YUMI:  USB Multiboot Creator

YUMI: USB Multiboot Creator (source:  pendrivelinux.com)

I don’t know what YUMI stands for, but one thing for sure this tool is the greatest tool created for us mere computer mortals.  Note that YUMI is a from Pendrivelinux.com, and it is FREE.

With YUMI you can take a simple USB flash drive and turn it into your portable boot-able operating system of your choice.

Personally, I find this tool perfect for recovering a  forgotten local administrative password on a computer, or for recovering data from a boot drive where the operating system is no longer boot-able.

To use it, you need a Windows XP/Vista/7 computer to download and run the YUMI utility.  You then need to build a multiboot USB flash drive using it by specifying the drive letter where the flash drive is.

In building the multiboot USB flash drive, you will need at least one ISO image of whatever it is you want to boot to.  Say for example you have a Trinity Rescue Kit ISO image, and you want to use that to help you recover data from a non-boot-able computer (maybe because OS is corrupted).  When you run YUMI, you will need to specify an ISO image, like below:

Selecting a Distrbution ISO Image in YUMI

Selecting a distribution ISO Image in YUMI

If you don’t yet have the ISO image, you can check the option “Opted to Download the iso.”  After the ISO image is downloaded, you can go to the CREATE phase.  Also, before creating, make sure you have the correct USB device selected.

That is pretty much it.

 

Cloud Storage (photo credit: Forlanda)

I’ve meant to write about this for some time.  Now is as good a time ever, especially with the recent release of Google Drive.

As of this writing, you can get several Gigabytes of cloud storage for free.  Yes “FREE”.  Everyone likes free, and this article will list several places where you can get anywhere from 2GB to 7GB of free space.

These sites offer free storage in the “cloud”:

There is another cloud storage solution called the Adrive  which provides 50GB free.  This is not a typo, it is 50GB of free storage, web interface only though with ads.  There is an app for it on Android OS, but it’s not free.

Each solution below supports the following platforms:
  • Dropbox:  Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, Apple iOS (e.g. iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch), Apple Mac, Android OS
  • Skydrive:  Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, Apple iOS (e.g. iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch), Apple Mac
  • Google drive:    Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac, Android OS
  • Amazon cloud drive:  Microsoft Windows, Apple iOS (e.g. iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch), Apple Mac, Android OS
  • Apple’s iCloud:  Microsoft Windows, Apple iOS (e.g. iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch), Apple Mac
 Sign up for cloud storage now if you don’t have one.

Word of advice…only put files there that aren’t confidential in nature, or information you cannot afford to lose.  Also backup your cloud files to a separate external USB drive.  It will help ensure you aren’t caught unprepared if your cloud storage provider all of a sudden dissolves.

Are you using other cloud storage solution?  If so, please share.

If you’re like most people, you don’t know nor do you care how the Internet works.  All you need is that your applications and web applications work.  And if you are looking to create a social networking site for your club or any niche interest, and you aren’t too worried about having to buy or own a domain, then Ning.com is for you!  Although I’ve been surfing the net since its boom in the 1990s, I don’t ever remember seeing ning.com.  I heard about it just a few months ago at a technology conference for education where one of the guest speakers established a learning social network through the web services of ning.com.

This platform for a social networks has many potential uses–one of which is a family web site.  I setup my own family website, and because I didn’t want just anyone to see what we have there, I set it to be private.  Thus you have to be invited to get inside my family web site.

If you have a club and want to establish your web presence and also have a means to share with your members, ning.com is perfect.  It is basically a custom myspace.com for your own group.

One very interesting thing with Ning.com is that you can create one account, and through this one account you can setup multiple social networks.

Give it a try.  You got nothing to lose.

If you happen to manage a network, and you can’t afford some of the most expensive network monitoring tools out there, check out The Dude.  This program will map out your network and provide alerts so that you can ensure your system components are always up.

There aren’t too many occasions when you can get something of real significant value from Microsoft–i.e. something good for free.

On this posting, you will find that web hosting is something you can get from Microsoft with some real added value!

  • web hosting service has no ads
  • it comes with a free domain name — free for 1 year
  • provides domain specific email addresses
  • online office space

Check it officelive.com!