How to run Windows on Ubuntu
Here’s a seriously nice tutorial - how to run Windows Programs on Ubuntu linux.
It nicely applied Virtual Memory to run Windows applications, and you can even have the Windows Start menu running as well.
And all it takes it ten minutes plus Windows install plus a single command.
Something else that makes Ubuntu more attractive as an alternative to Windows alone. :)
Permalink: How to run Windows on Ubuntu
Search without Google?
Google has become so synonymous with web search that it’s become a verb - you can “Google your name” and similar activities.
And let’s face it, Google became the big cheese of search by having an idealistic bunch of geniuses running the show, who were concerned with user experience first, and monetisation second.
Somehow, that’s allowed them to become one of the world’s largest advertising companies.
Even still, there are something things you can’t find easily on Google - the array and volume of spam thrown at it means the various filters in play can sometimes make it difficult to find exactly what you want.
Now Rea Maor suggests 8 ways of searching the web outside of Google.
It’s a nice attempt to try and bring together a few different search alternatives - Nelson’s Search is a nice one I hadn’t heard of before - but most of the other suggestions seem to focus on checking up fragments set up by other search companies.
And no Yahoo! Search or MSN Live.
I think the biggest asset for search online is recommendations. I run a forum on books that people come to by word of mouth. It probably does okay on Google, but there’s nothing like people coming to your site because someone told them it was great, rather than having to crawl the web looking for something great.
Permalink: Search without Google?
Fake download service created to spy on users
Media Defender, a group apparently working to fight fight “piracy” on behalf of media representative such as the RIAA and MPAA, have apparently set up a fake downloads site called Miivi.
The reported aim of the site is that once signed up, users are encouraged to download illegal files. However, the Miivi software will then search a users hard drive for other illegal downloads - alerting MediaDefender furtively of the users IP address and other details.
Which reminds me of a series of nasty sting tactics the UK polics tried a few years back - they’d park a lorry filled with alcohol and cigareets, open up the back, then walk away and leave it. Anyone tempted to grab a packet from the back ended up grabbed themselves by plains clothed officers nearby.
I think what the recent Media Defender move really underlines is how clueless record and movie companies have become. They want to own every inch of the music they distribute - which is fair enough - but they have never totally grasped this thing called the internet.
In the meantime, the way remains open for internet-based media companies to pull the rug under from underneath the billion dollar corporate giants, who have yet to wake up to the opportunities of the 21st century.
Permalink: Fake download service created to spy on users
