UKBouldering.com
technical => computers, technology and the internet => Topic started by: tomtom on June 10, 2009, 01:54:15 pm
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Grrrr....
Went to get some lunch, returned to my PC and found that the auto updates had installed AND automatically re-started my PC. Lost some work and some model runs I'd had going for 2 days. Wankers. C*nts. What gives them the right to auto start my machine.
Rant over.
PS (was running XP hence subject)
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I learned to turn auto install updates off the hard way as well. Just count your blessings you only lost 2 days worth of run time...
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Time to check out an alternative (http://www.gentoo.org/) :whistle:
Of course it depends what software you're modelling in, but if its something you've written yourself then it will likely compile fine (unless there are quirks as to the compiler you've been using under M$).
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Time to check out an alternative (http://www.gentoo.org/) :whistle:
Of course it depends what software you're modelling in, but if its something you've written yourself then it will likely compile fine (unless there are quirks as to the compiler you've been using under M$).
I have the auto updates turned off - but I clicked OK to update this one, figuring I'd restart tomorrow or whatever but, the bastard caught me by surprise!
Afraid not... Visual C#.. lovely language, just has to run through the .net run time engine (or whatever its called). There is a linux rival/workaround - but from my previous tries its not easy to get working (I couldnt) and is quite possibly slower. Of course I should re -write everything in c++.... but thats for another life :)
In a by the by way kind of way, I used to code in C and work entirely on a Linux/Unix platform... but in 2003 I ported it all over to C# so I could make it look nice (see what was happening etc..) and all of a sudden I had loads of people interested in using it. Twice as slow, but 10 times more accessible for others...
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Fair-do's. One of the Linux C# compiler is part of the Mono project (http://mono-project.com/CSharp_Compiler).
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slackers, just some quick Q's - yes/no answers are cool.
Can I install some kind of VM software now to have a go at running properly under linux, before flattening my drive (not the CD bootable thing, I mean actually do stuff for real)
Does most of the software I'd want have linux specific alternatives (and have it freely available)?
Could I ever use an MS emulator if i wanted to use some MS only software (that's unlikely though).
I fancy a go at this, still don't really care much for Vista but it took so long to get all the drivers etc. I don't want to revert to XP! (plus it's nice having a licensed OS)
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I'll pretend to be Slack--Line for a second!
Can I install some kind of VM software now to have a go at running properly under linux, before flattening my drive
Try VmWare
Does most of the software I'd want have linux specific alternatives (and have it freely available)?
Depends what you want.
Could I ever use an MS emulator if i wanted to use some MS only software (that's unlikely though).
You can run Windows in something like VmWare under Linux.
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I'll pretend to be Slack--Line for a second!
Can I install some kind of VM software now to have a go at running properly under linux, before flattening my drive
Try VmWare
Does most of the software I'd want have linux specific alternatives (and have it freely available)?
Depends what you want.
Could I ever use an MS emulator if i wanted to use some MS only software (that's unlikely though).
You can run Windows in something like VmWare under Linux.
:-\ Either I'm becoming too predictable, or I've been banging my drum for too long (or more likely both) :lol:
What Bubba said, you can get VMware for Windows and Linux, you install it and it then provides a Virtual Machine under which to install and run other OS's, so you could buy a windows version to install and test linux out without wiping your current Vista install. After a while if you're happy, back all your data up, install Linux then get VMware for Linux and you can install M$ under Linux to run any Windoze specific software.
Like Bubba says there are Linux alternatives for almost everything, music production is slightly lacking and there's a bit of a gap in video editing (much of the heavy CGI films of recent years are rendered on "farms" of linux machines, but I've no idea what the man-in-the-street level of support is).
Just ask if you want any more info :)
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For some (probably masochistic) reason I decided that because I was pissed off with MS, I should try the evaulation version of Windows 7 on spare laptop at work....
its actually quite good and installed perfectly.... :-\
Hmm, will go look for faults now ;)
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well its your own fault for turning them on tbh, always update manually.
plus if you need to keep your computer running for 2 days it must be too slow
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well its your own fault for turning them on tbh, always update manually.
plus if you need to keep your computer running for 2 days it must be too slow
Its the auto-restart that caught me out. I normally update, then restart at my leisure... Unfortunately some elements of MS products are crippled/forced by the work image/regulations..
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ha ha ha! yes they are abunch of c*nts..... :furious: :agree:
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well its your own fault for turning them on tbh, always update manually.
plus if you need to keep your computer running for 2 days it must be too slow
I have to keep mine running for 28 days per simulation! When you're working with things that are iterative this isn't unusual.
