But consider there's billions of customers in other countries that are both poorer and less stringent with intellectual property. Countries where computers from big brands (HP, Acer, etc) ship with a "free open source operating system", FreeDOS. Do you really think these machines run FreeDOS for the long haul? Heck no. They are wiped and a pirated copy of Windows is put on in short order. But why look at the whole world when you can just focus at what's sold at Best Buy?
I bought an EeePC 701 that came preinstalled with Xandros.
Within an hour of bringing it home I started installing WindowsXP. Been a satisfied XP Netbook user ever since.
Talking about Windows, Format DOES NOT WIPE THE DRIVE. All a full format does is set up the file system, and does a read verify. It does not overwrite data portion of the partition.
A good tool is Eraser. http://eraser.heidi.ie/ Use it to securely wipe specific files when no longer needed. As well it allows you to wipe free space on the disk at any time, allowing you to wipe previously deleted files.
If the computer is deemed surplus, and you want to prepare the computer for resale, A PLAIN FORMAT IS NOT ENOUGH. That is how so much sensitive information is found on surplus computers. The data is still on the disk. Wipe it using a tool like DBAN http://www.dban.org/
As far as reading residual data, some people claim 35 passes blah blah blah. This is referencing Gutmann's work, which focused on old drives. It is not applicable on new drives with different encoding techniques and extremely high data densities, and he has said on new drives a single pass of pseudo-random is enough. Anything extra is a waste of time. http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html (read the epilogues)If there is truly confidential data on the disk, the only safe method is physical destruction to ensure nothing resides on remapped sectors, etc.
Now, particularly if you have laptops, encryption of customer data is a good preventative measure, as overwriting of surplus hard drives does not help you when a laptop with customer data is stolen from an airport. Truecrypt http://www.truecrypt.org/ is a good encryption solution, though you need some 'workarounds' if you wish to be able to unlock users that have locked themselves out of their container file. It can also do full disk encryption (as can Windows Ultimate/Enterprise)
I agree that 7-zip is a good archiver, and can also un-archive RAR files. For some reason I find trial versions of Winrar rampant on business computers. Failing special requirements, most users have no need to create RAR files.
* Use. You may install and use any number of copies of the software on your devices in your household for use by people who reside there or for use in your home-based small business.
I've never actually considered doing this. Clever. Almost completely useless as I don't have much use for physical counting references, but clever nonetheless!
What I find easier to keep track of is count to ten with each hand: Once you get to 5, put your thumb down for 6, index finger down for 7, continue such that your pinky finger alone represents 9.
Use your other hand for the 10's place. Now you can count from 0 to 99 on your fingers... without using binary.
So what does it do if I allocate a couple of hundred megabytes and then don't use them?
Nothing. Other apps continue to use all of the memory that you aren't using. You OTOH, just burned a hole in your virtual address space.
In particular it will reserve your unused memory in the page file so other programs can use the system RAM. This is one reason, even if you have lots of RAM, to not disable the page file. Otherwise it will be forced to reserve physical RAM. Cutting away memory that can be used for other applications, disk cache, etc.
Like Blaster was the only worm that Windows has seen in the past 5 years. How about Conficker? That affected SP2 machines.
If you were reading, several posts up I said that the firewall being enabled by default was why it didn't pose much of a threat on the internet as a whole, but moreso on LANs where other LAN machines are trusted machines.
And how many people are going to know how to slipstream a windows install? I know IT people who have no clue how to do it.
I can't help it if your IT people are retarded. Slipstreaming is incredibly easy. http://www.nliteos.com/ But I still know IT guys that deploy FAT32 XP images onto new machines with 500GB hard drives.
This was 5 years ago, but of course old habits die hard and we keep hearing "Oh Windows machines get pwned within seconds of being on the net", referring to this or similar studies (same as some people think it's 1998 and BSoDs happen 30 times a day). Yeah... if they're running WinXP-SP1 or earlier they might get pwned. Don't get me wrong, that is a real risk, and there are a lot of unpatched machines running SP1, either because they were never updated, or because it was reinstalled with install media that didn't include at least SP2. There's no reason for someone with any common sense to not reinstall XP machines with slipstreamed SP3 media.
