Let’s begin with setting up Email encryption. Here’s what you need:

1. Mozilla Thunderbird, a light-weight but powerful alternative to Microsoft Outlook. By the makers of the Firefox web browser. You may also choose to use Outlook, but there seems to be a few hiccups between GnuPG4Win and the 2007 edition.
2. GNU Privacy Guard for Windows, a collection of open-source graphical encryption tools (including a shell extension) for the MS Windows operating system that act as a front-end to the daunting OpenPGP command line utilities.
3. Enigmail, a security plug-in for Thunderbird that allows effortless OpenPGP encryption

During the GnuPG4Win installation, you will be asked if you want to download and install extra components: I would recommend that you leave each checkbox checked to utilize the whole suite of tools. Once the installation is completed, you need to create a public and private key that will be used to encrypt your data: the public key is the key that you share with other, and the private key lets you decrypt messages encrypted with your public key (your contacts must use your public key to encrypt a message addressed to you, but they cannot decrypt it with the same key). To create your key, launch WinPT.exe and double-click on its system tray icon:

Figure 1: The Key Manager Window

On your first launch, you won’t see any keys listed, so launch the creation wizard (don’t forget to upload your public key to one of the public servers if you want your friends to be able to search for your key:

Figure 2: Creating Your Encryption Key

The wizard will ask you for your name, email address, and a strong password which it will use to create a strong 2-part PGP key containing your public and private key.

Figure 3: Uploading Your Key to the Public Server

Once you have a key to work with, go ahead and install Thunderbird and the Enigmail plug-in, and try out your new encryption system! Encrypting a message you are composing is as simple as clicking on the toolbar button. Here’s a few distinctive features that make Engmail pain-free and easy to use:

1. Automatic decryption – If an email is encrypted, Enigmail will ask you for the decryption password and retain it for 5 minutes.
2. Automatic Encryption upon Reply – Do you frequently tap out short emails back and forth with your colleagues that more closely resembles a chat? Don’t worry – Enigmail will automatically encrypt your replies if you respond to an incoming message that was encrypted.

Figure 4: Composing and Encrypting a Message

That’s all there is to it! More on TrueCrypt coming soon…

The reality most likely is, however, that these companies are realizing that successful open-source software can be a lucrative endeavor. Not only does it enhance your company’s public image, who are now seen as community-friendly, harmless companies striving for the betterment of mankind, but free software can also (through some skillful marketing tactics) mean increased revenue. Take Google or Mozilla Firefox, for example. While very few will be successful in actually getting filthy rich off free software, more and more companies are realizing that it won’t hurt, either.

In fact, aside from the cost benefits, think of the strategy of allowing students — up-and-coming software developers, IT professionals, engineers, and scientists — to use top-of-the-line commercial software (and face it, we students will certainly grab free software while it’s up for the taking, even if it’s just for the thrill and attraction of getting something worth “thousands” for free). But it is dependence that these companies are counting on, and it is dependence that we must be concerned about. The “average” college student, presented with these tools, taught in the classroom using these tools, and eventually inducted into the workplace using the same tools, will certainly develop a dependence on the software unless he or she makes a concerted effort to experience, use, and support truly open-source alternatives.

I admit, I love using free software. As much as I advocate Linux, it is still reserved to a partition on my laptop’s hard drive that isn’t booted much these days. I find myself using Windows 90% of the time because of the efficiency that proprietary tools like Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Office, Camtasia Studio, Flex Builder, Visual Studio, and others provide. Most of these tools I use on a near-daily basis both for school and personal purposes. Sure, there are… alternatives; some good, some not-so-good, and I could switch completely to Linux if I had to, but I would miss out on great programs like OneNote 2007 (unless WINE becomes capable of emulating it) that I use daily for school. And free screencasting/video editing tools are improving but not nearly as efficient as their proprietary counterparts. But if open-source software remains in the limelight for some time to come, then its quality will certainly be enhanced.

