How to Create Bootable Windows 8 USB Drive from ISO Image

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We saw yesterday how you can install and test the latest Windows 8 build on your system as a virtual operating system using Oracle VirtualBox.
For those who haven’t heard, the consumer preview of Windows 8 is now available for everyone to test. It’s like what Microsoft did during Windows 7 launch. They first released a preview build for free to get feedback from the users before shipping the final version of the product. And the big news that the Windows 8 consumer preview has already crossed 1 million downloads.
After few hours of testing I was convinced that the build is stable enough, and I can take it to next level by installing it parallel to Windows 7 via dual boot. If you too are looking forward to install Windows 8 on your computer, I would prefer you create a bootable USB drive instead of a bootable DVD.

Note: This is a consumer preview of Windows 8 and not the final stable version. So keep in mind that you are always on your own if you mess up your computer while installing or using this Windows 8 build.

A USB drive is always faster than DVDs and the chances of failed or corrupt installation are very low as compared to optical media. So lets see how you can create the bootable USB of Windows 8 in the easiest way possible.

Necessary Prerequisites

• Download the ISO file of Windows 8 on your system.
• A minimum of 4 GB removable drive for 32-bit Windows and 8 GB for 64-bit Windows 8 operating system.
• Backup all the data (if any) from your removable drive. Better, backup important data on your PC too.

Creating the Windows 8 Bootable USB Drive

Step 1: Download and extract WinUSB Maker on your computer. WinUSB maker is a portable application and thus does not require installation of any kind. You only need to run the .exe file.
Step 2: Run the WinUSB Maker tool with administrative privileges to start creating your bootable USB drive. (right-click on the file, and click Run as Administrator)
Step 3: In the tool, select the option ISO image bootable disk under the Functions  section. Select Normal Detection Mode and browse for the Windows 8 bootable ISO (Image file) you have already downloaded on your system.

Step 4: Finally, select the USB drive and drive MBR system (if you have a single one plugged in, it will be selected by default, if you have more than one, click on the dropdown menu and make a selection from the list) and click on the button Make it Bootable .

That’s all, the tool will now format the USB drive and copy all the Windows installation files to it and make it bootable.

You can now plug in the device into your system and select removable drive as your first boot selection preference in your BIOS and install Windows 8.

My Verdict

Although there’s an official Microsoft tool to create bootable USB drive from an ISO image, WinUSB maker’s portable nature and ease of use drew my attention. Furthermore, WinUSB gives a bit of an extra control to the user than the official tool for the same.

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How to Download and Install Windows 8 on a New Partition

You want to try out Windows 8. Excellent! But you're not foolhardy enough to try using a developer preview build as your main work/play operating system--you just want to dabble. We'll show you how to download and install the Windows 8 developer's preview onto a separate partition (or separate hard drive, if you have a spare). If you don't feel like mucking your hard drive with another partition, read How to Download and Install Windows 8 to a Virtual Machine for a less-intrusive way to get Windows 8 up and running on your PC.
If you have a spare hard drive lying around, this process is pretty easy: Download the appropriate Windows 8 ISO from the Microsoft Developer Network site, burn it to a DVD, turn off your PC, slap the hard drive in your case, and connect it up to your motherboard. Then just turn your system on and either press the key that allows you to access your motherboard's boot menu or change the boot options in the BIOS so your optical drive is recognized before your main hard drive; you should then be booting off your new Windows 8 disk. From there, just fire up the Windows 8 installer and install the operating system to your new drive.
However, if you only have one hard drive in your system, you'll have to be a little bit more creative in order to install Windows 8 without nuking your existing Windows installation. Welcome to the world of drive partitioning: In layman's terms, partitioning takes a hard drive's total storage and splits it into separate chunks of data. Your operating system then treats these separate data partitions as separate storage volumes.
Assuming you're currently running Windows Vista or Windows 7, open Control Panel and open up the Administrative Tools screen. There, double-click on the Computer Management option. When that window appears, look for the "Disk Management" submenu under "Storage" on the left-hand sidebar. Click that.

You'll see your hard drive (and optical drive) on the screen: Your primary drive should already be split into a "System Reserved" volume and your primary C:\ volume.

Right-click on the C:\ volume and select the "Shrink Volume" option, and then reduce the size of your volume by at least 16 gigabytes for a 32-bit installation of Windows 8 or 20 gigabytes for a 64-bit installation.

