Category: Compgeeky

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For XP Die-Hards

For Windows XP Luddites who are simply unwilling or “unable” because of feared incompatibility with a cherished–or even essential–piece of software, to change to a more modern OS (whether it be a ‘nix OS or Windows 7), there are alternatives to sticking with XP or, worse, downgrading a new computer from Windows 7 to XP (so many opportunities for a fail there that it puts $$ signs in my eyes *heh*).

One decent option: Windows XP Mode, available in Win7 Professional and above. (Caveat: the video uses the common pejorative vulgarity, “loud and clear” where “loudly and clearly” is more appropriate *heh*) While I’m not a big fan of Windows XP Mode, I can see where it would be very, very useful in the case of people attempting to run a program that simply refuses to run in anything but XP. It’s easy-peasy to install and run, too. I recommend it for folks stuck with, say, an edition of QuickBooks that they really, really don’t want to be forced to pay the “upgrade tax” to Quicken for, just to continue using the thing.

Another option would be to install XP in a third-party virtual machine and install one’s essential apps that won’t run on one’s chosen OS–‘nix or a more modern Windows–in that VM. Of the options available for such implementation today, I prefer Virtualbox, now from Oracle. While it’s just as easy to download and install, and works on many more OSes than Windows XP Mode, which is available ONLY for Win7 Pro and above, there are a couple of small “gotchas” for some folks. First, with a Virtualbox installation, you really MUST have a licensed copy of XP to install that is NOT in use on another computer in order to legally install XP on a Virtualbox machine. And then there’s the fact that Virtualbox is kind of “fiddly”. It does take more work getting it configured for comfortable use.

Either way, only Luddites (or, I’ll grant you, those who simply cannot afford to purchase a new, Win7-capable machine and are too timid or stubborn to install another modern OS that their older hardware can handle) have any reason to avoid ditching XP.

Note: I’ll admit bias. I have never liked XP, for myriad reasons. Heck, were I offered gift of a computer with a choice between an XP computer and a Mac OS straitjacket, I’d probably elect the straitjacket. *shudder*

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Office Apps

Although I have Microsoft Office (2003, 2007 and 2010) installed on various physical and virtual machines, it’s mostly for use as a reference when someone has questions or problems, as I standardized my personal office application use several years ago on the free, cross platform OpenOffice.

Now, since Oracle bought Sun, the original source of Star Office and OpenOffice, the folks developing OpenOffice have forked the code off and formed The Document Foundation and are offering LibreOffice, which is readily recognizable as OpenOffice.

Nice that they’re attempting to keep Oracle’s hands out of the pie. Actually, when I said I’d standardized on OpenOffice, earlier, I slightly misspoke. About a year ago, I switched to another fork (or is it just a patched version with more compatibility with M$Office, etc.? The two “sides” are argued with equal vigor by people whose arguments I just don’t care about *heh*), Go-OO, a patched and slightly slicker Novell offering. Still free and still uses all the same OO interfaces and file structures, etc. There has been some friction between Go-OO developers and OO developers, but none of that matters to me. I will take a look to see if there are differences that make a difference for me in the LibreOffice offering, though.

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For Both of My Readers Who Are Relatively Naive Windows Users…

😉

During a brief “drive-by” watching some *shudder* TV (I have thins to watch on Hulu and other videos, but the thing was on and.. yeh, that *heh*) , some commercials aired that I thought from the presentation were for bogus products/services. One was for MyCL3anPC.c0m and another for D0ubleMySp33d.com. Notice the lack of linkage and the lame faux-obscuring of the sites’ names? *heh* That’s because anyone who visits these sites is apparently in for some computing hell. This guy has a typical review of the sites.

The short version? The ads are, IMO, come-ons, cons, commercial phishing expeditions designed to suck in naive, unwary computer users. As such, they are little different to the “Antivirus 2010 (2009, 2008…)” and variants that are such a plague. Both vectors for infesting one’s computer with what is apparently malware depend on naive users doing themselves in. In this day and age, naive computer users are very nearly an identity with “stupid computer users” since information about threats is so very prevalent, it takes almost willful ignorance to just blythely succumb to such things.

