Ever wanted to Run Linux along side with your Windows installation but were scared to dual boot your system? Ever wanted to run another operating system but partitioning your drive was just a tad to scary? VMWare Player and VMWare server is just right for you, plus they are both free!

3–5 Main Points
- VMWare Player (http://www.vmware.com/products/player/) is a desktop client for pre-made virtual appliances (These are pre made os’s that are already in a VMWare format). If you have ever wanted to try a new Linux distribution before committing to it, downloading the appliance for that distro and running it in the player is probably the easiest thing you can do.

- VMWare Server (http://www.vmware.com/products/server/) takes it to the next level. With the Server application you can have multiple operating systems running in the background while you are working. You can also download from VMWare’s extensive library of virtual appliances other pre made systems like Web Proxy’s to ensure safe surfing for your kids or Email spam and virus protection. It truly is endless.

- Both VMWare Player and VMWare server are free and run on Windows and Linux.

5 key steps to technology freedom

Step 1: You are not alone. This is not a problem unique to you or new to the world. (Adam Smith quote above from The Wealth of Nations, 1759)

Step 2: Call a summit with your devices. Gather the suspects and assess the sitation.

Step 3: Cluster your devices. Organize them by proximity to how you use them.

Step 4: How do you do what you do? What are the things you use these devices to do? List the things you do that use these tools.

Step 5: Cut the fat and only buy team players. Get rid of devices that add extra steps unless they offer great value. Cut off technologies that don't do what you want them to do.

Takeaway tips for viewers to plan their own technical freedom:
Feed your habits. Our habits are very hard to change. Ask anyone who's tried to lose those last 10 pounds. So don't change habits, make your technology fit your habits. Assess your life and where your technology is used and where it fails you. If you talk on your cell while driving, get something to help you go hands free.
Data is the highest value. Forget about the devices and start thinking about their data and purpose. The hardware is cheap and getting cheaper all the time. It's your data that's most valuable. Collect it, organize it and preserve it. Make sure you back it up. Imagine what would happen if you lost it. Vacation photos gone. Tax records lost. Email archives kaput.
Parts fit your system. Start to think about your technologies as part of an overall system, instead of as discreet devices. Make sure they work together
Technologies are what they do. Focus on what you'll use them for, not on what they have the capability to do. Decide on what you need based on how you'll use it. Cell phones are talking devices, not cameras or audio players. TVs are video monitors, not computer monitors. MP3 players are storage and playback devices, not audio recorders.
Devices are what you do with them. Counterpoint to the last point: use your devices how you want to. They have greater capabilities all the time, so if those new, non-traditional capabilities work for you, awesome!
Standards, standards, standards! In order for your devices to work together they have to get out of their own self-centered world view and embrace industry standards. I don't recommend Sony products because they have to work with Memory Sticks. Make sure your camera uses a standard file format and transfer cord. How about your cell phone charger? Interchangeable? Open beats closed. As much as you can, avoid getting locked into proprietary, closed systems.
Recycle your technology. Get in touch with you local recycling depot and ask where to take your old or unwanted devices. In Vancouver, we recommend Recycling Alternative (http://www.recyclingalternative.com/).

IQAir Health Pro Compact
www.iqair.com
$689
For people with allergies, there are a lot of things that can present a problem on a day-to-day basis, including pollution, pets allergens, pollen, and a lot of other small airborne particles. Thankfully there are a number of air purification devices available that make it easy to clean the air in a confined space — and a growing number of them are portable products that don’t cost a zillion dollars to install. The IQAir Health Pro Compact is a smaller design that is a scaled down version of IQAir’s more heavy-duty models, with wheels that allow it to be moved from room to room as necessary. The killer feature here is a menu system that allows you to set automatic start and stop times, and to choose which days of the week. So for example, if you want the unit to kick in automatically during the weekdays just before you go to bed (to clean the room for a more comfortable sleep for example) you can do that — or if you choose to clean the room out after you wake up, you can set it do it automatically on the days you go to work…but not the days you want to sleep in…and you can even set the speed of the fan at the beginning and end of the timer period. Despite the word “compact” in the name it’s still a reasonably large piece of equipment, so it may be semi-imposing in small rooms. One real downside here is that this smaller unit doesn’t have an odor filter built in — that’s a feature that’s found in some of the higher-end models. But it does definitely clear the air of the small floating particles.

