I was interested in sorceror distro too until I saw that line. I'm still interested in Gentoo and LFS (Linux From Scratch), based on the theory, "the more you have to do, and the more opertunities you have to screw up, the more you learn".
However, that 1-gig swap file turned me off. I'm on a 2 gig disk, with either a 32 or 128 meg swapfile (16 megs memory), on an aging p166 that's my DHCP server. (Working fine too, other then a problem with/var/log/wtmp growing by 10 megs a day!) "Optimized" basic distros shouldn't need insane requirements.
Just my $.02
Re:$2100 and 80 hours community service
on
McOwen Case Settled
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
While lets try my way of figuring out what a program is.
First stop - groups.google.com and search for dnetc.exe
3rd one down (first english post) links to one of the viruses that install dnetc
4rth one down links to the distributed.net's virus/trojan page that talks about dnetc.
First www.google.com search for dnetc.exe gives me distribute's page.
I disagree. Of course, I went the College route for 2 years (pre-engineering, yah!), then dropped out when I discovered that mechanical engineering seemed a lot like accounting.
Seeing what the IT-school mills turn out, I'm better qualified then most of those people for computer work. For specific apps or OS'es I know nothing about, I can read a book and be more learned then the IT-mills turn out. No, this isn't a measure of my conceit, its a measure of the poor quality of the graduates from these mills.
Now a four year school might be different. Then again, it might not be. I believe that how people approach school is very simular to how people approach certification. Most people study to pass the test, not for additional knowledge. A lot of schools are now teaching to the tests. An example can be found by looking at the A+ certification. Its a rather easy certification (probably a lot of slashdotters can pick it up without a problem), and yet it covers some of the fundamentals quite nicely, especially in a wintel world. However, when you look at A+ holders, most of them (that I have met) are very ignorant of the knowledge. They are simular to "paper" engineers, nothing more. They cannot apply the knowledge to fit the real world, since they never learned the knowledge, only the correct answers to test questions.
OTOH, for coders, this doesn't hold true. Its a lot harder to know the correct answers to the test questions without picking up some knowledge. However, I'd still give more weight to someone who did 2 years of school/2 years of real-world work then the person who did 4 years of school
~ Dasunt, who's thinking of going back to school anyways.
Yes, I know I praised the A+ exam. I feel dirty now
Hate to say this, but as a windows user, windows has been good to me. I run win95 on a laptop (p75 & 16 megs of memory), using it primarily with bitchX, adobe reader, and microsoft's lit reader, and the machine has rarely crashed (I can't remember the last time it did). It also doubles as a quick and dirty win32 apache + php server, plus it has e4m on it for encryption, and a few apps (Vim) and games (Nethack, Nesticle, zSNES, etc). Btw, never had a virus on that machine.
My desktop is a 1.13Ghz AMD machine with Windows 98SE and a ton of software installed. Active Desktop is turned off. It is another remarkably stable machine, save for a few things. Winamp 3 will crash it if its burning a cd at the same time. Ultramon seems to add to instability. Doom will occasionally crash. Other then Doom, I don't have any problems I can't live with by avoiding the software. Btw, this machine never had a virus either.:) Other then a bad stick of memory I had installed for 2 weeks, I've never had a problem with this machine.
So, why do people have problems with windows? Crappy software. Cracked software can be unstable. The $10 games are crap. Comet curser is another item I've seen lead to instability. And finally, poor hardware. The amount of software installed (but not running) isn't a factor, I probably have over 100 programs installed on the machine. At boot, (off the top of my head), the following programs load - VNC, E4M, PGP, ICQ, TinyFirewall, Norton Antivirus, InCD). I have a tendency to run webservering (apache) or fileserving (warFTPd) software. I run games, everything from Nethack to Diablo, including Mame32 and TuxRacer. I use realplayer, gdivx, windows media player, and even (rarely enough) quicktime. The machine gets a lot of use under a variety of circumstances. And its stable.
