"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
For most Windows users, the “Homegroup” networking-on-training-wheels approach works well on home networks. But what to do with Windows XP users on the same network when you want to share resources on Win7 computers?
This lil tutorial covers that base, and touches on Vista users as well. Bob’s your uncle. It does require doing a few simple, ordinary Windows networking and user management things that any normal user ought to be able to do, but if you refer someone you know to the site and they have difficulty, you may either have to walk them through in “babier” steps or tell them to have their 10-year-old do it for ’em. *heh*
Although certainly no regular reader of this site would self-infect as a result of this piece of “social engineering” y’all may want to pass this on to others.
Now, regular readers here aren’t among the set of folks who click on attachments in emails that
a. they were not already expecting AND
b. hadn’t been AT LEAST manually scanned by a freshly-updated, strong anti-malware software… or two. AND
c. actually checked the sender’s address out using “view full headers” (or whatever your email client offers) and found it to be from a legitimate, known and trusted sender–for real.
If an attachment satisfies all those requirements, it may be safe to open. May. Frankly, more and more, I “send” files by giving folks an ftp address for download or posting them with Skydrive or some other such site or just posting them here for download. That way, at least folks have a pretty good idea who the file is actually coming from and can base further action on what level of trust they may place in me. Email? With forged headers and other social engineering/obfuscation techniques, naive users often have no idea where a given email came from, and so they often infect themselves.
I don’t excuse them because of their naivete. Naive users have a responsibility to learn safe computing practices. If they infect themselves and go on to spread the infection, well, any stupidity that is advanced enough is virtually indistinguishable from malice.
BTW, I’ve received two emails such as those referred to in the article. The delete key works a charm with them, if my filters haven’t already caught and scrubbed them.
So, got the computer I screwed up all back to “useful” then installed Acronis TrueImage (the free–and “slightly less good”–version from Western Digital, since the drive’s a WD drive) and made an image of the drive. Now, if I screw it up again, I can just reinstall the image and Bob’s youruncle.
Anyway, I was in the process of picking up some more DVDRs and CDRs at our local “fell-off-the-truck-pricing” store and saw a neat lil Microsoft Wireless mouse for $20. No packaging, just the mouse, USB connection and battery. Bought it. Brought it home and tried it out on Hawg (this computer). No joy. The lil USB adapter got so hot I had to use a chip puller to remove it. Took it back and traded for a Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000 keyboard/mouse combo. Slick stuff. Works fine. 5 button Bluetrack mouse and multi-media keyboard. (Of course the first thing I did, before installing the combo, was to stick some high density foam rubber under the capslock key to prevent accidental triggering. Much more useful, IMO, than any of the software solutions I’ve seen or tried.)
Oh, how much did I pay, total (after returning the mouse) for the kbd/mouse combo?
$30.
Same thing is available at Wally World for $60. At Amazon, $50 (and free shipping, no tax). I can live with $30.
First impressions? Nice “click-y” sound and feel from the soft touch keyboard. Really nice. The mouse? I’ve yet to use the “flip” side buttons, but it fills the hand nicely, tracks like a dream and the scrollwheel is smooth. So smooth, in fact, that it’s going to take some getting used to. All-in-all, though, compared to some Memorex, Logitech and “Gateway-branded” sets I’ve used over the past 10 years or so, I like–a lot.
Pics? You want pics? Here’s one:
Another Update:
and
UPDATE: BTW, the 4th and 5th buttons? right now, I just have them assigned to go back (left) and forward (right) in my browser. It’s not such a much, though, because it’s such a minor enhancement as against the mouse gestures I normally use to do those things. Still, until I’m more comfortable with the rest of it, that’s as far as I wanted to take it. I didn’t like the default “flip” function on clicking the mouse wheel (instead of scrolling), so I reset that to act like the default function other mice with clickable scroll wheels have had, just a standard middle click. The scroll wheel is so very smooth and responsive in its default configuration that I am having a bit of difficulty using that function precisely.