Now, the two relatively naive users I referred to in the post title are also relatively new to computer use, and they are coming up to speed as quickly as possible, so they get a “bye” on the “stupid” comment, but too many others out there just haven’t bothered to learn how to practice safe computing, so all y’all just use this short lil cautionary post to warn those you know, ‘K?

And another good thing about using a ‘nix computer: the app the company uses to mess with folks won’t work on ‘nix-based computers. Of course, I could have nstalled it using WINE on the Linux VM I used to double check that assumption, but why? 😉

NOTE: My opinion was colored by my initial exposure to the commercials, which promised unrealistic results and used unrealistic scare tactics,but the preponderance of commentary, as well as the detailed information presented at the site I linked formed my final opinion: ignore these ads and warn others off them.

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Obligatory “Safe Computing” Post

Following on my gentle rant about the idiot who wrote a cautionary article about Antivirus 2010 without once accepting responsibility for infecting himself or giving his readers any advice on how to avoid infecting themselves, in response to a couple of emails asking, essentially, “So, how do I avoid becoming infected?” here’s a lil enchiridion you can print out and tape to your forehead, if you wish. *heh*

Some folks would say to just use a ‘nix (Linux or Unix–BSD or some such) and not bother with further security measures, and they have a point. Most of ’em though, keep it covered with an artful comb over. 🙂

Seriously, ‘nixes are structurally less vulnerable and are a far, far smaller target, as well, and each of those things offer some protection. But threats designed to attack Linux and Unix OSes (including the OSX GUI-crippled BSD) do exist, and simple privacy concerns would compel any intelligent ‘nix user to have decent firewalls and practice other safe computing practices, so in some (small) part, what I’m about to say regarding safe computing practices for Windows users applies across the board.

1. Use your head. Learn the general nature of threats that exist and think about what you are doing when you use a computer. Simple common sense, which apparently is not all that common. Don’t blythely and unthinkingly “click” your way through your computer use and expect that you’ll not infect yourself. You probably will, if that’s your mindset.

2. Learn how to configure your firewalls and make sure they’re turned on. Always. I had some loon “support” person for my cable internet service once tell me to turn off Stateful Packet Inspection in order to solve a connectivity issue. I quickly escalated the call to someone who didn’t have his head up his ass (who then determined that, as usual, the problem was on my ISP’s end. Naturally. *sigh*). If I’d blindly obeyed the instructions from the idiot, major portion of my router’s firewall would have been disabled. Dumb. Really dumb.

And do have a “hardware” firewall (your router is probably running an embedded Linux with its own firewalling capabilities) for your network and each computer with its own software firewall. See here for a short FYI.

3. Make sure EVERY computer on your network is fully patched for known OS and application security flaws. Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) is a good tool for Windows users to use to locate and patch insecure software on your computers. Most contemporary ‘nix distros do a Good Enough job of helping folks do this via built in tools.

4. Make sure EVERY computer on your network is fully equipped with reliable antimalware software from reputable companies, and that ALL antimalware is always kept up to date and that ONLY ONE antimalware software is set to continually monitor computer behavior and automatically scan email, etc.

But. Do NOT rely on your antimalware software(s) to automatically update themselves and automatically scan your computers. At least once a week, manually update and scan.

5. NEVER–no! NEVER, ever open email attachments without FIRST manually scanning them with your primary up-to-date antimalware software. Never. I once had an infected attachment sent me from The Most Trusted (computer related) source I knew. A guy who was and is an Ultimate Computer Geek. He slipped up, but because I did as HE had taught me and scanned it manually, the fact that my anti-virus had somehow missed it on autoscan of emails didn’t matter.

