Carry an Operating System in Your Pocket

With large capacity flash drives, we have almost reached the point where we could carry our Windows environment with us in our pocket and have access to our familiar desktop and settings wherever there is a public computer. But we really aren't there quite yet.

A practical solution available now is taking Linux with you on a flash drive instead. Linux isn't geeky and scary any longer. The interfaces for many Linux builds, like Ubuntu (shown below), look almost exactly like Windows.



The advantages of using your own Linux OS on a public computer are:

1) Reduce the risk of picking up viruses and malware from a public computer - When you boot a public computer from a flash drive you completely eliminate any interaction with the public computer's operating system. This significantly reduces the chances that your flash drive will become infected by any malware that may be running and infecting the public computer.

2) Linux isn't as prone to attack - Since Windows has a 91% market share, people who write malware tend to target Windows systems. By running Linux on a public computer, you are much less likely to be the target of an attack or infection.

3) Enhanced privacy - When you run off your own storage medium (flash drive), you avoid reading and writing to the hard disk of the public computer. Therefore, you don't leave traces of your activity behind.

4) Ease of use - Instead of dealing with a different configuration on each public computer you use, you have access to an operating system with which you are familiar.

Sometimes you can't find a public computer that lets you boot from a USB drive. You can also take a CD with you that contains a Linux OS which should help avoid this issue.

You still need some virus protection but fortunately you can get free antivirus programs that run in a Linux environment such as avast! Linux Home Edition. If you buy a flash drive with a switch that allows you to make it a read-only device, this will also increase your level of protection.

I like demonstrating Linux in the classroom because many students have never seen it. Since most of my students have flash drives now, this saves me from burning CDs for them from which to boot the Windows computers. There are many distros (different variations of Linux) that you can choose from to load onto your flash drive. An excellent resource is Pendrivelinux which has many distros available for download and step-by-step instructions on how to install them to your flash drive. Personally, I like Ubuntu and Knoppix as they both include OpenOffice (which is just like using MS Office 2003) and the Firefox browser. But download a couple different distros and see which one you prefer.

And if you have Macs in your labs, there is an option for you too! gOS is a distro that provides a very close approximation of OS X, so you too can feel right at home.

Constructing Your Own Computer

It sure is easy to drive down to Best Buy or Costco and buy a computer. But there is something satisfying about building your own computer and configuring it exactly the way you want it. Some students might consider this a daunting task and would never attempt it. Watching the video below will give students a rough idea of what is involved in assembling a computer.



Now I wouldn't suggest running out to build a computer after just watching this video. You probably should do some more research first. Naturally, How Stuff Works has a section on How To Build a Computer. PC Mech has a Build Your Own PC section that gives step by step instructions with over one hour of video.

Although most students won't build a computer from scratch, many students may need to upgrade some components of their computer. For instance, they may need to upgrade the RAM to get the best performance out of the latest version of Windows. Or maybe they are craving a new Blu-ray drive for their desktop computer. There are plenty of videos on YouTube that show how to upgrade a computer, like the one below on how to install RAM.



There are numerous online merchants where you can buy the parts to assemble a computer. Two of my favorite spots are New Egg and TigerDirect. I have friends who have had excellent experiences with New Egg and I have been very satisfied with my purchases from TigerDirect. And Crucial is a fantastic web site for purchasing RAM (as mentioned in the video) which I have used numerous times.

Discussion Questions for Students:
1) Have you ever built, modified or upgraded a computer? If so, how successful were you? (i.e. did the computer work when you got done?)
2) Would you ever consider building your own computer from scratch? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of doing this?
3) If you had problems building or upgrading your computer, who would you consult for help? Does the Geek Squad (at Best Buy) help with assembling computers (or do they just perform upgrades)?

Free eBook for Customizing Blog Templates

Bloggerbuster is another useful site that helps bloggers design, build, and write better blogs. Their Blogger Template Design Series of blog posts gives helpful hints and tips for customizing Blogger templates to help them provide the functionality you need. They have now created their own eBook which is an offshoot of their Blogger design posts.

The Cheats’ Guide to Customizing Blogger Templates is available for download in PDF format. The book is free and is full of good examples for tweaking blog template code. If you don’t have the Adobe Acrobat reader, which you need to read PDF files, they provide a link for downloading that as well.

So check it out and you (or your students) might learn a cool new technique that you can put into practice on your blog today!

Free Blog Templates for Blogger.com Blogs

When I assign blogging projects to my students I have them construct blogs on Blogger since it is free and owned by Google (and therefore not likely to go out of business). Blogger offers a number of basic templates from which you can choose, but seeing them on every third blog you look at on the Web can get a bit boring. There are plenty of sites on the Web like pYzam.com where you can download free templates. MySpace templates are especially popular with students as they seem to love to change the look of their MySpace pages on a frequent basis.

The problem with free Blogger templates that you find on most sites is that the XML code may not be well constructed. MySpace seems a bit more forgiving on template code than Blogger. Blogger will refuse to load templates that contain XML coding errors, which either forces you to find and fix the XML errors (beyond the capabilities of most of my students) or to give up and search for another template.



eBlog Templates is a site that offers well-constructed templates for Blogger and Wordpress blogs. Many of the templates are optimized for revenue generation as they contain design elements that feature positioning advertising at the top of blog pages. Accompanying the templates are detailed instructions regarding setting up the various features contained in the template so that they will work with your blog. And best of all, the templates are FREE! You can find the Blogger templates here. They even have a blog for Blogger users that contains links to new templates as well as articles about generating blogs on Blogger.

The template that I use for this blog is from eBlog Templates and is called Daya Earth. I have modified it slightly for my purposes, but it is pretty close to the template that eBlog Templates offers.

How does someone make money giving away free blog templates? When you look at the eBlog site, you will notice plenty of advertising links which probably generates a fair bit of revenue. Also, on each download page, there is a link to the site owner’s Paypal account so you can make a donation. The links implore you: “Isn’t this free template worth at least $1.” Certainly a well-designed blog template with no XML coding errors is worth a great deal more than $1!

So have your students explore the eBlog Templates site and it should help them avoid having to use the same old Blogger templates that you see everywhere on the Web.

Securing a Wireless Network

Home wireless networks are more susceptible to bandwidth poaching than wired networks because the signal often reaches outside of your home. This makes it easier for hackers or war drivers (people who locate and connect to unsecured wireless networks) to sit outside your home and connect to your network. Your neighbor might be accidentally connecting to your network instead of his own (known as piggybacking) and thereby using some of your valuable bandwidth. Or if you happen to live next door to an unethical person, they might cancel their own Internet account and deliberately connect to yours to save money!

To avoid these scenarios, you should implement security measures on your wireless network. The video below from the Get Connected TV show shows you some simple measures to take to protect your wireless network from unwanted "guests."



Discussion Questions for Students:
1) Have you ever logged onto a wireless network without the owner's permission (such as a neighbor)? Do you think there is anything unethical about "sharing" bandwidth with your neighbor (at their expense)?
2) If you have a wireless network at home, have you implemented security measures such as the ones mentioned in the video or listed on the Practically Networked web site?
3) Do you have a firewall installed on your network? Is it turned on? Do you know what a firewall does and why you should have one? If not, find out at the firewall section of How Stuff Works!
4) Have you tested your network to see if it is secure? If not, try the ShieldsUP test at Gibson Research. What were the results? If your network is not secure, what could you do to make it more secure?