Also surprised about Firefox's 34.5%, compared to 20.1% for IE7 and 36.9% for IE6. If it were not for the split between IE7 and IE6, which totals 57% between them, it would look like Firefox is doing really well. So, Firefox is 34.5% compared to 57% for the later versions of IE. Most of those Firefox installations are probably on Windows boxes, with IE available also. Linux users most likely use Firefox, but since their overall numbers are so low compared to the Windows installations, they don't add a lot to the Firefox total of 34.5%. The 1% of the OS totals for Windows 98 indicates to me that a lot of those boxes are still in use, but are dropping fast. Probably can't get on the internet anymore where they can be tracked. These boxes might be used as word processors, or game boxes, and not have to get on the internet, where 98's not safe anymore. There was a huge number of 98' machines at one time. They took Windows 95 off the list when it dropped below 0.1%.
If all of this is true, then Microsoft has let everybody down, especially the purchasers of computers, mostly average people, who do not even know what Slashdot is, let alone "read it". So, they are not going to be forewarned before they buy a new PC, with Vista preinstalled. Microsoft knows all this. Vista has the Aero interface because Microsoft knows the buying public goes by "pretty is as pretty does" when shopping for a new computer. Imagine, buying a computer simply because it can run the "bubbles" screensaver we see so often, or whatever Microsoft wants to call it. People have been used to slow internet speeds forever, and now it begins to creep back in, even though they have spent $$ for a new machine. New laptops with 2 GB of RAM, imagine that, for only $800, going down to $600 if you send in the Rebates, another ripoff. That kind of memory power ought to almost guarantee fast download speeds, but not when the OS is defective.
That's it, a thumb was over the camera lens. Has to be. There are stars and galaxies everywhere in space, we have been told that since the 4th grade. You get a blank spot when your thumb is over the camera lens. Nothing to worry about, nothing changes. We get hot weather, cold weather, rain, etc. and this discovery will lead to nothing, no changes whatsoever. Remove the thumb and take another picture, then you will see all the stars and galaxies that have to be there.
Imagine the fun he'll have tweaking Linux. I suppose he'll have to learn how to do some coding, too. That might just be necessary to get some of those tweaks to work. I enjoy reading PC Magazine, even though I know they favor Microsoft's products. They did have something nice to say about GIMP once. So the magazine is not all just about Microsoft. They were trying to point out that there was some good free software alternatives.
I want to be fair, but today I am finding out that the Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse has a little bug when I run it on a PC with my Knoppix 3.4 remaster. Sometimes the cursor will jump around, all over the screen, but soon settles down. My Dell (Logitech) optical mouse does not do that. I tried it on two PC's same thing happens. Probably the knoppix driver, but it does correctly identify the mouse on boot-up. I'll reboot this machine into Fedora Core, and see how it performs there. Just an occasional bug, but makes me wonder if I would have had better luck with a more expensive mouse. I have two of these mice, and both react the same.
As a quick test, I unchecked Javascript in the preferences, and then clicked on some common news web sites. Seems to speed up the loading of the page quite a bit. I'm not missing anything, the content I wanted, shown in RSS feeds in Firefox, is shown. I can't use Adblocker since I have to restart Firefox to get it to work, and my Security and Control script will just delete ~/.mozilla when I close Firefox. That would remove the extension. I can run Firefox without the S&C script, but would have to configure all of the preferences, add some extensions, then on the next startup, use the menu item to run Firefox w/o the S&C active, rather than the toolbar icon for Firefox, which would use the S&C setup. If that's used, my custom-made ~/.mozilla gets deleted at browser startup, then any ~/.mozilla made while running Firefox gets deleted once again as Firefox is closed. Saves/ramdisk memory for those running off the CD. I do find it somewhat reassuring to automatically remove the ~/.mozilla in the system when Firefox is closed, especially after visiting sites requiring usernames and passwords, such as online banking, bill paying, and the like. I don't have any extensions for Firefox enabled by default in my knoppix remaster, screenshots below:
...offering nothing compelling and new with Vista.
There's one thing "new":
The new "widescreen" monitors, aside from a marketing ploy, i.e. 19" monitor, (but it is a "widescreen", with less screen than a real 19") came along to go with the "dock apps" that Vista has. Some place to put them. Clocks, etc. as "dock apps" are not new. I remastered Damn Small Linux (once upon a time) to include a bunch of them, by default, with neat menu items to control them. When I try running my knoppix remaster (See screenshots, below) on a widescreen monitor, my mouse cursor is "enlongated" (stretched longways). Some web pages have similar problems, not real serious, but a flaw that gets noticed. Thankfully the text remains OK. I have several mouse cursor themes built in, easy to switch between them, all are stretched longways when using a widescreen monitor. So, to me, the new "widescreen" monitor is the new "winmodem" to me. Something that Vista computers come with, that causes problems for linux. Just happens to be a way of saying "this is a 19" monitor", when it isn't, not as much screen real estate. Same as with the winmodem. Not a real hardware modem. Anyone else have any problems along this line when running Knoppix, Kanotix, etc?
There are a LOT more people who can write a userland tool than a kernel. That's why Linus gets a lot of credit, because there are few other people who could have done what he did.
Well said. and don't forget Klaus Knopper. Without his contribution, the world would be minus about 200 or so interesting and useful distros.
The list of dedicated, talented contributors goes on and on.
When I was a little kid in the 1940's and read comic books about space travel, the problem was the aliens and other bad guys, not the spaceship falling apart. Imagine the laughter in the comic book section of the corner drugstore if there was a story line like this. Not to worry about getting blasted by alien spacecraft, (with strange technology and shapes), the big problem is ice chunks damaging the outside of the space ship. Buck Rogers types scratching their heads over technical problems like this, that could be fatal. Back in that comic book time, space ships simply landed, no "reentry through the Earth's atmosphere, with the nose of the space ship turning red hot." The real problems once the space ship landed were usually something like this:
Taking on more ammo to return to space to continue the battle.
Telling everyone on Earth that the Aliens are coming.
Dealing with the mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, and girlfriends of the space ship pilots and crew. Scream Queens abound in these sections of the story.
Seemingly small technical problems like those being experienced for real by the Space Shuttle crew and ground support would seem like the "flat tire" scenes in movies and comic books, written into the script to provide a little humor as the hero and heroin face an all-to-common Earthly problem of the "flat tire" on their mode of transportation. I can just see it now, "Hey Peewee, Guess what! Buck Rogers spaceship has a dent in it, and he's up in space scratching his head over what to do" Comic books get tossed aside, kids run over to see what all the laughter is about. The space comic book writers of that time couldn't have envisioned what would really happen when Man Goes Into Outer Space.
I always wondered why one had to sit in the classroom to "learn" something like trig. The answer is simple: Teacher asks, "Who did problem No. 10?" Anyone? Then, one student says he did, and gets to put the problem/solution on the blackboard, requiring 3 if necessary, then the Teacher goes over the solution, and makes some corrections/alternate methods of solving the problem. Other answer is to "take tests", after all, the school is expected to give you a diploma based on your grades/courses.
Without math, how are students supposed to teach themselves problem solving? Also, how to deal with the reality of going after a solution, and never finding a solution. Need to be able to handle that. At least the student knows X number of ways that won't work.