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well its your own fault for turning them on tbh, always update manually.
plus if you need to keep your computer running for 2 days it must be too slow
I have to keep mine running for 28 days per simulation! When you're working with things that are iterative this isn't unusual.
are you doing CFD things Paul?
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well its your own fault for turning them on tbh, always update manually.
plus if you need to keep your computer running for 2 days it must be too slow
I have to keep mine running for 28 days per simulation! When you're working with things that are iterative this isn't unusual.
Do you use iceberg (http://www.shef.ac.uk/wrgrid/index.html) and the queue/load-balancing for that Paul?
2 days isn't that long for simulations, particularly if they're Markov-Chain Monte Carlo type ones. I've had pedigree data that takes a good week to analyse, not quite the 28 days, but there are some very large pedigrees (e.g. from the Framingham Heart Study) that take longer than 28days depending on the number of data points you have on each person.
It depends realy on whether you're problem is conducive to parrallel processing, and not all computations are.
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i use iceberg and my own machine, my own machine is quicker (or was last time I checked, its now had an upgrade I believe)...
Fluent works with parallel processing but securing a mass number of licenses isn't easy. I've got 4 paralle process licenses which is adequate ish.
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i use iceberg and my own machine, my own machine is quicker (or was last time I checked, its now had an upgrade I believe)...
Fluent works with parallel processing but securing a mass number of licenses isn't easy. I've got 4 paralle process licenses which is adequate ish.
Any of you guys tinkered with CUDA and GPU? Was thinking of getting a card/machine combo but have been semi put off by reports that its bloody hard to code/deal with...
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nope sorry.
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Currently as far with gentoo as typing 'ln -s /usr/portage/profiles/default/linux/x86/2008.0 /etc/make.profile'
and then 'emerge system'
and i get an error - 'ARCH is not set!!! Are you missing the etc/make.profile symlink?
no idea what to do next, done a load of googling and I can't see how to make the profile the 'meaningful' one.....
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[quote author=underground link=topic=11879.msg204986#msg204986 date=1244763566]
Currently as far with gentoo as typing 'ln -s /usr/portage/profiles/default/linux/x86/2008.0 /etc/make.profile'
and then 'emerge system'
and i get an error - 'ARCH is not set!!! Are you missing the etc/make.profile symlink?
no idea what to do next, done a load of googling and I can't see how to make the profile the 'meaningful' one.....
[/quote]
Try...
[code]
ln -s /usr/portage/profiles/default/linux/x86/2008.0/desktop /etc/make.profile
Then edit your /etc/make.conf and put the arch you're on, it'll either be x86 or amd64. The later is if you have a 64-bit processor, whether its Intel or AMD...
KEYWORDS="x86"
Then you can check if ARCH is set with...
emerge --info | grep 'ARCH'
Jump on the Gentoo forums, exceptionally useful and very helpful (or continue to ask me :) )
[/code]
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:-\ I fucked up there on the quoting/code tags :-[
Further evidence that M$-Windoze are :wank:
They're going to push up the price of netbooks (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/06/12/win7_and_netbook_pricing/), so make sure you choose one with GNU/Linux on :)
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:-\ I fucked up there on the quoting/code tags :-[
Further evidence that M$-Windoze are :wank:
They're going to push up the price of netbooks (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/06/12/win7_and_netbook_pricing/), so make sure you choose one with GNU/Linux on :)
Or Android...??
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:-\ I fucked up there on the quoting/code tags :-[
Further evidence that M$-Windoze are :wank:
They're going to push up the price of netbooks (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/06/12/win7_and_netbook_pricing/), so make sure you choose one with GNU/Linux on :)
Or Android...??
Indeed, although Android uses the Linux part (i.e. the kernel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system))) of GNU/Linux anyway :P
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:-\ I fucked up there on the quoting/code tags :-[
Further evidence that M$-Windoze are :wank:
They're going to push up the price of netbooks (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/06/12/win7_and_netbook_pricing/), so make sure you choose one with GNU/Linux on :)
Or Android...??
Is suspected as much! now if Apple released OS XIIXVI (or whatever its now called - probably snow-rabbit or something) for PC's that would be a winner IMHO - and introduce people to unix...
