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(free) backup and synch software

Goodsync will allow you to backup and synchronize files. If you have not made, and do not make, copies of files as you should…this application might be good for you.

Synchronization will duplicate file changes in two folders; “backup” works in one direction only.

GoodSync can:
synchronize a notebook computer to a desktop computer, via a network and the internet…
keep user files in sync on work, and home, computers via a USB drive…
and incrementally copy files from the main hard drive, to a portable hard drive or another computer.

Windows Mobile phones and Pocket PC devices are supported.

RoboForm, Outlook, Outlook Express, Quickbooks, and ACT! are some programs it should work with.

There is a free version…the price is right for you to at least consider trying it: http://www.goodsync.com

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new Yahoo! Messenger

Yahoo! Messenger is my favorite instant messaging client because I can be visible to those I choose to, when I choose to.

I’ve found only one new thing worth noting in the latest version: the Yahoo! Messenger Pingbox. It will allow you to “chat privately with visitors on your social network profiles, blog, or website through Yahoo! Messenger.” Compatible with MySpace, Friendster, hi5, Blogger, Live Spaces, LiveJournal, and Xanga.

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free encryption software

TrueCrypt is encryption software: it can keep your files from being accessed unless the correct password/keyfile(s), or encryption keys, are used.

TrueCrypt will hide operating systems, also!

BEFORE USING THE SOFTWARE, I strongly recommend you at least browse through the TrueCrypt User’s Guide. It is included in the download, and available to you after you execute the file you downloaded. It is best that, before you use TrueCrypt, you become familiar with: some of the terms, what the software will do and how it will perform, and where you can refer to if you have a question. The Beginner’s Tutorial chapter can be viewed at http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/tutorial.php

[One of those terms you will need to be familiar with: a TrueCrypt volume is also known as a “container”, a file that contains the encrypted files.]

After you download the setup file (from http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads.php), and execute it, you are offered to: “install” it, or to “extract” it. If you choose “extract”, you can save the files to a folder…and carry and use it on an external drive. This is a version of “traveler” mode (which can also be used if TrueCrypt is installed to an operating system).

The User’s Guide states that there are two ways to run TrueCrypt in ‘traveler’ mode:
1) After you unpack the binary distribution archive (what you downloaded), you can directly run TrueCrypt.exe.
2) You can use the Traveler Disk Setup facility to prepare a special “traveler” disk, and launch TrueCrypt from there.

You will need to create a TrueCrypt file container on the USB flash drive (see the Beginner’s Tutorial), so…

Before you use TrueCrypt on a USB flash drive, know that:
1) If you encrypt the entire USB flash drive, you will not be able run TrueCrypt from the USB flash drive.
2) Before you choose the size for the TrueCrypt container on a USB drive, if you leave enough space on the USB flash drive for TrueCrypt (not IN the “container” file – along WITH the “container” file), you will be able to run TrueCrypt from the USB flash drive (see the Traveler Mode chapter in the User’s Guide).

It is not difficult to use…do not fear trying it to see if it will work for your security needs.

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ANSI versus Unicode

After our radio show, we received a call from Rudy. He wanted to know about ANSI…

The American National Standards Institute is an organization that promotes standards. One of them was the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) character set (letters, numbers, and symbols) that computers use. One major draw back to ASCII was you could only have 256 different characters.

Unicode allows for up to 65,536 different characters. In the past, Unicode was not compatible with all operating systems. If you are using a current operating system, I expect you should not be concerned about choosing Unicode.

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if you say it, you could serve time

A reminder that “free speech” does not have a universal definition…

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Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin was arrested under The Internal Security Act which allows for detention without trial because his articles had insulted Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.

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An American blogger has been sentenced to three months’ jail for accusing a Singapore judge of “prostituting herself during the entire proceedings, by being nothing more than an employee of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his son and carrying out their orders”…

The sentencing Justice said to him: “The rights of freedom of speech and expression are qualified and… do not entitle you to insult Justice Ang in the way that you have done.”

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We’ve all been told we should “think before we speak”…and that applies to any, and all types of, communication. The rules are not the same all over the world.

(It’s one of the reasons I have a blog hosted in a country where it is very difficult for it to be removed from the internet.)

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