Dreamlinux

I made a Live CD of Dreamlinux Desktop Edition 3.1, but it froze while booting up at the point where it was “loading kernel modules.”  I intended to create a persistent USB Drive install of Dreamlinux but if I can’t even get the Live CD to boot up, that just won’t be happening.

Puppy Linux

I made a Live CD of Puppy Linux 4.0.  It booted okay, but I couldn’t connect to my WPA2 wireless network.  I made a USB Drive version, but obviously, the WPA2 problem persisted.  There goes that distro.

Fedora

I had a USB Drive version of Fedora 9.0 made using Fedora Live USB Creator.  Everything worked perfectly until I tried to update the distro after I had started it up, played around, and connected to the WPA2 network.  It simply froze at what looked about 70% update status, except for the mouse pointer.  When I did a hard reset and tried to reboot with the USB Drive, I got the message “bug in initramfs /init detected.”  Too bad, I loved the layout and everything else about Fedora.

Ubuntu

I created an Ubuntu 8.04 Live CD, and it starts up well and works fine.  I tried one way to get it onto a flash drive, using a tutorial on how install a persistent version of Ubuntu 8.04 on a USB Drive but unfortunately, the USB version I created of Ubuntu would not boot.  The first error was “error 17: cannot mount selected partition” which I fixed by editing a file, but even once that error was fixed, my USB installation wouldn’t start.  I used a separate tutorial on installing Ubuntu 8.04 on a thumb drive but that just created a Live USB install, not a ‘full’ install.

So, I’ve gone further than most people and given linux a good chance.  In fact, I’ve tried many times over the years, and linux seems to get closer and closer to ‘getting there’ but still isn’t there yet.  So it’s Windows XP for me for the foreseeable future.

TrueCrypt is a sophisticated encryption program that allows a user to, with sufficient effort, render their personal data essentially impenetrably protected. There is an even more sophisticated privacy protection device known as IronKey.  These aren’t just ‘protect from your nosey house mate’ levels of privacy but ‘military grade’ encryption.¹

I gave TrueCrypt a try, but eventually got sick of it. Too much effort. Why would anyone other than deviates and paranoid nerds want to use these sophisticated programs? What have people got to hide?  But recently I’ve begun to reconsider the question.

I guess it probably doesn’t occur to most of us that even the completely innocent people may end up being suspected of criminal activity and a warrant may be issued to search through their computers. There might not be anything incriminating on there, but would you want a total stranger (the Police and other authorities) gaining access to all your personal information, with the possibility that it might find it’s way to an even wider audience if mishandled? I like the idea of a truly private space that no one else can enter.

This is one reason why I might make an effort to get better acquanted with IT security. It will help protect information from data thiefs as well as legitimate authorities who should have no absolute right to intrude into our private space. It’s something I encourage others to do. It’s not about having something to hide but rather about drawing a line in cyberspace, one where no one else can’t cross.

Some articles to help improve your IT Security literacy include:

• Best Free Ways to Protect Your Private Files
• Securely track your passwords

1. I really shouldn’t engage in that sort of techno-marketing-speak but it makes it sound so cool. When people talk of ‘military grade’ encryption they generally mean AES compliant encryption, as approved by the US NSA.

The thing is, these three colours are pretty boring. I wondered if it was possible to change them by downloading additional Color Schemes from the Microsoft website or from some creative users. The answer is that it’s not that simple.

Themes are specially protected within the Windows XP file system, so it’s not easy for users to ‘tweak’ or add to them. Two companies, Stardock and TGTSoft have come out with commercial programs, WindowBlinds and StyleXP, respectively, that allow you to change the themes in XP, but if you simply want to change the Color Schemes only, without radically altering the theme Windows uses, these programs don’t offer much help.

Whilst doing a search on the Internet I came across an article from 2001 in which the author indicated that Microsoft was planning to include a number of additional Color Schemes in XP but never got around to it. That is why we only have three Color Scheme choices.

When checking out that article, I discovered a link to another website, one by ‘Kaptain Caveman.’ His website includes a description of how to add additional Color Schemes to Windows XP. After you follow the tutorial, you should now have seven additional Color Schemes for Windows XP. The latest version of the necessary UXTheme Patcher (version 6), which is mentioned in the tutorial, is available elsewhere.

Additional note: You can probably see that the images on this page are ‘out of whack’ and the text isn’t properly ’sitting’ around them. I am not sure why this is occurring, but it’s got something to do with WordPress and the way it displays things. If you know how to fix it, I’d appreciate the advice. It looks normal when viewed in the Visual editor built into WordPress so I don’t know why it isn’t displaying properly.

Update: Unfortunately, it looks as though Kaptain Caveman’s website is down.  Maybe it has used up its monthly bandwidth limit or something.  Try again some other time maybe.  I’ve changed to the links to the Google cache of each relevant page rather than leave the links broken.

Update Two:  You can get the Jewels Theme File from my Windows Skydrive folder.

News Busters (not the most credible sounding website around, but they do link to the actual review) notes another critic falling too easily for an anti-Catholic conspiracy theory when reviewing the pseudo-documentary Bloodlines.

1. See, for example, the Rotten Tomatoes score for Deliver Us From Evil.

We can expect:

• The standard fanfare that accompanies any world leaders visit. This will include the mention of the number of Catholics worldwide and the age of the religion.
• The expense of the visit and whether it’s justified for the taxpayer.
• A number of individuals who have been sexually abused by priests will be interviewed for their opinions. No doubt a number of claims of cover-up will be made and uncritically accepted by the media.
• A comparison of Catholicism with ‘pop Christianity’ variants such as Hillsong Church and commentary on the appeal of one versus the other.
• Comment of the Church’s views on contraception and whether they may be causing harm in combating HIV.

I don’t really have any problem with the above (except for the ‘cover-up’ bit), but I suspect that elements of the media will also engage in the following:

• Repetition of the Crimen sollicitationis conspiracy theory. There are elements of the media that are truly dumb and when you’re biased against an organisation you become even dumber when assessing negative claims made against it. Any organisation that publicises these views is beneath contempt, more so if they were to broadcast the discredited ‘Sex Crimes and the Vatican‘ documentary.
• Contrived secular/atheist counterpoints in stories. There is no reason to include, as the BBC often does, responses of members of secular advocacy groups unless the subject of the story is religion itself. If they’re simply given a platform to take pot-shots as those of opposing beliefs then that’s unjustified.
• Mention of “the Inquisition” or “the Crusades.” This is a good indication that the author/producer of a story is attempting to persuade others that Catholicism is ‘bad’ without relying upon reason.¹

Even though I’m not a Catholic, I am very sceptical that the Australian media will be fair and accurate when covering Catholic issues. I hope they prove me wrong, but I will (probably) blog on the situation come July.

1. This assumes that they are not attempting a balanced, scholarly discussion of Catholic history. That may of course occur.