EFI BIOS : A Pleasant Surprise

DEL DEL DEL.
I've nonchalantly pressed the key several times now, waiting for the screen to get filled up with simplified colors of mostly blue and white. The glorified BIOS is coming, i thought.
Then boom!

To my surprise a GUI, complete with mouse, graphics and tabs appears in front of me. I was struggling with a moment of confusion as i don't remember installing this OS or app during the course of my 'primordial' task of setting up a new PC at this new office.

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How To: Create backups (ISO drive images) of a Disc

Disclaimer: You already know about software piracy so i won’t iterate the details. This post is not intended to condone it. It’s best that you just create backups of what you already own.
And by the way, this is more of a ‘Why’ than a ‘HowTo’ since the tutorial is too simple. Hehe

 

Drive images, specifically ISO files – is one of the reasons why my external storage devices are starting to stack up on my desk. These are the (virtual) software copies of a drive – usually a CD or DVD. Every important CD/DVD that i have, has a virtual copy. I started with the driver disks for my motherboard and video card. Then, with the installers for my major applications. They are backups I made because the physical disks are just so easily scratched and damaged over time.

 

Why You Need to Make Disc Images?

To avoid hair-pulling frustration over a slightly scratched DVD that just won’t continue loading because the damage was enough to cause a ‘redundant cyclic error’ or some other obscure problem – I simply create backups of every important disc I have: from driver discs, installers, games and sometimes even video discs. Their ISOs can easily be loaded as a virtual drive – appearing as if physical drives on a PC.

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Internet Scare: Common Website Vulnerabilities

We’ve heard news about someone hacking google or facebook. We’ve heard about accounts being stolen or sabotaged. We’ve probably even seen a few movies about it! However, unless you’ve experienced or know a friend who have experienced it, you probably won’t realize how real and how much it could happen to you.

You’re probably aware of scams and phishing issues particularly if you do a lot of online shopping, but there are a lot graver threats out there that could harm both your online and offline life – and they could happen when you feel your most secure.

Recently, i’ve had a chance to learn (and develop) about these security threats, and i have become ‘aware’ of some of them. Triggered by the Halloween spirit, i’ve decided to put up a post regarding the scary things that people should really be aware of when doing things online. This is a sort of a sloppy-joe of info that could be useful for people from the technically-challenged to the technically savvy (if your a geek, then you probably already know this). I’ll also try to simplify the explanations as there are other more detailed resources out there that could present you with more ‘advanced’ info (check out the Resources sections).

I do not mean to scare people from using the internet. Well, i actually do! It’s Halloween!

Besides, we all should be a little more careful, especially these days, when technology can go so out of control.

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