The bottom line? I for one am grateful for the opportunity to use free, professional-grade tools at no cost, and am excited for the future of open-source and how it is encouraging competition in the commercial marketplace. But I think we need to be careful not to become too accustomed to the software to the point where it would be difficult or too much work to switch to and learn something else (like how I probably shouldn’t have tried OneNote at all in the first place!), and I remain cautiously optimistic about whether these corporations have the right motivations for releasing their products for free.

The Ultimate Steal: Office 2007 for $59.99
Microsoft DreamSpark
Adobe Flex Builder 3

I am pretty much the jack-of-all trades when I am at the farm; my range of “services” includes feeding, running equipment, maintaining equipment, cleaning equipment, manure management, calf feeding… basically anything except milking the actual cows, of course! These names sound distinctive, but in reality, they tend to be very dirty, mundane tasks that I certainly do not look forward to at the end of the week. I really can’t say I know anyone who actually desires to come home smelling and looking bedraggled, as if he had been dragged through the… er, mud.

Yet for all this, as much as I often wish I worked someplace elegant, someplace related to my desired career, I find myself strangely attracted to the Dairy farm by necessity in more than just the normal sense. As much as I run from it, am constantly on the lookout for a computer-related job, internships, etc., I have come to realize that perhaps – just maybe – my success in school is linked to the hard work that I do outside of it.

So why is this so? I believe any college student would admit that despite the fun and partying that college is sometimes associated with, at the end of the week, it’s all about hard work and study. By the end of the week, my eyes are tired from the glow of my LCD panel as I spend most of the week in front of it, drafting yet another paper; by Friday, the glare of textbooks, notebooks, and white-boards are burned into my mind. My brain is filled to the max, and finally the weekend comes. I truly have a love-hate relationship with weekends: I know the work is coming, but at least my brain will have a rest!

I can’t say I really do enjoy the weekends. But after a particularly lengthy day at work, I come home exhausted physically… and much more ready to buckle down to another week of study. I leave my frustration behind when I visit the time clock at the end of the day. I have had all day to sort out the week’s events that happen in a whirlwind. You see, as much as I don’t like the dirty physical work, my attention span and mental capacity just doesn’t seem to work without it. And now that I am pursuing a career that would likely not require physical labor, I find myself wondering if I would be as happy and successful as I think I would. As much as I hate to admit it, I am realizing that I owe my humble day job for more than just the funds in my bank account: to the Dairy I owe my undivided attention in math class at 8:30AM on Monday mornings, and in the unending hours of Political Science, perhaps my sanity as well.

How about you? Do you hate physical labor as I do, but find it one of the best outlets for a cluttered mind?

I have spent a few years experimenting with many different Linux distributions looking for one that is fast, stable, intuitive, up-to-date, and simple enough for my technologically-deficient friends and family members to use. And I admit that I still have not found that perfect, user-friendly Linux distribution yet.

After trying many popular “distro’s” (and others more obscure) such as Red Hat/Fedora, OpenSuse, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Mint, Gentoo, and countless live versions that now serve as coasters, and encountering the many differing and similar, all very frustrating, drawbacks and bugs in all of them, I began to wonder if I would ever come across a version that fit my expectations. Nothing I saw impressed me, and If it didn’t work properly (as all Operating Systems do every now and then), I was often at a loss as to how to solve the problem, even with my fair knowledge of the Linux OS.

It was today that I finally saw light at the end of the tunnel, in the form of a Linux distro called Arch Linux. While Arch has not and will definitely not solve all of my problems (I would say that OpenSuse is still my top pick for new users), it very ingeniously solved one of them: It will surely teach you how your Linux system works, if you can handle it. In fact, it would not be an understatement to say that Arch is the most difficult to install of all that I have experimented with — but that is truly the beauty of it.

It works by forcing you to install and configure your own system step-by-step, teaching you all about how Linux configuration files and package management works in the meanwhile. You end up with a screaming fast, highly optimized, custom-built Linux edition that you know inside and out. (Don’t worry, you don’t actually have to compile source packages and sort through dependencies; the excellent package manager (pacman) makes short work of that process.) All you need for this adventure is a good amount of time to spare, the 41-page beginner’s guide (a step-by-step instruction manual for building your own Linux system–you’re going to want to print this), and a copy of the starter (core) .ISO available from http://www.archlinux.org/download/. Burn it to a CD, restart your computer, and you’re off.