IQAir ParticleScan LITE
www.particlescan.com
$1,895
You’re probably not going to buy one of these for checking out the air quality in your house — at nearly $1,900 it’s a give that it’s not a casual purchase. But for anyone who has to keep an eye on air quality (builders, inspectors, etc), this makes for a fairly easy handheld solution: simply hold it up and it will measure the number of airborne particles per cubic foot, measured using laser scanning.

Austin Medical Research Dyna-Pulse 50
www.austinmedicalresearch.com
$499
You may have heard of the use of magnets to cure a number of various medical ills —the theory is that properly-located magnets can realign your energy and fix up problems. Witness things like the magnetic bracelet, for one. But it’s a bit tricky to just go using magnets without proper supervision because you can potentially cause problems with your system if they’re applied improperly. Austin Medical Research has been doing a lot of research into magnetic as a method of therapy, and has a line of products that are designed to ease pain symptoms, and to aid in sleep. The Dyna-Pulse 50 is an entry-level model with a basic control module and an emitter pad — just place the pad on an area with pain and then set the control module to the “pain” setting. If you need sleep, just lay on the emitter pad and make sure the control module is set to “sleep”. There’s no off-switch on this particular model, so you’ll want to exercise caution…you don’t want to fall asleep on the emitter pad if it’s set to emit “pain” therapy…partly because it might cause unwanted side effects, and partly because it tends to heat up. The big question here is: does it really work? Producer Matt Harris didn’t notice a huge effect from the pain setting apart from it heating up (which helped a bit in and of itself), but my wife found that it worked really well…but the sleep setting didn’t work quite so well. So in the end the actual therapeutic value may vary from person to person…be sure what you’re getting into before you shell out money….it’s not cheap.

Powrnaps NAP20 Personal MP3 Player
www.powrnaps.com
$40
During regular sleep, the brain goes through a series of cycles where different brainwaves predominate…and those brainwaves can actually be controlled by listening to certain audible frequencies. Recently, a few products have come out that take advantage of this phenomenon, including our fave Pzizz, and now there’s a new personal sleep-guiding product: Powrnaps. This $40 gadget is essentially a single-function MP3 player that’s preloaded with the audio required to give you several hours worth of sleep in a 20 minute burst; like many audiobooks, it’s packaged in a single-purpose package that can’t be used for anything else (unless you hack it of course). Those who already carry an MP3 player around may want to get the audio CD version of this instead, and simply load it onto their own player.

Bliss Lights Blisslight-15
www.blisslights.com
$995
Bliss Lights has a small handful of laser-equipped gadgets with a reasonably simple concept: they project a field of tiny moving lights onto whatever you point the Blisslight at, whether it’s a ceiling, wall or floor. If you project onto a ceiling, you can imagine that it’s the stars (green stars, but still…), and you’ll even be rewarded by occasional shooting stars. Is it truly health-related? Well, sure…for people who are stuck in cities and who can never see the stars, it might do wonders for their mental health.

Nozin Nasal Sanitizer
www.nozin.com
$10
Perhaps this is a very low-tech gadget, but a gadget it is nonetheless - the Nozin Nasal Sanitizer is a swab designed to … you guessed it, sanitize the inside of your nose. The Travel Pack comes with ten pre-filled swabs — just break the separator in the middle and let the sanitizing liquid hit the swab portion…and then stick it up your nose. But do us all a favour and avoid doing it in a public place!