Encrypt flashdrive using TrueCrypt

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i currently wanted to encrypt my USB flash drive or jump drive and didn’t really find a good solution on the web on how to do it.  couple of the other solutions that i found were about having the encryption on such a drive and then i needed that computer in order to access it.  this solution will allow you to encrypt the flash drive or jump drive an then be able to access it on any computer.

  1. download TrueCrypt from truecrypt.org
  2. open truecrypt (make sure that you have already inserted the flash drive or jump driev)
  3. hit “Create Volume”
  4. go through the wizard but make sure that you create a volume and then move it to your flash drive

 

Installing XML plugin in Notepad++

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i recently started working on more XML data since i am trying to do more data transfer between databases.  i use notepad++ as my main editor and i wanted to keep using it with my XML data without having the need of installing another program on my computer.  i found out that that there was a plugin develop for notepad++ in order to allow me to use it as my XML editor.  the problem was that there was no documentation on how to install what file and where.  below you will be able to find the proper steps on how to do so.

NOTE: you need to have notepad++ installed in your computer before proceeding. if you don’t have notepad++ install you can click on this link.

  1. after you have notepad++ installed
  2. goto this link http://bit.ly/rcCK1N download these packages
    1. External libs -> ext_libs.zip
    2. XML Tools -> Xml Tools 2.3.1 r764 Unicode Beta1 -> xmltools_2.3.1_r805_unicode_beta2.zip
  3. when extracting the files here is where you will need to place them…
    i am going to assume that you have installed notepad++ in it’s default directory which is “C:\Program Files\Notepad++”
    1. the ext_libs.zip will extracted on “C:\Program Files\Notepad++”
    2. the xmltools_2.3.1_r805_unicode_beta2.zip will be extracted on “C:\Program Files\Notepad++\plugins”
  4. now, if you had notepad++ open, restart it and you should be able to use the XML plugin …

enjoy!!!

Creating fake or empty file sizes

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this is slick…… today i wanted to test how long would it take to transfer a data set between two different tools and protocols. the two protocol that i was testing were SAMBA and SFTP under a windows machine.  i wanted to try to transfer an empty ISO 1,073,741,824 bytes = 1GB.

if you would like to create this fake file here would be the code that you would have to use

  1. open command prompt (cmd)
  2. and type this command
fsutil file createnew test.iso 1073741824

that will allow you to create a fake iso file with 1GB of space.  if you are interested on the results take a look at the table below.

Total time: 00:32:21.686
Task Start Time
SFTP transfer
12:41:28 PM
00:12:22.41
Share drive transfer 12:21:01 PM 00:19:59.28
Time difference 07:36.87
% difference 61.90%

Reset toshiba laptop to factory settings

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if you have a  Toshiba Satellite L300 and you would like to restore the system to factory settings (meaning back to the way it was when you first bought it) below you will be able to find the instructions on how to do it.

To reinstall your laptop to the factory settings / “out of the box” settings, please follow these steps. It worked for me, and should work for you.

ALL DATA WILL BE ERASED ON YOUR HARD DRIVE IF YOU PROCEED. YOU WILL NEED TO ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE THE POWER ADAPTER PLUGGED IN. DO NOT SWITCH OFF OR RESTART YOUR COMPUTER DURING THIS PROCESS.

1) Hold down the power button for 10 (ten) seconds to switch off your machine.

Please note: Holding down the power button on the machine forces it to switch off. Any unsaved data will be lost.

2) Press and hold the 0 (zero) key and at the same time, tap the power button once to switch on your notebook.

3) When the machine Starts beeping; release the 0 key.

4) When prompted by the warning screen; select Yes to continue with the system recovery.

5) Select Recovery of Factory Default Software; click Next.

6) Select Recover to out-of-box state. Click Next again.

7) Click Next to Start recovery.

Source and credit to=> Reset toshiba laptop to factory settings [Solved].

Windows blue screen even on virtual machines

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if you thought that blue screens are only on regular windows boxes…. you are wrong!!! yesterday i just experience  a blue screen on my windows virtual machine (vm).  i am currently running ubuntu 10.04 and have windows xp pro on my virtual machine.  apparently the vm got stock on a process with a infinite loop.  isn’t that something…. only on the windows journey.

vboxdisp

Virtual Machine Blue Screen of Death

Android vs iPhone

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on a recent blog they show a really good graph which it was base on the current smartphone competition.  this included iphone and android phone for the different phone carriers.  i honestly think that android is a better phone, but it is not as popular as the iphone.  the market of the android has definitely increase, but we need to give the android more time to mature and have people more engage to a different phone [perhaps carrier].

http://www.billshrink.com/blog/wp-content/themes/shrink/images/comparisons/iphone4-evo4g-incredible-thumb.jpg

Download AVG and install offline

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the other day i was fixing a friend’s computer with no internet connectivity.  his internet was down but not really.  he has a windows pc which it has a virus…… the usual story.  i really couldn’t connect to the internet at all and he did not have any anti-virus.  (good figure :sight:).  so i went to a free anti-virus version (AVG), but i couldn’t figure out how to download the free version as an offline app.  after researching for a awhile i found my path :).

if you would like to install AVG not from the server (meaning offline installation; in other words not using internet connectivity for the installation) here is the path for the english version.

http://free.avg.com/us-en/download

enjoy 🙂

untangle linux protecting me from virus

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i have been having utangle for a while now and i did not know how useful it was to protect my gateway until today.  out of 52072 files that the clamav antivirus look for 25761 were blocked :o.  that is about 49% of the files that would of probably infect my computer were blocked at the gate making by only windows pc safe.  so, if you are thinking about safety on a windows environment, maybe utangle might be the solution :).

for more information about untangle visit the following site http://www.untangle.com/.