Hmmm. I've observed for decades that parenting skills seem to be people's lowest priority in life. I'm guilty, my parents were guilty, and many, many of my co-workers and associates are guilty. No one wants to take the TIME to work with their kids. And, parenting is a full time job - you can't spend 1/3 or more of your time on a job, a couple hours commuting each day, attend a couple meetings/ball games, spend an hour or two at the bar, and still find time to spend with your kids. Especially since the kids have their own routines that just never seem to mesh with yours. You find an hour or three to spend with the kid, and he has somewhere to go, something to do, a girl to see, or whatever.
Upper class or lower class, I see the same thing. Everyone has to go, go, go - they are busy with SOMETHING all day, every day - even if it's trying to score the next fix for their habit.
Is it any wonder that kids have problems? Couple that with our own unwillingness to spend time working problems out, and yes, drugs are over prescribed for the kids.
We've forgotten what it's like to be kids, don't know how to teach kids, and we're just annoyed that the kids are around to bother us - so we offer them some drugs that will change their conduct, and make them quieter, therefore more tolerable.
To really fix the problem, we need to slow society down a few notches. I've mentioned in another thread that grandparents serve a vital function in a healthy society. Today's grandparents are self centered, retiring to Florida or California at the earliest opportunity, rather than being part of the family. A retired person has little more than time - time that can be spent with the kids, helping them to understand the world, and teaching them to deal with adversity. Or, helping them with more mundane things, like algebra, or archery, or learning to drive.
Our culture is crazy - why shouldn't the kids be just as crazy?
IMHO, there are few conditions that can't be dealt with through patience, discipline, and love. Drugs aren't going to "fix" any problem a kid has. At best, he'll be turned into a zombie for as long as the drugs last, then he comes back to reality, with all the same problems.
But, don't try to sell those ideas to the big pharmaceutical companies. You'll be branded a heretic.
As not_my_name says - you seem to fit into a special group. Far to many people RELY on that GPS to tell them everything. Maybe if I were a bit younger - or, maybe if I were navigating Europe instead of North America - I might make similar use of GPS as you did. Or not. I might have the GPS in the car, but an atlas would still be spread across the passenger seat. Among other things, I want to "feel" how far away it is to the Italian border, or the Russian border, or the English Channel. That big map of Europe, showing all the countries, rivers, lakes, and mountain ranges would be visible all the time, just as it was for North America in my early years of navigating. That "big picture" is necessary for me to fill in all the finer details, mentally. And, most people who rely on that GPS never get that "big picture", IMHO.
I would argue that. Rand McNally road atlases were my constant companion for years. It's hard to recall how my internal mapping and/or memory of Rand McNally evolved in the first couple years - but today, I can navigate anywhere on the North American continent (minus Mexico) without a map. I can leave my house, and go to any major city without referencing a map at all. Some small town, I don't know of? Ten minutes with that atlas, and I can drive to it without looking again. To find an address, I'll check the map just short of the city.
Those GPS things? Personally, I don't like them - they want to hold your hand all the way across the continent. Every turn, every fuel stop, every restaurant. When I travel, I want to make the decisions, not have MapQuest, or anyone else decide which ramp to exit or enter the interstate on. Travel is supposed to be an adventure - let me decide when, where, and how.
For fun, I've gone off route many times, just to see new country. I've seen mountains, valleys, and rivers that few Americans ever thought about seeing, because I took the less beaten path, down country roads. And, food. Fast Food Americana just sucks. I went north into Tennessee one early one morning, topped a small mountain, and found a hole in the wall restaurant. I got a real southern breakfast, for half the price of any chain restaurant, and 45 minutes of chat from some old dude who looked like he might have served in the Civil War. (He might even have been the truck driver who delivered dirt for the day of creation!)
GPS is distracting as all hell when you do make a "wrong turn". Rand McNally just sits on the seat until I ASK for his advice.
Of course, I'll admit - mapreading was pretty much a lost art before GPS technology came out. You can stop in any truck stop in America, and find that 2/3 of the drivers can't read Rand McNally, or any other version of a printed map. Instead, they rely on that GPS computer, the cell phone, and pure dumb luck. The other 1/3? A lot of them are like me - they've crisscrossed the country so many times, they don't NEED no stinking map most of the time!! Those last 10 or 20 miles going to a new stop is all they need any help with, and often times they can get that from the CB radio!
