Whether you just have important business files or are a paranoid psycho, TrueCrypt is free software that you can use to keep your files safe. TrueCrypt is free, open source disk encryption software for Windows.

You can use it to encrypt parts of your hard drive, flash drives, whole hard drives, and even your entire operating system. Encryption is done automatically, on the fly, and transparently so that you don’t have to worry about important data being stolen. TrueCrypt has a few different algorithms to choose from, and you can even combine them for ultimate encryption protection.

Use TrueCrypt if you just want to ensure your customer data is secure while you aren’t at the office, to keep the government from looking at those super secret world domination plans, or to keep the aliens from finding out where you live. It’s free and easy to use, and also available for Mac OSX and Linux.

Ah Vista. What a horrible, horrible operating system. I tried Vista in the beta testing. I tried Vista on many computers that I built, and I even tried it for myself on my laptop. I absolutely hate Windows Vista. It saddens me that we will be unable to buy Windows XP in the near future. The next version of Windows can’t get here sooner.

Here’s a great article outlining the 11 major failures of Windows Vista.

• Market confusion
• Code size
• Missing Components
• Laptop battery-life drain
• HHD Fiasco
• Bogus Vista-capable stickers
• Missing Drivers
• Conflicting Advice
• XP Mania
• Mediocre rollout
• Performance

I’m reloading my desktop computer again. It has been acting weird lately and it’s been probably over a year since I last reloaded Windows on it, so it’s due for it. Unfortunately this computer has Windows XP Media Center Edition. It’s not as bad as Vista, but it is annoying. I wish I had another copy of XP Pro, but I’ve run out since I used the last one on my laptop.

Speaking of my laptop, my life has been so much better since I dumped Vista on my laptop and went to XP Pro. It’s just so much better, runs smoother, all the programs work, everything is awesome. Except of course for the fact that HP laptops suck, and my S-Video out does not work in XP. Ubuntu also messed up the other day and I haven’t bothered trying to fix it.

Anyways, I just finished loading XP, now I am loading all of my drivers and some programs. It’s nice to start fresh so I don’t have all the programs I had on there before. I think I backed everything up, but I am not sure. I know all of the really important stuff is backed up, but it’s fun to find out what I deleted when I formatted.