If installing things is so easy, why are there so few Linux distros where there is an option to simply install a bare desktop with no applications? "User friendly" Windows lets you do this.
I did a clean install of XP Pro with SP2 (slipstreamed) and everything went well. But I already have an external firewall so nothing changed. Then I came to install Nero 6.3 and it said there might be a problem installing this with SP2. So I just restored my old Windows XP (NO service packs) system rather than spend time installing all my other applications. I noticed that after slipstreaming SP2, XP install no longer reports that a few files are missing (a few image files were missing from the "download edition" of XP Pro)
Hardware detection sometimes seems to be random or depending on the exact combination of devices. The more PCI cards that are installed, the more unpredictable it becomes. The best desktop Linux system I installed was Xandros on a machine using a very cheap motherboard (Syntax SV266) and no PCI cards (everything except a Radeon 7000 was onboard). I have the same motherboard in another system and Xandros won't even find the onboard network adaptor. This is probably OK for someone who just wants to do things like listen to music, use the internet, write letters and print photos (USB printer works fine).
The 'toaster' should be built into a broadband modem/firewall/router. Or it should be part of a DVD player. Just plug your monitor/TV, keyboard and mouse into this and use the internet. Email and HTML doesn't change that often so there shouldn't be any need for a user to install software themselves. Instant Messaging might be a problem because the protocols sometimes change. A Java client like ICQ's would solve this problem.
I don't have any anti-virus running or install any security updates or Windows service packs unless they are required by another application. But then I have an external firewall and only use web-mail. I'm more worried about my ISP or Microsoft themselves doing stuff with my personal data than some worm-writing person.
However cheap disk space is, there will still be the choice between 100,000.wav files or 1,000,000 mp3s. If you paid for the music then it should be a lossless format.
Windows XP is using about 70 MB of RAM (according to task manager) after booting up. I've seen Windows 98 using around 100 MB once all the network services are installed. I've also got a box running NT4 service pack 6 (there's no network installed) and it's reporting 16 MB used. NT4 at work is using > 100 MB (and a lot of machines still have 64 MB RAM! 98 is OK until you start using any network or USB stuff.
Can't you make as bootable CD using a Windows 98 boot disk as the floppy image (adding your drivers to this image), and then copy all the XP install files to that CD? There will now be a "floppy disk" in drive A: I've not needed to install RAID drivers etc. but I make all my XP install CDs like this.
Since many computer problems are caused by malware, wouldn't it be a good idea if a new application would not install until the crap was removed? This would work better for freeware because there isn't the problem with angry and confused customers demanding a refund when they get scary warning messages. Something like a file sharing program would be best to do this because they usually search your hard disk anyway.
ATRAC must sound worse than mp3 if you're converting your music collection from mp3 to ATRAC. Also none of these formats are any good if the CD is copy "protected" and you're trying to transfer it to the player.
Since everything will be stored as links in an address book and all the real words used in domain names already, numbers might make a comeback. Your local taxi firm might get 101.101.101.101 (or a longer IPV6 address). If everybody had a domain name, they would end up like Hotmail addresses.
1. Use external hardware for security as much as possible (firewall, filtering web proxy, mail attachment remover could be put in one box). 2. The diskless PC. If the OS was loaded from read only media, none of this could happen (well if it did, rebooting would solve the problem every time). I like to install quite a lot of software but for a lot of people, a "working PC" only needs web, mail, chat and a word processor.
But the industries are all keen on letting the deceased's family go on raking in the cash from decades old work which must be kept from the public domain at all costs.
ISPs could block port 25 by default unless you can prove you are an organisation which needs to run a mail server. Most people could manage to send by web mail, especially when they have high speed connections.
Another thing that is starting to pop up in search results are 'fake' search engines - like any other search engine they show a few lines of the pages they have found but the links go nowhere, they just launch popups. There is no facility to actually search for anything, the 'results' are already there, related to some popular keyword. I found one of these sites while checking my own web's ranking with Google. They had used text off one of my pages as part of these 'search results'.