You'll now see a new, monochromatic, "unallocated" hunk of storage appear next to your C:\ volume in the graphical display. Right-click on it, select the New Simple Volume option, and click on the Next button until you reach the screen for assigning letters and drive paths.

Feel free to assign your new volume whatever drive letter you most prefer. Click Next one more time and give your volume a witty name; now click Next (and then Finish) to quick-format the volume as an NTFS partition.

Next, burn the Windows 8 image to a disc using a freeware app like Imgburn or CDBurnerXP, then reboot your PC, access your BIOS setup menu (typically by pressing Delete or another specified key while booting up), and change the boot order so your PC will boot from your optical drive instead of your primary hard drive when you restart your computer. Once your PC boots from the Windows 8 DVD, just install Windows 8 to your new partition (identifiable by the drive letter and name you picked out).
And here's an extra tip: Once you've loaded up Windows 8 for the first time, you'll be able to edit Windows' boot settings to make Windows 7 boot by default instead of 8 (which happens after a short time delay if you don't select an operating system yourself).

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WHY WOULD ALIENS INVADE THE EARTH?

Why would aliens invade Earth? 

As far as we understand our planet we enjoy the benefits of habitable eco-systems, fresh water, and a means to produce foods.  These things would be the most likely reason for an alien invasion.   Assuming that we are not alone in this vast cosmos.


Taken to account that there are roughly 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy, the probability of life on other planets is a likely one.  Also the infinite numberof parallel universes, there the possibility of life on other planets is expanded quite a bit.  Extraterrestrials would have quite a bit of searching to do just to find our big blue ball in an infinite sea of possibilities, in this case.

The reasoning behind an invasion could stem from any number of things.  Their own planet could be in the grip of over population, that they have depleted their own native resources and drained the planet.  Over pollution is as well another possibility for their migrations.  If there were resources native to only a few planets, Earth included this would be another cause for invasion.

The existence of life within our own Solar System

Scientists have puzzled over whether or not life other than ours is existent in this corner of the neighborhood.  They look to other local planets and moons, such as Mars and the satellite of Jupiter, Europa. 

Mars, with its signs of flowing water in its past is the target of current research.  The two research vehicles, Opportunity and Spirit currently exploring Mars, have  confirmed the presence of liquid water in the planets history.  It is quite possible that it had harbored life at one time, and may currently have microscopic life today.

The moon Europa with its primordial oceans hidden beneath thick layers of ice could be the home to many water dwelling organisms.  It is widely taught that water is where life begins and evolves from, why not under the icy face of Europa.  With a surface that is estimated to be only 30 million years old, it is not likely that an E.T. invasion would begin here.

Intelligent Life

If in fact there is life on other planets, it does not necessarily mean that it has the mental facilities for higher motor and thought processes.  It took mankind at least 1 million years to evolve into what we are today, and we have not begun to scratch the dust on the surface of scientific exploration.  But who is to say that another form of life and civilization could not evolve into something far greater than we are now in less time.  

Today's technology is still prone to quite a bit of mishaps as we are still in the baby steps of exploring just our own Solar System up close.  Better propulsion systems and protective vehicles and suits will have to evolve in order to explore our closest neighbor besides our own Moon. 

Galactic Transportation

Our universe is theorized to be one thousand trillion trillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) meters, should our planet be found in the vastness of possibilities, how would we be reached from the depths of space?  Traveling at a year at the speed of light one would have gone ten trillion kilometers (10,000,000,000,000) one would have to possess superior technologies that could propel them at faster than light speeds, and/or through "wormholes".  A theoretical distortion of space-time in a region of the universe that would link one location or time with another, through a path that is shorter in distance or duration than would otherwise be expected.  If one were able to harness faster than light speeds, faster than 300,000 kilometers per second as well as travel through wormholes, then an invasion would be quite possible within a few years as opposed to a few million, billion, or trillion years. Physicists today are coming closer to the answer of this question although the technology is something out of our current reach.

Would we be able to protect ourselves?

Were astronomers able to see an incoming threat it would give us time to prepare, though at that point in time, we would not know if they were friendlies or hostiles.  Considering that astronomers have a difficult enough time tracking near earth objects the likelihood of them spotting a fleet would be small in percentage.

Given the technologies that these beings could possibly possess, or other transport options that we couldn't fathom, it is quite likely that they would possesses weapons that would remove us completely without endangering their new possible home.  In another case, they may even just kill off the excess and use the rest as slave labor.  Such fantasies as seen in the science fiction books and movies where humans won the day through whatever means would be exactly that, fiction.  An intelligent species would have taken the time to study this planets physiology and technology to learn what viruses and possible threats that were resident here and take precautions.