6. Refuse to allow yourself to click on popups. No. Just DO NOT DO IT! First, what in the heck are you doing using a browser that allows popups, anyway? Get a modern browser, configure it to kill popups or get an extension that’ll do it. If you do see a popup, CLOSE THE TAB instead of clicking on the popup. You do not need to be on that site anyway, since the site owner is such a rude ass. Continue reading “Obligatory “Safe Computing” Post”

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Yet Another Lame “Warning”

(20+ years malware-free on my personal computers, speaking here.)

I am so very tired of this kind of thing,

“As a user who has fallen prey to this new rogue / virus, while surfing the net using IE9, let me share my personal experience with you.”

So very many stupidities in one brief sentence; where to begin? I’ll start with the least offensive element: “rogue / virus”. No, dumbass, “rogue/virus”. *sheesh*

Now, the next least offensive: “surfing the net using IE9”. Why do such a thing? It’s still in beta and… it’s still Internet ExPloder. Lame; truly lame. As much as the thing is touted as having been improved, features added, etc., it’s still far behind modern browsers in features and compatibility with standards.

But the really offensive statement is, “As a user who has fallen prey to this new rogue / virus [sic]…”

1. “[F]allen prey” indicates the attack was waiting in ambush for an innocent passerby. Not so, as I will explain in a moment.
2. “[N]ew rogue / virus [sic]”. No it’s not. It’s the rogue Antivirus 2010, which is almost exactly the same as the rogue Antivirus 2009 and the… etc. “New” it is not. It’s so old, it’s almost reached puberty. *heh* And it always achieves its infestation of a user’s computer by direct action by that user. Sure, it’s “laying in wait” to lure a stupid, lazy* user into installing it, but if one simply doesn’t install it, one will not be infected.

And, BTW, while I’ve seen the invitations to infect myself while surfing, it’s only while surfing with Internet Exploder or Firefox that I’ve seen these popups. Of course, the really stupid folks who infect themselves do so by clicking on static ads that lead to a direct download and install of one of the variants of this crap.

And the comment, “Not sure of which site infected me… ” once again says the author doesn’t recognize or accept responsibility for infecting himself–typical of most users infected with malware. Here’s a brief video that demonstrates the typical steps someone has to take to infect themselves with this pest:

No, it’s not “As a user who has fallen prey” but “As a user who has stupidly infected himself.”

Oh, the really funny thing about the article I find offensive overall? “…Antivirus 2010 labeled Alureon.h, though recognized by current security software like Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes, can remove the virus, but the after effects of the removal will disable users from using IE9.”

Bud, that’s not a negative. It’s a benefit.

Word of advice: If you ever do infect yourself with some malware, the FIRST step to recovery and prevention of future infections is to admit your own culpability. This guy’s just going to keep on infecting himself and refusing to accept responsibility, I’d bet.

*stupid and lazy? Yes. While one could say “naive” in this day and time a naive computer user running loose with an internet connection and installing apps willy-nilly is definitely the result of their own (or in the case of a child user, an irresponsible adult’s) stupidity and laziness. Period. No exceptions.

Update: catch the whiny, crybaby tantrum (replete with continued denial of responsibility for infecting himself) posted by the author of the screed I deplore in my lil rant. Sounds a bit angry doesn’t he? But… over at a Shoutbox forum (scroll down to the actual post), he records his reaction to my lil post differently:

“I was shown this article today in response to the article I wrote about IE9 and the Antivirus 2010 virus. I almost spit my drink all over my computer, laughing, when I read it…”

Quite the contrast to his crybaby tantrum here, isn’t it? Methinks the dude can’t even lie well.

BTW, just for posterity’s sake (because you can never trust liars not to “pull a Charlz Green”), here’s a screencap of the guy saying my post was funny, not “inducing frothing at the mouth anger” as his comment here indicates:

What a maroon...
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Firewalls–a Short FYI

I’ve long held that most people need to seriously think, if only for a couple of minutes, about one of their most basic internet security issues (beyond simply not being stupid *heh*): their firewalls. Yes, plural. Most people access the internet via a Windows computer*, and most people simply use a built-in Windows firewall at its default setting. Some unwittingly purchase (or have purchased for them) a router that has firewall capabilities as well.