Make the search more useful with selectable result weightings based on a)E-commerce type code - gets rid of amazon referral sites b)Use of the copyright symbol - brings personal web pages to the top of the list c)Too many links - mods down dodgy portals d)Size of text blocks on page (would be in favour of an e-book) Ultimately some kind of 'personality' rating for web pages.
It was reported in a newspaper that someone being followed by police across Europe was being tracked by their mobile phone signal even though the phone was switched off. Don't suppose many people ever measure how much current their phone is drawing when "off", they aren't transmitting anything regularly (if there really was such a thing as a phone which could be tracked when off) because you would hear the interference to nearby audio equipment every time it transmitted. There could be a very low current receiver switched on all the time waiting for a call from Big Brother (or else this receiver isn't on all the time, just at certain times, controlled by a real time clock syncronised with the network). Phone batteries lose their charge over time without any load on them so would anybody notice? Maybe we should take the battery off the phone when it is switched off.
A more secure method of distributing files to unknown persons is a DVD tied to the string of a helium balloon. The balloon can be launched discreetly at night from any location without a sound. Preferably the wind should carry it towards a suburban area so that it lands in someone's garden, then whoever finds it isn't seen acting suspiciously.
There is still a ratio of contention on DSL so the situation where every user is downloading movies 24-7 at full speed can't happen. To begin with, DSL services will be used mainly by people doing big file transfers because they are the ones who get these things early on.
What I've been doing is getting the latest chart singles with P2P software and then spending money on stuff in record shop that's reduced to clear, even if I've never heard most of the tracks on the CD.
If you buy a computer with an OS pre-installed, any OS will do, including Linux because everything must have been set up to work. The choice between Windows and Linux is best made when building a new system (for people with no Linux experience). People with older machines (older than 3 years) might as well stick with Windows 98 SE.
The main thing to remember when using things like chatrooms is that if someone won't give you their phone number (by email or something else less public than chat) then answer the phone, they aren't worth going to meet in real life. That's the same for everybody, young or old, it's not the internet's fault that bad things happen.
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If installing things is so easy, why are there so few Linux distros where there is an option to simply install a bare desktop with no applications?
"User friendly" Windows lets you do this.
I did a clean install of XP Pro with SP2 (slipstreamed) and everything went well. But I already have an external firewall so nothing changed.
Then I came to install Nero 6.3 and it said there might be a problem installing this with SP2. So I just restored my old Windows XP (NO service packs) system rather than spend time installing all my other applications.
I noticed that after slipstreaming SP2, XP install no longer reports that a few files are missing (a few image files were missing from the "download edition" of XP Pro)
Hardware detection sometimes seems to be random or depending on the exact combination of devices.
The more PCI cards that are installed, the more unpredictable it becomes.
The best desktop Linux system I installed was Xandros on a machine using a very cheap motherboard (Syntax SV266) and no PCI cards (everything except a Radeon 7000 was onboard). I have the same motherboard in another system and Xandros won't even find the onboard network adaptor.
This is probably OK for someone who just wants to do things like listen to music, use the internet, write letters and print photos (USB printer works fine).
The 'toaster' should be built into a broadband modem/firewall/router. Or it should be part of a DVD player.
Just plug your monitor/TV, keyboard and mouse into this and use the internet.
Email and HTML doesn't change that often so there shouldn't be any need for a user to install software themselves.
Instant Messaging might be a problem because the protocols sometimes change. A Java client like ICQ's would solve this problem.
I don't have any anti-virus running or install any security updates or Windows service packs unless they are required by another application.
But then I have an external firewall and only use web-mail.
I'm more worried about my ISP or Microsoft themselves doing stuff with my personal data than some worm-writing person.
However cheap disk space is, there will still be the choice between 100,000 .wav files or 1,000,000 mp3s.
If you paid for the music then it should be a lossless format.
Windows XP is using about 70 MB of RAM (according to task manager) after booting up.
I've seen Windows 98 using around 100 MB once all the network services are installed.
I've also got a box running NT4 service pack 6 (there's no network installed) and it's reporting 16 MB used. NT4 at work is using > 100 MB (and a lot of machines still have 64 MB RAM!
98 is OK until you start using any network or USB stuff.
Can't you make as bootable CD using a Windows 98 boot disk as the floppy image (adding your drivers to this image), and then copy all the XP install files to that CD?