Consumer's Reports is what we started to read to get a laugh after we got through reading Mad Magazine. They both attacked the establishment, and back in the late 50's and early 60's, we thought that was hilarious. Consumer's Reports told us that a certain car "rode like a log wagon", and steered like a "drunk was behind the wheel". The seats felt like "park benches". Getting in the back seat required one to "shrink to 1/3 your size". These are fictional examples, but typical of the attacks on the establishment that Consumer's Reports dished out in every issue. Not even a lowly coffee pot was safe from their critical reviews. Just one step away from being a Mad Magazine of Products. Great fun to read. They justified their reports by selecting one as a "best buy", but sometimes, none were acceptable, adding to the funny-factor. All these serious manufacturers making products that turned out to be downright dangerous, or totally useless for the intended purpose.
Now, on to the 'Net. Did Consumer's Reports draw any correlation between an OS like Windows, installed on a hard drive where Trojans can be placed, and the financial losses that they have reported? Sure, any OS can be used by the unsuspecting to fall for a trap on a web site. Back when comic books had advertisements in the back, one could "send off" for a "movie projector", at a very low price, only to get a cardboard one, that you placed over a table lamp. Excuse given for not sending the one in the advertisement, "Shortage of Metal, caused by the Korean War." Only now, Mac, Windows, Linux users can "send off" for rip offs like that via web sites, and the financial loss is not the fault of the OS. However, the "ability" of an OS to accept and retain Trojans, viruses, etc. that have as their purpose the stealing of passwords, credit card numbers, account numbers, etc. stored on a hard drive is the point that should be made when blaming an OS. In that case, the user is not choosing to "order something from a web site", and get ripped off when the product never shows up, or is not accurately represented. The computer is just turned on, and is attacked by not having an up-to-date virus scanner, or is attacked by a drive-by when visiting a link. Surely most of the loss reported by Consumers Reports is from Windows Computers, even if no Trojan or virus was present in the particular loss, the OS was just the one most computer owners were using when the rip-off purchase was made from a web site. That kind of loss is not really the fault of Windows. One could say that since Windows comes preinstalled, requiring no technical knowledge at all to get on the 'Net, then too many average people are able to use a computer to go on the internet, find web sites that can rip them off. They are simply exposed to more opportunities to buy items than they would if they just looked in magazines, or drove to stores. In a magazine, if it is a well-known magazine, advertisements may tend to be more from trustworthy companies. On the 'Net, all web sites stand alone, unless linked from a trustworthy site. Consumer's Reports may not be drawing all of these conclusions, and may just be blaming the losses on the 'Net, rather than on the consumer, and the OS. I didn't RTFA, but I doubt that the Consumer's Reports that I have known all these years would put the blame on the computer users themselves, rather than on the established 'Net, OS providers, and computer manufacturers. CR tends to say, "This product is faulty, you should not buy it", rather than "This is a good product in the right hands, most of you are not using it right, and are going to get ripped off"
Usually the latest and greatest Windows OS comes preloaded on PC's at the store. Since the processor and memory (and graphics) required to run Vista decently have been upped, I doubt very many will be wanting to add Vista to whatever PC they already have, unless one is able to build a PC from the ground up, that being more expensive than just buying one. You buy one, Vista comes preloaded, and the processor and memory, etc. are up to par. So, the price is not of primary importance, but would be if we all had Vista capable PC's, with no Vista installed. I wonder if the Chinese have that. Another point, "can we just show Microsoft our pay check stubs, and get a price structured accordingly?" Although the "average" income here is $36000, not many really make that. If we don't make $36000, then we cannot afford a place for a computer (with Vista), pay the electric bill, pay for broadband, pay for everything we might need to make our little Vista Computer feel at home? Individuals making "minimum wage" or a dollar of so above that may not be able to provide a decent home, with a table and chair, for the Vista Computer, that is first of all "safe" from break-ins, wherein the computer would be stolen. Microsoft does provide free computers to libraries, where "working poor people" can go and get their web-based email. That's good of Microsoft. How many of the working poor are going to just install free linux software on whatever old PC they have? If Microsoft was worried about that, then the price of Vista would fall in the USA, as it has in China. On top of that, Microsoft would have to provide the computer itself to the working poor at a "reduced price", not just give a nice price cut to the Vista software. Again, Vista would have to be preinstalled, preventing the poor from just selling the "reduced-price" Vista software they obtained, just to pay some other bill, such as "rent", "groceries", "utilities". If Microsoft is so concerned about providing the poor of China with their software, then the same pricing policies should be applied here.
Very exciting looking car. Much more practical than a small motorcycle or scooter, these pop up for sale everywhere when gas prices go up. Now, how much is it? If it's too much, then people will just go to Nissan or Honda and ask to see something with a little more power, that can survive on the Interstate Highway System. It's not what a car costs, it is how much per month. You drive it until it needs too many repairs, tires, etc. then trade it in. You are never without a car payment. Not safe to get on the main roads in an old car. Get caught in a sudden downpour? You need a really safe car to get you through that. These little cute cars get lots of attention, but one week behind the wheel, in your daily routine, and you'll find out that you may need more than average skills to stay alive, for one thing. Is the average driver going to be able to measure up? Price is no object, just want the small electric car to drive to the store, just around the neighborhood, presuming that you have a nice neighborhood to drive around in. Wouldn't that get old? How about insurance. That costs plenty in most locations. Cops stop odd looking non-mainstream vehicles, especially if they dart around in traffic, attracting attention. Need to have that insurance card ready. Also, don't plan on taking this car out late at night, drunks are out there, and due to it's small size, you lose in a crash. What about service? Nissan takes good care of you, visit one of their dealerships and take a look around. Here's a page on the Nissan Versa. This car has plenty of power, take a look at the photo of the engine at that site. It'll run. Another alternative is Kia, here is a neat little car that comes with 15" wheels, better to take those rough roads, compared to the small wheels on the electric car. Just a reality check here, don't mean to discourage anyone wanting one of these electric cars of the future. After you tell all your friends that you are saving energy by driving an electric car, that will soon wear off, they will get tired of listening to you. What do you want the car for, to be able to brag about it, or to drive it. So, you can tell everybody that lots of people in Norway drive this car, all they are going to say is that in Norway, they are going to get stuck in a snowbank in that little car.
I tried NoScript with Firefox in my knoppix remaster. Had to take it out, too much trouble to use Firefox with the NoScript extension, for the average user. Does work, however, and if you are enough of a geek, you'll get used to it. I doubt NoScript is needed with a livecd linux, but would be useful for Windows. Would turn the tables on "desktop adoption". A linux desktop with Firefox such as I provide in the Remaster, is much easier to live with for non-techie users, compared to a Windows desktop with Firefox/NoScript.
In Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux, my livecd linux distro, I always set up Firefox _not_ to remember passwords. I put Firefox 2.0.0.5 in the Remaster just last week. Also, when the user closes Firefox, I have it set up so the entire ~/.mozilla is deleted. I presume that is where any password would reside. In the event of a Firefox crash, the ~/.mozilla is not deleted without an OK from the user. There is a dialog box that comes up and asks "Did you want to close Firefox?". So, even though I do have Javascript enabled, I would assume from the discussion that the current, "in-use" password is safe. Usually, when I do online banking, I follow the recommendation to "close the browser", and with the above setup where ~/.mozilla is deleted, I should be safe.