Indeed, although Android uses the Linux part (i.e. the kernel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system))) of GNU/Linux anyway :P
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[quote author=underground link=topic=11879.msg204986#msg204986 date=1244763566]
Currently as far with gentoo as typing 'ln -s /usr/portage/profiles/default/linux/x86/2008.0 /etc/make.profile'
and then 'emerge system'
and i get an error - 'ARCH is not set!!! Are you missing the etc/make.profile symlink?
no idea what to do next, done a load of googling and I can't see how to make the profile the 'meaningful' one.....
[/quote]
Try...
[code]
ln -s /usr/portage/profiles/default/linux/x86/2008.0/desktop /etc/make.profile
Then edit your /etc/make.conf and put the arch you're on, it'll either be x86 or amd64. The later is if you have a 64-bit processor, whether its Intel or AMD...
KEYWORDS="x86"
Then you can check if ARCH is set with...
emerge --info | grep 'ARCH'
Jump on the Gentoo forums, exceptionally useful and very helpful (or continue to ask me :) )
[/code]
Ok thanks slackers! I'm now at the stage of 'editing' the make.conf - I'm not sure how you mean the code should be entered, and what the KEYWORDS "x86" means - the stage before it worked and I got a 'file exists', but doing the grep just brings upo the next command line and does nowt. ARCH is definitely not set yet :)
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Ok thanks slackers! I'm now at the stage of 'editing' the make.conf - I'm not sure how you mean the code should be entered, and what the KEYWORDS "x86" means
Run a search for x86 in the make.conf file?
No idea to be honest though.
bluebrad
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Ok thanks slackers! I'm now at the stage of 'editing' the make.conf - I'm not sure how you mean the code should be entered, and what the KEYWORDS "x86" means
Run a search for x86 in the make.conf file?
No idea to be honest though.
bluebrad
This is the thing though - 'run a search' usually means right clicking or choosing a menu and pressing 'search', not using a command line and unixy majik. It's my own fault for piling in with a tutorial (http://www.ht-lab.com/howto/vmplayer/vmplayer.html) without knowing fuck all about what I'm on with.
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This is the thing though - 'run a search' usually means right clicking or choosing a menu and pressing 'search', not using a command line and unixy majik. It's my own fault for piling in with a tutorial (http://www.ht-lab.com/howto/vmplayer/vmplayer.html) without knowing fuck all about what I'm on with.
Ctrl + F might work - let me know if that work otherwise I will start trawling Google once I have been for a quick smoke break - it's either that of start losing the will to live watching the floppy haired twat that is Ross on the TV while bored at work.
bluebrad
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Cheers mate - although i did a bit of forum browsing and have given up for tonight. Have started downloading kubuntu and gentoo images instead.
Enjoy the evening - the only thing I miss about that place is smoking by the river... ;)
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Cheers mate - although i did a bit of forum browsing and have given up for tonight. Have started downloading kubuntu and gentoo images instead.
Enjoy the evening - the only thing I miss about that place is smoking by the river... ;)
I hate it when that happens - where's Will's who's who guide when you need it?
To be honest smoking by the river still about the only thing to enjoy about the place though there was a whole host of scantily clad young ladies wandering past earlier on to make things that bit more interesting. ;)
bluebrad
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Cheers mate - although i did a bit of forum browsing and have given up for tonight. Have started downloading kubuntu and gentoo images instead.
Enjoy the evening - the only thing I miss about that place is smoking by the river... ;)
Gentoo is a little more involved than the Ubuntu family of GNU/Linux distributions, but.....its documentation (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/) is the best out there.
Don't get distracted by other people's "Install HowTo's" get it straight from the horses mouth and read/work through the Gentoo Handbook (http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/index.xml).
As for "searching" there are different levels, you can search for files using the 'find' or 'locate' commands, or you can search for text within files using the amazingly powerful and useful 'grep'. What bluebrad alludes to is the later and it would have looked like...
grep 'x86' /etc/make.conf
If 'x86' is found in the file /etc/make.conf the line is is on is printed to screen.
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:furious: How fucking retarded is M$-Word 2007?
If you want to change the orientation of individual pages in a document you would, logically, think you would use the "Orientation" option wouldn't you?
No, no, no, under the abomination that is Word 2007 you do this under the Margins option!!!
:wall: :furious: :wall: :furious: :wall: FFS what retard programmed that? They need sacking
Why do I have to work at the lowest common denomination because colleagues are too lazy to learn a better alternative :wall: :wall: :wall: :wall:
No wonder I switched to LaTeX, time to install OpenOffice here at work me thinks.
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You know, MS get a load of grief for being wankers, but the bit of software that pisses me off most is Itunes.
