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Hot deal! Get them while they last! For a limited time only IBM is shipping you ThinkPad recovery CDs absolutely free of charge due to a software glitch that cropped up in their latest ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery software. A little background: IBM doesn't ship their ThinkPads with any recovery CDs, but they have a handy utility that lets you create your own as a backup in case the hard drive's hidden recovery partition is lost. If you want to get the official, factory-pressed CDs, they'll run you nearly $50 after their mandatory next-day air shipping charges. Now I've heard a lot of people complaining about the "bring your own CD" tactics taken by Lenovo/IBM, but I've never had a problem until this weekend. I'd recently burned a recovery CD and DVD, and was attempting to restore a ThinkPad to factory condition when I got a ton of the following errors:

1 PKUNZIP: (W10) Warning! can't create: C:/IBMTOOLS/...
2 PKUNZIP: Incorrect password for file ...
3 PKUNZIP: Inconsistent local header for file ...

Now this is interesting, because the media is checked after being written by the ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery software to avoid bad burns. In fact, it's detected a couple of bad images before, so I came to expect that once it clears the media, I'm good to go. Just to be safe, I checked the hard drive's health using Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test, and completely wiped it clean using DBAN, but even after taking those precautions the restore would fail. I gave up and called IBM-SERV, and before I was done describing the problem, they admitted there was a known problem and they'd be shipping me new restore CDs. Not bad, since these are usually so expensive to come by, and I'm not going to be set back by having to wait another day to receive the shipment. As an end-user, I'm glad Lenovo/IBM owned up to the issue and was honest about the issue causing the problem. While I'm not in much of a hurry, I don't envy their position of having to deal with frantic users trying to get their ThinkPad back up and running ASAP, only to find their recovery CDs are now landfill bound.

I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a minimalist. Anyway, I seem to be swamped recently with requests from friends, family and clients that require re-installs or clean installs of Windows XP. Ever since discovering nLite, I've taken to using a custom XP install disk containing security updates, additional drivers and less bloat. The amount of time it's taken me to get this XP CD together is insignificant to the time it saves during and after installation: no more Windows Updates requiring multiple reboots, trips to OEM websites for driver downloads after manually transferring NIC drivers to the fresh PC... the list goes on. I've also found the resulting Windows operating system a bit lighter on its feet after trimming some of the fat from the edges. All in all, a Good Thing. Despite all this work to make the installation process as quick and light as possible, there are a few applications I find myself installing time and time again on fresh systems. Most are freeware or open-source, and I've found each invaluable. Productivity

• Web Browser: Firefox. Were you expecting someone else? I also make sure to install the Adblock Plus and filterset updater extensions.
• IM: Gaim supports just about every IM protocol you'll need and does it well. No bloat, consistent GUI, and open-source to boot!
• PDF Viewer: Foxit Reader is blisteringly fast, tiny and completely free PDF reader with no installation necessary.
• PDF Creator: PDFCreator creates a PDF printer on your system. Whenever you need to archive a document, webpages, etc., it's simple to save in an easily-accessible format.
• Search Tool: Google Desktop is incredibly useful. Disable the sidebar and toolbar, and simply use the CTRL-CTRL popup box for minimalist searching bliss.
• Office Suite: OpenOffice.org 2 provides all of the functionality most people need without shelling out hundreds of your hard-earned dinero. Of course, those of us that need to use Microsoft Office apps for work can grab a Home Use Edition on the sly instead.

Media

• CD/DVD Burning: burnatonce is a slick burning app that has a tiny footprint and absolutely no bloat. It does everything I need: create and burn ISOs, data and music CD/DVDs.
• Video Player: Media Player Classic is included with the Quicktime Alternative pack, which allows the viewing of .mov files, among others, without the bloat associated with the Apple version.

Security

• Antivirus: AntiVir is the best free software on the market. The interface is simple, and it provides all the necessities, such as auto-update and task scheduling. My only complaint is the marketing popup every so often after an update urging you to buy the full -- for money -- version. I'd also heartily recommend the Kaspersky Online Scanner, which doesn't require any install and does an excellent on-demand job of scanning your computer.
• Firewall: for most users, XP's built-in firewall is sufficient. Unfortunately, there is a huge disadvantage in its implementation in that it doesn't allow for any outbound filtering. This capability may be added by Microsoft at a future date, but since they seem to be pushing the for-pay Windows Live OneCare, that may never happen. As far as free firewalls, there are two I suggest, depending on the user. My top pick is Kerio 2.1.5; while it's ancient and no longer supported, but stable and the most popular free firewall to date. For an up-to-date, but somewhat more needy firewall package, grab ZoneAlarm.
• Malware: Spybot seems to do a great job of cleaning out spyware and the like. There are others, but I've always been satisfied with this free app. Safe browsing habits don't hurt, either.
• Security Suite: Kaspersky is for those who don't mind shelling out a few dollars for the best protection and nicest package that provides best-of-breed antivirus, firewall, malware and more without being a resource hog (cough: Symantec, McAfee?). I use it myself, and think it's worth the few dollars they charge every year for license renewal.