Right now I am running Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.5 on a Dual Pentium Pro machine, 200 MHZ, with about 800 total bogomips, 256 MB of RAM, the older kind, 72 pin. Using my Knoppix remaster, link here. Firefox performs very well, not slow at all. I'm using the 2.4 kernel, not the 2.6 one, so I gain a lot of speed that way. Also, I can run the entire OS from a USB flash memory drive, here's the link on the setup. The usb drive will have 4 partitions, including a swap partition. Firefox is a bit slower when running the OS from the SanDisk usb drive compared to a 7200 RPM hard drive. It is cool to run the OS that way, nothing is "saved" on the hard drive, when done, just unplug the usb drive and put it in your pocket. I find that most Pentium II's, AMD K6-2's will run my knoppix remaster if there is 128 MB of RAM or better. These are "older" computers, some have the Windows 95 sticker on them, most were shipped with Win 98. These machines are dirt cheap. Lots of them have 4 to 6 GB hard drives. Although my remaster is a livecd linux, with the USB drive, one can "install" linux without using a CDROM drive, even if you have to temporarily install a Belkin USB 2.0 5-Port PCI Card to gain access to the hard drive, link here on that. A lot of these older computers are going to have slow or broken CDROM drives, so you do without. Once you manage to get booted up using the USB drive, you can partition the hard drive with QTParted, copy the files there, and then use the loadlin/MSDOS menu to boot from the hard drive for normal use. You want to preserve the Windows installation so you'll have DOS.
Ah, TV in the 50's. Jackie Gleason broke his leg just moments into his show, doing a little jig across the stage. It was live. He fell, just laid there, then a hand reached under the curtain from backstage, and dragged him under the curtain and out of sight of the audience. He was injured, but they did not say much about it. The rest of the show was pretty much a blank, no commercials to run, and we had to wait until the next show came on, in about 20 minutes or so. The next week, when his show returned, they explained what had happened and Jackie had to drop his signature onstage jig from then on.
Next one:
John Cameron Swayze, who had a nightly news show, did a live Timex wristwatch commercial involving a watch strapped to the propeller of an outboard motor mounted in a barrel. The motor could be tilted up and out of the tank just like it would be when mounted on the back of a boat. He showed the audience that the watch was mounted on the propeller, submerged it, and cranked up the motor, giving the throttle a good twist, revving up the motor. Then stopping the motor, and tilting it up, camera zoomed in on the propellor to be seen by all, he had a look of horror on his face as the watch was gone. Peered down into the tank. It was quite a laugh, but most felt sorry for him as he was well liked by the television audience. He recovered somewhat, but it was obvious to everyone that the test was a disaster.
The next night, re-did the commercial, this time following the engineers instructions on not revving up the outboard motor so much, as the watch was slung off the propeller in the first test. The watch survived the second night's test, and he pointed out that it was the same watch that was "tested" the night before. We all took his word for it. I believe the crystal was somewhat cracked, but the watch stayed water-tight. I don't remember him fishing the watch out of the tank the first night to see if it was unharmed, the tank was too deep. Timex watches in those days were rather big, did not have jeweled bearings, and could not compare to 17 jewel watches that were more expensive, and more accurate. 21 jewel watches were even better, and most of these were fairly thin, compared to the bulky Timex. So, it was tough on a Timex to endure a test like the one John Cameron Swayze did on his show, the weight worked against the watch riding on a fast-moving outboard motor propeller.
I'm sitting here with a couple of old desktops, that I obtained at very little cost.
The one I'm on now is a dual pentium pro, with 256 MB of RAM. Once, I had it loaded up with so many cards that the power supply to motherboard connectors burned. I fixed that, with spare ones, soldered in, from another power supply. Point is, I am constantly working on this box, and so far, am able to fix it, due to it's size, compared to a laptop. Decided to put two power supplies in it, so they split the workload, and not all of the power goes through the weak motherboard connnectors. It's a gamble, alright. Last thing I added was a 5 port USB 2.0 card, so I could plug in my USB mouse, and my Sandisk cruzer USB drives. I'm able to run my knoppix remaster from one of those drives, I have it partitioned as follows:
A partition for the main KNOPPIX folder, this is the CD.
A partition for a persistent home directory, that works like a hard drive, automatically adding stuff as you go along.
A separate partition as an "Extra Partition", that you can store things you want to put there, and as a swap area for GIMP and K3B.
A linux swap partition, this always gets mounted, unless you decide to "swapoff -v/dev/sda7" or something like that.
So, I like to modify my desktops, adding memory, swapping cards, removing memory, and so on. Not much invested in the base machine, so if I tear it up, not much is lost. I have a couple of older laptops, the newest one cost $2,100.00 when new, and only has 160 MB of RAM, and one USB port. Graphics is only 2 MB, so 1024x768 with my knoppix remaster is not going to happen. I still try and work with it, however, now I need a PCMCIA network card, so I can run a cable from my router to it. Not very upgradeable, really.
The other desktop is a HP Pavilion 8250, cost me $20.00, was very clean, and I maxed out the RAM for only $51.00. I put a used 40 GB HDD in it for the main drive, and have Fedora Core there. Works very well, runs Opera 9.21 just like a more expensive machine. Naturally, I can also dual boot my remaster, run from the hard drive, or from a USB drive, take your choice. These files are how I do that, it's a loadlin/MSDOS menu setup. You will notice that there are two tarballs there, the latest one, dated 06-22-07 includes the USB drive as a choice. A big readme is included, so you can get all the details.
In summary, there are lots of desktops out there, just when I think that I have located a really clean one, for practically nothing, another one comes along. So many are Windows 98 machines. Once, I had an IBM PS-1, 32 MB of RAM, dirt slow 25 mhz bus, and I managed to put Redhat 6.1 on it. Here's a link to an older page of mine where I show a dial-up application I made to allow Redhat 6.1 to connect to the internet if one cannot run KDE very well, with KPPP. I was able to get RHL installed on a very small hard drive, about 250 MB. I paid $5.00 for the PS-1, got it at a thrift store, someone had put it in a closet for years, then donated it, very little wear and tear, practically new. Later, I figured out that one could make a nice lilo RHL 6.1 hard drive on a faster machine, then just plug it into the cables on an old dog like the PS-1, and be up and running in a few minutes. So easy to get into the case on a PS-1, just grab the little button under the top-front, and pull, and off comes your case! Takes two seconds! Endless fun for us to play with older desktops, they are plentiful and cheap. And, with something like my knoppix remaster, you can run Firefox 2.0.0.5 on many of them!
And, yes, I have Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.5 already. Another rule broken, put a slightly out-of-date Firefox in there.
Also my remastering scripts really work, only one question is asked, what partition do you want to put your "Master Copy" in, so you can go to work on it, and when you're ready to make that new.iso, same question, what partition is your "Master Copy" in. (You might have several) Answer that, and soon, your.iso is ready for burning to a CD. Comes with complete instructions, too. Processing time on a P4 with 1 GB RAM is about 20-25 minutes, over an hour on a Pentium II. I've run it hundreds of times on a dual Pentium Pro. Never fails. Perhaps I have broken a rule there, by allowing users to fork off their own distro, that would have some of the things they want in it.
Another rule broken is that I provide emelFM as a file manager, far superior in ease of use to Konqueror, but I have KDE and Konqueror too, it does have it's uses.
The rule that linux distros have so-so fonts is broken:
The web pages displayed in Mozilla Firefox running on the Remaster look better than they do when running Firefox on Windows Vista. I have the fonts, and that does the trick. OEM Knoppix scales down the included font packages, resulting in rough-looking web pages, not professional enough for me. My ~/.fonts.cache-1 is only 32 bytes because it simlinks to the real one of 304.70 KB in the CD, so my available/ramdisk does not take a hit because I have a lot of fonts installed. My default/ramdisk is only 564 (out of 199072 on this box), and stays that way if I use a "persistent home" partition. That's below 1% of/ramdisk.