There will now be a "floppy disk" in drive A:
I've not needed to install RAID drivers etc. but I make all my XP install CDs like this.
Since many computer problems are caused by malware, wouldn't it be a good idea if a new application would not install until the crap was removed? This would work better for freeware because there isn't the problem with angry and confused customers demanding a refund when they get scary warning messages. Something like a file sharing program would be best to do this because they usually search your hard disk anyway.
The people who read articles about "Browser Wars" are probably using Linux or a Mac anyway so what difference does it make to MS?
ATRAC must sound worse than mp3 if you're converting your music collection from mp3 to ATRAC.
Also none of these formats are any good if the CD is copy "protected" and you're trying to transfer it to the player.
Since everything will be stored as links in an address book and all the real words used in domain names already, numbers might make a comeback.
Your local taxi firm might get 101.101.101.101 (or a longer IPV6 address).
If everybody had a domain name, they would end up like Hotmail addresses.
1. Use external hardware for security as much as possible (firewall, filtering web proxy, mail attachment remover could be put in one box).
2. The diskless PC. If the OS was loaded from read only media, none of this could happen (well if it did, rebooting would solve the problem every time).
I like to install quite a lot of software but for a lot of people, a "working PC" only needs web, mail, chat and a word processor.
Email is just another form of one to one communication like the telephone. Old email should be deleted, it was a private conversation.
But the industries are all keen on letting the deceased's family go on raking in the cash from decades old work which must be kept from the public domain at all costs.
ISPs could block port 25 by default unless you can prove you are an organisation which needs to run a mail server. Most people could manage to send by web mail, especially when they have high speed connections.
Another thing that is starting to pop up in search results are 'fake' search engines - like any other search engine they show a few lines of the pages they have found but the links go nowhere, they just launch popups. There is no facility to actually search for anything, the 'results' are already there, related to some popular keyword.
I found one of these sites while checking my own web's ranking with Google. They had used text off one of my pages as part of these 'search results'.
Make the search more useful with selectable result weightings based on
a)E-commerce type code - gets rid of amazon referral sites
b)Use of the copyright symbol - brings personal web pages to the top of the list
c)Too many links - mods down dodgy portals
d)Size of text blocks on page (would be in favour of an e-book)
Ultimately some kind of 'personality' rating for web pages.
Isn't money (or lack of it) more important than what game someone is playing?
It was reported in a newspaper that someone being followed by police across Europe was being tracked by their mobile phone signal even though the phone was switched off.
Don't suppose many people ever measure how much current their phone is drawing when "off", they aren't transmitting anything regularly (if there really was such a thing as a phone which could be tracked when off) because you would hear the interference to nearby audio equipment every time it transmitted.
There could be a very low current receiver switched on all the time waiting for a call from Big Brother (or else this receiver isn't on all the time, just at certain times, controlled by a real time clock syncronised with the network).
Phone batteries lose their charge over time without any load on them so would anybody notice?
Maybe we should take the battery off the phone when it is switched off.
A more secure method of distributing files to unknown persons is a DVD tied to the string of a helium balloon. The balloon can be launched discreetly at night from any location without a sound.
Preferably the wind should carry it towards a suburban area so that it lands in someone's garden, then whoever finds it isn't seen acting suspiciously.
There is still a ratio of contention on DSL so the situation where every user is downloading movies 24-7 at full speed can't happen.
To begin with, DSL services will be used mainly by people doing big file transfers because they are the ones who get these things early on.
What I've been doing is getting the latest chart singles with P2P software and then spending money on stuff in record shop that's reduced to clear, even if I've never heard most of the tracks on the CD.
If you buy a computer with an OS pre-installed, any OS will do, including Linux because everything must have been set up to work. The choice between Windows and Linux is best made when building a new system (for people with no Linux experience).
People with older machines (older than 3 years) might as well stick with Windows 98 SE.
The main thing to remember when using things like chatrooms is that if someone won't give you their phone number (by email or something else less public than chat) then answer the phone, they aren't worth going to meet in real life.
That's the same for everybody, young or old, it's not the internet's fault that bad things happen.