I have an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe (uses the nForce2 Ultra400 chipset). I've always stuck with Asus because they are (usually) very rock solid and contain a plethora of overclocking features (and other features) in the BIOS and always have a great board layout.
This is the fourth Asus motherboard I've had in 2 years, but that isn't because they were bad boards; actually, I had a bad power supply and failed to identify it as the problem. I've lost about $300 on them, when I could've bought a very good ($50-$70) PSU in the first place. Color me blind.
Back on topic, the A7N8X-E Deluxe has onboard sound and dual LAN (10/100 and 10/100/1000). I use a Radeon 9500 with the motherboard. It plays nice in Windows but refuses to play nice in Linux. I even rebuilt the kernel with the nForce2 drivers, but the drivers from ATI refuse to work, and I have to settle for 2D with the drivers the distribution comes with.
The answer it simple: Microsoft's point and click interface doesn't set up a secure web server. Period. There are so many different variables pertaining to a proper setup of Apache that a one-for-all point-and-click setup program, while not impossible, isn't practical and therefore not probable. When using such point-and-click interfaces, you sacrifice security and flexibility for aesthetics and usability.
Until programmers learn to look at things from the point of view of a user who JUST WANTS TO DO THEIR WORK, the FOSS will always be relegated to the back room where geeks who can't understand human interaction work and live.
What does using a computer (in general) and it's GUI have to do with human interaction? There is absolutely no human interaction between the human and the computer itself. You're using the wrong term/phrase. It should be referred to as the incapability to make aesthetics and usability relative to the general public.
Macs have it down because nothing is required to install to make it secure. Mac, while it does have vulnerabilities, puts security with usability and keeps liability completely.
With Windows, you have to install 1-2 antiviruses, anti-spyware, anti-trojan, and firewall to even begin to make it secure. Then you have to ditch the default browser and e-mail programs. Then you have to ditch the default media player... you get the idea.
And no I'm not a Mac person. I don't even own one.
I did the same thing yesterday with my mother-in-law's computer, but she refused to use Firefox. She called me and complained that IE wasn't working (this was after I had found 50 instances of 4 different trojans and other spyware). When I asked her why, she replied, "Well it's what we've always used and we're familiar with it."
People want computers to just work without doing anything to maintain them. Computers are just like cars, except a lot smaller, and (nearly) all electronic, which makes them more prone to errors. Computers NEED maintenance, and users aren't willing to pay for it.
Though I will take your other tips to heart and apply them. I might even take a copy of SuSE 9.0 and put it on the machine. It's one of the most user-friendly Linux distributions I've come across.
I have a Logitech USB Scroll Mouse and it works just fine, even with SuSE 8.2, though the first time YaST detected it, it saw it as an auxilary mouse (serial?). Was a simple fact of changing it to Generic 3-button USB mouse. SuSE 9.0 has no problems detecting the same mouse. If you have a more complex mouse, such as one that has 4 or more buttons, good luck. As a side note, I still don't understand why people have mice which have more than 3 buttons.
It's no different than the idea behind most fast-food restaurants. Take McDonald's for example. Kids are boasted as the #1 customer. Why do you think that is? Kids are very impressional, and once you hook them as kids, they're hooked for life. And then their kids get hooked.
This is the same way with cds and the reason I stopped buying cds: they have 1 or 2 good songs and nothing else. Now I do buy cds from time to time that are "best of", which are definitely worth the $15-20 (depending on the artist), though it still has been a while. Most of the time I just listen to Shoutcast streams.
Re:Linux and Mac OS Inevitably Will be Virus Infec
on
Linux in Canada
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· Score: 0
Correction, I was full of crap. After relieving myself, I sat down at my desk to read the above crap.
but you offer absolutely no technical explanation as to how this mythical linux virus problem is going to occur.
I offer no technical explanation, because none was really needed. It wasn't a technical article. The "mythical linux virus problem" as you call it, I did explain how it was going to occur, though not to your high standards.
No OS is completely secure. And it never will be. Did you even read my article completely, or do you have problems comprehending? From my article:
A lot of computer users are switching to Linux, and some companies, such as SuSE and Mandrake, are attempting to compete on a consumer level with Microsoft, by aiming to make an easy to install, configure, and use Linux distribution. It can be done, that much is apparent, but the real question is, should it be done? What do you think will happen when the majority of computer users aren't using Windows? Do you just think the virus writers will stop because they've completed their ultimate goal of putting down the big man Bill Gates, whom, according to this site, is already dead? Do you think they'll put their keyboards, assembly knowledge, and bookmarks for leading vulnerability sites' lists away and say, "Now that Windows is gone, I don't have to write any more viruses! No more trojans, no more spyware!"?