I have fun stuff, too. My "Wallpaper Control Center" completely manages downloaded and built-in wallpaper images, has a large GUI, and over 35 different scripts to do the work. Nobody else has it, they have to manage their wallpaper collections the hard way. This is so fast, easy, foolproof, it's fun! Another rule broken, "nothing new".
And, a "more secure way of running linux", Check my Blog for how to run the Remaster directly from a Sandisk USB drive on an older computer. Free download of files needed to get started. Look them over to see what this is all about.
Well, considering that we taxpayers pay the FBI via our income taxes to do something about threats of all kinds, then I suppose they can do what they want to get these threats stopped before something bad happens. Apparently, they are talking about the Windows OS, namely XP, Vista and other Windows OS's. Those can be infected, and as some have said, infected by the bad guys as well as the FBI.
How about livecd linux, such as Knoppix?
I have a remaster of Knoppix 3.4, in fact it is highly modified, one area is security. Without trying to go through all of the details in this post, those interested can look over my Getting Started Guide, that's placed in the CD, and on the internet. I fixed my remaster for that level of security primarily for those using the internet to do online banking, web purchases, bill payment, and investment website work such as with Merrill Lynch, etc. If that is not enough, check my Blog for information on running the Remaster from a 2 or 4 GB SanDisk Ready Boost cruzer USB drive. When you can put all of it in your pocket as you walk away from your computer, that's secure!
I'm using Comcast, only problem is how expensive it is, but I'm glad I don't have to use dialup. Didn't know there was a problem with Firefox, I run my knoppix remaster all the time, on several computers, and use Firefox 2.0.0.4. (Also can use Opera and Flock). When the Comcast man came and ran my cable, I did use XP, but could have booted that box into linux, and did, so he could see how that went. Very interested, and so I gave him a CD. I was able to answer a lot of questions for him that his customers ask. I have some bad trees in my yard, always dropping big limbs, taking the cable line down. They always come and put it back up and give me no problems. I have added a router, on my own, and have run several cables myself, still no problems. When I had dial-up, that cost about half what cable internet does for not much speed. For my knoppix remaster, I made a little interface to "connect" and "disconnect" the broadband, put that in the IceWM toolbar and the menu. Sometimes I forget to turn on the surge-protector for the cable modem and router, and that little application does the trick. You know, IceWM will show you if you are connected on the toolbar, next to the cpu monitor. Try all that with Fedora. I have set up one of my applications to run in Fedora Core, but have not gotten around to the "Broadband/Network Connection Control" as yet. I have always written my own dial-up "wizards" and controls, too bad all that neat work now goes to waste on my computers. Lots of details in this document, the Getting Started Guide that I put in the remaster.
All that is required when you shut down the computer is to take the usb drive with you, just unplug it, and put it in your pocket. Now, the computer does not have any of your personal financial files, they are stored on the usb drive. There is absolutely no trace left.
This is a livecd linux, being run from a partitioned usb drive. (Even the swap partition is included)
I did have a bank account broken into some years ago, so if I am developing and using a linux system like this, then I have a reason to do so.
In addition to using a removable usb drive, I run the web browsers, Firefox, Opera and Flock within a secure setup as detailed here:
This document will need to be searched using Edit -> "Find in this page", keyword "Security and Control Script" to locate all of the text concerning the secure setups for the web browsers.
I also have the Guarddog firewall "on" by default with common protocols, the user does not have to do anything to enable it.
I looked through the other entries besides the "winning" propeller bike, the last one being a "Dog-powered" scooter. They have a large frisky dog hooked up to it, on the side, so the driver can steer the scooter, rather than give commands to the dog. Looks ok, if we can use dogs to power sleds, then this one would do also. Only problem is when the dog goes after a cat, then you are in for a wild ride.
With Vista, be careful installing applications that are left over from the XP days. I know of one, Labview 7.1 that can render a Vista laptop unbootable. Fortunately, with Dell, you get a "just as it left the factory" reinstall image, that you can use to put the hard drive back like it was, then it will boot. I just know of it, didn't do it myself, but there is supposed to be a keypress combination that will get that done for you, no need to use the "restoration CD", as this is obtained from the hidden restoration partition. Call Dell support if you find that this restoration is required, and you are in business.
The wonderful thing about Dell's with Ubuntu, is all of the hardware works, so you are good to go. No so if you just pick out a laptop in the store, take it home, and try and install a distro on it yourself. You get some added value with Dell.
In the mainstream, this can easily get spun as the iPhone is extremely insecure, and has been "broken into", causing normal people to steer very clear.
That's a shame, really, because this device seems to be way ahead of a lot of mobile phones, blackberrys, etc. and the sales thereof should keep Apple in business for a long time, giving a nice balance to the marketplace. I have an old Macintosh Quadra 660AV, and still appreciate some of the things that it can do. The iPhone really seems to be much more of a "must-have" than the iPod series of devices. From what I gather, the iPhone can do all iPod can and much more. Distinguished from a small mp3 player, the iPods have a decent screen where you can pick your song do other things with your playlist, rather than just play the songs one after another. Apple has sold 100 million of them, really remarkable. Here's Apple's statement on the iPod success:
CUPERTINO, California--April 9, 2007--Apple® today announced that the 100 millionth iPod® has been sold, making the iPod the fastest selling music player in history. The first iPod was sold five and a half years ago, in November 2001, and since then Apple has introduced more than 10 new iPod models, including five generations of iPod, two generations of iPod mini, two generations of iPod nano and two generations of iPod shuffle. Along with iTunes® and the iTunes online music store, the iPod has transformed how tens of millions of music lovers acquire, manage and listen to their music.
Based on that, and considering that the iPhone is higher in price, they should at least sell half as many before the next big thing comes out.
Hopefully, this "root password hack" item will not go very far. I, like many others am impressed at how dramatic this latest creation from Apple appears. I say, give credit where credit is due. All of us that enjoy what PC's bring to us, with linux (and windows), must remember that our PC's weigh a ton, and except for the laptops (high price, no expansion), would be impossible to carry around from place to place. My HP Pavilion 8250 and Gateway2000 EV900 monitor does weigh a ton, and is tethered to power and ethernet cables, mouse, keyboard and all. Nowhere near as portable a web surfing device as the iPhone. The fact that the IPhone has the potential for 10's of millions of sales, and is so portable compared to a web surfing, music playing PC is what is revolutionary about the iPhone.
Sorry to sound like an Apple fanboy, but that's my take on it.
Well, when you buy Windows, based on what we have read here about Vista, then the "bug information transmittals" go with the territory. Sure, Windows is preinstalled on computers in the stores, but there are alternative operating systems you can use, that are fairly easy to run. I'm talking about the "livecd" linux variety, of which there are many, many variations. Mine is one, here is the Getting Started Guide, and you may view the screenshots, link below: Several posters in this topic have said that the Vista "phone home" setup probably uses a lot of processing power, as does the nice looking Aero interface. Hence the move to dual core processors, and 1 or 2 GB of RAM. I say, use your older computer, I am running my livecd linux OS on a HP Pavilion 8250, and it's really very nice. I paid $20.00 for this computer, snapped it up since it was so clean inside. Added RAM, $51.00, and an ethernet card, about $15.00. I'm using Opera 9.10 right now, and also have Firefox 2.0.0.4 and Flock 0.7.14 that can be used. All three of these are set up to completely delete the entire ~/.opera, ~/.mozilla or ~/.flock when the browsers are closed. No trace of your web-surfing remains on the computer while it is running. I have a blog that explains how to use a Sandisk cruzer usb drive, 2 or 4 GB to run the OS, and testing is ongoing (fun for me), using the HP computer mentioned above. Unplug the usb drive, put it in your pocket, and your files go with you. If you do online banking or credit card management, and save files as needed, then this is a good measure of protection for your data and files. One of the tests involves opening 20 image files with GIMP, and seeing if the little usb drive can handle that. It can, since I have a swap partition on the usb drive.