"The treaty also creates a bad precedent by loosening copyright restrictions, instead of tightening them as every previous copyright treaty has done, said Brad Huther, a chamber director. Huther concluded in a Dec. 2 letter to the U.S. Copyright office that the international community "should not engage in pursuing a copyright-exemption based paradigm.""
Those who oppose the treaty are obviously cognizant of the fact that copyright has been extended, tightened, lengthened, and used to wipe out fair use and other considerations for a long, long time. In effect, blind users are not being extended any special privileges - they are being restored some rights that they have been deprived of - along with the rest of us.
I'd like to see a similar treaty applied to ALL works. It IS MY RIGHT to use any media as I see fit. If I purchase it once, it's MINE. If I want to donate it to a library, mail it to someone in another nation who has to pay ten times what I paid to get a copy - whatever the hell I want to do with it. Change it to braille? That's my RIGHT!
Further - if it's digital, I have the RIGHT to copy it from one computer to another, or to a backup media, or whatever. None of this crap from the MPAA that I can "copy" ten minutes using decades old technology for educational purposes - I can COPY what I paid for.
Distribution? No, I don't have that right - but for anything over 15 years old, I have zero compunction regarding distribution. Remember, today's "laws" were bought and paid for, along with the politicians who cast their votes in favor of the laws.
Screw all the "rights holders". Fucking criminals, almost all of them.
You seem to be suggesting that the major labels promote real talent. I would have to differ with you. Have you really LISTENED to those rappers, or Britney, or - any of them? Absolute shit. My kid doesn't know squat about music, but I'd rather listen to him strum on his guitar than the tortured sounds that most CD's force through the kid's speakers. You would have to smoke something, or shoot something up, to enjoy most of the "music" being pawned on America today. Rap - a - rappa - rap - rap - rappa!
You're right. Disabled people of any sort seldom want pity. But, they do expect a fair deal. If I can buy, borrow, sell, or otherwise transfer a more normal pinetree version of a book across borders, why can't blind people do the same with their versions? Huh? What's up with that? Special restrictions for the blind?
I recognize no borders, BTW. Not for digital, or pine tree, or braille, or whatever. If some dude in Moscow has something I'm interested in, it's just the same as some other dude in Peoria having it.
How are special needs catered to, traditionally? Let me think a moment. Hmmm. A special need is identified, some "research" is invested, "special" procedures are formulated, and those special needs are catered to at prices 10 times more "normal" needs. I should start researching this now - in a few years, I'll probably need media for the blind. Does anyone here know what it costs to get software and media for the blind, or how much it costs for a blind version of bit-torrent?
Maybe it is as bad and gloomy as peppepz says. I bought the very first ATI multi-GPU card for a Win98 machine. After several months, I finally upgraded the wife to XP - only to find that there was no support for the card on any NT system, and there never would be. Worse, there was never support for any unix-like system. That card worked on 98, and nothing else, period. I got burned on that one......
Agreed. Gnome doesn't exactly NEED Stallman - if they ever did.
Stallman is a queer one - he has a number of good points, but he's batshit fucking crazy sometimes. Someone said he should for reality. Sounds like a good idea. He's be much happier in a universe where proprietary didn't exist, and many of us would be happier without him.
As for proprietary crap - I use proprietary video drivers almost exclusively. I don't exactly LIKE the fact that this is the only way to get max performance from my video card - but at some point, you have to compromise with reality.
"Drop into the glacier"?????? Errr, no - you didn't read that anywhere, did you? You've presumed or assumed that he fell into a crevasse. From his wounds, he was hunted down by enemies. Nothing indicates that he fell - it seems that he died of an arrow wound, bleeding, and exposure. My reading suggests that he was encased by the glacier after death. If you care to look around the 'net, there are other instances of people being exposed after thousands of years, from other glaciers.
You can dig around more if you like. I'm not especially enamored with conspiracy theories, but things that might throw a monkey wrench into the works of climate change advocates don't tend to make it into the news.
Yes, there is a long, long list of people who should have been told to STFU. Newton, Galileo, Celeste - ohh, the list goes on and on.
