Damien Oh

Damien Oh is the owner and chief editor of Make Tech Easier

Linux Howto: Miss Your Windows Application? Try WINE

By Damien Oh | December 15, 2007 |

For anyone who is keen to migrate to Linux platform, but can’t live without Windows application, then Wine can be a great solution for you.

What is WINE?

WINE stands for Wine Is Not Emulator. Here is what it is about:

“Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code, however Wine can optionally use native Windows DLLs if they are available. Wine provides both a development toolkit for porting Windows source code to Unix as well as a program loader, allowing many unmodified Windows programs to run on x86-based Unixes, including Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and Solaris.”

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What Is The Best Technology You Have Discovered in 2007?

By Damien Oh | December 12, 2007 |

Year 2007 is coming to an end and it is time to do a wrap-up on the interesting things that happened this year. Rather than me babbling about it (which is going to be boring), I’m going to take a different, more interactive and fun approach.

I want you to tell me what is the best technology that you have discovered in 2007.

I am sure all of you have benefited from some of the wonderful technology in 2007. Now it is time for you to show your appreciation. Blog about the best technology that you have discovered in year 2007.

It is very easy, here is how it works:

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Schedule And Automate Tasks in Ubuntu

By Damien Oh | December 11, 2007 |

Doing the same thing over and over again is a boring chore. Windows and Mac understand that, that why they have the automation program built into their OS. Windows XP & Vista have a task scheduler that allow you to create and automate simple task. Unknown to many, Mac OS X iCal alarm function can also be used to schedule and automate task.

In Ubuntu (or basically Linux), task automation used to involve writing shell scripts and setting cron job, and this is not an easy thing for a new user to do. Luckily, there is the Gnome-schedule that come with a simple graphical interface and makes task scheduling a breeze.

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Best 101 Free Computer Software For Your Daily Use

By Damien Oh | December 10, 2007 |

Good things in life do not necessarily cost you a bomb. Below I have compiled a list of the top ~~100~~ 101 free computer software you can make use of.

Enjoy!

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Backing Up Data In Ubuntu Using sBackup

By Damien Oh | December 8, 2007 |

sbackup cdr Be it Windows, Mac or Linux, it is always a wise choice to backup your data. You never know when your hardware is going to fail and when that happens, you know that all your data is safe and there is a backup copy for you to fall back on.

In Ubuntu, it is surprisingly easy to backup your data. Gone are the days that require you to remember all the text line commands to type in the command prompt. With sBackup, you can easily backup your data with few clicks of your mouse. let me show you how.

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Top 10 Windows Vista Tips and Tricks To Increase Your Gaming Performance

By Damien Oh | December 6, 2007 |

Windows Vista Logo Although Windows Vista is a great operating system with tons of great features and application, when it comes to gaming, its performance is still lagging behind Windows XP. One of the reasons is that most of the current games are not designed for Windows Vista which utilizes the new DirectX 10 technology. Another reason is that Windows Vista has a lot of activities running in the background that interferes with the gaming resources.

Below I have compiled 10 useful Windows Vista tips and tricks to help you improve your gaming performance.

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Ubuntu HowTo: Open .docx File In OpenOffice

By Damien Oh | December 5, 2007 |

If you have received a .docx file from your friends, most likely that you are not able to view it in Ubuntu’s Open Office. To fix this, you need to install the odf-converter.

First, go to ~~http://download.novell.com/SummaryFree.jsp?buildid=ESrjfdE4U58~~ http://download.novell.com/Download?buildid=GuM6LMM9SR4 and download odf-converter-1.0.0-5.i586.rpm. It is about 3 MB.

The odf-converter file is in rpm format, which is used by RedHat Linux. To use this file, we need to convert it to tgz format. The application we are using to convert this file is alien

In your terminal,

sudo apt-get install alien

After downloading, start the conversion

sudo alien –to-tgz –script /dir/odf-converter-1.0.0-5.i586.rpm

where “dir” is the directory you saved the file.

Now, extract the file to a folder

tar xzf /dir/odf-converter-1.0.0.tgz

After extraction, copy the following files to the OpenOffice folder

sudo cp /dir/odf/usr/lib/ooo-2.0/program/OdfConverter /usr/lib/openoffice/program/

sudo cp /dir/odf/usr/lib/ooo-2.0/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Filter/MOOXFilter_cpp.xcu /usr/lib/openoffice/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Filter

sudo cp /dir/odf/usr/lib/ooo-2.0/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Types/MOOXTypeDetection.xcu /usr/lib/openoffice/share/registry/modules/org/openoffice/TypeDetection/Types

That’s it. Open your OpenOffice and enjoy the .docx document.

A Fool Proof Way To Remember Thousands Of Passwords Effortlessly

By Damien Oh | December 4, 2007 |

password key One of the most common headache that people are facing is to remember the dozens of passwords associated with every site. What most people do to simplify the matter is to use one single password for all their acounts. To make thing even simpler, an easy to remember word is used as the password. It is not surprising to see that ‘password’ tops the list for the 10 most common passwords. Some of them trying to be smart, put a 1 behind the ‘password’ (which means ‘password1′) and pray that the hackers are not as smart as them to come up with such an ‘ingenious’ idea.

The problem with using the same password is that once someone finds out your password, all your accounts become instantly accessible by third party. If someone cracks into your Amazon.com or Paypal account that contains your credit card information, the result is going to be devastating.

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