I'm sorry, but its not normal when windows crashes. And BSOD's aren't normal either. Its either bad hardware, a corrupt install, faulty programs, or poor drivers.
Assume its easy to backup data to a secure online storage site (ftp, anyone?)
Assume that the cost of new computers and restoring the data is significantly less then the potential outcome of a lawsuite against the police and BSA. Also, consider the moral implications of what you are doing (which is basically teaching the BSA a lesson, in my book).
I say, you'd probably come out ahead. And there is tons of free publicity involved here too.:)
I'm a clueless linux user mostly, but wouldn't a root cron job to tar up your home directory and store it in a place not accessable by your user account work?
Wow, that's a spiffy idea. I think I'll patent it with the name "backup".:)
For example, lets say I'm talented enough to manipulate the search engines into giving a website a high return rating.
Then, on this website, I have a page dedicated to p2p filesharing apps, some of which are custom wrote. (Not that hard, can just grab gnut, put a nice gui wrapper around it, and I'm done). The gui-gnut app will be infected with a virus, and the install will request you to run it as root. (Maybe with a simple message, such as - "Can't write to/blah/blah, are you root? (type 'guignut_install -help' for more info)").
Now I have a nice trojan combined with a working app. The plus side is, since its a p2p filesharing app, there's a good chance that the computers I'm infecting have a better then 56k connection. Being a filesharing app, it also doesn't raise suspicion when the app tries to talk to the outside world. Heck, I could probably look at the gnutella protocol to make the phone-home message very simular in appearance.
Now I just have to hit a few redhat-newbie forums, and post the message about a new filesharing app I found.
There, you have a linux virus that spreads in the wild, even if its not a win32 worm.
Have a program that puts the keyboard on the screen when you type in your letters, with the keys arranged randomly. By using either the mouse or the keyboard then, you can "type" in your password immune to the keylogger. (Although, they still have password length - so remember, long, secure passwords, people).
Now we've caused the need for video loggers.:) Well, at least the memory required for video logging is a lot greater then the memory required for keyboard logging.
Running a few linux machines at your high school or at your house doesn't count.
Why not? Not that I run linux.:) But I could see where running and maintaining a few machines could help you alot. So does school (theoretically), but it really depends on the person.
Right now, my boss has a strong aversion to hiring people who's only experience is technical schools, but has no problem hiring people who are self-taught. Due to the simple nature of the job (computer grunt - repair, maintainance & building), the school-taught "graduates" seem to have few skills for the job, while the self-taught people know more (on average) and can learn new stuff more quickly.
FBI scores major busts of warez and terrorist rings based on IRC, MUDs, and on-line game networks.
Sure, that's what I mud for.
Its the ease of going to an IRC network, hunting down the first channel that is simular to #cablewarez, and using the @find command that I avoid. To simple for me...
Compare this to a mud.
race Hey, I need a ress. You echo (elf channel): "Hey, I need a ress." t shogrot That was a good pk. You tell Shogrot: That was a good pk. Shogrot tells you: Shutup, elf newbie t shogrot Got Photoshop 6? Shogrot tells you: I'm going to kill you as soon as you get ressed again, if you don't shut up. think You think. t Erafridel Do you have Photoshop 6? I need something to do while I wait for a ress. You tell Erafridel Do you have Photoshop 6? I need something to do while I wait for a ress. Erafridel tells you: Nope. t Syralos Do you have a copy of Photoshop 6 I could download? You tell Syralos Do you have a copy of Photoshop 6 I could download? Syralos tells you: What weird magic is this 'Photoshop 6' you speak of? sigh You sigh t Herasth Got Photoshop 6 Warez? You tell Herasth: Got Photoshop 6 Warez? Herasth tells you: Yep, but I'm in Australia on 56k dialup. scream You scream
IBM's Desktop PC's look like they are 5 years old as soon as you open the box.
OTOH, I prefer working on IBM machines to HP or Compaq machines, at least IBM builds a decent machine in a decent case with (mostly) standard parts.
