Once and Still a Techie Weblog

Now that’s “Touch” typing

With the proliferation of so-called netbooks, i.e. the ultraportable, ultracheap, 7″-10″ screen mini-laptops, like the Asus Eee PC, people have been coming to terms with the sub-sized keyboards that come with the little buggers.

A lot of reviews have highlighted how difficult it is to get much work done with the tiny keys and how the keyboard layouts on some netbooks are making it an exercise in futility to churn a medium-sized document out without cursing every now and then.

Well who said touch-typing and making use of ALL your fingers was the only way to get that report or thesis out in a jiffy? Watch the video below as Jenn from Pocketables types at a very respectable 62 words per minute on a keyboard that’s even smaller than the ones found on the Acer Aspire One and Eee PC 701/900/901. She’s typing on a Kohjinsha SC3 by the way. One of the more expensive ultraportables out there.

Kohjinsha SC3 typing speed test from Jenn Lee on Vimeo.

Now that’s touch-typing.

Posted in Personal Computing | No Comments »

Latest WordPress version 2.6 in da House Upgrade Now!

I’ve just upgraded my CMS (Content Management System) to WordPress 2.6 which was released on July 15. It’s always nice to have the latest version of anything.

I like the Dashboard layout better:

It just seems cleaner is all.

If you want to catch up on the new features available with this new iteration of WordPress just watch this video:

The upgrade process was again painless for me thanks to the help of the Automatic WordPress Upgrade plugin. No more than three minutes after initiating the upgrade process I was good to go.

I so dig the “Theme Preview” feature. Without it I wouldn’t have dared change my old theme. What do you think about my new theme?

Posted in Internet Technologies, Personal Computing | 2 Comments »

Truecrypt just gets better and better

Less than four months after the release of version 5.1a on March 17, the folks responsible for Truecrypt have raised the standard in free personal data security up a notch by releasing version 6.0 last July 4 and following that up almost immediately with 6.0a just 4 days later.

As I wrote a few months back, what Truecrypt essentially does is create an encrypted volume to which you save your data. Using the Truecrypt interface you can mount this volume which would appear as a new drive letter and process “on the fly” data encryption/decryption to data going in or out of the volume. It can also encrypt an entire partition or entire device, which would come in handy if you wanted to encrypt for example your whole 2GB/4GB flash drive or SD/SDHC card.

The new features of version 6.0a include:

Parallelized encryption/decryption on multi-core processors (or multi-processor systems). Increase in encryption/decryption speed is directly proportional to the number of cores and/or processors.For example, if your computer has a quad-core processor, encryption and decryption will be four times faster than on a single-core processor with equivalent specifications (likewise, it will be twice faster on dual-core processors, etc.)

Ability to create and run an encrypted hidden operating system whose existence is impossible to prove (provided that certain guidelines are followed). This available for Windows (XP, Vista, 2008, etc.) only.

On Windows Vista and Windows 2008, it is now possible to encrypt an entire system drive even if it contains extended/logical partitions.

Parallelized header key derivation on multi-core processors (one algorithm per core/thread). As a result, mounting is several times faster on multi-core processors. (Windows)

Ability to create hidden volumes under Mac OS X and Linux.

On Linux, TrueCrypt now uses native kernel cryptographic services (by default) for volumes encrypted in XTS mode. This increases read/write speed in most cases. However, the FUSE driver must still be used when the volume is encrypted in a deprecated mode of operation (LRW or CBC), or when mounting an outer volume with hidden-volume protection, or when using an old version of the Linux kernel that does not support XTS mode. (Linux)

Of course the usual bug fixes come with the new version.

So what are you waiting for? If you value your privacy, go do a Google search for Truecrypt and download this essential piece of security software.

Posted in security | No Comments »