Temp files? What are they good for?
May 31, 2007
Temporary files – or temp files – as they are commonly referred to, are everywhere. When you add software to your computer, change a setting, browse a webpage and create a document, a temporary file is created. Some are beneficial, most are a nuisance and take up precious hard drive space. What’s more, cleaning them is not so easy because they often reside in many different folders. It can be quite a task locating them and deleting them. Some of them are can even be operating system required files. Delete one of these and you’ll quickly learn the hard way that temporary files cannot haphazardly deleted with a fell swoop of the delete key. For the most part, yes they can be, and if they are needed by the operating system, they won’t easily be deleted.
Some say that temporary files are the droppings of bad software; when a developer forgets to include the instructions to clean out the temporary files. When a program is installed, or requires large amounts of data, they will often create a temporary file. These usually end with file extensions such as tmp, or a leading ~ tilde in the filename. Internet explorer and Microsoft Office utilize capitalized alphanumeric folder names to store temporary data. If you are working on a word document, a temporary version is opened as well until you save it.
Not all temporary files are bad though, you may often find log files that signify the process of an installation or an update to a piece of software. One example may be installing Microsoft Office, and then reinstalling it to add or remove a component. Office leaves temporary files that are used to aid users in modifications, upgrades, un-installations and so on. Microsoft is not the only software designer to use temporary files and you will find temporary files in Linux as well. Just as dust mites grow and multiply, so do temp files! The million dollar question – how do you get rid of them? There are some computer data-swiffer’s and electric broom’s to clean up the data-mites. If you care to use the 3rd party route, then look here for some great cleanup utilities. If you are curious as to where to look for them, and what they look like, start off:
- Your local user profile (c:\documents and settings\(your username)\local settings\temp
- Same as above, but temporary internet files (easily cleaned by opening Internet Explorer, selecting Tools\Internet Options\Temporary Internet Files – delete
You may also locate more temp files in the following folders:
- C:\temp
- C:\windows\temp
- C:\windows\system32\temp
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Team Linux car crashes at Indy!
May 29, 2007
On Sunday, the Tux 500 sponsored Indy-car crashed on turn-1. Roberto Moreno was driving the Chastain Motorsports and Team Linux car, he was taken to the hospital for observation after complaining of back pain.
” As of this report, no less than 5 cars have french kissed the wall during the 91st running of the Indy 500.”
“For now though, let it be known. We, the Linux Community, did what we set out to do. We started to tell the world about Linux. Via this event, millions of people that have never heard of Linux now have. ”
All I have to say is that it was worth my 10 dollars! I would love to see more people running linux as their main operating system and this is only the first step!
[via Tux500]
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…and I’m Linux
April 24, 2007
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Windows and Ubuntu play nice (NTFS)
April 21, 2007
If you’re like me you have 5 computers. 1 running Vista, 2 running XP and 2 running Ubuntu (dual-boot with XP). Windows has by default used the NTFS for 2000, XP and Vista. You may have run into problems while trying to read & write on a NTFS mounted drive in Ubuntu. That’s normal because off the bat Ubuntu didn’t support NTFS. There were beta NTFS drivers but they weren’t a stable release. With the release of Feisty Fawn it’s quite easy to overcome this problem and access your windows partitions using stable NTFS drivers.
To do this you must:
- Enable the “universe repository”
- run this command (without the quotes) ” sudo apt-get install ntfs-config”
Enjoy,
Dr. J
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DMCA coming to Canada – Stop iT NOW!
April 16, 2007
Recent reports coming out of Ottawa are pointing to an upcoming DMCA law for Canadians. As if the US version isn’t bad enough. At least they had an excuse – They nothing to base or compare their implementation of DMCA. It is now almost 10 years old and has done nothing to improve the state of affairs for all involved. Piracy is still rampant, limitations on legitimate purchases, headaches for programmers and the general public.
Canada at least – has a US version to use for comparison and can draw the successes and failures from it, however they are not going to bother.
if YOU bother to take notice of those “you can make a difference” ads and campaigns, then you should get involved.
This effects us all (internet, music, movies, and even us bloggers!)
We need to call and write to our local politicians!
Thanks to Michael Geist for the scoop on this!
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Ubuntu – An Adventure to Benefit Everyone
April 10, 2007
An Adventure to Benefit Everyone
Last Updated April 3, 2007
I’ve been using Ubuntu full time for a little over two months now. There were minor stumbling blocks, but for the most part I’ve figured out how to do most everything I could already do on windows. Hell, I’ve even upgraded from Dapper to Edgy on two of my machines. That went off without a hitch. The latest (stable) wine release as of writing this (9.32) runs alot of games that it used to have troubles with. Minions of Mirth being one of them. Guild Wars works after following this helpful tutorial from Jarn over at ubuntuforums. Even better news: I’ve switched the family computer (one of them) over to Ubuntu as well. Bottom Line: At least TRY Ubuntu. Some might argue that it’s not truly “Linux”. However, it is extremely easy to understand, and, lets face it, not everyone wants a challenge right out of the starting block =).
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE (AND AFTER) INSTALLING UBUNTU
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Ubuntu 7.04 *Beta*
April 3, 2007
via Ubuntu News
Ubuntu has a new sibling to add something new, something old and something blue. I know that I am not the only one that is excited to see the release of this beta. For a long time I have wanted a Windows migration tool, better wireless support, and a easy way to add codecs for viewin/listening to multimedia. Not to mention better printer support. It was like trying to pull teeth when you wanted to print with Edgy. At least when you don’t have a well known and widely used printer.
Click the above link for all the details regarding this release.
The full release should be available sometime this month!
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