Just my $.02
And in some other online forum, far far away.
on
WinXP Security Flaw
·
· Score: 2
What an idiot! He thought that R14 tires were the right size for his dakota! I mean, we shouldn't let these idiots drive.
And speaking of idiots, did you here about the guy who put 5w30 in his 95 Berretta? *Sigh*
I mean, because people don't know anything about a simple, basic piece of technology they use every day, we have poorly designed cars that are best sellers, which ends up going to the junkyard years early because of poor, if any care.
(I feel sorry for people reading this as a thread, instead of nested. This will make no sense then...)
I agree. Being able to take a binary that has no code that you know of, and that might have strict anti-piracy measures built in, and being able to adapt the code of that binary to make it bypass all that anti-piracy crap is really, really trivial.
RAID is to provide either additional speed and/or hotswappable capability. RAID really stinks as a backup, since RAID doesn't care when some program deletes most of the hard drive, when some user removes too many files, or when the OS barfs. Sure, RAID will save your DATA if one HDD fails, as long as whatever caused it to fail didn't affect the other drive, but for the reasons already listed, this doesn't mean RAID is a valid method of backup.
However, a HDD in an external enclosure could be considered a valid backup, however, for true redundancy, you better have two drives you swap, and you better be doing surface tests regularly. A drive, properly treated, should last many, many years. Also, you could combine a drive with monthly or quad-yearly backups to CD-R, just make sure you do your research on the inks used in CD-R disks, some don't last as long as others.
Terminator (both the original and the sequal) are probably included in the shining jewels of the Sci-Fi Movie Crown.
Consider this, like good sci-fi, the plot hinges on future scientific developements, in this case, cyborgs and time-travel. The plot isn't bad, even if it has been done before, and the acting is decent.
The sequal is actually better then the first. Like any good sequal, it doesn't rely on the plot of the first, but instead lets a new plot develop, but a plot that is tied back into the first movie. I especially like the part about the asylum - finally, blowing up stuff to save the world has consequences. There is also the redevelopment of the Terminator character.
All in all, good movies, and good sci-fi.
Which means, they'll probably rape T3 in the name of "profits", and hack the script to hell.
You got v+ from one pin that goes through two variable resistors, one that changes with the change in the y-axis and one that changes with the change in the x-axis.
Then you have another 3 pins (either v+ or grn, don't remember which) that are shorted when button #1 or button #2 is pressed.
Of course, for any joystick that has more then 2 axis or 2 buttons, there is either a driver using BOTH joystick inputs (a standard gameport can support 2 joysticks) or doing other hocus-pocus.
Also, I heard that a gameport cannot initiate conversation with a PC, that the PC's software has to check for data on the gameport every so often. So latency is a problem.
Being a lowly computer grunt, I see a lot of machines with a lot of problems, and I must say, for all versions of windows, registry rot isn't a huge problem. People installing crappy programs that mess up the OS is a huge stability problem, as are viruses.
The only problem that I have seen fairly regularly that seems to be the result of registry corruption is where windows sees a new NIC in the device manager and in the network properties, but not in winipcfg or ipconfig. This problem, other then not allowing the computer to use the NIC for connectivity, has no determental problems on the computer and is not the cause of any instability as far as I can tell.
OTOH, the registry can be easily backed up, on a regular basis, as long as you know about the task manager and know the basics of DOS batch files. The registry is 2 simple binary files, user.dat and system.dat, IIRC. So if you believe the registry is the cause of your problems, BACK IT UP!
The boot process is one of the crown jewels of copy-protection in the game console business. Since only the console manufacturer knows how to manufacture bootable media, and probably is the only one with the manufacturing technology, game creators must license the technology. The console manufacturer earns from the royalties for this licensing, not thesale of the hardware. Actually it's very common that the console manufacturer is losing money each and every time one of their consoles is sold. This is how the traditional game business works. Don't expect Sony to give away the secret of how the Playstation2 boot.