Seriously, #1 on my list would be that douchebag, Al Gore. He did more to politicize the global warming crap than anyone. If you want my most serious opinion on GW - yeah, the earth is warming. It's going to warm, no matter what we do. Do I really think that mankind is hastening the inevitable? Wellll - not really, but it's possible. Yeah, let's do whatever we can to clean up the environment, and to stop wasting shit - that makes sense with or without the threat of global warming. Stop polluting. I like it. Those things that you just HAVE to have, you should shop for the most energy efficient model. Stop driving cars to the corner for a gallon of milk. Stop wasting. Everyone will benefit - global warming or not.
But, as for man CAUSING global warming - BULLSHIT!!! How many ice ages has the earth had now? And, how many interglacial periods?
The earth didn't end with any of the ice ages, or during any of the interglacials.
It's time to adapt, people. Doomsayers go under the bus. People with a plan can get on the bus.
I can't vouch for the technical savvy of the members at sevenforums, but they probably share a few clues among themselves. Machines up to date? Hell, I don't know. But, if they are getting this stuff on Windows 7 machines, they can't be very far OUT of date, can they?
Nice try at coming across like a pompous ass - it just didn't quite work. You missed the pomposity, anyway.
Uhhhhmmmm - does deltree still exist on Windows? It's been a long time since I used it. Somewhere along the line, I called it, and it didn't exist. Windows ME? Windows XP? I don't remember, but it wasn't there. Try rd or rmdir instead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deltree
Wrong answer, bright boy. DO NOT just delete an account, if you're concerned about privacy. The data remains on the server when you delete.
EDIT your account details FIRST. Change your name to Mickey Mouse, your address to something preposterous like 99999 Lost Highway, Bumfuck, Egypt. Change ALL your details, so that existing data is overwritten. Don't forget anything. Break contact with all your friends, unsubscribe to groups, replace your photo(s) with landscapes of the moon. Use your imagination. Really fuck up the account. Then, leave it ACTIVE long enough for several server backups to take place. Finally - delete the account.
Use your little peabrain for something besides playing pocket pool.......
By "up to date", I'll presume that you mean Windows 7, with all updates and patches that have been pushed. And, you aren't willing to accept Windows XP, SP2 or SP3 unless SP3 has ALL current updates and patches?
Even then, I don't think you're on target. See, there's quite a difference in the way Windows and Linux handle an executable. On my machine, they don't run unless and until I execute them. I mean, intentionally execute them. Not so with the worms I've dealt with on Windows.
I'll accept the obvious argument that the clueless twit who authorizes just any script to run on his Linux box will have the similar problems as the clueless twit who downloads and installs anything offered to him on Windows. We simply cannot protect a fool from himself.
BUT - I've seen worms on Windows machines that belonged to some pretty tech-savvy individuals. Someone on their mailing list got the worm, the worm sent them a mail, they trusted the source, and ZAP!! They did NOT specifically authorize that executable to run - the system ran it.
I've recently read of one - let me stress, ONE - working botnet on Linux machines. One single botnet. How many are there on Windows machines? About one shitload of them, I believe. Working examples of Linux worms, trojans, and viruses that survive in the wild are really damned close to zip, zilch, nada. The expense of cleaning up a Linux infection? Unless your valuable data is actually compromised, it's far, far less than any Windows machine. I've spent exactly zero dollars on insecurity software since I've switched to Linux. How much have you spent (on top of the cost of your Windows installation) since you've owned a computer?
11 is more than ten, so apparently, "more than ten" satisfies your definition of "many".
So - how do we define Windows threats, or more specifically Windows worms? I'm sure that even non-tech savvy people can name ten famous Windows worms. How many have there been? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_computer_worms
Perhaps the most important question is, "How successful have the worms been, and which have been most costly?"
How many billions of dollars have been spent on Windows security, only to fail repeatedly? I'm primarily looking at Corporate and Enterprise Windows users - but it affects private home users as well.
In my own experience, keeping 3 Windows machines running for family use was nearly impossible. 3 months use on any given machine guaranteed SOME KIND of real problem. Keeping 3 Ubuntu machines up and running is a piece of cake. I've just recently upgraded the wife's 32 bit machine to Karmic, after two years of continuous use. This past weekend, I upgraded the gateway machine, after ~30 months of continuous use. One more machine to go, with ~18 months continuous use.