What I consider Crap is an OS that can't make up its mind what sound system to use. One were seemingly minor upgrades result in random hardware not working. One that ships alpha grade code into production versions (Intel drivers, KDE 4.0, etc). One where the user is forced to upgrade versions very frequently if they wish to access new apps, an upgrade which is risky if done directly, requiring a clean install with every version for the greatest chance of success. That would be Linux, particularly Ubuntu.
Sorry - I don't get your point. What do you mean to imply here?
More of a comment on how people often accuse Microsoft of forced obsolescence, even though they continue to update a product that's almost 10 years old (Windows 2000), including features near no-one use (IE 5.01). Seriously. Who even uses IE 5.01?
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/ms09-054.mspx
Not everyone gets a proper install disc/key combo though.
Remember that recent thing where if you bought Vista-installed systems you qualified for that free Win7 upgrade? Well guess what? Quite a few people were given Win7 -upgrade- discs and keys, not Retail or OEM install discs and keys.
My wife and my brother did this, and my wife got a Win7 upgrade disc for her Dell laptop and my brother got an upgrade disc for his HP laptop.
Have fun wiping and installing from that without having first to reinstall Vista.
Okay. Install, don't enter product key during install. After install insert product key and activate as usual. This site has a few other suggestions
Yet while Mozilla dropped updates for Firefox 2.x, Microsoft still keeps patching IE 5.01 for Windows 2000 and will until Windows 2000 drops out of extended support next year.
Pumping the brakes always causes brake failure in cars with power assist braking. It always has. That's why no one teaches you to do it anymore.
For those that don't know, power assist brakes generally get their assist from engine vacuum. There is more vacuum when the throttle is closed (engine idling) than there is when the throttle is open (full acceleration). Normally there's enough stored energy to give one or two assisted full brake applications. After that you run out of assist and are completely manual. Even standing on the brakes might not be enough to overpower the engine, particularly if the driver is a petite woman. Try pumping the brakes with the engine off to see the loss off assist.
The recommendation to not pump the brakes comes from inclimate weather. Cars with ABS it's the wrong thing to do. Step on the brake and let the ABS do the pulsing for you. Unfortunately many drivers don't realize that the pulsating pedal is normal in ABS cars and let up, or start pumping. In cars without ABS "threshold" braking is preferred, but it's a different technique that randomly pumping the brakes, but that's what people take away.
As far as using the hand brake in this situation... good luck. In my car I can fully apply the hand brake, and the rear wheels will lock up, but I can continue to accelerate down the road.
The truth is a shocking number of people don't know how to fully control their car. Given that it is capable of killing themselves or others if it's out of control, that's quite frightening.
fortunately it was a manual with an ignition key rather than an automatic with a 'hold down for five seconds to stop the engine' button.
God, and I thought the ACPI power button in computers was annoying when you have to hold them for five seconds to execute a hard power off. Never thought there'd be the same situation in a car.
Return vehicles are used for astronauts and important stuff. Not to fill up Ebay.
How many dollars per kg is this "important stuff"? My view is that you probably can get several thousand dollars per kilogram for a used laptop. I doubt there's much up there with that sort of value, including the science experiments.
That's baloney. I have installed Windows XP without a proper firewall and before you can finished updating the system to the newest patches, the system will be infected. The only way to properly secure a new install is to put on all the patches before putting the machine on the net. I have no such problems with Linux.
2004. That's when Service pack 2 for XP came out. Five years ago. For all new installs using XP-SP2 or newer Windows firewall is enabled by default preventing internet access to services like SMB, etc.
The firewall being active by default is a reason Conflicker wasn't as bad as Blaster. It posed a much greater risk of spreading within a corporate network where all the machines are "trusted".