Slashdot Mirror
Also surprised about Firefox's 34.5%, compared to 20.1% for IE7 and 36.9% for IE6.
If it were not for the split between IE7 and IE6, which totals 57% between them, it would look like Firefox is doing really well.
So, Firefox is 34.5% compared to 57% for the later versions of IE.
Most of those Firefox installations are probably on Windows boxes, with IE available also.
Linux users most likely use Firefox, but since their overall numbers are so low compared to the Windows installations, they don't add a lot to the Firefox total of 34.5%.
The 1% of the OS totals for Windows 98 indicates to me that a lot of those boxes are still in use, but are dropping fast. Probably can't get on the internet anymore where they can be tracked. These boxes might be used as word processors, or game boxes, and not have to get on the internet, where 98's not safe anymore. There was a huge number of 98' machines at one time. They took Windows 95 off the list when it dropped below 0.1%.
If all of this is true, then Microsoft has let everybody down, especially the purchasers of computers, mostly average people, who do not even know what Slashdot is, let alone "read it".
So, they are not going to be forewarned before they buy a new PC, with Vista preinstalled.
Microsoft knows all this.
Vista has the Aero interface because Microsoft knows the buying public goes by "pretty is as pretty does" when shopping for a new computer. Imagine, buying a computer simply because it can run the "bubbles" screensaver we see so often, or whatever Microsoft wants to call it.
People have been used to slow internet speeds forever, and now it begins to creep back in, even though they have spent $$ for a new machine.
New laptops with 2 GB of RAM, imagine that, for only $800, going down to $600 if you send in the Rebates, another ripoff. That kind of memory power ought to almost guarantee fast download speeds, but not when the OS is defective.
-- Rapidweather
That's it, a thumb was over the camera lens. Has to be. There are stars and galaxies everywhere in space, we have been told that since the 4th grade.
You get a blank spot when your thumb is over the camera lens. Nothing to worry about, nothing changes. We get hot weather, cold weather, rain, etc. and this discovery will lead to nothing, no changes whatsoever.
Remove the thumb and take another picture, then you will see all the stars and galaxies that have to be there.
(Friday Evening Joke)
-- Rapidweather
Imagine the fun he'll have tweaking Linux. I suppose he'll have to learn how to do some coding, too. That might just be necessary to get some of those tweaks to work. I enjoy reading PC Magazine, even though I know they favor Microsoft's products. They did have something nice to say about GIMP once.
So the magazine is not all just about Microsoft. They were trying to point out that there was some good free software alternatives.
I want to be fair, but today I am finding out that the Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse has a little bug when I run it on a PC with my Knoppix 3.4 remaster. Sometimes the cursor will jump around, all over the screen, but soon settles down. My Dell (Logitech) optical mouse does not do that. I tried it on two PC's same thing happens. Probably the knoppix driver, but it does correctly identify the mouse on boot-up. I'll reboot this machine into Fedora Core, and see how it performs there. Just an occasional bug, but makes me wonder if I would have had better luck with a more expensive mouse. I have two of these mice, and both react the same.
Rapidweather
As a quick test, I unchecked Javascript in the preferences, and then clicked on some common news web sites. Seems to speed up the loading of the page quite a bit. I'm not missing anything, the content I wanted, shown in RSS feeds in Firefox, is shown. /ramdisk memory for those running off the CD.
I can't use Adblocker since I have to restart Firefox to get it to work, and my
Security and Control script will just delete ~/.mozilla when I close Firefox. That would remove the extension.
I can run Firefox without the S&C script, but would have to configure all of the preferences, add some extensions, then on the next startup, use the menu item to run Firefox w/o the S&C active, rather than the toolbar icon for Firefox, which would use the S&C setup. If that's used, my custom-made ~/.mozilla gets deleted at browser startup, then any ~/.mozilla made while running Firefox gets deleted once again as Firefox is closed. Saves
I do find it somewhat reassuring to automatically remove the ~/.mozilla in the system when Firefox is closed, especially after visiting sites requiring usernames and passwords, such as online banking, bill paying, and the like.
I don't have any extensions for Firefox enabled by default in my knoppix remaster, screenshots below:
Rapidweather
There's one thing "new":
The new "widescreen" monitors, aside from a marketing ploy, i.e. 19" monitor, (but it is a "widescreen", with less screen than a real 19") came along to go with the "dock apps" that Vista has. Some place to put them. Clocks, etc. as "dock apps" are not new. I remastered Damn Small Linux (once upon a time) to include a bunch of them, by default, with neat menu items to control them.
When I try running my knoppix remaster (See screenshots, below) on a widescreen monitor, my mouse cursor is "enlongated" (stretched longways). Some web pages have similar problems, not real serious, but a flaw that gets noticed. Thankfully the text remains OK. I have several mouse cursor themes built in, easy to switch between them, all are stretched longways when using a widescreen monitor.
So, to me, the new "widescreen" monitor is the new "winmodem" to me. Something that Vista computers come with, that causes problems for linux. Just happens to be a way of saying "this is a 19" monitor", when it isn't, not as much screen real estate. Same as with the winmodem. Not a real hardware modem.
Anyone else have any problems along this line when running Knoppix, Kanotix, etc?
Rapidweather
Well said. and don't forget Klaus Knopper. Without his contribution, the world would be minus about 200 or so interesting and useful distros.
The list of dedicated, talented contributors goes on and on.
Imagine the laughter in the comic book section of the corner drugstore if there was a story line like this. Not to worry about getting blasted by alien spacecraft, (with strange technology and shapes), the big problem is ice chunks damaging the outside of the space ship. Buck Rogers types scratching their heads over technical problems like this, that could be fatal. Back in that comic book time, space ships simply landed, no "reentry through the Earth's atmosphere, with the nose of the space ship turning red hot."
The real problems once the space ship landed were usually something like this:
Seemingly small technical problems like those being experienced for real by the Space Shuttle crew and ground support would seem like the "flat tire" scenes in movies and comic books, written into the script to provide a little humor as the hero and heroin face an all-to-common Earthly problem of the "flat tire" on their mode of transportation.
I can just see it now, "Hey Peewee, Guess what! Buck Rogers spaceship has a dent in it, and he's up in space scratching his head over what to do"
Comic books get tossed aside, kids run over to see what all the laughter is about.
The space comic book writers of that time couldn't have envisioned what would really happen when Man Goes Into Outer Space.
Rapidweather
I always wondered why one had to sit in the classroom to "learn" something like trig.
The answer is simple: Teacher asks, "Who did problem No. 10?" Anyone? Then, one student says he did, and gets to put the problem/solution on the blackboard, requiring 3 if necessary, then the Teacher goes over the solution, and makes some corrections/alternate methods of solving the problem.
Other answer is to "take tests", after all, the school is expected to give you a diploma based on your grades/courses.
Without math, how are students supposed to teach themselves problem solving?
Also, how to deal with the reality of going after a solution, and never finding a solution. Need to be able to handle that. At least the student knows X number of ways that won't work.
Rapidweather
Consumer's Reports is what we started to read to get a laugh after we got through reading Mad Magazine. They both attacked the establishment, and back in the late 50's and early 60's, we thought that was hilarious. Consumer's Reports told us that a certain car "rode like a log wagon", and steered like a "drunk was behind the wheel". The seats felt like "park benches". Getting in the back seat required one to "shrink to 1/3 your size".