What's more, I have given SUDO privileges to the wife, and all three sons on all the machines. They CAN destroy the OS any time they choose.
One laptop in the house has Windows on it. It gets reformatted pretty often. Even a moderately tech savvy kid can't keep it up as reliably as he can keep Linux running.
Debian's scheme doesn't precisely match your definition, but it's kinda close. As is Ubuntu. You have to take some definite steps to enable repositories outside of your distro's "supported" applications.
The repositories are MOSTLY 3rd party applications. Really. Linux itself is just a kernel. It's actually 3rd party to Debian. Gnome is a 3rd party suite of applications. Open Office is 3rd party. etc ad nauseum. Debian is little more than a philosophy, a way of making all those 3rd party apps work together.
Raising the bar? At this point in time, unnecessary. No distro has been found to be harboring malware in their repositories. Want to write a Debian specific screensaver? Write it. Submit it. If people like it, they may well put it into the Debian repositories. If it's good enough, someone will port it to Suse, Redhat, and others. If it's REALLY good, someone may even port it to Windows and Mac. This is precisely the same bar that Firestarter had to clear - and Firefox, and NetworkManager, and - well, you get the point.
It's always been a good idea to avoid 3rd party software from OUTSIDE the repository. TFA helps to make that point.
Slashdot Mirror
Live CD or a virtual machine. You can always revert to a "virgin" snapshot with VM's.
Hmmm. I've observed for decades that parenting skills seem to be people's lowest priority in life. I'm guilty, my parents were guilty, and many, many of my co-workers and associates are guilty. No one wants to take the TIME to work with their kids. And, parenting is a full time job - you can't spend 1/3 or more of your time on a job, a couple hours commuting each day, attend a couple meetings/ball games, spend an hour or two at the bar, and still find time to spend with your kids. Especially since the kids have their own routines that just never seem to mesh with yours. You find an hour or three to spend with the kid, and he has somewhere to go, something to do, a girl to see, or whatever.
Upper class or lower class, I see the same thing. Everyone has to go, go, go - they are busy with SOMETHING all day, every day - even if it's trying to score the next fix for their habit.
Is it any wonder that kids have problems? Couple that with our own unwillingness to spend time working problems out, and yes, drugs are over prescribed for the kids.
We've forgotten what it's like to be kids, don't know how to teach kids, and we're just annoyed that the kids are around to bother us - so we offer them some drugs that will change their conduct, and make them quieter, therefore more tolerable.
To really fix the problem, we need to slow society down a few notches. I've mentioned in another thread that grandparents serve a vital function in a healthy society. Today's grandparents are self centered, retiring to Florida or California at the earliest opportunity, rather than being part of the family. A retired person has little more than time - time that can be spent with the kids, helping them to understand the world, and teaching them to deal with adversity. Or, helping them with more mundane things, like algebra, or archery, or learning to drive.
Our culture is crazy - why shouldn't the kids be just as crazy?
IMHO, there are few conditions that can't be dealt with through patience, discipline, and love. Drugs aren't going to "fix" any problem a kid has. At best, he'll be turned into a zombie for as long as the drugs last, then he comes back to reality, with all the same problems.
But, don't try to sell those ideas to the big pharmaceutical companies. You'll be branded a heretic.
As not_my_name says - you seem to fit into a special group. Far to many people RELY on that GPS to tell them everything. Maybe if I were a bit younger - or, maybe if I were navigating Europe instead of North America - I might make similar use of GPS as you did. Or not. I might have the GPS in the car, but an atlas would still be spread across the passenger seat. Among other things, I want to "feel" how far away it is to the Italian border, or the Russian border, or the English Channel. That big map of Europe, showing all the countries, rivers, lakes, and mountain ranges would be visible all the time, just as it was for North America in my early years of navigating. That "big picture" is necessary for me to fill in all the finer details, mentally. And, most people who rely on that GPS never get that "big picture", IMHO.
I would argue that. Rand McNally road atlases were my constant companion for years. It's hard to recall how my internal mapping and/or memory of Rand McNally evolved in the first couple years - but today, I can navigate anywhere on the North American continent (minus Mexico) without a map. I can leave my house, and go to any major city without referencing a map at all. Some small town, I don't know of? Ten minutes with that atlas, and I can drive to it without looking again. To find an address, I'll check the map just short of the city.
