XP, the Power Shell provides a command line stylee scripting tool that was previously only available to those people on Unix.  This tool will enable you to write scripts to automate many tasks, and could turn out to be an invaluable admin tool.

 For description, compatibility and download, visit the Microsoft Vista site for the PowerShell.

Finding stuff in Microsoft Outlook

If you get as much email as me, then you’ll need a method of finding stuff – and quickly.  Although there is an advanced search facility built into Outlook, it can run like a dog, especially if you have big stores of email.

To improve on this situation, there is a Microsoft plug in called “Lookout”.  This tool creates and stores and index of email contents, allowing the searches to be completed in a matter of seconds.

Go to the Microsoft Downloads site for Lookout v1.2.

Cables Galore (UK Mainland)

Well I was looking for long cables to embed into my walls and was sweating at the prices. A 5m HDMI and a 5m SCART was coming out at the best part of £130. Until I found Cable Universe. If I do buy these out and test the cables, then I’ll let you know, but the price for the pair from this place is £39.36 in. VAT. And the SCART cable is less than a tenner!

Yet another manager for iPod

But this one works under Windows, MacOS and Linux!

YamiPod is a freeware application to efficiently manage your iPod under Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. It can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation. Take a look at the feature list to find out what it can do and feel free to suggest anything that might be missing.

http://www.yamipod.com