These are fictional examples, but typical of the attacks on the establishment that Consumer's Reports dished out in every issue. Not even a lowly coffee pot was safe from their critical reviews.
Just one step away from being a Mad Magazine of Products. Great fun to read.
They justified their reports by selecting one as a "best buy", but sometimes, none were acceptable, adding to the funny-factor. All these serious manufacturers making products that turned out to be downright dangerous, or totally useless for the intended purpose.
Now, on to the 'Net. Did Consumer's Reports draw any correlation between an OS like Windows, installed on a hard drive where Trojans can be placed, and the financial losses that they have reported? Sure, any OS can be used by the unsuspecting to fall for a trap on a web site. Back when comic books had advertisements in the back, one could "send off" for a "movie projector", at a very low price, only to get a cardboard one, that you placed over a table lamp. Excuse given for not sending the one in the advertisement, "Shortage of Metal, caused by the Korean War."
Only now, Mac, Windows, Linux users can "send off" for rip offs like that via web sites, and the financial loss is not the fault of the OS.
However, the "ability" of an OS to accept and retain Trojans, viruses, etc. that have as their purpose the stealing of passwords, credit card numbers, account numbers, etc. stored on a hard drive is the point that should be made when blaming an OS. In that case, the user is not choosing to "order something from a web site", and get ripped off when the product never shows up, or is not accurately represented. The computer is just turned on, and is attacked by not having an up-to-date virus scanner, or is attacked by a drive-by when visiting a link.
Surely most of the loss reported by Consumers Reports is from Windows Computers, even if no Trojan or virus was present in the particular loss, the OS was just the one most computer owners were using when the rip-off purchase was made from a web site. That kind of loss is not really the fault of Windows. One could say that since Windows comes preinstalled, requiring no technical knowledge at all to get on the 'Net, then too many average people are able to use a computer to go on the internet, find web sites that can rip them off. They are simply exposed to more opportunities to buy items than they would if they just looked in magazines, or drove to stores.
In a magazine, if it is a well-known magazine, advertisements may tend to be more from trustworthy companies. On the 'Net, all web sites stand alone, unless linked from a trustworthy site.
Consumer's Reports may not be drawing all of these conclusions, and may just be blaming the losses on the 'Net, rather than on the consumer, and the OS.
I didn't RTFA, but I doubt that the Consumer's Reports that I have known all these years would put the blame on the computer users themselves, rather than on the established 'Net, OS providers, and computer manufacturers. CR tends to say, "This product is faulty, you should not buy it", rather than "This is a good product in the right hands, most of you are not using it right, and are going to get ripped off"
Rapidweather
Usually the latest and greatest Windows OS comes preloaded on PC's at the store.
Since the processor and memory (and graphics) required to run Vista decently have been upped, I doubt very many will be wanting to add Vista to whatever PC they already have, unless one is able to build a PC from the ground up, that being more expensive than just buying one. You buy one, Vista comes preloaded, and the processor and memory, etc. are up to par.
So, the price is not of primary importance, but would be if we all had Vista capable PC's, with no Vista installed. I wonder if the Chinese have that.
Another point, "can we just show Microsoft our pay check stubs, and get a price structured accordingly?" Although the "average" income here is $36000, not many really make that. If we don't make $36000, then we cannot afford a place for a computer (with Vista), pay the electric bill, pay for broadband, pay for everything we might need to make our little Vista Computer feel at home?
Individuals making "minimum wage" or a dollar of so above that may not be able to provide a decent home, with a table and chair, for the Vista Computer, that is first of all "safe" from break-ins, wherein the computer would be stolen.
Microsoft does provide free computers to libraries, where "working poor people" can go and get their web-based email. That's good of Microsoft.
How many of the working poor are going to just install free linux software on whatever old PC they have? If Microsoft was worried about that, then the price of Vista would fall in the USA, as it has in China.
On top of that, Microsoft would have to provide the computer itself to the working poor at a "reduced price", not just give a nice price cut to the Vista software. Again, Vista would have to be preinstalled, preventing the poor from just selling the "reduced-price" Vista software they obtained, just to pay some other bill, such as "rent", "groceries", "utilities".
If Microsoft is so concerned about providing the poor of China with their software, then the same pricing policies should be applied here.
Very exciting looking car. Much more practical than a small motorcycle or scooter, these pop up for sale everywhere when gas prices go up. Now, how much is it?
If it's too much, then people will just go to Nissan or Honda and ask to see something with a little more power, that can survive on the Interstate Highway System. It's not what a car costs, it is how much per month. You drive it until it needs too many repairs, tires, etc. then trade it in. You are never without a car payment. Not safe to get on the main roads in an old car. Get caught in a sudden downpour? You need a really safe car to get you through that.
These little cute cars get lots of attention, but one week behind the wheel, in your daily routine, and you'll find out that you may need more than average skills to stay alive, for one thing. Is the average driver going to be able to measure up?
Price is no object, just want the small electric car to drive to the store, just around the neighborhood, presuming that you have a nice neighborhood to drive around in. Wouldn't that get old? How about insurance. That costs plenty in most locations. Cops stop odd looking non-mainstream vehicles, especially if they dart around in traffic, attracting attention. Need to have that insurance card ready.
Also, don't plan on taking this car out late at night, drunks are out there, and due to it's small size, you lose in a crash.
What about service? Nissan takes good care of you, visit one of their dealerships and take a look around. Here's a page on the Nissan Versa. This car has plenty of power, take a look at the photo of the engine at that site. It'll run.
Another alternative is Kia, here is a neat little car that comes with 15" wheels, better to take those rough roads, compared to the small wheels on the electric car.
Just a reality check here, don't mean to discourage anyone wanting one of these electric cars of the future. After you tell all your friends that you are saving energy by driving an electric car, that will soon wear off, they will get tired of listening to you. What do you want the car for, to be able to brag about it, or to drive it. So, you can tell everybody that lots of people in Norway drive this car, all they are going to say is that in Norway, they are going to get stuck in a snowbank in that little car.
Rapidweather
I tried NoScript with Firefox in my knoppix remaster. Had to take it out, too much trouble to use Firefox with the NoScript extension, for the average user. Does work, however, and if you are enough of a geek, you'll get used to it. I doubt NoScript is needed with a livecd linux, but would be useful for Windows. Would turn the tables on "desktop adoption".
A linux desktop with Firefox such as I provide in the Remaster, is much easier to live with for non-techie users, compared to a Windows desktop with Firefox/NoScript.
Rapidweather
In Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux, my livecd linux distro, I always set up Firefox _not_ to remember passwords.
I put Firefox 2.0.0.5 in the Remaster just last week.
Also, when the user closes Firefox, I have it set up so the entire ~/.mozilla is deleted. I presume that is where any password would reside. In the event of a Firefox crash, the ~/.mozilla is not deleted without an OK from the user. There is a dialog box that comes up and asks "Did you want to close Firefox?".
So, even though I do have Javascript enabled, I would assume from the discussion that the current, "in-use" password is safe. Usually, when I do online banking, I follow the recommendation to "close the browser", and with the above setup where ~/.mozilla is deleted, I should be safe.
Rapidweather
Right now I am running Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.5 on a Dual Pentium Pro machine, 200 MHZ, with about 800 total bogomips, 256 MB of RAM, the older kind, 72 pin.
Using my Knoppix remaster, link here.
Firefox performs very well, not slow at all. I'm using the 2.4 kernel, not the 2.6 one, so I gain a lot of speed that way.
