TechnologyCrowd

One of my favorite features of OpenOffice.org is that you can turn documents into pdf documents for saving or sending in emails.  Recently, I wanted to send some screenshots of web pages and thought it would be much easier to send in pdf format.

The solution for Windows based PC’s is to download the doPDF converter software from doPDF.com.  Once the software is installed you will have an option of doPDF in the dropdown box of available printers.  You can create a pdf from anything that you are able to print so it works with Word Documents, web pages and pretty much anything else you would ever want. Read the rest of this entry »

I often see PC articles talking about the importance of backing up your information and hard drive.  I have accumulated quite a bit of information and made sure to store important information in more than once location with the addition of an external hard drive.  About a year ago, I began using the Windows backup system on my Vista PC, but I didn’t know how I would remember all of the programs that I have added over the years if I lost my hard drive.

I have seen articles about creating a backup image of the hard drive to accomplish this, but many of the programs were expensive and not worth it considering that most of my software is freeware, the only cost if I had to reinstall would be the time and effort in locating all of the programs.

Recently I cam across an article in PC World that included reference to Macrium Reflect Free editon.  They offer a paid version, but the only features missing from the free version are file backup and password protection.  I will continue using the Windows file backup on a regular basis and I am not concerned with the password protection on my home network.

Now that I have my network set up with Ubuntu Server, it is easy create the backup and save it directly to the server for storage outside my PC without having to burn DVD’s.

The entire process was easy and only took the PC about an hour and a half to save the image.  I was able to download the sofware easily by going to the page on PC World. Once installed, you will see a list of the available partitions.

1. Click Backup –> Create Image from the menu and a wizard will open to help with the setup.
2. Select the Partition that you wish to backup.
3. Choose a location, I located the folder on my network but you can also choose a folder on the hard drive or a DVD.
4. There are additional options for adjusting the compression and other properties, I left the default options.
5. Click finish and let the program do its job.

You can continue to work on the PC, but it may cause your other programs to run a little slow, I left it alone for most of the time but did check some e-mails during the process.  After the process was complete, I chose to schedule monthly backups.  You can choose more frequent options but I felt that one month intervals would be frequent enough for my needs.

One other thing that you will want to do is create a rescue CD in the event that your PC will not boot at all.  There was a pop up informing me of this, but you can also choose Other Tasks on the left side of the page and follow the wizard to create the rescue CD.

I am fortunate to have never experienced an total loss of a hard drive, but I am much more comfortable now knowing that if I do I can get all of my programs and information back.  Overall the process was quite painless and I would have done it sooner if I knew how easy it was.

Now that I had my network set up and added uShare to be able to stream to my xbox 360, I needed to add some more storage.  I had a Western Digital MyBook Essential connected to my Vista PC that I thought would be more useful as part of the network.

I started by plugging the USB into the server and plugging in the electric cord.  Since the server does not automount I started by installing usbmount to install.

sudo apt-get install usbmount

Next I wanted to find out the location of the device so I opened up a terminal using Putty in Vista.  By typing dmesg at the command line you can verify that the device was plugged in.  You will want to look for the device name, mine was “sdf1” as shown on the line with “sdf:sdf1”.

From my previous posts, you know that I am not a command line expert so I will do the rest of the setup using Webmin which I explained how to install in my previous post (click here to see the full post where I explained how to install Webmin.)

The first thing to do is mount the hard drive.  After you login to Webmin go to:

System –> Disk and Network Filesystems

1. Select the type of filesystem from the dropdown list (I am using NTFS), and select add mount.
2. Click the options for “Mounted As” and decide where you want to mount the drive.  I chose “mnt” since I was already using media for my internal hard drive.
3. Make sure the options for Save and mount at boot and mount now are selected.
4. Click the box next to other device and locate your device, it should be under dev and then look for the name you located using the command line, mine was sdf1.
5. Make sure that the mount options below are the way that you want them.
6. Click create.

You should now see the external drive listed in your Disk and Network Filesystems list.

If you are using Vista PC’s on your network like I am, the next step is to set up Samba file sharing so the Windows PC’s can see it.  Still in Webmin, go to:

Servers –> Samba Windows Filesharing

1. At the top, select Create a new fileshare.
2. Select the name that you want for the folder, I chose WD External to be able to identify it.
3. I changed permissions to 777 to allow read/write access.
4. Click Create.
5. If you don’t want to have to login to access the drive, click on the newly created drive.
6. Select Security and Access Control
7. Change Guest Access to yes, and change any other options if you wish.
8. Click Save.

At this point all Windows PC’s on the network should be able to see the new folder and you will have access to the additional storage.

I put off going to the gym and working out for a while because I didn’t have a focused plan and didn’t want to waste my time without a structured plan.  One of the best ways to stay motivated is to track and monitor your progress.  I have been using Gym Technik online fitness site for a few months and it has been great. 

Gym Technik has an extensive library of workouts for men and women’s workout in conjunction with Oxygenfit, which make planning a workout program easy for beginners or people that want a premade workout plan.  You can add additional exercises to a pre-built workout or create your own from scratch if you want to be more advanced.  For runners and cardio, there are exercises for tracking that information as well. 

See below for a sample of the various beginner workouts and other categories available:

You can create your workouts and print them for taking to the gym, then entering your information when you return.  My favorite feature is the mobile site which I use with my Blackberry, but can be used with an iPhone or any other web enable phone.

The mobile site is helpful while at the gym if someone else is using equipment and you want to substitute an exercise, you can do it right on the fly.  I also use my Blackberry to listen to music so it is convenient to have my workout plan and music all in once place.  Be sure to check out the smartphone tips on the site for great advice on getting the best use out of your smartphone including how to jump back and forth between the site and music.

After you enter your workout information, there are several tools for tracking your progress including a calendar to visually see how often you are working out, body stats, and several graphs that display exercise progress which can be sorted in several different ways. 

Having the exercise progress available is a big motivation and helps in determining whether to update your workout which is easy to do at any time.

Last but not least is the extensive library of fitness articles and advice on everything from general fitness advice, to specific body part training, to nutrition.  This information is extremely helpful and can be used to fine tune your workouts or general fitness knowledge.

I have found this to be an excellent tool to help keep me motivated and have a focused workout plan for my time at the gym.  I am currently using a trial premium edition that was just released, but have used the free basic edition for months and it has all of the features that I discussed.  Check it out and comment with your thoughts.