Those GPS things? Personally, I don't like them - they want to hold your hand all the way across the continent. Every turn, every fuel stop, every restaurant. When I travel, I want to make the decisions, not have MapQuest, or anyone else decide which ramp to exit or enter the interstate on. Travel is supposed to be an adventure - let me decide when, where, and how.
For fun, I've gone off route many times, just to see new country. I've seen mountains, valleys, and rivers that few Americans ever thought about seeing, because I took the less beaten path, down country roads. And, food. Fast Food Americana just sucks. I went north into Tennessee one early one morning, topped a small mountain, and found a hole in the wall restaurant. I got a real southern breakfast, for half the price of any chain restaurant, and 45 minutes of chat from some old dude who looked like he might have served in the Civil War. (He might even have been the truck driver who delivered dirt for the day of creation!)
GPS is distracting as all hell when you do make a "wrong turn". Rand McNally just sits on the seat until I ASK for his advice.
Of course, I'll admit - mapreading was pretty much a lost art before GPS technology came out. You can stop in any truck stop in America, and find that 2/3 of the drivers can't read Rand McNally, or any other version of a printed map. Instead, they rely on that GPS computer, the cell phone, and pure dumb luck. The other 1/3? A lot of them are like me - they've crisscrossed the country so many times, they don't NEED no stinking map most of the time!! Those last 10 or 20 miles going to a new stop is all they need any help with, and often times they can get that from the CB radio!
"The treaty also creates a bad precedent by loosening copyright restrictions, instead of tightening them as every previous copyright treaty has done, said Brad Huther, a chamber director. Huther concluded in a Dec. 2 letter to the U.S. Copyright office that the international community "should not engage in pursuing a copyright-exemption based paradigm.""
Those who oppose the treaty are obviously cognizant of the fact that copyright has been extended, tightened, lengthened, and used to wipe out fair use and other considerations for a long, long time. In effect, blind users are not being extended any special privileges - they are being restored some rights that they have been deprived of - along with the rest of us.
I'd like to see a similar treaty applied to ALL works. It IS MY RIGHT to use any media as I see fit. If I purchase it once, it's MINE. If I want to donate it to a library, mail it to someone in another nation who has to pay ten times what I paid to get a copy - whatever the hell I want to do with it. Change it to braille? That's my RIGHT!
Further - if it's digital, I have the RIGHT to copy it from one computer to another, or to a backup media, or whatever. None of this crap from the MPAA that I can "copy" ten minutes using decades old technology for educational purposes - I can COPY what I paid for.
Distribution? No, I don't have that right - but for anything over 15 years old, I have zero compunction regarding distribution. Remember, today's "laws" were bought and paid for, along with the politicians who cast their votes in favor of the laws.
Screw all the "rights holders". Fucking criminals, almost all of them.
North America, less Mexico. ;^)
You seem to be suggesting that the major labels promote real talent. I would have to differ with you. Have you really LISTENED to those rappers, or Britney, or - any of them? Absolute shit. My kid doesn't know squat about music, but I'd rather listen to him strum on his guitar than the tortured sounds that most CD's force through the kid's speakers. You would have to smoke something, or shoot something up, to enjoy most of the "music" being pawned on America today. Rap - a - rappa - rap - rap - rappa!
You're right. Disabled people of any sort seldom want pity. But, they do expect a fair deal. If I can buy, borrow, sell, or otherwise transfer a more normal pinetree version of a book across borders, why can't blind people do the same with their versions? Huh? What's up with that? Special restrictions for the blind?
I recognize no borders, BTW. Not for digital, or pine tree, or braille, or whatever. If some dude in Moscow has something I'm interested in, it's just the same as some other dude in Peoria having it.
How are special needs catered to, traditionally? Let me think a moment. Hmmm. A special need is identified, some "research" is invested, "special" procedures are formulated, and those special needs are catered to at prices 10 times more "normal" needs. I should start researching this now - in a few years, I'll probably need media for the blind. Does anyone here know what it costs to get software and media for the blind, or how much it costs for a blind version of bit-torrent?