Just recently had to edit the Host file. (Local DNS file).
Could not save it because of UAC, and didn't get a UAC prompt either, had to give up and disable UAC first.
You didn't HAVE to give up and disable UAC, you chose to.
Start notepad elevated:
start-"notepad" (in search box) Ctrl+shift+Enter (start elevated).
Respond to UAC prompt.
File-open-%systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Alternatively in an admin commandprompt:
notepad %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Seriously. In Linux do you try editing a system configuration files without sticking a "su" in front of it?
Did you even try typing "Windows 7 hosts file" in Google?
Never, never, ever adopt complex software at launch. Just don't. Why would you do that?
When Vista came out the advice was obvious: don't use it for a month or so so that all the horrible errors and vulnerabilities can get worked out, or at least unearthed. With the Win7 launch, the advice is exactly the same- wait for them to get some of the kinks before making the plunge. Ubuntu Karmic? You guessed it...
I always wait 6 months after a Ubuntu release before I install it.
Slashdot Mirror
You're right, it's much easier to have to constantly apply operating system upgrades every 6 months like Ubuntu.
It's flamebait to install Windows on a netbook?
In the developed world, yeah sure.
But consider there's billions of customers in other countries that are both poorer and less stringent with intellectual property. Countries where computers from big brands (HP, Acer, etc) ship with a "free open source operating system", FreeDOS. Do you really think these machines run FreeDOS for the long haul? Heck no. They are wiped and a pirated copy of Windows is put on in short order. But why look at the whole world when you can just focus at what's sold at Best Buy?
I bought an EeePC 701 that came preinstalled with Xandros. Within an hour of bringing it home I started installing WindowsXP. Been a satisfied XP Netbook user ever since.
Talking about Windows, Format DOES NOT WIPE THE DRIVE. All a full format does is set up the file system, and does a read verify. It does not overwrite data portion of the partition.
A good tool is Eraser. http://eraser.heidi.ie/ Use it to securely wipe specific files when no longer needed. As well it allows you to wipe free space on the disk at any time, allowing you to wipe previously deleted files.
If the computer is deemed surplus, and you want to prepare the computer for resale, A PLAIN FORMAT IS NOT ENOUGH. That is how so much sensitive information is found on surplus computers. The data is still on the disk. Wipe it using a tool like DBAN http://www.dban.org/
As far as reading residual data, some people claim 35 passes blah blah blah. This is referencing Gutmann's work, which focused on old drives. It is not applicable on new drives with different encoding techniques and extremely high data densities, and he has said on new drives a single pass of pseudo-random is enough. Anything extra is a waste of time. http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html (read the epilogues)If there is truly confidential data on the disk, the only safe method is physical destruction to ensure nothing resides on remapped sectors, etc. Now, particularly if you have laptops, encryption of customer data is a good preventative measure, as overwriting of surplus hard drives does not help you when a laptop with customer data is stolen from an airport. Truecrypt http://www.truecrypt.org/ is a good encryption solution, though you need some 'workarounds' if you wish to be able to unlock users that have locked themselves out of their container file. It can also do full disk encryption (as can Windows Ultimate/Enterprise)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedStep
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerNow!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool'n'Quiet
No Turbo button necessary!
I agree that 7-zip is a good archiver, and can also un-archive RAR files. For some reason I find trial versions of Winrar rampant on business computers. Failing special requirements, most users have no need to create RAR files.
For PDF, print-to-pdf programs are a dime a dozen. I also like PDF-Xchange viewer as a viewer. It gives free annoitation tools: http://www.docu-track.com/home/prod_user/PDF-XChange_Tools/pdfx_viewer/ I also like PDFTK/PDFTKBuilder to help combine, rearrange PDFs: http://www.angusj.com/pdftkb/#pdftkbuilder
On MSE, from their EULA: http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/eula.aspx#mainNav
# INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS.
* Use. You may install and use any number of copies of the software on your devices in your household for use by people who reside there or for use in your home-based small business.