In the event of an unknown threat, we would have no hard information on how to defend ourselves against a threat such as this.  Being an unknown enemy is the best tactic that an enemy has.  We would either kill ourselves, and the planet with nuclear weapons in the remote chance that it would remove the threat, game over for everyone
  

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Lutetia: a Rare Survivor from the Birth of the Earth

New observations indicate that the asteroid Lutetia is a leftover fragment of the same original material that formed the Earth, Venus and Mercury. Astronomers have combined data from ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft, ESO’s New Technology Telescope, and NASA telescopes. They found that the properties of the asteroid closely match those of a rare kind of meteorites found on Earth and thought to have formed in the inner parts of the Solar System. Lutetia must, at some point, have moved out to its current location in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

A team of astronomers from French and North American universities have studied the unusual asteroid Lutetia in detail at a very wide range of wavelengths [1] to deduce its composition. Data from the OSIRIS camera on ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft [2], ESO’s New Technology Telescope (NTT) at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, and NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii and Spitzer Space Telescope were combined to create the most complete spectrum of an asteroid ever assembled [3].

This spectrum of Lutetia was then compared with that of meteorites found on Earth that have been extensively studied in the laboratory. Only one type of meteorite — enstatite chondrites— was found to have properties that matched Lutetia over the full range of colours.

Enstatite chondrites are known to be material that dates from the early Solar System. They are thought to have formed close to the young Sun and to have been a major building block in the formation of the rocky planets [4], in particular the Earth, Venus and Mercury [5]. Lutetia seems to have originated not in the main belt of asteroids, where it is now, but much closer to the Sun.

“But how did Lutetia escape from the inner Solar System and reach the main asteroid belt?” asks Pierre Vernazza (ESO), the lead author of the paper.

Astronomers have estimated that less than 2% of the bodies located in the region where Earth formed, ended up in the main asteroid belt. Most of the bodies of the inner Solar System disappeared after a few million years as they were incorporated into the young planets that were forming. However, some of the largest, with diameters of about 100 kilometres or more, were ejected to safer orbits further from the Sun.

Lutetia, which is about 100 kilometres across, may have been tossed out from the inner parts of the young Solar System if it passed close to one of the rocky planets and thus had its orbit dramatically altered [6]. An encounter with the young Jupiter during its migration to its current orbit could also account for the huge change in Lutetia’s orbit [7].

“We think that such an ejection must have happened to Lutetia. It ended up as an interloper in the main asteroid belt and it has been preserved there for four billion years,” continues Pierre Vernazza.

Earlier studies of its colour and surface properties showed that Lutetia is a very unusual and rather mysterious member of the asteroid main belt. Previous surveys have shown that similar asteroids are very rare and represent less than 1% of the asteroid population of the main belt. The new findings explain why Lutetia is different — it is a very rare survivor of the original material that formed the rocky planets.

“Lutetia seems to be the largest, and one of the very few, remnants of such material in the main asteroid belt. For this reason, asteroids like Lutetia represent ideal targets for future sample return missions. We could then study in detail the origin of the rocky planets, including our Earth,” concludes Pierre Vernazza.

Notes

[1] The electromagnetic spectrum represents the complete range of wavelengths covered by the different types ofelectromagnetic radiation. Visible light is the most familiar form, but many others exist. Many of these types of radiation are used in everyday life, such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared and ultraviolet light and X-rays.

[2] The Rosetta spacecraft, on its way to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, flew past Lutetia on 10 July 2010.

[3] Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera provided data in the ultraviolet, ESO’s NTT provided data in visible light, while NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii and Spitzer Space Telescope provided data in the near-infrared and mid-infrared respectively.

[4] The enstatite chondrites (E chondrites) are a unique class of meteorites that account for only about 2% of the recovered meteorite falls. The unusual mineralogy and chemistry of E chondrites is consistent with formation relatively close to the Sun. This is further supported by isotope measurements (verified for oxygen, nitrogen, ruthenium, chromium and titanium): E chondrites are the only groups of chondrites that have the same isotopic composition as the Earth and Moon system. This strongly suggests that the Earth formed from enstatite chondrite-type materials and also that E chondrites formed at about the same distance from the Sun as the Earth.