Also, I can run the entire OS from a USB flash memory drive, here's the link on the setup. The usb drive will have 4 partitions, including a swap partition.
Firefox is a bit slower when running the OS from the SanDisk usb drive compared to a 7200 RPM hard drive.
It is cool to run the OS that way, nothing is "saved" on the hard drive, when done, just unplug the usb drive and put it in your pocket.
I find that most Pentium II's, AMD K6-2's will run my knoppix remaster if there is 128 MB of RAM or better.
These are "older" computers, some have the Windows 95 sticker on them, most were shipped with Win 98. These machines are dirt cheap. Lots of them have 4 to 6 GB hard drives.
Although my remaster is a livecd linux, with the USB drive, one can "install" linux without using a CDROM drive, even if you have to temporarily install a Belkin USB 2.0 5-Port PCI Card to gain access to the hard drive, link here on that.
A lot of these older computers are going to have slow or broken CDROM drives, so you do without.
Once you manage to get booted up using the USB drive, you can partition the hard drive with QTParted, copy the files there, and then use the loadlin/MSDOS menu to boot from the hard drive for normal use. You want to preserve the Windows installation so you'll have DOS.
Rapidweather
Jackie Gleason broke his leg just moments into his show, doing a little jig across the stage. It was live. He fell, just laid there, then a hand reached under the curtain from backstage, and dragged him under the curtain and out of sight of the audience. He was injured, but they did not say much about it. The rest of the show was pretty much a blank, no commercials to run, and we had to wait until the next show came on, in about 20 minutes or so. The next week, when his show returned, they explained what had happened and Jackie had to drop his signature onstage jig from then on.
Next one:
John Cameron Swayze, who had a nightly news show, did a live Timex wristwatch commercial involving a watch strapped to the propeller of an outboard motor mounted in a barrel. The motor could be tilted up and out of the tank just like it would be when mounted on the back of a boat. He showed the audience that the watch was mounted on the propeller, submerged it, and cranked up the motor, giving the throttle a good twist, revving up the motor. Then stopping the motor, and tilting it up, camera zoomed in on the propellor to be seen by all, he had a look of horror on his face as the watch was gone. Peered down into the tank. It was quite a laugh, but most felt sorry for him as he was well liked by the television audience. He recovered somewhat, but it was obvious to everyone that the test was a disaster.
The next night, re-did the commercial, this time following the engineers instructions on not revving up the outboard motor so much, as the watch was slung off the propeller in the first test. The watch survived the second night's test, and he pointed out that it was the same watch that was "tested" the night before. We all took his word for it. I believe the crystal was somewhat cracked, but the watch stayed water-tight. I don't remember him fishing the watch out of the tank the first night to see if it was unharmed, the tank was too deep. Timex watches in those days were rather big, did not have jeweled bearings, and could not compare to 17 jewel watches that were more expensive, and more accurate. 21 jewel watches were even better, and most of these were fairly thin, compared to the bulky Timex. So, it was tough on a Timex to endure a test like the one John Cameron Swayze did on his show, the weight worked against the watch riding on a fast-moving outboard motor propeller.
Rapidweather
The one I'm on now is a dual pentium pro, with 256 MB of RAM. Once, I had it loaded up with so many cards that the power supply to motherboard connectors burned. I fixed that, with spare ones, soldered in, from another power supply. Point is, I am constantly working on this box, and so far, am able to fix it, due to it's size, compared to a laptop. Decided to put two power supplies in it, so they split the workload, and not all of the power goes through the weak motherboard connnectors. It's a gamble, alright. Last thing I added was a 5 port USB 2.0 card, so I could plug in my USB mouse, and my Sandisk cruzer USB drives. I'm able to run my knoppix remaster from one of those drives, I have it partitioned as follows:
swap area for GIMP and K3B.
So, I like to modify my desktops, adding memory, swapping cards, removing memory, and so on. Not much invested in the base machine, so if I tear it up, not much is lost.
I have a couple of older laptops, the newest one cost $2,100.00 when new, and only has 160 MB of RAM, and one USB port. Graphics is only 2 MB, so 1024x768 with my knoppix remaster is not going to happen. I still try and work with it, however, now I need a PCMCIA network card, so I can run a cable from my router to it. Not very upgradeable, really.
The other desktop is a HP Pavilion 8250, cost me $20.00, was very clean, and I maxed out the RAM for only $51.00.
I put a used 40 GB HDD in it for the main drive, and have Fedora Core there. Works very well, runs Opera 9.21 just like a more expensive machine. Naturally, I can also dual boot my remaster, run from the hard drive, or from a USB drive, take your choice. These files are how I do that, it's a loadlin/MSDOS menu setup. You will notice that there are two tarballs there, the latest one, dated 06-22-07 includes the USB drive as a choice. A big readme is included, so you can get all the details.
In summary, there are lots of desktops out there, just when I think that I have located a really clean one, for practically nothing, another one comes along. So many are Windows 98 machines.
Once, I had an IBM PS-1, 32 MB of RAM, dirt slow 25 mhz bus, and I managed to put Redhat 6.1 on it. Here's a link to an older page of mine where I show a dial-up application I made to allow Redhat 6.1 to connect to the internet if one cannot run KDE very well, with KPPP. I was able to get RHL installed on a very small hard drive, about 250 MB. I paid $5.00 for the PS-1, got it at a thrift store, someone had put it in a closet for years, then donated it, very little wear and tear, practically new. Later, I figured out that one could make a nice lilo RHL 6.1 hard drive on a faster machine, then just plug it into the cables on an old dog like the PS-1, and be up and running in a few minutes.
So easy to get into the case on a PS-1, just grab the little button under the top-front, and pull, and off comes your case! Takes two seconds!
Endless fun for us to play with older desktops, they are plentiful and cheap. And, with something like my knoppix remaster, you can run Firefox 2.0.0.5 on many of them!
Rapidweather
I've wound up breaking some rules, one of them is including a bunch of mouse cursor themes, that install in seconds.
Details are available in the Getting Started Guide for Rapidweather Remaster of Knoppix Linux.
And, yes, I have Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.5 already. Another rule broken, put a slightly out-of-date Firefox in there.
Also my remastering scripts really work, only one question is asked, what partition do you want to put your "Master Copy" in, so you can go to work on it, and when you're ready to make that new
Perhaps I have broken a rule there, by allowing users to fork off their own distro, that would have some of the things they want in it.
Another rule broken is that I provide emelFM as a file manager, far superior in ease of use to Konqueror, but I have KDE and Konqueror too, it does have it's uses.
The rule that linux distros have so-so fonts is broken:
The web pages displayed in Mozilla Firefox running on the Remaster look better than they do when running Firefox on Windows Vista. I have the fonts, and that does the trick. OEM Knoppix scales down the included font packages, resulting in rough-looking web pages, not professional enough for me. My ~/.fonts.cache-1 is only 32 bytes because it simlinks to the real one of 304.70 KB in the CD, so my available
I have fun stuff, too. My "Wallpaper Control Center" completely manages downloaded and built-in wallpaper images, has a large GUI, and over 35 different scripts to do the work. Nobody else has it, they have to manage their wallpaper collections the hard way. This is so fast, easy, foolproof, it's fun! Another rule broken, "nothing new".
And, a "more secure way of running linux", Check my Blog for how to run the Remaster directly from a Sandisk USB drive on an older computer. Free download of files needed to get started. Look them over to see what this is all about.
Rapidweather
Well, considering that we taxpayers pay the FBI via our income taxes to do something about threats of all kinds, then I suppose they can do what they want to get these threats stopped before something bad happens.
