How to setup a Wiki in 5 seconds

Yes, it just takes 5 seconds to the following site, download the file and open it with your favorite browser, and then you will have your own wiki. The syntax is not complex but I have to admit that its function is not very cool. Nevertheless, it is good enough, especially you put it in a usb trumb drive and have a 'portable wiki'

Of course, if you are building a large wiki, some other power wikis such as MoinMoin and TWiki should be consider. Personally I like MoinMoin as its syntax is easy but powerful.

Ref: http://stickwiki.sourceforge.net/

AOL Active Virus Shield Save Me!

I used to think I am a 'careful' person. I don't install untrusted software, make my Windows as 'clean' as possible. However, my notebook still got infected.

Actually I have installed the F-Secure anti virus, but obviously that it failed to scan the virus. As a result, it always prompted out a "service.exe error 1073740972" and ask to restart in 60 seconds. I am so frustrated!. While I search the web for solution, a page mentions that try to use AOL Active Virus in safe mode. Okay, so I did have a try...

AOL Active Virus Shield use Kaspersky engine. It is totally free, and the most important thing is that it does help me. After a full scan, I found that my notebook was infected with 1 virus and 2 trojans(how come the F-Secure doesn't help?!). It was PECompact, Trojan.Win32.Dialer.qn and Trojan-Proxy.Win32.Agent.mx. I deleted the files without hesitation. Now my notebook runs smoothly and no more services.exe error comes out. Thanks AOL Anti Virus Shield!!

Finally, just let you know that apart from AOL Anti Virus Shield, there are still free anti virus software, such as AVG and ClamAV (Windows version). Just put the name and you should find the things.

Dealing with PDF with pdftk

pdftk is a tool that can help you to manipulate PDF files even though you don't have Acrobat installed. The most common usage is to merge/split PDF files.

General syntax:

pdftk <input PDF files> cat [ <input PDF pages> ] output <output PDF filename>


Example

• Extract page 1-3 from in1.pdf and save as out.pdf
  pdfhk A=in1.pdf cat A1-3 output out.pdf
• Extract page 1-3 from in1.pdf, page 4-6 from in2.pdf, merge it and save as out.pdf
  pdfhk A=in1.pdf B=in2.pdf cat A1-3 B4-6 output out.pdf
• Extract page1 from in2.pdf, and every even pages (2,4,6...) of in1.pdf, merge it and save as out.pdf
  pdftk A=in1.pdf B=in2.pdf cat B1 A1-endeven output out.pdf

Actually pdftk can also rotate, encrypt/decrypt and do more. Details usage can refer the link below.

Ref: http://www.pdfhacks.com/pdftk/

Portable Apps

I don't like the Windows. One of the reason is that the registry goes wrong after installation some applications. In fact, registry is not a great design. When you install software in Windows, there is no guarantees that you can 'completely' uninstall it afterwards. From my experience, something must be left in registry and it will be forever until you reinstall the Windows later.
So anything can help? Sure, and the answer is so called 'Portable Application'.

From my understanding, Portable Application is orginally designed for storing application in USB flash drives, with configuations file store in files instead of registry. Therefore, the applications do not depend on the Windows registry and can be installed anywhere.

One successful example is the PortableApps.com, it releases dozens of free application which can be installed in a USB, or any directory of the hardisk (including USB/IEEE1394 external hardisk, of course). Another advantage of using portable apps is that we do not need the administrator rights to install those applications. For example, I do not have administrator account to the PC in my company, and Internet Explorer is the only browser installed. Too bad right? But now I can download Portable Firefox, and click the exe file, then I can use Firefox without installing to the system.

Apart from Portable Firefox, there are also other applications which are useful. There are IM, Email client, Media Player and even WebServer! Please refer to the reference below and I am sure you will find some good applications for you.

Ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portable_software
http://portableapps.com/