In addition it has been recently shown that formation from enstatite chondrite bodies can explain Mercury's unusual and previously inexplicable composition. This suggests that Mercury — like the Earth — largely accreted from enstatite chondrite-like materials.

[5] Although they all formed from similar material, it remains a mystery why the inner three planets are so different.

[6] This process is very much like the gravitational assist methods used to change the direction and speed of space probes by arranging for them to fly close to a planet.

[7] Some astronomers think that the gaseous giant may have been closer to the Sun in the early days of the Solar System, before moving outwards to its current position. This would have caused havoc in the orbits of other objects of the inner Solar System due to the huge gravitational pull of Jupiter.

More information

This research was presented in a paper, “Asteroid (21) Lutetia as a remnant of Earth’s precursor planetesimals”, to appear in the journal Icarus.

The team is composed of P. Vernazza (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM), France; European Southern Observatory, Germany), P. Lamy (LAM, France), O. Groussin (LAM, France), T. Hiroi (Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, USA), L. Jorda(LAM, France), P.L. King (Institute for Meteoritics, University of New Mexico, USA), M.R.M. Izawa (Department of Earth Sciences, University of Western Ontario, Canada), F. Marchis (Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute, USA; IMCCE, Observatoire de Paris (OBSPM), France), M. Birlan (IMCCE, OBSPM, France), R. Brunetto (Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, CNRS, France).

ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive astronomical observatory. It is supported by 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning a 40-metre-class European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

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Various News About Alien Invasions | Skeptism about this news is not a big deal

LIJANG, CHINA -  Three alien spaceships landed on earth today!  Two in China and one in the Indonesian Sea. 
Is Earth under attack?
WWN confirmed with the U.N. Panel on Extraterrestrials that three large alien spaceships from Planet Gootan landed on earth today.    According to eyewitnesses from the Kangean Island in the Bali Sea one large “purplish” spaceship appeared out of the sky and quickly dove into the sea, creating a large wave.  There were over two hundred witnesses that confirmed the spaceship sighting.
The first spaceship did not resurface again.
Here’s a shot from the Kangean Island in the Bali Sea. The ship went down approximately five miles from this spot:

Meanwhile, two other spaceships came streaking across the Chinese sky and seemed to be headed for a fiery crash into Mainland China, but the ships suddenly, and miraculously, landed in a field outside Lijang, China.   Thousands of Chinese reported the sighting to local authorities and the Chinese government sent troops to the area.
According to witnesses from Lijang, an ancient city in the northwest of Yunnan Province in China, the massive ship remained stationary for several hours, then there were several large booms.  “It seem like a big energy force came from the ships, and went off in many directions.  It scared my whole family,” said Yan Hu of Lijang.  “My family all huddle in our house and wait to die, but when we look up the ships were gone.”
Here’s the town near where the ships landed:

Where did the ships go?
“These ships are from Planet Gootan and are behaving in a manner that we predicted,” said Dr. John Malley, head of the U.N. Panel of Extraterrestrials.  “They have landed on earth and are now setting up base.  We believe that the energy forces that the locals reported, were actually Gootan soldiers exiting the spaceships and spreading out to all parts of the world.  We are very concerned.”

WWN spoke to our sources and they seemed very concerned.  “We thought that perhaps this was not going to happen, or perhaps we were all misinterpreting the data, but we can confirm that three alien spaceships landed on earth today.  It’s very exciting, but we are very cautious.”
Vladmir Putin spoke on a conference call to world leaders, including President Hu Jintao of China.  Putin said he would be sending a battalion of Russian soldiers to Lijang to investigate.    President Obama has taken a back seat on the alien invasion, allowing the Russians and Chinese to take the lead on the defense of the earth.

Has the Gootans landed!!!
Has the attack begun!….

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Alien Invasion/Visit | Aliens Spotted in China

BINCHUAN, CHINA -  Aliens from Gootan have been spotted throughout Yunnan province in China. 
WWN continues to follow the landing of three large spaceships from Planet Gootan – that arrived on November 29th.  One ship landed in the Bali Sea, near Kangean Island and two ships landed in a field near Lijang, China.
Some readers continue to be skeptical of the landings – but WWN has been following the developments closely.  Is it an attack?  It is not clear yet, but three aliens ships from Planet Gootan are now on earth and experts from the U.N. Panel of Extraterrestrials estimate that between ten thousand and thirty thousand Gootans are now on Earth.
Aliens were spotted near Binchuan, China – a city that was devastated by an earthquake in 2008.