You will need a working, high-speed Internet connection to install Arch Linux, because the installation CD provides only a minimal base environment for you to work from as you install it. It took some doing, but I was eventually able to use my Windows wireless card for this, even out of a primitive text-based shell, because ndiswrapper is one of the few core packages included.

Besides the educational benefits, here are a few other reasons that Arch Linux may be worth looking into:

• Arch is highly optimized and extremely fast (based on Slackware)

Correction: Arch is actually “inspired by”, but independent of, Crux. Thanks to vEX and Raul specifically for pointing this out, and to Misfit 138 for technical clarification.

• Arch is highly customizable, to say the least! You build it just the way you want it
• Arch comes with an extremely handy package manager, pacman, that makes installing and updating Linux software fast and easy (which is a miracle by itself)
• Arch is a rolling release distribution, which means that software is easy to update and that you always have the latest without needing to upgrade your system

Unfortunately, this is not something that I would recommend to beginning Linux users; it takes courage to take on a project like this. But I can assure you that it’s worth it. I’ve been using Linux for a few years and I learned a lot from this clever project in just a few hours. While Linux may never be as “user-friendly” as Windows or a Mac, if we appreciate it for what it is it is certain to be useful and is more than capable of replacing its more popular competitors. So if you have been disappointed with the latest major Linux distributions the last few years, I encourage you to roll up your sleeves and give Arch a try.

http://www.archlinux.org

If developing rich internet applications sounds like an attractive feature that would look nice on your website, but you can’t afford Flash Professional (that retails for $699), perhaps it’s worth taking a look at an Open-Source alternative called Laszlo. Similar to Flash, Laszlo produces .swf files that nearly any browser can view, from a scripting language. Below is a screenshot of the Calendar Demo produced using Laszlo*:

Screen clipping taken: 12/30/2007, 4:28 PM

One intuitive demo, the OpenLaszlo Explorer, teaches the basics of Laszlo’s Scripting language visually, step by step. From displaying a simple, “Hello World” to advanced features such as animation, data basing, methods & events, drag and drop, etc. This can also be used for writing and testing simple code of your own, since I soon found out that compiling an application is a little more involved.

Screen clipping taken: 12/30/2007, 4:34 PM

One might be surprised at first after downloading the hefty 32.7 MB file from Laszlo’s homepage to find that it is simply a server that runs on Tomcat, and that (unlike its commercial counterpart) there is no fancy IDE. Although I was a little disheartened at first, after a little Googling, I found a plug-in for the Eclipse IDE that allows drag-and-drop visual development called Spket IDE. So far I’ve found it satisfactory for designing the .lzx files that Laszlo uses.

These files with the .LZX extension are simply special XML files that, somewhat like java source code, is interpreted by the server and displayed at runtime. In order to “run” the files, the Laszlo server must be started in the background.

The “URL method” of compiling your file is to point your web-browser to http://127.0.0.1/8080/lps-4.0.7/my-apps/myapp.lzx (replace “4.0.7″ with the version you are using, and “myapp” with the filename of your source file), but this requires you to copy and paste the source file into a subdirectory of /lps-4.0.7 in order to launch it from your web browser. A much easier way to 1) launch the server, and then 2) copy your source code into the corresponding “edit code” box in OpenLaszlo Explorer.

Click here to open the tutorial in your web browser.

For the simple little snippets of code that you will produce trying Laszlo, this should be sufficient. Unfortunately, it is going to take some digging around in the extensive documentation and experimenting with Eclipse to come up with a comfortable way to code, compile, and execute/debug the applications. I’ll post more on that as I experiment in-depth.

I am always excited when an Open-Source alternative for an expensive commercial application is developed, but I very, very, excited about Laszlo’s potential as a useful tool in modern web development.

Laszlo’s Homepage: http://www.openlaszlo.org

As a last note, if you are curious (or Laszlo’s features are not enough to meet your needs), you can watch a video of Flash’s features here: http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/ssi/iframe/feature_tour.html

*Many more impressive demos can be viewed at:
http://www.openlaszlo.org/demos