This time I'll count using Binary on my fingers.
I've never actually considered doing this. Clever. Almost completely useless as I don't have much use for physical counting references, but clever nonetheless!
What I find easier to keep track of is count to ten with each hand: Once you get to 5, put your thumb down for 6, index finger down for 7, continue such that your pinky finger alone represents 9.
Use your other hand for the 10's place. Now you can count from 0 to 99 on your fingers... without using binary.
same situation for me, but portable firefox works just peachy from a flash drive for your other.. um... research.
You "research" female anatomy at work?
So what does it do if I allocate a couple of hundred megabytes and then don't use them?
Nothing. Other apps continue to use all of the memory that you aren't using. You OTOH, just burned a hole in your virtual address space.
In particular it will reserve your unused memory in the page file so other programs can use the system RAM. This is one reason, even if you have lots of RAM, to not disable the page file. Otherwise it will be forced to reserve physical RAM. Cutting away memory that can be used for other applications, disk cache, etc.
Put some on the handle. I don't care if they have to cram the fifth blade in perpendicular to the other four, just do it!
Gillete did one better. There's five on the front and a sixth perpendicular.
Not graphical (with the exception of preview) but WP 5.1 for DOS could use a mouse. Much like DOS Edit or QBasic were text-mode but could use a mouse.
Right mouse click brings up the menu bar (Or Alt+ "+")
Try googling wp51.zip on your favorite abandonware site.
At least ATI GPUs don't melt. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13554_3-10020782-33.html
Like Blaster was the only worm that Windows has seen in the past 5 years. How about Conficker? That affected SP2 machines.
If you were reading, several posts up I said that the firewall being enabled by default was why it didn't pose much of a threat on the internet as a whole, but moreso on LANs where other LAN machines are trusted machines.
And how many people are going to know how to slipstream a windows install? I know IT people who have no clue how to do it.
I can't help it if your IT people are retarded. Slipstreaming is incredibly easy. http://www.nliteos.com/ But I still know IT guys that deploy FAT32 XP images onto new machines with 500GB hard drives.
http://www.opendns.com/
I am pretty sure it was XP with Service Pack 2 that got owned. SP2 is not a replacement for a good firewall. Windows is just plain crap.
No it was SP1, which left Blaster/Sasser exploits exposed. Firewall being enabled in SP2 helped tremendously.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2004-11-29-honeypot_x.htm
This was 5 years ago, but of course old habits die hard and we keep hearing "Oh Windows machines get pwned within seconds of being on the net", referring to this or similar studies (same as some people think it's 1998 and BSoDs happen 30 times a day). Yeah... if they're running WinXP-SP1 or earlier they might get pwned. Don't get me wrong, that is a real risk, and there are a lot of unpatched machines running SP1, either because they were never updated, or because it was reinstalled with install media that didn't include at least SP2. There's no reason for someone with any common sense to not reinstall XP machines with slipstreamed SP3 media.
What I consider Crap is an OS that can't make up its mind what sound system to use. One were seemingly minor upgrades result in random hardware not working. One that ships alpha grade code into production versions (Intel drivers, KDE 4.0, etc). One where the user is forced to upgrade versions very frequently if they wish to access new apps, an upgrade which is risky if done directly, requiring a clean install with every version for the greatest chance of success. That would be Linux, particularly Ubuntu.
Sorry - I don't get your point. What do you mean to imply here?
More of a comment on how people often accuse Microsoft of forced obsolescence, even though they continue to update a product that's almost 10 years old (Windows 2000), including features near no-one use (IE 5.01). Seriously. Who even uses IE 5.01? http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/ms09-054.mspx
Not everyone gets a proper install disc/key combo though.
Remember that recent thing where if you bought Vista-installed systems you qualified for that free Win7 upgrade? Well guess what? Quite a few people were given Win7 -upgrade- discs and keys, not Retail or OEM install discs and keys.