I HAD to update itunes when I upgraded my Iphone software - and it puts all sorts of little programs on startup that really can slow things down. I then have to go into the registry to remove them. EVERY time I upgrade Itunes I have to do this. Why use Itunes? well, you have to in order to upgrade the iphone.
Apple are just as bad - if not worse than MS on this - and other things such as the locking of MP3's bought through them etc..
If you're PC is a little slow and you have itunes.. have a look at how many little i-startup programs are there...
C*nts.
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(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Tux.svg/334px-Tux.svg.png)
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(http://secret.extrarisk.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/linux-pengiun-sex.jpg)
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Seems that M$ now see GNU/Linux as a real threat (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/05/microsoft_rivals_red_hat_canonical_linux/) :)
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Surprised you don't get a mention fella.
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:lol:
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The fuckers. They've done it again with their old auto shut down after windows update routine...
this time its on a W7 machine and gave me no warning. Left two things running on a laptop overnight and this morning a re-booted updated installed machine. Cnuts. No warning, no option to change - just the default setting is I'm going to install some software shut down your computer and loose whatever you have there running.
Wankers.
My fault for leaving it connected to 'web all night I suppose... >:(
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It's payback for spelling lose wrong.
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It's payback for spelling lose wrong.
Would Linux punish me the same? :-\
(http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/penguin-kill.jpg)
:o
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Might be doifferent under W7 but have you tried opening Group Policy Editor (start -> run -> gpedit.msc) and set No auto-restart with logged-on users for scheduled automatic updates
Under Computer Configuration -> Admin Tools -> Windows Components -> Windows Update.
Specifies that to complete a scheduled installation, Automatic Updates will wait for the computer to be restarted by any user who is logged on, instead of causing the computer to restart automatically.
If the status is set to Enabled, Automatic Updates will not restart a computer automatically during a scheduled installation if a user is logged in to the computer. Instead, Automatic Updates will notify the user to restart the computer.
Be aware that the computer needs to be restarted for the updates to take effect.
If the status is set to Disabled or Not Configured, Automatic Updates will notify the user that the computer will automatically restart in 5 minutes to complete the installation.
Note: This policy applies only when Automatic Updates is configured to perform scheduled installations of updates. If the "Configure Automatic Updates" policy is disabled, this policy has no effect.
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Thanks Nai,
I wasnt surprised when it happened under the works nobbled control freak XP image, but was pissed off it happened AGAIN under W7. I'm calling them cnuts, but really just pissed off with myself.. again... :shrug:
Your tip worked fine in W7 - except it was called Administrative templates. Thanks for that - duly disabled.
T
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Best watch out for the bumper update (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8302286.stm) tomtom and make sure you've not got anything critical running.
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Its Windows 7 official release date today.
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Hope you've organised your PAR-TAY!!!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/sep/23/windows-7-party (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/sep/23/windows-7-party)
:wank: :wank: :wank:
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Its Windows 7 official release date today.
But everyone will have to wait a week before they get their mits on it 'cause of the potsal strikes :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Windows 7? Not unless it's free thqnkyou. I did quite want a version of Vista that works properly, but I wanted it at the beginning of last year, and I don't feel like buying it twice.
In a small act of resistance, last week I installed ubuntu 9.04 as dual-boot on my neighbours PC alongside his (pirate) copy of Windows XP (which he'd managed to cripple by accidentally installing WGA...).
I told him it's like a free version of windows, put shortcuts on the desktop to "Internet" (firefox), "Messenger" (pidgin) and "Word processing" (openoffice). Installation was stupidly easy - ubuntu even prompted for the correct graphics driver updates, and brought up a wizard which allowed easy selection of the right driver when his printer/scanner was switched on.
One week later and he asked me to completely remove Windows.
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:thumbsup: Another convert!
Its great that people are slowly coming round to the idea that there is more than one OS, and particularly now that Canonical have put so much effort into simplifying the install procedure.
I've a friend who whenever we catch up regales long arduous stories about how much time he's spent cleaning his OS and others who use M$-Winblows of viruses/spyware/adware/etc. it just sounds like an absolute fucking nightmare, even re-installing every six months can be a bit of a ball ache, especially when you've paid hard earned readies for something that should purportedly "just work".
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I've a friend who whenever we catch up regales long arduous stories about how much time he's spent cleaning his OS and others who use M$-Winblows of viruses/spyware/adware/etc. it just sounds like an absolute fucking nightmare, even re-installing every six months can be a bit of a ball ache, especially when you've paid hard earned readies for something that should purportedly "just work".
