TechAirlines: Technology Tips

Tech Airlines was registered and launched on August 5, 2009 and grew much faster than we expected in the first few months.

We have published a total of 90 (Update 12/31: 98) articles in the past 5 months, which is a lot less than we had originally planned, and therefore, we are currently trying to publish at least one article daily in 2010.

Top Articles by Pageviews (Most Popular First)

VirtualBox 3.0.4 vs. VMware Workstation 6.5.3 – The free VirtualBox against the premium VMware Workstation.

VirtualBox is free software from Sun Microsystems while VMware Workstation costs $189 USD for a single user license. With one being free and the other being paid software, why am I comparing them? Wouldn’t VMware be better? Well not necessarily. VirtualBox comes on very strong.

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala Beta: First Looks – An overview of Ubuntu’s latest version when it was in Beta.

Ubuntu from Canonical Systems has a tradition of releasing a new version of the Ubuntu operating system (as well as official derivatives like Xubuntu and Kubuntu) every six months. Back in April, Ubuntu 9.04 was released. Its been almost 6 months and that means, Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) is about to be released. The beta was released on October 1, 2009 and this is a first looks at whats new in Ubuntu 9.10 Beta.

This article received a huge visit spike which is often called the “Digg Effect” on Oct. 3, 2009.

Facebook: Add a Dislike Button – An unofficial way to get one of the top requested features for Facebook

Facebook lets users comment as well as “Like” items on walls and newsfeed, however one of the top requested features is a “Dislike” button. There are several fan pages and groups trying to get “1,000,000 for A Dislike Button”.

For those of you who want a Dislike button, a relatively new Firefox extension known as Facebook Dislike will add a Dislike button to all applicable items.

AVG Free 9.0: Free Basic PC Security – Need free malware protection?

Many internet users lack security software on their computer, whether its a firewall, antivirus, antispyware, or all of them. Many security software like Symantec and Panda Security costs a subscription fee, however some users do not require a full featured security suite and just require bare security necessities. That’s when free alternatives come in. One of the most popular freeware security suite is AVG Free Anti-Virus. AVG has just released Version 9.0 recently introducing a few new features and a claim for faster performance and scans.

Portable Ubuntu Remix – Run Ubuntu directly in Windows with PUbuntu

Portable Ubuntu Remix is essentially a portable Ubuntu operating system that runs directly in windows. Download it here (the DOS release 4). The download size is around 450 mb, and when fully installed, it will be around 3.8 gb. Toss this to the side and return home if you don’t have enough disk space or don’t feel like trying this out because of its extremely (not) portable size.

Change Firefox’s Awesome Bar Search Engine – Don’t like Google as the default search engine when typing in a keyword into the location bar?

Well, Firefox uses a keyword search service, which by default, it performs a Google search which will take you to the top result for that keyword, although when you use unusual keywords, it will take you to the regular search results. Give it a try now. Type in lifehacker and hit Enter/Return and you will be taken to Lifehacker, since its the first result that comes up. Type in online and hit Enter/Return and you will be taken to Merriam Webster Online, since again its the first result that comes up.

Now if you don’t like Google, you can always change it. With Firefox, there’s an area where all your preferences are stored. Its like Firefox’s version of the Windows Registry.

Google Wave Invite Thanksgiving Giveaway – 7 lucky visitors received a Google Wave invite. Google seems to be inviting many users now and most users who wanted an invite should have received one from Google by now.

As I mentioned in an earlier post on getting Google Wave invites via Twitter, if I ever get any spare Google Wave invites, I would be holding a giveaway here. Well, the giveaway starts now, our Thanksgiving Giveaway. We have 6 spare Google Wave invites and we may have an additional one or two to give away.

Microsoft Security Essentials Graduates from Beta – Microsoft’s new free antimalware client

Released to beta last June to the first 75,000 users, Microsoft Security Essentials Codename “Morro” has graduated from beta stage and is now released as Version 1.0 earlier today. It replaces Microsoft’s security suite, Windows Live One Care, and is released as a free antivirus and antispyware solution with real time protection. There isn’t much of a difference between the beta and the final release.

A Brief History of Microsoft Windows – How long have you been using Windows?

Are you a PC? Microsoft Windows is the most popular operating system in the world with over 90% of the market share. How long have you been using Windows?With Windows 7 just released, its nice to look back at the long history of Microsoft Windows. This is a timeline of Microsoft Windows starting from Windows 1.0 in 1985 all the way to 2009 with Windows 7.

Sandboxie: Isolate Your Apps and Trust No Program – Run programs isolated in a sandbox environment

Are you worried about clicking unfamiliar website links? Do you want to test software without it doing anything permanent to your computer? A program called Sandboxie can help. What it does it is it runs programs in an isolated virtual environment where programs cannot write any permanent data to your actual hard drive. Files stored in the Sandbox folder stay in the Sandbox folder and cannot communicate with outside programs (although it can load settings from your hard disk). Therefore, you can freely install software or even malware into the sandbox.

We would like to thank the Abbey Rose for supporting us and actively spreading the word to help us in our initial take off.

Tech Airlines needs your help to continue to grow. If you would like to guest post here and get backlinks to your own site or blog, we are open to applications here. If you would like us to guest post on your blog, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

A big thank you to all our readers. We have even more to come in 2010!

Happy Holidays!