Those who don't know their video game legal history are doomed to make stupid comments about it, it seems. In the US, its legal to reverse engineer booting protocols for game consoles, even up to, and including the point, of the console displaying "Licensed Playstation Game", or anything to that effect, as long as it isn't shown that there is a way to make a bootable cartredge/CD that doesn't display that message. I believe the case that determined this was one of the Nintendo-era consoles, the SMS or Genesis, maybe (been a long time since I looked at the cases).
Reverse engineering a console can save a company millions of dollars in licensing fees. There have been several notable legal battles that have determined how far a company can go to make compatible games.
A CD doesn't hide its data well. Even assuming encryption on most of the CD, its probably a relatively simple task to tell where the PS2 is reading from the CD at boot. Moreso, for the information on the CD to be useful, it has to be decrypted somewhere in the PS2 itself. Its very crackable.
1Gbit Ethernet also is supposed to use cat5e, not cat5. Anyways, it only takes 2 RJ-45 jacks and a crimper to transform a dual 100 mbit ethernet cable into a single 1 Gbit eithernet cable.
E4M is a free (beer) windows solution, that is also open source. It works by making encrypted volumns that can be mounted as virtual drives under win32.
D'oh! Checked the link. Guess the project died. Well, maybe you can luck out and find a mirror.
Slashdot Mirror
Foolish puppy.
Comparing IE to Mozilla (w32 build), and even assuming that IE's memory footprint is partially hidden by the OS, Mozilla is a lot more bloated.
Its an ugly pile of bloat, a memory hog, doesn't look good at low resolutions (640x480), and has a habit of crashing.
IE, OTOH, is more responsive, less memory intensive, more usable at lower resolutions, and less prone to crashing.
I will admit though, opera is a damn fine browser.
I was interested in sorceror distro too until I saw that line. I'm still interested in Gentoo and LFS (Linux From Scratch), based on the theory, "the more you have to do, and the more opertunities you have to screw up, the more you learn".
/var/log/wtmp growing by 10 megs a day!) "Optimized" basic distros shouldn't need insane requirements.
However, that 1-gig swap file turned me off. I'm on a 2 gig disk, with either a 32 or 128 meg swapfile (16 megs memory), on an aging p166 that's my DHCP server. (Working fine too, other then a problem with
Just my $.02
While lets try my way of figuring out what a program is.
:)
First stop - groups.google.com and search for dnetc.exe
3rd one down (first english post) links to one of the viruses that install dnetc
4rth one down links to the distributed.net's virus/trojan page that talks about dnetc.
First www.google.com search for dnetc.exe gives me distribute's page.
Searching is a good skill to have.
I disagree. Of course, I went the College route for 2 years (pre-engineering, yah!), then dropped out when I discovered that mechanical engineering seemed a lot like accounting.
Seeing what the IT-school mills turn out, I'm better qualified then most of those people for computer work. For specific apps or OS'es I know nothing about, I can read a book and be more learned then the IT-mills turn out. No, this isn't a measure of my conceit, its a measure of the poor quality of the graduates from these mills.
Now a four year school might be different. Then again, it might not be. I believe that how people approach school is very simular to how people approach certification. Most people study to pass the test, not for additional knowledge. A lot of schools are now teaching to the tests. An example can be found by looking at the A+ certification. Its a rather easy certification (probably a lot of slashdotters can pick it up without a problem), and yet it covers some of the fundamentals quite nicely, especially in a wintel world. However, when you look at A+ holders, most of them (that I have met) are very ignorant of the knowledge. They are simular to "paper" engineers, nothing more. They cannot apply the knowledge to fit the real world, since they never learned the knowledge, only the correct answers to test questions.
OTOH, for coders, this doesn't hold true. Its a lot harder to know the correct answers to the test questions without picking up some knowledge. However, I'd still give more weight to someone who did 2 years of school/2 years of real-world work then the person who did 4 years of school
~ Dasunt, who's thinking of going back to school anyways.
Yes, I know I praised the A+ exam. I feel dirty now
Windows ran on DOS, originally.
X-Windows runs on a *nix machine.
MS-DOS was Microsoft's Product, and an OS.
