Cloning hard disks was previously very popular in the corporate environment as a means of ensuring all the PC's were built with the same operating system and applications, as well as standardised configuration settings etc. - this brought it's own set of problems if you didn't sort out the SID properly by using SysPrep or third-party tool to reset (see this post from Microsoft regarding their policy on the matter http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314828) - and of course, the go-to tool for cloning was Ghost.

For the home environment Ghost was perhaps not really viable due to the license costs, especially for infrequent use - let's face it, generally the only time home users are cloning hard disks is either to upgrade their disk or to help out someone else doing the same thing (this is usually where I come in...)

So, what can you use today to do this job, that is both cheap and reliable?

Simple -  CloneZilla

It's a Linux based boot CD/USB stick that allows you to boot the PC into CloneZilla's own environment where you can carry out the duplication of either whole disk or partitions as necessary.

And best of all, it's free to use!

You can download your copy here

If you want to design any sort of physical product, you generally want some form of technical drawing, backed up with accurate measurements etc.  For my own woodworking designs, I use Google SketchUp.

This is a free (paid-for version available) program that has a wide range of functions available and allows you to create almost any 3D object you wish, one function I really like is the ability to create a "walk-through" of the object/scene you create.

You can download Google SketchUp here

Here is a slideshow of some of the designs that others have created - Slideshow

There are also a bunch of training videos/materials here

There are many podcasts, covering almost every topic you could think of, so how can I listen to these on my iOS device? Personally, I like Downcast.

You can subscribe to many different podcasts and can do this easily through the interface as it provides a list of week known podcasts and categories, you can also add your own subscriptions from an RSS feed posted on the Internet. It works with both audio and video podcasts.

You can download Downcast here

In addition, here are some of the podcasts I find useful:
PCPro Podcast - possibly my favourite and is linked with the magazine of the same name (in UK)
Windows Weekly - excellent video podcast with Paul Thurrott and Mary-Jo Foley, shame about Leo though (he interrupts far too much with nonsensical comments and generally distracts from an otherwise great discussion of technology)
Sound on Sound - Music Technology podcast, linked with the magazine
The Wood Whisperer - Superb woodworking video podcast with practical instruction that really encourages you to go ahead and try these projects.
The WordPress Podcast - This is a newer one for me, but so far appears very useful talking about all things WordPress

In any remote support situation it is always far easier to be able to see and interact with the remote PC directly, this generally means a quicker fix and less frustration by both parties by not having to go through a guessing game of what is actually displaying on their screen at any one time.

With TeamViewer....

You can:

• See and interact with the remote PC
• Copy files to/from the remote PC
• Use a number of devices for remote support - iPhone, iPad, Android etc.

It's free for personal use.

Download it here

There is also a nice little video overview here

Reading full page PDFs is one of the plus points of the iPad - although reading a back-lit screen for long periods is not fun...... that's where GoodReader comes to the rescue.

You get a lot of control of viewing the PDF's - from screen brightness to even being able to read the docs in a "flat" text mode which is good for letting you change the font sizes etc for an easier, more comfortable reading experience.

One of the other main features I use all the time is GoodReader's ability to synchronise my PDFs and other files with SugarSync (we'll cover SugarSync in a separate post), this way I can access my files anywhere and also makes it easier for me to upload new PDFs I've downloaded on my PC.

Other features I like:

• Opening multiple PDFs in tabs
• Page skimming/skipping
• Annotations & Bookmarks

So, go ahead, download it here (it's not free, but well worth the cost IMO)

Simple - use LastPass

It saves your passwords as well as secure notes and you can access them from any PC or mobile device (once you have properly authenticated yourself of course!). 

This has certainly made my life much easier.

Download it here

It has many great features and stacks up very well against the big boys but at a fraction of the price (there is tiered pricing depending whether you make money out of music production or not - which is a great way to do things). 

I like the straight-forward interface, it's simple to add/edit midi as well as take in live audio feeds from real instruments or microphones - I also particularly like the VST interface and have made good use of this (more of that in a later post). 

The documentation is also easy to follow, and there are a number of sites hosting video tutorials if you prefer to "see" the information being presented.

You can get Reaper here

You can find tutorials here, here and here 

It outputs into either MS Word or OpenOffice (not sure if that automatically extends to LibreOffice), which is useful. It is a paid-for app, but well worth it if you need to create Chinese (with translation) docs.

You can get it here

Hence, as a very simple recommendation, I continue to mainly use Skype for voice and video calls.

Skype has been around for a long time and continues to be free for PC-to-PC calls ( and you can even get skype for mobile phones and smartphones like the iPhone or Android devices which continue the free theme) - although there are still benefits from the paid-for additions (calling phones abroad etc.), I find the free version still does everything I need for voice and video.

This is a great way for parents/grandparents to keep up-to-date with the goings-on of their children/grandchildren and adds that extra special something being able to both see and hear their excited expressions!

Go ahead, download it here and start communicating with family - whether near or far...

7zip works will all the major file compression types, including rar, tar and gz - the latter two of which is a plus if you're dealing with files from a Linux or Mac OS machine.

You can download it here