I have no reason for posting this video other than that I just enjoy watching it from time to time. Download it with YouTube Downloader if you want. I certainly have. 🙂
I’ve partitioned hard disks since the Good Old Days of DOS, largely from the command line. “sfdisk” in Linux is similar to fdisk in DOS and works quite well. PartEd is a Gnu app most commonly, nowadays, seen as GPartED that does partitioning pretty much like Partition Magic, Acronis Disk Director and other apps used in both Windows and as CD boot disks for installing new hard drives. Indeed, the Acronis product is used by several hard drive manufacturers in a brabded version keyed to their company’s hard drives as the recommended method for installing hard drives.
Of late, although I have a licensed copy of Acronis Disk Director on hand, and an older version of Partition magic, in addition to familiarity with command line partitioning, I’ve sort of standardized on a live CD of GPartEd as my preferred method of managing partitions.
Well, I stupidly decided to test out a different product, Partition Wizard (yeh, kinda cheesy riffing off the Partition Magic name; I should have taken the warning that sent up seriously) on the computer I’m customizing to give to someone who might read this post, so I’ll not name that person, yet. 🙂 Anyway, really stupid. Hosed the Windows XP Pro partition. Unbootable.*
GPartEd to the rescue. Not the easy route though. Since a repair install of WinXP had no effect, I simply repartitioned and formatted the drive all over again with GPartEd and reinstalled a fresh install of WinXP Pro, then reinstalled the limited set of software I’m customizing the install with. Bob’s your uncle.
A couple of hours’ work, all-in-all, but now everything’s as it ought to be. Windows now sees and can use the space once taken by a hidden partition (a “restore” partition that was almost entirely useless, given the fact that all the computer had originally was WinXP Pro installed–no other software), and things are working well. I’m toying with adding an external drive to the gift that’s the same size as the on board drive, simply for imaging the thing to once it’s complete (I still have to do a “Windows Easy Transfer” of files and settings from the old computer to this one). I’ve not decided yet whether I’ll add that to the mix, though.
At any rate, avoid Partition Wizard. It doesn’t seem quite ready for prime time. The (also) free GPartEd is much better, and costs no more. In fact, it “costs” less, because it has yet to hose a drive in my use of it. 🙂
Strangely, I’m not talking about congresscritters in the blogpost title. Or perhaps not so strangely, as those guilty critters deserve no protection.
No, I’m talking about protecting the perpetrators of…
FRENCH FRY SPAM CASSEROLE
Yield: 8 servings
1 pk Frozen french fry potatoes,
-thawed (20 oz)
2 c Shredded Cheddar cheese
2 c Sour cream
1 can Condensed cream of chicken
-soup (10 3/4 oz)
1 can SPAM Luncheon Meat, cubed
-(12 oz)
1/2 c Chopped red bell pepper
1/2 c Chopped green onion
1/2 c Finely crushed corn flakes
Heat oven to 350’F. In large bowl, combine potatoes, cheese, sour
cream, and soup. Stir in SPAM, bell pepper, and green onion. Spoon
into 13″x9″ baking dish. Sprinkle with crushed flakes. Bake 30-40
minutes or until thoroughly heated.
No, I’m not linking to the source. You can’t make me. It’d only encourage them.
Really. Here’s James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal hoisting Paul Krugman (New York Slimes) with his own petard*. It seems John Kyl asserted that overly-generous unemployment benefits result in disincentives to seek work, an assertion Paul Krugman countered with,
“To me, that’s a bizarre point of view–but then, I don’t live in Mr. Kyl’s universe.”
And, that the Democrats’ view–that generous unemployment benefits are NOT disincentives to seeking further employment–are, “what textbook economics says.”
Taranto then quotes from an economic textbook, “Macroeconomics,” authored by Krugman,
Public policy designed to help workers who lose their jobs can lead to structural unemployment as an unintended side effect. . . . In other countries, particularly in Europe, benefits are more generous and last longer. The drawback to this generosity is that it reduces a worker’s incentive to quickly find a new job. Generous unemployment benefits in some European countries are widely believed to be one of the main causes of “Eurosclerosis,” the persistent high unemployment that affects a number of European countries.
That’s right. Libtards think
No one will check to see whether they’re liars or not and
No one cares whether they’re liars or not, anyway.
They might be almost right about the second. We’ll see come November.