DR-DOS was a competitor's product, and an OS.
AFAIK, Microsoft doesn't ship its products without the latest SPs.
Its just the wholesaler's cleaning out his inventory.
I know this because Win2k sans SP2 is cheaper then Win2k with SP2. We used to buy it until the wholesaler ran out.
And as another poster mentioned, they are cumulative, and there is such a thing as "install scripts". Not to mention RIS in 2k.
Wait... Maybe it does take some knowledge to administer windows. Nah, this is slashdot, it can't be. You only need knowledge for Unix/Linux. :)
Hate to say this, but as a windows user, windows has been good to me. I run win95 on a laptop (p75 & 16 megs of memory), using it primarily with bitchX, adobe reader, and microsoft's lit reader, and the machine has rarely crashed (I can't remember the last time it did). It also doubles as a quick and dirty win32 apache + php server, plus it has e4m on it for encryption, and a few apps (Vim) and games (Nethack, Nesticle, zSNES, etc). Btw, never had a virus on that machine.
My desktop is a 1.13Ghz AMD machine with Windows 98SE and a ton of software installed. Active Desktop is turned off. It is another remarkably stable machine, save for a few things. Winamp 3 will crash it if its burning a cd at the same time. Ultramon seems to add to instability. Doom will occasionally crash. Other then Doom, I don't have any problems I can't live with by avoiding the software. Btw, this machine never had a virus either. :) Other then a bad stick of memory I had installed for 2 weeks, I've never had a problem with this machine.
So, why do people have problems with windows? Crappy software. Cracked software can be unstable. The $10 games are crap. Comet curser is another item I've seen lead to instability. And finally, poor hardware. The amount of software installed (but not running) isn't a factor, I probably have over 100 programs installed on the machine. At boot, (off the top of my head), the following programs load - VNC, E4M, PGP, ICQ, TinyFirewall, Norton Antivirus, InCD). I have a tendency to run webservering (apache) or fileserving (warFTPd) software. I run games, everything from Nethack to Diablo, including Mame32 and TuxRacer. I use realplayer, gdivx, windows media player, and even (rarely enough) quicktime. The machine gets a lot of use under a variety of circumstances. And its stable.
I'm sorry, but its not normal when windows crashes. And BSOD's aren't normal either. Its either bad hardware, a corrupt install, faulty programs, or poor drivers.
Just my $.02
Assume its easy to backup data to a secure online storage site (ftp, anyone?)
Assume that the cost of new computers and restoring the data is significantly less then the potential outcome of a lawsuite against the police and BSA. Also, consider the moral implications of what you are doing (which is basically teaching the BSA a lesson, in my book).
I say, you'd probably come out ahead. And there is tons of free publicity involved here too.
I'm a clueless linux user mostly, but wouldn't a root cron job to tar up your home directory and store it in a place not accessable by your user account work?
Wow, that's a spiffy idea. I think I'll patent it with the name "backup". :)
I would like to disagree.
For example, lets say I'm talented enough to manipulate the search engines into giving a website a high return rating.
Then, on this website, I have a page dedicated to p2p filesharing apps, some of which are custom wrote. (Not that hard, can just grab gnut, put a nice gui wrapper around it, and I'm done). The gui-gnut app will be infected with a virus, and the install will request you to run it as root. (Maybe with a simple message, such as - "Can't write to /blah/blah, are you root? (type 'guignut_install -help' for more info)").
Now I have a nice trojan combined with a working app. The plus side is, since its a p2p filesharing app, there's a good chance that the computers I'm infecting have a better then 56k connection. Being a filesharing app, it also doesn't raise suspicion when the app tries to talk to the outside world. Heck, I could probably look at the gnutella protocol to make the phone-home message very simular in appearance.
Now I just have to hit a few redhat-newbie forums, and post the message about a new filesharing app I found.
There, you have a linux virus that spreads in the wild, even if its not a win32 worm.
Have a program that puts the keyboard on the screen when you type in your letters, with the keys arranged randomly. By using either the mouse or the keyboard then, you can "type" in your password immune to the keylogger. (Although, they still have password length - so remember, long, secure passwords, people).