Apparently, they are talking about the Windows OS, namely XP, Vista and other Windows OS's.
Those can be infected, and as some have said, infected by the bad guys as well as the FBI.
How about livecd linux, such as Knoppix?
I have a remaster of Knoppix 3.4, in fact it is highly modified, one area is security.
Without trying to go through all of the details in this post, those interested can look over my
Getting Started Guide, that's placed in the CD, and on the internet. I fixed my remaster for that level of security primarily for those using the internet to do online banking, web purchases, bill payment, and investment website work such as with Merrill Lynch, etc.
If that is not enough, check my Blog for information on running the Remaster from a 2 or 4 GB SanDisk Ready Boost cruzer USB drive. When you can put all of it in your pocket as you walk away from your computer, that's secure!
Rapidweather
I'm using Comcast, only problem is how expensive it is, but I'm glad I don't have to use dialup.
Didn't know there was a problem with Firefox, I run my knoppix remaster all the time, on several computers, and use Firefox 2.0.0.4. (Also can use Opera and Flock).
When the Comcast man came and ran my cable, I did use XP, but could have booted that box into linux, and did, so he could see how that went. Very interested, and so I gave him a CD. I was able to answer a lot of questions for him that his customers ask.
I have some bad trees in my yard, always dropping big limbs, taking the cable line down. They always come and put it back up and give me no problems.
I have added a router, on my own, and have run several cables myself, still no problems.
When I had dial-up, that cost about half what cable internet does for not much speed.
For my knoppix remaster, I made a little interface to "connect" and "disconnect" the broadband, put that in the IceWM toolbar and the menu. Sometimes I forget to turn on the surge-protector for the cable modem and router, and that little application does the trick.
You know, IceWM will show you if you are connected on the toolbar, next to the cpu monitor.
Try all that with Fedora. I have set up one of my applications to run in Fedora Core, but have not gotten around to the "Broadband/Network Connection Control" as yet.
I have always written my own dial-up "wizards" and controls, too bad all that neat work now goes to waste on my computers.
Lots of details in this document, the Getting Started Guide that I put in the remaster.
Rapidweather
Well, here is what I am using at this moment to post here:
http://rapidweatherlinux.blogspot.com/2007/06/san
All that is required when you shut down the computer is to take the usb drive with you, just unplug it, and put it in your pocket. Now, the computer does not have any of your personal financial files, they are stored on the usb drive. There is absolutely no trace left.
This is a livecd linux, being run from a partitioned usb drive. (Even the swap partition is included)
I did have a bank account broken into some years ago, so if I am developing and using a linux system like this, then I have a reason to do so.
In addition to using a removable usb drive, I run the web browsers, Firefox, Opera and Flock within a secure setup as detailed here:
http://www.geocities.com/rapidweather/getting_star ted.html
This document will need to be searched using Edit -> "Find in this page", keyword "Security and Control Script" to locate all of the text concerning the secure setups for the web browsers.
I also have the Guarddog firewall "on" by default with common protocols, the user does not have to do anything to enable it.
-- Rapidweather
I looked through the other entries besides the "winning" propeller bike, the last one being a "Dog-powered" scooter. They have a large frisky dog hooked up to it, on the side, so the driver can steer the scooter, rather than give commands to the dog. Looks ok, if we can use dogs to power sleds, then this one would do also. Only problem is when the dog goes after a cat, then you are in for a wild ride.
I know of one, Labview 7.1 that can render a Vista laptop unbootable.
Fortunately, with Dell, you get a "just as it left the factory" reinstall image, that you can use to put the hard drive back like it was, then it will boot.
I just know of it, didn't do it myself, but there is supposed to be a keypress combination that will get that done for you, no need to use the "restoration CD", as this is obtained from the hidden restoration partition. Call Dell support if you find that this restoration is required, and you are in business.
The wonderful thing about Dell's with Ubuntu, is all of the hardware works, so you are good to go. No so if you just pick out a laptop in the store, take it home, and try and install a distro on it yourself. You get some added value with Dell.
- Rapidweather
That's a shame, really, because this device seems to be way ahead of a lot of mobile phones, blackberrys, etc.
and the sales thereof should keep Apple in business for a long time, giving a nice balance to the marketplace.
I have an old Macintosh Quadra 660AV, and still appreciate some of the things that it can do. The iPhone really seems to be much more of a "must-have" than the iPod series of devices. From what I gather, the iPhone can do all iPod can and much more. Distinguished from a small mp3 player, the iPods have a decent screen where you can pick your song do other things with your playlist, rather than just play the songs one after another. Apple has sold 100 million of them, really remarkable. Here's Apple's statement on the iPod success:
CUPERTINO, California--April 9, 2007--Apple® today announced that the 100 millionth iPod® has been sold, making the iPod the fastest selling music player in history. The first iPod was sold five and a half years ago, in November 2001, and since then Apple has introduced more than 10 new iPod models, including five generations of iPod, two generations of iPod mini, two generations of iPod nano and two generations of iPod shuffle. Along with iTunes® and the iTunes online music store, the iPod has transformed how tens of millions of music lovers acquire, manage and listen to their music.
Based on that, and considering that the iPhone is higher in price, they should at least sell half as many before the next big thing comes out.
Hopefully, this "root password hack" item will not go very far. I, like many others am impressed at how dramatic this latest creation from Apple appears. I say, give credit where credit is due.
All of us that enjoy what PC's bring to us, with linux (and windows), must remember that our PC's weigh a ton, and except for the laptops (high price, no expansion), would be impossible to carry around from place to place.
My HP Pavilion 8250 and Gateway2000 EV900 monitor does weigh a ton, and is tethered to power and ethernet cables, mouse, keyboard and all. Nowhere near as portable a web surfing device as the iPhone. The fact that the IPhone has the potential for 10's of millions of sales, and is so portable compared to a web surfing, music playing PC is what is revolutionary about the iPhone.
Sorry to sound like an Apple fanboy, but that's my take on it.
- Rapidweather
Well, when you buy Windows, based on what we have read here about Vista, then the "bug information transmittals" go with the territory.
Sure, Windows is preinstalled on computers in the stores, but there are alternative operating systems you can use, that are fairly easy to run.
I'm talking about the "livecd" linux variety, of which there are many, many variations.
Mine is one, here is the Getting Started Guide, and you may view the screenshots, link below:
Several posters in this topic have said that the Vista "phone home" setup probably uses a lot of processing power, as does the nice looking Aero interface. Hence the move to dual core processors, and 1 or 2 GB of RAM.
I say, use your older computer, I am running my livecd linux OS on a HP Pavilion 8250, and it's really very nice. I paid $20.00 for this computer, snapped it up since it was so clean inside. Added RAM, $51.00, and an ethernet card, about $15.00.
I'm using Opera 9.10 right now, and also have Firefox 2.0.0.4 and Flock 0.7.14 that can be used. All three of these are set up to completely delete the entire ~/.opera, ~/.mozilla or ~/.flock when the browsers are closed. No trace of your web-surfing remains on the computer while it is running.
I have a blog that explains how to use a Sandisk cruzer usb drive, 2 or 4 GB to run the OS, and testing is ongoing (fun for me), using the HP computer mentioned above. Unplug the usb drive, put it in your pocket, and your files go with you. If you do online banking or credit card management, and save files as needed, then this is a good measure of protection for your data and files. One of the tests involves opening 20 image files with GIMP, and seeing if the little usb drive can handle that. It can, since I have a swap partition on the usb drive.
- Rapidweather