But.

Most Windows users are still using the less-than-capable Windows XP software firewall, and I’ve found that many folks who have a router with NAT or even SPI capabilities either don’t have those capabilities fully enabled or, even worse, still have the factory default password unchanged.

Bad.

If you or someone you know is still using WinXP’s software firewall,please change that to a more capable software firewall solution. The free Comodo Firewall is pretty good. If you have Win7 installed, the choice is not as clearcut. More on that later.

NAT (Network Address Translation) and SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) firewalls built into most modern routers are easy-peasy to enable, and using them/not using them is a no-brainer. Even folks who only have one computer connecting to a broadband connection should have a NAT/SPI firewall-capable router installed between them and the internet.

Now, Win7 and firewalls. I’m certainly not averse to upgrading to a more robust firewall than the one included in Win7, but Steve Gibson’s Shields Up! utility says that combined with a NAT/SPI hardware firewall, it’s pretty darned good:

Of course, Gibson’s utility only tests the first 1056 ports, but he gives his reasoning for that, and it seems to make some sense, at least. Still, no previous Windows firewall/router firewall combo in the past has achieved he result noted above before now, so one might be relatively safe with a Win7 firewall/NAT/SPI firewall combo.

I will say that every computer I’ve had running Linux or BSD (usually just using the default firewall rules found in most distros) has returned a “stealth” notice from Gibson’s site. Heck almost all hardware routers use some ‘nix variant as their operating systems, anyway.

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Well, It’s About Time

I’ve been running Opera 10.70.3488 on my Windows boxes for some time now. Yes, it’s still beta, but remarkably stable. I’ve been avoiding some builds with known regressions I don’t want to mess with, but in a few mins now, I’ll start moving my Windows boxes to Opera 10.70.9047.

The Linux compies will have to wait for tomorrow. Why? My cable service is experiencing a severe hitch in its getalong, tonight. SPent an hour w/so-called customer support just to finally get to a service person who would do a check to see that, yes, my (brand new Motorola SB 6120) modem was indeed just hunky dory, and that the problem was very obviously NOT on my end.

The Win version is just a 12MB download, but instead of being virtually instantaneous, it’s taking 15 minutes or so to struggle downstream to me.

And don’t even get me talking about upload “speeds”.

Readers here will recall this isn’t the first time I’ve had these issues, although almost all of them have been in the last year or so. And despite the ever worsening customer “service” and the maddening service outages and slowdowns, this is still the best option in internet service here in America’s Third World County, by an order of magnitude. Literally.

*sigh*

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My Own Lil “Round Tuit”

A couple of years ago when I bought a “bare” (no-OS) HP to use ,as a base for modding with peripherals–added memory and video/sound, more storage, etc.–I fully intended one of those mods to be a much more capable (and reliable) power supply. Well, I’ve finally done so, but only because the “commodity” power supply that came with the thing finally failed. Now, to be clear, I hadn’t really expected the thing to last this long, anyway, as it was very obviously the weakest link in the box as it was built, so I ought to have replaced it much, much sooner. But still…

OK, so the truth is that I’m too much of a tightwad to have replaced it before it actually failed. But now that it has, I’ve picked up a MOR Corsair 650TX to replace the 350W piece of commodity-grade junk. No, it’s not a PC Power and Cooling tank, but it’s certainly Good Enough:

For my purposes, I particularly like the single 52A 12+V rail.

Of course, since that machine’s back in my un-AC-ed office, it’ll see use only on cooler days (or when I really need that machine’s capabilities) through the end of August. Unless I actually get that office moved downstairs before then. 🙂

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New Toy, Part II

Same new toy as earlier, just a few more observations.

