The Internet was developed using "our" (U.S.) tax dollars, from DARPA, then the NSF, and now the Commerce Dept. It's "our" (U.S.) sandbox, people. "We" "allow" you to play here. If you don't like it, tough titties. Make your own.
Handing IANA, ARIN or any part of Internet over to the stuffed, corrupt shirts in the UN opens it up to all kinds of abuse by the various national, religious, and ethnic special interest groups that have taken over the UN and run amok.
At least our stuffed shirts currently running things can tell the stuffed shirts at the Commerce Dept., "Um, no, and here's why...".
Larry Ellison and Oracle are beginning to lust heavily over Red Hat...I fear most of the best parts of RH would get lost in the catacombs of Oracle and never see the light of day again...
Sun seems to be busy playing coquette to IBM (although HP would be a better fit). Novell would be a logical choice and would (finally) promote some consolidation in the Linux realm. Apple already has an OS based on a (flamebait acknowledged) superior Unix derivative.
I would instead look to Cisco or Dell. Cisco has no in-house OS (other than IOS of course) and with their recent entry into the server hardware market it would be a smart buy, although not necessarily for RH.
Dell would be an ideal combination, as Michael Dell is already a Linux proponent, although of a slightly different flavor. Dell isn't as integrated as their main competitors and has no real software presence, however their close association with Redmond might be a giant monkey wrench. If Dell wanted to grow up and really play with the big boys (the ones who are left anyway), they would grow a pair and go bold.
Who else has $4-6 Billion in cash lying around looking for more software presence...Adobe? Google?
What protocols are bound to the Ubuntu and XP NICs? I'd start with equalizing the RAM as suggested earlier, disable all the extraneous Windows protocols on the XP box, and check that the receive buffers, etc are set up identically.
Still, I wouldn't be surprised if the Ubuntu machine shows a modest bump.
I wouldn't advise using any further liquid solution on your electronics, alcohol, water, detergent, whatever. If you're really concerned about mold spores, then your best option is to simply replace everything you can. If the components are relatively new, and you purchased them from a large retail chain, you may be able to exchange them there. Same goes for DirecTV and the DTV box. Don't forget to check your credit card buyer protection programs as well.
Alternatively, you can disassemble your electronics as best you can, and use a high capacity air compressor to blow off all the dust, etc. from the parts. Remember of course to wear a suitable protective mask and face shield while doing this. The internally generated heat from use of the components will probably kill off any remaining mold spores. Check them again in a month and three months, and again a few weeks after your next big rain.
The life expectancy of your components will in all likelihood be shortened, but electronics typically work or don't work. When they don't work, you upgrade.
As for your PC's, worst case I would take the hard drives out, follow the above procedure, and backup the data to another drive NOW.
This morning I took the opportunity to put my money where my mouth is and give Chrome a whirl. (My retardedly restricted work laptop with IE7 was the catalyst).
I have been using it all day long with very few issues. One, I'm not sure I like how they're doing search on a page. The UI I think needs to be tightened up a bit; it seems a bit PlaySchool to me.
I do like the tabbed interface design with the address bar. I also like the fact that they playground is maximized with the elimination of extraneous toolbars, menus and borders.
Biggest plus is that it allowed me to get into the pig of a webmail system I use when IE7 couldn't. AND it allowed me to install in the first place when the restrictions on the laptop don't normally allow me to do so.
I will continue trying it out. Another Google product I am so far very pleased with...
I don't want websites to support my browser - I want my browser to support the standards, so that I don't have to endure the Anti-Microsoft Hate Speech some website coders force down our throats when they do their browser check...please, grow up and get over it.
I've tried Safari, Firefox and Opera. I go back to IE because it's there, and it does what I need it to do. Display a web page. AND without crashing near as often as the others I have tried. Yes, this may be because of Big Bad Microsoft's OS monopoly and/or anti-competitive practices.
What I want is to see the web page as accurately and as quickly as I can, on whatever platform I happen to be using.
Stick with the published standards. If new features are required, get a consensus with the standards body. Optimize your code for the platform you're publishing on. Differentiate your product by giving me something I can't get easily get elsewhere.
If Microsoft comes up with some nifty features that can enhance the experience of the user, then Firefox, Opera et al should rush to support them, in order to appeal to the vast majority of the browser using audience...i.e. (pardon the slight pun) the couple of hundred million users of Windows. Most of whom, like me, don't really care what browser we use, as long as it works. After all, Microsoft has no problem integrated features pioneered elsewhere. Becuase we like them, want them and use them.
This is really no different from when I used ISA server to redirect ad sites to a benign company graphic that eliminated pop-up ads, cookies and quickened page loading times.
Cox and other ISP's operate a private network up to the point they peer, and they are allowed to control the traffic on their network by using DNS seeding on their own servers to redirect client traffic from within their own network to another server on their own network.
I'm sure some verbiage is buried in their terms of use policy, but if you object to their cleaning bots off of your systems, then police yourself or get a different ISP.
I have an old InterJet that does much the same...it runs Linux, has firewall, email, storage, DHCP...a whopping 64MB and I think there's a 6GB drive in it or so...Should be able to support 128 or 256MB and up to a 40GB HDD.
First $20 plus shipping takes it....