Maybe it is as bad and gloomy as peppepz says. I bought the very first ATI multi-GPU card for a Win98 machine. After several months, I finally upgraded the wife to XP - only to find that there was no support for the card on any NT system, and there never would be. Worse, there was never support for any unix-like system. That card worked on 98, and nothing else, period. I got burned on that one......
I always thought it was "Gna-Gnu Gna-Gnu".
Agreed. Gnome doesn't exactly NEED Stallman - if they ever did.
Stallman is a queer one - he has a number of good points, but he's batshit fucking crazy sometimes. Someone said he should for reality. Sounds like a good idea. He's be much happier in a universe where proprietary didn't exist, and many of us would be happier without him.
As for proprietary crap - I use proprietary video drivers almost exclusively. I don't exactly LIKE the fact that this is the only way to get max performance from my video card - but at some point, you have to compromise with reality.
"Drop into the glacier"?????? Errr, no - you didn't read that anywhere, did you? You've presumed or assumed that he fell into a crevasse. From his wounds, he was hunted down by enemies. Nothing indicates that he fell - it seems that he died of an arrow wound, bleeding, and exposure. My reading suggests that he was encased by the glacier after death. If you care to look around the 'net, there are other instances of people being exposed after thousands of years, from other glaciers.
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/25/world/body-of-ancient-man-found-in-west-canada-glacier.html
http://frankwarner.typepad.com/free_frank_warner/2009/08/melting-glaciers-reveal-bodies-from-the-ice.html?cid=6a00d83451cd3769e20120a4d01ff2970b
This one begins to explain why a body falling into a crevasse is unlikely to remain intact for thousands of years.
http://www.mummytombs.com/mummylocator/featured/glacier.htm
http://archaeological-burial-practices.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_qilakitsoq_mummies
You can dig around more if you like. I'm not especially enamored with conspiracy theories, but things that might throw a monkey wrench into the works of climate change advocates don't tend to make it into the news.
Yes, there is a long, long list of people who should have been told to STFU. Newton, Galileo, Celeste - ohh, the list goes on and on.
Seriously, #1 on my list would be that douchebag, Al Gore. He did more to politicize the global warming crap than anyone. If you want my most serious opinion on GW - yeah, the earth is warming. It's going to warm, no matter what we do. Do I really think that mankind is hastening the inevitable? Wellll - not really, but it's possible. Yeah, let's do whatever we can to clean up the environment, and to stop wasting shit - that makes sense with or without the threat of global warming. Stop polluting. I like it. Those things that you just HAVE to have, you should shop for the most energy efficient model. Stop driving cars to the corner for a gallon of milk. Stop wasting. Everyone will benefit - global warming or not.
But, as for man CAUSING global warming - BULLSHIT!!! How many ice ages has the earth had now? And, how many interglacial periods?
The earth didn't end with any of the ice ages, or during any of the interglacials.
It's time to adapt, people. Doomsayers go under the bus. People with a plan can get on the bus.
http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/39314-cant-remove-autorun-worm.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/6529-problem-avast-conficker-some-other-worm.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/4072-project-snowblind-worm.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/8763-downadup-removal-tool-conficker-worm.html
I can't vouch for the technical savvy of the members at sevenforums, but they probably share a few clues among themselves. Machines up to date? Hell, I don't know. But, if they are getting this stuff on Windows 7 machines, they can't be very far OUT of date, can they?
Nice try at coming across like a pompous ass - it just didn't quite work. You missed the pomposity, anyway.
prepared statements. Damn it. I actually read that as "preparation H" the first time.
Now, I'm wondering if preparation H might be the right fix for a Windows machine......
Uhhhhmmmm - does deltree still exist on Windows? It's been a long time since I used it. Somewhere along the line, I called it, and it didn't exist. Windows ME? Windows XP? I don't remember, but it wasn't there. Try rd or rmdir instead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deltree
Otzi the Iceman says that a little global warming is welcome after 5000 years. It's almost as warm now, as when he was battling for his life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi_the_Iceman
Wrong answer, bright boy. DO NOT just delete an account, if you're concerned about privacy. The data remains on the server when you delete.