This is not FUD. This is inevitable. And you didn't RTFA obviously.
On a personal level, I use code I've written on multiple websites, such as a simple popup script for images, though I'm sure this isn't what this article is asking, and probably isn't talking about interpreted languages, either.
Linux and Mac OS Inevitably Will be Virus Infected
on
Linux in Canada
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· Score: 1, Informative
I wrote an article on my website about this very topic almost 3 weeks ago, but it is not as quite in-depth as the Globe article and is from a different angle.
I'm not really sure how I feel about this topic. I can see the value in patents. I mean, if I do some grunt work that would benefit everybody, and have a patent to insure that I get paid for it, well it really makes me want to innovate.
You really don't know the value of patents. Patents were originally created to promote innovation (which you seem to want to do). But in order to do that, patents had to have a time limit. I remember reading about someone on here mentioning how everytime when the Mickey Mouse trademark comes up for expiring period, it somehow gets automagically renewed.
As for the topic, I believe it's absurd to grant a patent for this. I also believe it's absurd to grant a software patent. And of course you say, "WHAT WHAT!?". Yes, I believe in freely available software in any form not just open-source.
Don't know how he got the virus though, he's behind a firewall (NAT router), he doesn't go through much email.
A firewall is a nice start, but it won't keep out the viruses/trojans that exploit Internet Explorer to get into your system. A hardware firewall will also not block outgoing traffic, only most incoming traffic.
The general public needs several programs on their computers to be protected:
Antivirus - From any of the following vendors (more the merrier): Norton, Trend Micro, Mcafee, Panda
Antitrojan - The Cleaner
Antispyware - Spybot Search & Destroy, Ad-Aware
Firewall - ZoneAlarm, Blackice Defender
(search on google for these, I'm too lazy to put the urls in)
Also needed is to frequently (i.e. weekly) patch Windows, because most exploits are only exploited if a patch is released (ironicly, as someone here on/. pointed out). Keep the programs up-to-date and run them frequently. Remember not to open e-mail attachments. And why keep using Internet Explorer and Outlook Express when you can get a free, open-source web browser and e-mail client like Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird?
Or they can go buy a boxed copy of any major linux distribution: Mandrake, SuSE, or Redhat (burning cds would be difficult and the software wouldn't be supported by some vendors, such as SuSE).
Last I checked, SuSE Linux installs more easily, has a few nice mods to KDE (including recently used programs' links, ALA Windows XP style), and has YaST, a package installer GUI for rpms. YaST also functions to easily change configurations for NICs, displays, TV tuner cards, and more. The only con to SuSE Linux (I've found) is that the freely download version is: a)lacks software included with the retail version due to "licensing" issues. b)not officially supported. c) no (official) ISOs available for download. Concerning the last con, it's very possible to do a network install, of which I did, but ran into a few problems the first time I tried about a year ago. You have to have the IP address for the server you want to pull it from and the EXACT directory of the install.
But still, the best distribution (as far as ease of use w/o bulkiness) I've used.
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I have an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe (uses the nForce2 Ultra400 chipset). I've always stuck with Asus because they are (usually) very rock solid and contain a plethora of overclocking features (and other features) in the BIOS and always have a great board layout.
This is the fourth Asus motherboard I've had in 2 years, but that isn't because they were bad boards; actually, I had a bad power supply and failed to identify it as the problem. I've lost about $300 on them, when I could've bought a very good ($50-$70) PSU in the first place. Color me blind.
Back on topic, the A7N8X-E Deluxe has onboard sound and dual LAN (10/100 and 10/100/1000). I use a Radeon 9500 with the motherboard. It plays nice in Windows but refuses to play nice in Linux. I even rebuilt the kernel with the nForce2 drivers, but the drivers from ATI refuse to work, and I have to settle for 2D with the drivers the distribution comes with.
The answer it simple: Microsoft's point and click interface doesn't set up a secure web server. Period. There are so many different variables pertaining to a proper setup of Apache that a one-for-all point-and-click setup program, while not impossible, isn't practical and therefore not probable. When using such point-and-click interfaces, you sacrifice security and flexibility for aesthetics and usability.