My wife and my brother did this, and my wife got a Win7 upgrade disc for her Dell laptop and my brother got an upgrade disc for his HP laptop.
Have fun wiping and installing from that without having first to reinstall Vista.
Okay. Install, don't enter product key during install. After install insert product key and activate as usual. This site has a few other suggestions
http://tinyurl.com/yhyvy2f
You can also backup your registration token for the machine and then if you do a clean install on the same machine, restore the token.
Yet while Mozilla dropped updates for Firefox 2.x, Microsoft still keeps patching IE 5.01 for Windows 2000 and will until Windows 2000 drops out of extended support next year.
Pumping the brakes always causes brake failure in cars with power assist braking. It always has. That's why no one teaches you to do it anymore.
For those that don't know, power assist brakes generally get their assist from engine vacuum. There is more vacuum when the throttle is closed (engine idling) than there is when the throttle is open (full acceleration). Normally there's enough stored energy to give one or two assisted full brake applications. After that you run out of assist and are completely manual. Even standing on the brakes might not be enough to overpower the engine, particularly if the driver is a petite woman. Try pumping the brakes with the engine off to see the loss off assist.
The recommendation to not pump the brakes comes from inclimate weather. Cars with ABS it's the wrong thing to do. Step on the brake and let the ABS do the pulsing for you. Unfortunately many drivers don't realize that the pulsating pedal is normal in ABS cars and let up, or start pumping. In cars without ABS "threshold" braking is preferred, but it's a different technique that randomly pumping the brakes, but that's what people take away.
As far as using the hand brake in this situation... good luck. In my car I can fully apply the hand brake, and the rear wheels will lock up, but I can continue to accelerate down the road.
The truth is a shocking number of people don't know how to fully control their car. Given that it is capable of killing themselves or others if it's out of control, that's quite frightening.
fortunately it was a manual with an ignition key rather than an automatic with a 'hold down for five seconds to stop the engine' button.
God, and I thought the ACPI power button in computers was annoying when you have to hold them for five seconds to execute a hard power off. Never thought there'd be the same situation in a car.
Return vehicles are used for astronauts and important stuff. Not to fill up Ebay.
How many dollars per kg is this "important stuff"? My view is that you probably can get several thousand dollars per kilogram for a used laptop. I doubt there's much up there with that sort of value, including the science experiments.
Laptops are worth more than the astronauts.
That's baloney. I have installed Windows XP without a proper firewall and before you can finished updating the system to the newest patches, the system will be infected. The only way to properly secure a new install is to put on all the patches before putting the machine on the net. I have no such problems with Linux.
2004. That's when Service pack 2 for XP came out. Five years ago. For all new installs using XP-SP2 or newer Windows firewall is enabled by default preventing internet access to services like SMB, etc.
The firewall being active by default is a reason Conflicker wasn't as bad as Blaster. It posed a much greater risk of spreading within a corporate network where all the machines are "trusted".
Just recently had to edit the Host file. (Local DNS file). Could not save it because of UAC, and didn't get a UAC prompt either, had to give up and disable UAC first.
You didn't HAVE to give up and disable UAC, you chose to.
Start notepad elevated: start-"notepad" (in search box) Ctrl+shift+Enter (start elevated). Respond to UAC prompt.
File-open-%systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Alternatively in an admin commandprompt: notepad %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Seriously. In Linux do you try editing a system configuration files without sticking a "su" in front of it?
Did you even try typing "Windows 7 hosts file" in Google?
Never, never, ever adopt complex software at launch. Just don't. Why would you do that?
When Vista came out the advice was obvious: don't use it for a month or so so that all the horrible errors and vulnerabilities can get worked out, or at least unearthed. With the Win7 launch, the advice is exactly the same- wait for them to get some of the kinks before making the plunge. Ubuntu Karmic? You guessed it...
I always wait 6 months after a Ubuntu release before I install it.