:) Well, at least the memory required for video logging is a lot greater then the memory required for keyboard logging.
Now we've caused the need for video loggers.
Running a few linux machines at your high school or at your house doesn't count.
Why not? Not that I run linux. :) But I could see where running and maintaining a few machines could help you alot. So does school (theoretically), but it really depends on the person.
Right now, my boss has a strong aversion to hiring people who's only experience is technical schools, but has no problem hiring people who are self-taught. Due to the simple nature of the job (computer grunt - repair, maintainance & building), the school-taught "graduates" seem to have few skills for the job, while the self-taught people know more (on average) and can learn new stuff more quickly.
Just my $.02
I'll verify that. Somewhere around here are old ISA cards with 4 com ports, probably over a half-dozen or so.
Came from a BBS, btw.
FBI scores major busts of warez and terrorist rings based on IRC, MUDs, and on-line game networks.
Sure, that's what I mud for.
Its the ease of going to an IRC network, hunting down the first channel that is simular to #cablewarez, and using the @find command that I avoid. To simple for me...
Compare this to a mud.
race Hey, I need a ress.
You echo (elf channel): "Hey, I need a ress."
t shogrot That was a good pk.
You tell Shogrot: That was a good pk.
Shogrot tells you: Shutup, elf newbie
t shogrot Got Photoshop 6?
Shogrot tells you: I'm going to kill you as soon as you get ressed again, if you don't shut up.
think
You think.
t Erafridel Do you have Photoshop 6? I need something to do while I wait for a ress.
You tell Erafridel Do you have Photoshop 6? I need something to do while I wait for a ress.
Erafridel tells you: Nope.
t Syralos Do you have a copy of Photoshop 6 I could download?
You tell Syralos Do you have a copy of Photoshop 6 I could download?
Syralos tells you: What weird magic is this 'Photoshop 6' you speak of?
sigh
You sigh
t Herasth Got Photoshop 6 Warez?
You tell Herasth: Got Photoshop 6 Warez?
Herasth tells you: Yep, but I'm in Australia on 56k dialup.
scream
You scream
Much more entertaining then IRC
Oddly enough, I have to agree.
IBM's Desktop PC's look like they are 5 years old as soon as you open the box.
OTOH, I prefer working on IBM machines to HP or Compaq machines, at least IBM builds a decent machine in a decent case with (mostly) standard parts.
Just my $.02
What an idiot! He thought that R14 tires were the right size for his dakota! I mean, we shouldn't let these idiots drive.
And speaking of idiots, did you here about the guy who put 5w30 in his 95 Berretta? *Sigh*
I mean, because people don't know anything about a simple, basic piece of technology they use every day, we have poorly designed cars that are best sellers, which ends up going to the junkyard years early because of poor, if any care.
(I feel sorry for people reading this as a thread, instead of nested. This will make no sense then...)
I agree. Being able to take a binary that has no code that you know of, and that might have strict anti-piracy measures built in, and being able to adapt the code of that binary to make it bypass all that anti-piracy crap is really, really trivial.
:P
I mean, any 5th grader can do it...
RAID is to provide either additional speed and/or hotswappable capability. RAID really stinks as a backup, since RAID doesn't care when some program deletes most of the hard drive, when some user removes too many files, or when the OS barfs. Sure, RAID will save your DATA if one HDD fails, as long as whatever caused it to fail didn't affect the other drive, but for the reasons already listed, this doesn't mean RAID is a valid method of backup.
However, a HDD in an external enclosure could be considered a valid backup, however, for true redundancy, you better have two drives you swap, and you better be doing surface tests regularly. A drive, properly treated, should last many, many years. Also, you could combine a drive with monthly or quad-yearly backups to CD-R, just make sure you do your research on the inks used in CD-R disks, some don't last as long as others.
Just my $.02
Foolish American.
DBZ is censored even before it enters the US, then censored again for Cartoon Network. I'm told that "The Longest Day" had about half of it cut out.