According to sources in China, there have been hundreds of reports of strange apparitions, beings, moving through towns in Yunnan Province:
– ANNING.  Three young girls (Qian Wang, Mei Yan and Ne Kuo) walking to school, saw five strange beings crossing a road.  The beings stopped to look at them.   The girls said that the beings seemed to have a ghost-like form and they emitted a pulsating glow.  The beings started at them for a minute and then moved away.  The girls said they felt “happy and calm” after seeing the beings.
The girls described the beings similar to this:

– FUYUAN.  A truck driver (Yan Du) pulled over to the side of the road to sleep and was awakened by a shaking of his truck.  He screamed when he realized his truck was in the air.  He looked down and saw “purplish, glowing beings” holding up the truck and shaking it.  He felt for sure that was going to die and then suddenly, the truck was put down on the road and the “beings” disappeared.
– YUTI – Two workers (Yan Tsih, and Andrew Yuo) at a grain mill took a smoke break and noticed strange lights moving through a nearby forest.  They walked closer to have a look and – were knocked out cold.  They woke up two hours later, lying on a soft bed of grass.  They felt “renewed and alive” – but they had lost their jobs.
“Strange” alien beings have been spotted in Guangnan, Mengzi, Luxi, near Erahi Lake, Mainri Snow Mountain and the Mekong River.   Many are talking about the sightings:

Dr. John Malley, the leader of the U.N. Panel on Extraterrestrials is in China monitoring the situation.  “The Gootans are here.  That is clear.  They have not, yet, attacked any citizens and we are hoping that remains the case.”  Dr. Malley is joined by his team, including Banesh Bannerjee, the world’s leading extraterrestrial expert and an alien doctor, Dr. Kelly McManus, who specializes in extraterrestrial medicine.
When asked why the Gootans have come, Malley said, “some speculated that they have come for our gold, or that they feel that humans are abusing the planet and want to take over, some speculate that they are here to do research on humans, others feel that they want to teach us, and there are some that believe they just want to destroy us.”

The area around Kangean Island in the Bali Sea has not been seen again.  “The ship could be anywhere,” said Malley.  “It will turn up soon.”
As always, WWN will continue following this developing story…  and please report any Gootan sightings in the comments section.

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ALIENS BALLS FALLING ON U.S. | COULD THIS BE ALIEN INVASION?

Large metallic balls dropping across the U.S. (and Africa).  NASA and the U.N. confirmed the alien balls are from Planet Zeeba.
The hollow balls with a circumference of between 4 an 10 feet have been found all across the U.S. in the last forty-eight hours, according to authorities with NASA and the United Nations Panel on Extraterrestrials.
With a diameter of 3 to 6 feet, the balls have a rough surface and appear to consist of “two halves welded together”.

Forensic scientists from the FBI said that the alien balls are made of a “metal alloy unknown to man.”  The balls weight between 10 and 20 pounds. Curiously many of the alien balls land softly on earth, though a few of them  have made  holes about two feet deep.
The FBI and NASA estimate that over 10,000 alien balls have dropped in the United States, with an additional 5,000 balls dropping in Africa, Australia and Latin America.  There are more alien balls spottings reported each and every hour across the United States.
The alien orbs, however, do not pose any danger.  “They are not explosive devices, they seem harmless,” said FBI agent, Lloyd Mowra.

Dr. Susan Begley and Dr. Banesh Bannerjee of the U.N. Panel on Extraterrestrials have been working with NASA scientists over the last two days, examining the balls.  Dr. Begley told WWN that the balls are “clearly from spaceships from Planet Zeeba.  We recognize the markings on the balls, and they are clearly Zeeban.”
This was good news to Dr. Bannerjee.  “The Zeebans are part of an ongoing peaceful alien invasion that began in October of 2010 and they we estimate will continue until December of 2015.”

Some on the U.N . Panel, however, say that the Zeebans may be sending a message to the aliens from Planet Gootan, who landed on Earth (in China and the Indonesian Sea) on November 27th of this year. “The Gootan are hostile and are here to attack humans.  The Zeebans may be coming here to defend us against the Gootan attack.”
Could Earth be a battleground  between the Gootans and the Zeebans.
“We think so.  We are predicting an alien conflict on earth between the Gootans and the Zeebans throughout 2012.  In fact, we think it’s already begun.”
What should citizens do if they see the alien balls falling?
“There’s no reason for alarm.  The balls seem to be designed to avoid  striking any humans.  They are friendly balls.”

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