More pleased with this thing for web surfing, email and general office, computing tasks, etc., than I’d thought I’d be. Oh, I was sure it’d be OK for general computing, web surfing, etc., but that this lil notebook has proven so very easy to adapt to for everyday use has been a bit of a surprise. Oh, placement of some keys on this almost full-size keyboard and avoiding the touchpad while typing sometimes causes minor glitches in use, but apart from those things, it’s capable of replacing my main machine for ordinary tasks.

Nice.

The 15.6″ “widescreen” (1366X768) is nearly as good as my nice 23″ display on my desktop. Love the numeric keypad. I’m using a M$ Wireless Mobile Mouse 3000 most of the time, since that just leaves me less of a transition to my other computers and to those I work on, but it’d not be a deal breaker if I didn’t have it plugged in.

The bad? Almost all the ASUS software it came loaded with. Who really needs some Dock-like piece of crap (ASUS ControlDeck) to navigate with? People who need training wheels on their tricycles? And ASUS WebStorage? *feh* ASUS EeePC users get 500GB of online storage just for buying their midget computers. I get an ASUS WebStorage app that won’t even let me register, but even if it did, I’d qualify for a measly 1GB of storage. Useless. Even M$ SkyDrive (which works flawlessly, BTW) gives me 25GB of storage for free.

The rest of the ASUS utilities and applications are all things I can live without, though most are innocuous. Still, I’ve killed loading every one of them at Windows startup.

Killed off ALL the trialware the computer came with, as well as a lot of really stupid games. Chess and Freecell: all the games I’ll ever want on this puppy.

The only hardware quibble I really have is that all the USB ports (4 of ’em) are on the left and right sides of the computer. I’d like to have seen two on the back edge, but that’s really just a quibble. I can see some folks breaking off connectors/damaging ports just as easily there as on the left/right sides, as I’m more likely to do. OTOH, I like the media card port dead center in front. I run Thunderbird Portable off the thing, and it’s nice having all my email archived on a handily-ejected media card front and center. Since I now collect it all at Gmail as well, I’m pretty well covered in the email archiving stuff, especially if I just copy the mail folder off to other removable media every now and then.

Everything about this lil 15.6″ notebook says, “well built” and for $500? *sheesh* I walk by WallyWorld displays selling much less capable lil toys for as much or more. Still wondering if I ought to pinch myself. *heh*

Still, it does have limited uses as a platform for installing multiple VMs–only a 320GB HDD (and a max of only about 280 of that actually available for use right now because of the partitioning scheme) and just 4GB of RAM–not ideal for running several OSes simultaneously. And some of the other uses I have for computers aren’t best met by a lil notebook like this. But. It’s ideally suited as a “couch computer” when mated with this:

The rubber feet on the laptop grip the top of the lapdesk nicely, and the lil mouse “likes” the surface. The storage is just lagniappe.

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Personal Taste

OK, so M$Office 2010 is pretty good. I like the built-in integration with SkyDrive and other M$ web thingies, and otherwise, it just works. I do NOT like the still proprietary formats, and some of the eye candy and hand-holding is over the top, but if I had to I could live with those things.

OpenOffice 3.2.1, OTOH, just works. Oh, cool stuff to match OneNote isn’t a part of the mix, and if one actually needed the page layout capabilities of Publisher it’d be a tad of a stretch for OO Writer, but overall I feel more comfy with OpenOffice’s approach.

Personal taste. Oh, a few other nice things were in M$Office, but most folks won’t install the Office Professional Plus 2010 version of M$Office I did–which included some TechNet-only additions to Office most readers here won’t be concerned with–some back end–such as Sharepoint (Designer and Workspace) so a straight-up quick look at just the primary components–word processing, database, spreadsheet and presentation software–is all I’ve done so far.

One thing OO really has in its favor: I can use it on all my computers without any compatibility layer intruding. Linux, BSD, Windows: OO just doesn’t care, since it works natively on ’em all.