Macs have it down because nothing is required to install to make it secure. Mac, while it does have vulnerabilities, puts security with usability and keeps liability completely.
With Windows, you have to install 1-2 antiviruses, anti-spyware, anti-trojan, and firewall to even begin to make it secure. Then you have to ditch the default browser and e-mail programs. Then you have to ditch the default media player... you get the idea.
And no I'm not a Mac person. I don't even own one.
You forgot Zonealarm.
I did the same thing yesterday with my mother-in-law's computer, but she refused to use Firefox. She called me and complained that IE wasn't working (this was after I had found 50 instances of 4 different trojans and other spyware). When I asked her why, she replied, "Well it's what we've always used and we're familiar with it."
People want computers to just work without doing anything to maintain them. Computers are just like cars, except a lot smaller, and (nearly) all electronic, which makes them more prone to errors. Computers NEED maintenance, and users aren't willing to pay for it.
Though I will take your other tips to heart and apply them. I might even take a copy of SuSE 9.0 and put it on the machine. It's one of the most user-friendly Linux distributions I've come across.
I have a Logitech USB Scroll Mouse and it works just fine, even with SuSE 8.2, though the first time YaST detected it, it saw it as an auxilary mouse (serial?). Was a simple fact of changing it to Generic 3-button USB mouse. SuSE 9.0 has no problems detecting the same mouse. If you have a more complex mouse, such as one that has 4 or more buttons, good luck. As a side note, I still don't understand why people have mice which have more than 3 buttons.
No it's ok, thanks for setting me straight.
It's no different than the idea behind most fast-food restaurants. Take McDonald's for example. Kids are boasted as the #1 customer. Why do you think that is? Kids are very impressional, and once you hook them as kids, they're hooked for life. And then their kids get hooked.
Windows 9x (95, 98, ME) are 16/32-bit hybrids. None of these are a pure 16-bit OS. Windows 3.11 and below, however, are.
This is the same way with cds and the reason I stopped buying cds: they have 1 or 2 good songs and nothing else. Now I do buy cds from time to time that are "best of", which are definitely worth the $15-20 (depending on the artist), though it still has been a while. Most of the time I just listen to Shoutcast streams.
On a personal level, I use code I've written on multiple websites, such as a simple popup script for images, though I'm sure this isn't what this article is asking, and probably isn't talking about interpreted languages, either.
I wrote an article on my website about this very topic almost 3 weeks ago, but it is not as quite in-depth as the Globe article and is from a different angle.
As a side note, looking at the bottom, I saw the links "Blake Bailey" and "Legal Info" and for a brief moment I thought it was "barely legal".
Four words: Frivilous Lawsuit Limitation Act.
I believe it's pronounced "Soo Say".
That's not hypocrisy you dolt, it's discrimination.
Time to move to Canada!
Four days ago. http://technicallyincorrect.org
Now the lube will soak into my mouse!
The general public needs several programs on their computers to be protected:
Antivirus - From any of the following vendors (more the merrier): Norton, Trend Micro, Mcafee, Panda
Antitrojan - The Cleaner
Antispyware - Spybot Search & Destroy, Ad-Aware
Firewall - ZoneAlarm, Blackice Defender
(search on google for these, I'm too lazy to put the urls in)
Also needed is to frequently (i.e. weekly) patch Windows, because most exploits are only exploited if a patch is released (ironicly, as someone here on
Or they can go buy a boxed copy of any major linux distribution: Mandrake, SuSE, or Redhat (burning cds would be difficult and the software wouldn't be supported by some vendors, such as SuSE).
I apologize. As I said, "last I checked".
Last I checked, SuSE Linux installs more easily, has a few nice mods to KDE (including recently used programs' links, ALA Windows XP style), and has YaST, a package installer GUI for rpms. YaST also functions to easily change configurations for NICs, displays, TV tuner cards, and more. The only con to SuSE Linux (I've found) is that the freely download version is: a)lacks software included with the retail version due to "licensing" issues. b)not officially supported. c) no (official) ISOs available for download. Concerning the last con, it's very possible to do a network install, of which I did, but ran into a few problems the first time I tried about a year ago. You have to have the IP address for the server you want to pull it from and the EXACT directory of the install. But still, the best distribution (as far as ease of use w/o bulkiness) I've used.