EDIT your account details FIRST. Change your name to Mickey Mouse, your address to something preposterous like 99999 Lost Highway, Bumfuck, Egypt. Change ALL your details, so that existing data is overwritten. Don't forget anything. Break contact with all your friends, unsubscribe to groups, replace your photo(s) with landscapes of the moon. Use your imagination. Really fuck up the account. Then, leave it ACTIVE long enough for several server backups to take place. Finally - delete the account.
Use your little peabrain for something besides playing pocket pool.......
By "up to date", I'll presume that you mean Windows 7, with all updates and patches that have been pushed. And, you aren't willing to accept Windows XP, SP2 or SP3 unless SP3 has ALL current updates and patches?
Even then, I don't think you're on target. See, there's quite a difference in the way Windows and Linux handle an executable. On my machine, they don't run unless and until I execute them. I mean, intentionally execute them. Not so with the worms I've dealt with on Windows.
I'll accept the obvious argument that the clueless twit who authorizes just any script to run on his Linux box will have the similar problems as the clueless twit who downloads and installs anything offered to him on Windows. We simply cannot protect a fool from himself.
BUT - I've seen worms on Windows machines that belonged to some pretty tech-savvy individuals. Someone on their mailing list got the worm, the worm sent them a mail, they trusted the source, and ZAP!! They did NOT specifically authorize that executable to run - the system ran it.
I've recently read of one - let me stress, ONE - working botnet on Linux machines. One single botnet. How many are there on Windows machines? About one shitload of them, I believe. Working examples of Linux worms, trojans, and viruses that survive in the wild are really damned close to zip, zilch, nada. The expense of cleaning up a Linux infection? Unless your valuable data is actually compromised, it's far, far less than any Windows machine. I've spent exactly zero dollars on insecurity software since I've switched to Linux. How much have you spent (on top of the cost of your Windows installation) since you've owned a computer?
11 is more than ten, so apparently, "more than ten" satisfies your definition of "many".
So - how do we define Windows threats, or more specifically Windows worms? I'm sure that even non-tech savvy people can name ten famous Windows worms. How many have there been? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_computer_worms
Perhaps the most important question is, "How successful have the worms been, and which have been most costly?"
How many billions of dollars have been spent on Windows security, only to fail repeatedly? I'm primarily looking at Corporate and Enterprise Windows users - but it affects private home users as well.
In my own experience, keeping 3 Windows machines running for family use was nearly impossible. 3 months use on any given machine guaranteed SOME KIND of real problem. Keeping 3 Ubuntu machines up and running is a piece of cake. I've just recently upgraded the wife's 32 bit machine to Karmic, after two years of continuous use. This past weekend, I upgraded the gateway machine, after ~30 months of continuous use. One more machine to go, with ~18 months continuous use.
What's more, I have given SUDO privileges to the wife, and all three sons on all the machines. They CAN destroy the OS any time they choose.
One laptop in the house has Windows on it. It gets reformatted pretty often. Even a moderately tech savvy kid can't keep it up as reliably as he can keep Linux running.
FFS - define "many". If "more than two" means "many" to you, then yes, there have been "many" worms written for Linux. Now - how many WORK?
No. Gnome-look is not an approved repositiory for Debian, Ubuntu, or any other distro.
"Eye candy for your gnome desktop". Basically, it's a gnome fanbois site.
Debian's scheme doesn't precisely match your definition, but it's kinda close. As is Ubuntu. You have to take some definite steps to enable repositories outside of your distro's "supported" applications.
The repositories are MOSTLY 3rd party applications. Really. Linux itself is just a kernel. It's actually 3rd party to Debian. Gnome is a 3rd party suite of applications. Open Office is 3rd party. etc ad nauseum. Debian is little more than a philosophy, a way of making all those 3rd party apps work together.
Raising the bar? At this point in time, unnecessary. No distro has been found to be harboring malware in their repositories. Want to write a Debian specific screensaver? Write it. Submit it. If people like it, they may well put it into the Debian repositories. If it's good enough, someone will port it to Suse, Redhat, and others. If it's REALLY good, someone may even port it to Windows and Mac. This is precisely the same bar that Firestarter had to clear - and Firefox, and NetworkManager, and - well, you get the point.
It's always been a good idea to avoid 3rd party software from OUTSIDE the repository. TFA helps to make that point.