System Utilities

• Archive Tool: 7zip is an open-source package that provides support for every type of archive you'll need to extract or create. Particularly handy is the customizable right-click context menu.
• Backup: Acronis True Image also costs money, but the features and peace of mind it offers makes the price worth it. I've opined on the merit of regular backups before.
• Cleanup: CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a system optimization and privacy tool that quickly removes unused and temporary files from your system. The result is a faster OS and reclaimed storage space (as if we need it with the enormous drives everyone has nowadays).
• Remote Access: LogMeIn Free is incredible in the features that it offers for no cost. If someone's computer can get online, you can access it to offer them remote assistance. No more dealing with firewalls, port-forwarding, NAT and the like. It also allows them to watch "over your shoulder," giving them a sense of trust -- and perhaps teaching them a thing or two along the way. I've mentioned this in the past as well.

There's an issue with WordPress 2.0+ and its rather aggressive generation of URL rewrite rules. It was never an issue previously, as WordPress would generate mod_rewrite rules to either automatically or manually be updated in the root .htaccess file. As expected, the extra step of chmod-ing the .htaccess file or manually editing the rules was a minor pain -- one for which the WP developers discovered a "solution." The new generation of rewrites are handled internally by the WordPress engine. This approach causes a problem: at any one time a web developer doesn't know the current state of mod_rewrite rules being used. Also, the rewrites can cause problems with non-WP-related subdirectories or subdomains that use their own .htaccess files. For example, I was unable to password-protect a subdirectory under the root WP install, regardless of any updates I made to the rewrite rules I saw in .htaccess. The instant I placed the .htaccess file in the subdirectory, WordPress went nuts and didn't allow me in the directory at all, instead placing me straight back at the WP index page. I tried a number of fixes suggested on the WordPress forum and other sites, but nothing was successful in telling WordPress to exclude my subdirectory. The suggested solutions are hacks at best, regardless, because it requires one to explicitly exclude, instead of the better practice of implicit inclusion for WordPress's pages and permalinks. This is a widespread problem that the WP developers should rethink going forward. Fortunately, I discovered a simple fix while digging through the PHP code in an attempt to see how the rules were being dynamically generated. Change $use_verbose_rules to true in WP-includes/classes.php. This will cause WP write the rules it needs dynamically into the root .htaccess file, instead of its default internal handling. This will makes the WP-generated .htaccess file a bit bigger and complex, but since it only writes the rules it needs, it leaves the rest of the site unharmed. Good enough for now. Bad WordPress, but I still forgive you.

I recently purchased a refurbished Dell XPS 400 from the Dell Outlet for a song, and was attempting to install a clean version of Windows XP Professional on it. Unfortunately, the Windows installer doesn't have drivers for the new-fangled Intel AHCI SATA controller out-of-the-box, so the installer won't see the disk drives and proceeds berate the idiotic user for attempting to install an OS on a machine with no disk drives. Tsk, tsk! Both Intel and Dell provide drivers, and Windows thoughfully allows you to specify the need for additional controller drivers during the beginning of the install process. What the geniuses at Redmond did, however, was hard-code the installer to only look for drivers on a floppy drive. It's 2006 Bill: what gives? Needless to say, I got all excited! I've always wanted to have an excuse to blow the dust off my ThinkPad's USB floppy drive and put it to good use. All that joy soon left as I spent 30 minutes hunting around my apartment for a floppy. Try as I might to dig through the archive of computer history, there was nary a diskette to be found. Not to be dismayed, I turned to the G-man and found that I was not out of luck. The same method I had previously used to slipstream service packs into the Windows install media would allow me to insert any necessary drivers. The instructions are fairly complex, but easy enough to follow, despite being a convoluted process. About 30 minutes into the process, right before I was about to burn a test CD of my custom install disk, I stumbled upon an amazing program: nLite. This nifty freeware utility supplies one with an easy to navigate GUI that will customize a Windows CD. I was able to slipstream in the latest service pack, hotfixes, rip out unnecessary Windows components, insert the new drivers, and supply the information necessary to kick off an unattended install in one fell swoop. Took about 15 minutes of my time, and saved me from the violation of using a floppy diskette to set up a Dual Core system. Ugh. Definitely a neat tool. Given more time, I think I'll go back and further customize the CD to rip out absolutely everything that I don't use. You are also given the option to run post-install scripts to install any 3rd party utilities that aren't already provided as nLite addons.