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The Internet was developed using "our" (U.S.) tax dollars, from DARPA, then the NSF, and now the Commerce Dept. It's "our" (U.S.) sandbox, people. "We" "allow" you to play here. If you don't like it, tough titties. Make your own. Handing IANA, ARIN or any part of Internet over to the stuffed, corrupt shirts in the UN opens it up to all kinds of abuse by the various national, religious, and ethnic special interest groups that have taken over the UN and run amok. At least our stuffed shirts currently running things can tell the stuffed shirts at the Commerce Dept., "Um, no, and here's why...".
I suppose NASA is concerned about the vodka in the Cosmonauts' urine overwhelming the filtration system...
Larry Ellison and Oracle are beginning to lust heavily over Red Hat...I fear most of the best parts of RH would get lost in the catacombs of Oracle and never see the light of day again... Sun seems to be busy playing coquette to IBM (although HP would be a better fit). Novell would be a logical choice and would (finally) promote some consolidation in the Linux realm. Apple already has an OS based on a (flamebait acknowledged) superior Unix derivative. I would instead look to Cisco or Dell. Cisco has no in-house OS (other than IOS of course) and with their recent entry into the server hardware market it would be a smart buy, although not necessarily for RH. Dell would be an ideal combination, as Michael Dell is already a Linux proponent, although of a slightly different flavor. Dell isn't as integrated as their main competitors and has no real software presence, however their close association with Redmond might be a giant monkey wrench. If Dell wanted to grow up and really play with the big boys (the ones who are left anyway), they would grow a pair and go bold. Who else has $4-6 Billion in cash lying around looking for more software presence...Adobe? Google?
What protocols are bound to the Ubuntu and XP NICs? I'd start with equalizing the RAM as suggested earlier, disable all the extraneous Windows protocols on the XP box, and check that the receive buffers, etc are set up identically. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if the Ubuntu machine shows a modest bump.
I wouldn't advise using any further liquid solution on your electronics, alcohol, water, detergent, whatever. If you're really concerned about mold spores, then your best option is to simply replace everything you can. If the components are relatively new, and you purchased them from a large retail chain, you may be able to exchange them there. Same goes for DirecTV and the DTV box. Don't forget to check your credit card buyer protection programs as well. Alternatively, you can disassemble your electronics as best you can, and use a high capacity air compressor to blow off all the dust, etc. from the parts. Remember of course to wear a suitable protective mask and face shield while doing this. The internally generated heat from use of the components will probably kill off any remaining mold spores. Check them again in a month and three months, and again a few weeks after your next big rain. The life expectancy of your components will in all likelihood be shortened, but electronics typically work or don't work. When they don't work, you upgrade. As for your PC's, worst case I would take the hard drives out, follow the above procedure, and backup the data to another drive NOW.
This morning I took the opportunity to put my money where my mouth is and give Chrome a whirl. (My retardedly restricted work laptop with IE7 was the catalyst). I have been using it all day long with very few issues. One, I'm not sure I like how they're doing search on a page. The UI I think needs to be tightened up a bit; it seems a bit PlaySchool to me. I do like the tabbed interface design with the address bar. I also like the fact that they playground is maximized with the elimination of extraneous toolbars, menus and borders. Biggest plus is that it allowed me to get into the pig of a webmail system I use when IE7 couldn't. AND it allowed me to install in the first place when the restrictions on the laptop don't normally allow me to do so. I will continue trying it out. Another Google product I am so far very pleased with...
I don't want websites to support my browser - I want my browser to support the standards, so that I don't have to endure the Anti-Microsoft Hate Speech some website coders force down our throats when they do their browser check...please, grow up and get over it. I've tried Safari, Firefox and Opera. I go back to IE because it's there, and it does what I need it to do. Display a web page. AND without crashing near as often as the others I have tried. Yes, this may be because of Big Bad Microsoft's OS monopoly and/or anti-competitive practices. What I want is to see the web page as accurately and as quickly as I can, on whatever platform I happen to be using. Stick with the published standards. If new features are required, get a consensus with the standards body. Optimize your code for the platform you're publishing on. Differentiate your product by giving me something I can't get easily get elsewhere. If Microsoft comes up with some nifty features that can enhance the experience of the user, then Firefox, Opera et al should rush to support them, in order to appeal to the vast majority of the browser using audience...i.e. (pardon the slight pun) the couple of hundred million users of Windows. Most of whom, like me, don't really care what browser we use, as long as it works. After all, Microsoft has no problem integrated features pioneered elsewhere. Becuase we like them, want them and use them.
This is really no different from when I used ISA server to redirect ad sites to a benign company graphic that eliminated pop-up ads, cookies and quickened page loading times. Cox and other ISP's operate a private network up to the point they peer, and they are allowed to control the traffic on their network by using DNS seeding on their own servers to redirect client traffic from within their own network to another server on their own network. I'm sure some verbiage is buried in their terms of use policy, but if you object to their cleaning bots off of your systems, then police yourself or get a different ISP.
I'm sure this is how the Dyson sphere got started...
I have an old InterJet that does much the same...it runs Linux, has firewall, email, storage, DHCP...a whopping 64MB and I think there's a 6GB drive in it or so...Should be able to support 128 or 256MB and up to a 40GB HDD. First $20 plus shipping takes it....