Category Archives: Tech

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The Pangolin Has Been Released

Precise pangolin, or Ubuntu 12.04, to be exact. The newest version of Ubuntu was released yesterday (actually a day early) and, of course, I installed it. Here are some things I’ve noticed about the changes made along with some screen-shots.  The first thing I noticed was that when you open the dash (Unity‘s start menu), the home page no longer consists of shortcuts, but is now just your recent files, recently used programs, and your downloads folder. Not too big of a deal, but still an inconvenience. Secondly, when you maximize a window the launcher no longer auto-hides. I can see the reason, but it does get in the way now and is a little distracting. (Edit: you can turn on auto-hide in Appearance. However, this will hide it even with no windows maximized.) Only one more negative; the scroll function on my trackpad no longer works in file manager windows although it works in other programs. OK, now for the positives: the launcher now changes colors to reflect the predominant color of your background image, just like Windows 8. Rythmbox is now the default music player. The default from 11.10, Banshee, always crashed on my computer. Other than those two things, it’s pretty much the same as the last version (as far as I have seen, at least), which I really liked. I suppose with time I will get used to these changes that bother me and enjoy it just as much as 11.10.

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I’ve been using Codeacademy for a while now to learn Javascript, but just recently they released an overview on HTML and CSS. As of now it is just the basics of HTML but the rest will be released soon. It’s fairly easy, I managed to complete it in a day, but it teaches you all you need to know to build a simple webpage in HTML (which is actually the way I wrote this page, now that I know how). If you’ve wanted to learn HTML, give Codeacademy a try.

Codeacademy

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Windows 8 Screenshots

Here are some very belated screenshots of the CP of Windows 8. I noticed as I went to post that I neglected to get one of the lock screen. However, as I am on Ubuntu at the moment, suffice it to say that it is a photo, which you can choose, with your battery and wireless info overlayed in the corner. When you swipe up from the bottom, you see the log-on screen. I must say, I really like Windows 8, although I would not upgrade to it and if I got a new computer I would dual-boot Windows 7. One more interesting fact is that the taskbar and window glass color on the desktop change to match the background if you have a slide show theme.

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Windows 8 Consumer Preview

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview was released today at MWC  (Mobile World Conference). It is available for download at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso. If you need help with dual-booting (Installing it as your main OS is not recommended) check these links out:

http://www.howtogeek.com/75286/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-and-8-without-re-partitioning-using-vhd/

http://www.howtogeek.com/74335/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-and-windows-8/

http://www.howtogeek.com/74335/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-and-windows-8/

If you still don’t feel comfortable after reading these, you can try running a virtual machine. Just download VMware or VirtualBox; and if you need help with those check here: http://www.howtogeek.com/105073/the-best-articles-for-learning-how-to-virtualize-operating-systems/

Here are some screenshots from the Developers Preview (I haven’t installed the Consumer Preview yet ;)).

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Password Security

Today I took the LastPass Security Challenge. I have been using LastPass for a while now, so I thought I’d be pretty secure. I forgot about the accounts I had made before LastPass. I had 6 accounts using the same password and 2 accounts sharing another one (I’m not even sure how that happened :/) and quite a few of the others were a little weak. My score was a measly 64%. Not good; I have a lot of passwords to change…