A friend of mine recently had an issue with his computer that sparked a panic at the possibility of losing years of irreplaceable personal and business data. Lucky for him, I was able to rescue the data and get him back on his feet in the course of a few hours. The experience left him with a renewed respect for the need to make backups standard operating procedure, not to be relegated solely to the enterprise environment. We should all be making regular backups of our more important data. I’ll be honest: I used to be as guilty as most in that I gave nary a thought to the survival of my data in the event of a disaster. A few years in the enterprise environment working on Big Business infrastructure changed that. I’ve seen more than my fair share of data disasters, and in speaking with many storage consultants on the subject I have gained a smidge of knowledge on the subject, enough to realize I was playing a Damoclean game with MTBF stats. Taking the time to start a backup regimen doesn’t have to be a painful or costly project. There are plenty of tools out there that will do the dirty deed, and do it quietly without any user interaction beyond initial setup. There is a myriad of solutions available for Windows desktops, but here are a few that I recommend: Mozy is a free, automatic, and secure web backup service. You get 2GB of storage without paying a cent – perfect for documents and other smaller sets of data – and the data is available for recovery from any Internet-accessible location via a web interface. Availability and security are guaranteed, and you can add up to three computers per account. What’s the catch? By signing up, you’re agreeing to let them email you with offers from their sponsors (but they promise not to sell your personal information to any third parties). Wary of their intentions? Sign up with a pseudonym and a throwaway email address. Got tiny pipes or want to backup more than a few documents? Then you’ll need to turn to a more full-featured solution. Don’t want to shell out any of your hard-earned greenbacks? Check out WinBackup, which was recently released as 100% unlimited and unrestricted freeware. The interface is intuitive and simple to use, and the software supports many useful features that can save your behind in a bad situation. WinBackup is very good software for most, but I don't see two features I use on a regular basis: differential (not incremental) backups and the option to create a bootable rescue CD/DVD for when the poop really hits the fan. For those of you (like me) who don’t mind paying for a little bit for this extra functionality, I recommend Acronis True Image. I've been using True Image for a few years, after being a loyal Norton/Symantec Ghost user for years. It's less than 1/2 the price of Ghost and many more features to boot! As with Ghost, the key feature is the ability to create whole disk/partition images to quickly roll out standard install images or keep handy for quick system restores. Ah, Linux. The other side of the fence has always been a place of greener pastures. Backups have always been a breeze in the open-source OS, if not for the utilities, for the ease of which to write and schedule quick and dirty backup scripts. For the minimalist, I suggest nothing more than Old Faithful: tar. Just wrap ‘em up, gzip or bzip2 to your heart’s delight, and fire the sucker off to your removable media of choice. There’s also a simple way to migrate the files to a remote host via ssh:

tar cf - DIRECTORY | gzip -c | ssh REMOTEHOST "cat > BACKUP.tar.gz"

The selected files/directory is compressed locally and piped directly to the remote host over the encrypted SSH tunnel to a destination file on the target system. The advantage to this method is that it doesn’t require the creation of a temporary archive on the source system, if storage space is a luxury. Restoration directly from the backup host is just as simple:

ssh REMOTEHOST cat BACKUP.tar.gz | gunzip -c | tar xv

If you are going to schedule backups through this method, I suggest the use of SSH public/private key pairs for non-interactive authentication. For a more elegant solution with file versioning support, use rdiff-backup. I’d write up a guide, but the folks at Ars have done us a favor already. If shell scripts and cron jobs give you the willies (say it ain’t so!), pyBackPack is a nice GUI for rdiff-backup that makes the job just that much easier. Remember, this may be a great list of software, but a backup isn’t worth its salt unless other factors are taken into consideration. Will the media last for the length of time you require? Are you verifying the backups are indeed taking place on a regular basis? Are those backups intact, readable and the contents verifiable? Are you storing the backups in the same physical location as the source systems, ready for the next disaster to take them both out in one fell swoop? It’s a difficult process to weight the cost and effort required to implement these measures, but if the data’s worth it to you, it’ll pay for itself the first time something goes boink. Also, keep in mind that backup strategies aren’t necessarily one-size-fits-all solutions; what works for me might not be worth it for you. Data storage, in the form of hard disks and optical media, is so reasonably priced that I’m certain everyone will be able to come up with a system that fits their own particular needs without breaking the bank. Now go schedule a backup before you get distracted.