I'm not having a dig. I get this whole rebellion against microsoft thing, I really do, I'm a certified Novell engineer and M$ single-handedly destroyed the job market for me, but blaming microsoft for their dominant position in the OS market is a bit unfair. They arrived on the scene with some great products before anyone else had even thought about home computing. I know they dropped the ball with Vista, but in general they've got a pretty good track record and it's not as if the viruses and malware that infest the web are Microsoft's fault is it?
remember when they brought out windows for workgroups? What else was there for home users? It was quite simply a revelation, and what about windows 95?! The only other contender was OS warp ffs!
I know there are alternatives now and that people should broaden their horizons, but the open source lads have shot themselves in the foot with their completely uncoordinated approach. Everyone is so confused by all the different flavours knocking around (with the exception of Slackers!) that the latest offering from Microsoft seems like the easy, hassle free option, which is what the majority of end users are after.
If the Linux fanbois and devs would stop criticizing everything Microsoft produces they'd have enough spare time to organise a unified approach, start marketing Linux properly and put enough support infrastructure and driver compatibility in place to really challenge Microsoft.
I look forward to that day.
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I've a friend who whenever we catch up regales long arduous stories about how much time he's spent cleaning his OS and others who use M$-Winblows of viruses/spyware/adware/etc. it just sounds like an absolute fucking nightmare, even re-installing every six months can be a bit of a ball ache, especially when you've paid hard earned readies for something that should purportedly "just work".
I'm not having a dig. I get this whole rebellion against microsoft thing, I really do, I'm a certified Novell engineer and M$ single-handedly destroyed the job market for me, but blaming microsoft for their dominant position in the OS market is a bit unfair. They arrived on the scene with some great products before anyone else had even thought about home computing.
Hmm, well I refer you to the add campaign that Apple ran when Windows95 came out (http://www.guidebookgallery.org/ads/magazines/windows/win95-apple). Windows95 they're "new" desktop was basically copying Apples from 1985!!!
I know they dropped the ball with Vista, but in general they've got a pretty good track record and it's not as if the viruses and malware that infest the web are Microsoft's fault is it?
I'd disagree, it really is their fault. They pissed off a lot of smart hackers with the Win-tel market dominance and forcing restrictive license on people. Further they released software riddled with security holes and features that were easily exploited. Eg. Outlook exploits that meant when an infected email was opened it sent itself to every address in the address book.
More fundamentally though they completely ignored the architecture of having a 'root' (or 'Administrator' in their parlance) account that is permitted to do everything with regular user accounts that are restricted and can't modify executables or system files. This had been round on UNIX main-frames since the 60s, with good reason, it stops your system getting screwed up by people fiddling with it and confers a high degree of immunity to viruses!!!
remember when they brought out windows for workgroups? What else was there for home users? It was quite simply a revelation, and what about windows 95?! The only other contender was OS warp ffs!
See above! Macs had been doing it for years before Win95!
I know there are alternatives now and that people should broaden their horizons, but the open source lads have shot themselves in the foot with their completely uncoordinated approach. Everyone is so confused by all the different flavours knocking around (with the exception of Slackers!) that the latest offering from Microsoft seems like the easy, hassle free option, which is what the majority of end users are after.
There certainly are more failures in distributed opens source software projects than success', I read an interesting essay (http://www.linux.org.uk/Papers_CathPaper.cs) by Alan Cox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Cox) on this very topic last night.
But the fact is there are software packages and distros that are as feature rich as anything you'd pay for (e.g. Firefox, and no since you can't get IE for anything other than windows I wouldn't consider it to be a Free browser, since you have to buy the OS first!).
Distribution wise, its very simple, just read the FAQ for each distribution and you'll see that Ubuntu et al (Kubuntu/Xubuntu/Eeebuntu/Mint Linux) are all based on Debian. The main distros besides Debian are Novells SuSE, Mandriva, RedHat (which is an Enterprise version where you buy support services), Fedora (the free version of RedHat), Slackware (with a number of derivatives) and Gentoo (again with a number of derivatives).
To just go "Well I can't be bothered trying to understand this, I'm just going to hand some cash over, and be happy with that" is in my opinion pretty lazy. Some people have critically looked and tried the options and decided M$ is for them, thats fine, but unless you've tried it you can't knock it. I grew up with M$ 3.11 then Win95 before trying Linux, yes there was a learning curve, but its a more transparent one (waaaay too much obfuscation in Windows).