DBZ uncut (not the American uncut, but the actual Japanese uncut footage) is very bloody and violent. Its really not for kids.
Just my $.02
Terminator (both the original and the sequal) are probably included in the shining jewels of the Sci-Fi Movie Crown.
Consider this, like good sci-fi, the plot hinges on future scientific developements, in this case, cyborgs and time-travel. The plot isn't bad, even if it has been done before, and the acting is decent.
The sequal is actually better then the first. Like any good sequal, it doesn't rely on the plot of the first, but instead lets a new plot develop, but a plot that is tied back into the first movie. I especially like the part about the asylum - finally, blowing up stuff to save the world has consequences. There is also the redevelopment of the Terminator character.
All in all, good movies, and good sci-fi.
Which means, they'll probably rape T3 in the name of "profits", and hack the script to hell.
*Sigh*
He's right.
You got v+ from one pin that goes through two variable resistors, one that changes with the change in the y-axis and one that changes with the change in the x-axis.
Then you have another 3 pins (either v+ or grn, don't remember which) that are shorted when button #1 or button #2 is pressed.
Of course, for any joystick that has more then 2 axis or 2 buttons, there is either a driver using BOTH joystick inputs (a standard gameport can support 2 joysticks) or doing other hocus-pocus.
Also, I heard that a gameport cannot initiate conversation with a PC, that the PC's software has to check for data on the gameport every so often. So latency is a problem.
Just my $.02
Being a lowly computer grunt, I see a lot of machines with a lot of problems, and I must say, for all versions of windows, registry rot isn't a huge problem. People installing crappy programs that mess up the OS is a huge stability problem, as are viruses.
The only problem that I have seen fairly regularly that seems to be the result of registry corruption is where windows sees a new NIC in the device manager and in the network properties, but not in winipcfg or ipconfig. This problem, other then not allowing the computer to use the NIC for connectivity, has no determental problems on the computer and is not the cause of any instability as far as I can tell.
OTOH, the registry can be easily backed up, on a regular basis, as long as you know about the task manager and know the basics of DOS batch files. The registry is 2 simple binary files, user.dat and system.dat, IIRC. So if you believe the registry is the cause of your problems, BACK IT UP!
The boot process is one of the crown jewels of copy-protection in the game console business. Since only the console manufacturer knows how to manufacture bootable media, and probably is the only one with the manufacturing technology, game creators must license the technology. The console manufacturer earns from the royalties for this licensing, not thesale of the hardware. Actually it's very common that the console manufacturer is losing money each and every time one of their consoles is sold. This is how the traditional game business works. Don't expect Sony to give away the secret of how the Playstation2 boot.
Those who don't know their video game legal history are doomed to make stupid comments about it, it seems. In the US, its legal to reverse engineer booting protocols for game consoles, even up to, and including the point, of the console displaying "Licensed Playstation Game", or anything to that effect, as long as it isn't shown that there is a way to make a bootable cartredge/CD that doesn't display that message. I believe the case that determined this was one of the Nintendo-era consoles, the SMS or Genesis, maybe (been a long time since I looked at the cases).
Reverse engineering a console can save a company millions of dollars in licensing fees. There have been several notable legal battles that have determined how far a company can go to make compatible games.
A CD doesn't hide its data well. Even assuming encryption on most of the CD, its probably a relatively simple task to tell where the PS2 is reading from the CD at boot. Moreso, for the information on the CD to be useful, it has to be decrypted somewhere in the PS2 itself. Its very crackable.
Just my (educated) $.02
1Gbit Ethernet also is supposed to use cat5e, not cat5. Anyways, it only takes 2 RJ-45 jacks and a crimper to transform a dual 100 mbit ethernet cable into a single 1 Gbit eithernet cable.
E4M is a free (beer) windows solution, that is also open source. It works by making encrypted volumns that can be mounted as virtual drives under win32.
D'oh! Checked the link. Guess the project died. Well, maybe you can luck out and find a mirror.