If the Linux fanbois and devs would stop criticizing everything Microsoft produces they'd have enough spare time to organise a unified approach, start marketing Linux properly and put enough support infrastructure and driver compatibility in place to really challenge Microsoft.
I look forward to that day.
As per above, most of the "fanbois" have actually tried M$ OS's over the years and no doubt try new ones when they come out, so they have a more informed opinion (even if it is biased!!!).
Fedora do pretty damn well for themselves. Sun Microsystems have open sourced SolarisOS and are big advocates. LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/[PHP/Perl/Python]) sits behind some of the largest web sites on the net (Amazon, Flickr being two examples). Google developed their own version of Linux and are doing okay for themselves. People/companies can and do make money out of open source projects.
I don't see any need for marketing (*spit*) and I don't get people who think things should "just workTM". A computer is a tool, a very complex one, and you'd be far better served understanding how your tool works and leveraging it further as a consequence by taking the time to understand the basics.
:-*
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(http://i38.tinypic.com/122k8kz.jpg)
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:lol: :furious: :lol:
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I started responding to each one of your points slackers, but I realised that life really is too short and I'm not interested enough in IT. You win. I promise not to install another Microsoft product until my copy of windows 7 arrives.
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Win7 seems fine to me. Not shit like Vista. I'm afraid I too am someone who prefers things to just work. I think my time is far better spent actually doing my job using these things.
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Win7 seems fine to me. Not shit like Vista. I'm afraid I too am someone who prefers things to just work. I think my time is far better spent actually doing my job using these things.
But heres the crux, you can't just start using a computer. You, me and everyone else have learnt how to use a computer OS and associated software (whether thats M$, Linux, Solaris, Mac OSX etc.) over time, and quite rightly people are reluctant to throw away their knowledge and start again from scratch. I found trying to troubleshoot problems under Win95 an absolute nightmare, documentation was crap and settings were obfuscated and hard to find.
Personally I started tinkering with Linux because it was required for work (someone hacked the UNIX server and set it up to sell pr0n so I said "get me a spare computer and I'll set up a Linux system). I found that actually it wasn't that hard, documentation was prolific and generally of a very high quality and in fact it was a lot easier to find and edit settings, so I switched.
I started responding to each one of your points slackers, but I realised that life really is too short and I'm not interested enough in IT. You win. I promise not to install another Microsoft product until my copy of windows 7 arrives.
Its not a competition though or really an argument, I was simply responding to your points :hug: :kiss2:.
As I wrote, as long as people have tried something before dismissing it then I'm fine with that. M$ are having to change their business model in light of the increasing popularity of FOSS, they're adopting an open format for their office suite.
I do stand by my point that the proliferation of viruses and malware is attributable to the railure to implement a tiered administration rights until very recently (oh yeah, and leaving the firewall wide open by default until XP SP2!!).
Sermon closed (I should get on with some work, getting a new work computer today and have a fresh install to do, and I'm not completely opposed to M$, I've used their Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/97577) for years, its brilliant, best ergonomic keyboard I've ever used).
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Surely virus targeting is just a function of popularity? The more users of the OS, the more viruses? I've never had one on either XP or 7.
Linux is great in theory but until it can be used for serious work like design, photography, or many other tasks that require professional software, its not even an option for the indivdual user. I'm sure its great for running servers etc.
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Surely virus targeting is just a function of popularity? The more users of the OS, the more viruses? I've never had one on either XP or 7.
I don't think its quote as simple as that, users don't write viruses, coders do, and they choose to exploit security holes in different OS's. If the holes are there then they exploit them
Linux is great in theory but until it can be used for serious work like design, photography, or many other tasks that require professional software, its not even an option for the indivdual user. I'm sure its great for running servers etc.
Software only improves through use and user feedback, look at Photoshop today and compare it to the original, far more feature rich now. Whether this is done under a bespoke business model of open-source project doesn't change that. Photography software is improving on Linux, the film industry developed GIMP (http://www.gimp.org) for use in CGI in innumerable films into what is now Cinepaint (http://www.cinepaint.org/) which is available to individual users.
At the moment companies like Adobe think that developing for Linux isn't worthwhile, but they're happy to co-develop for Mac OSX and Windows. IN theory though since OSX is based on BSD its not too disimilar to Linux so it wouldn't be too hard to port to Linux, and then make it a viable option. I doubt M$ will ever develop Office for Linux though :P
Personally I'm put off having to fork out for software license fees for OS, image software, anti-virus, movie player/editor, database, office software, stats packages (I get work to pay for the one stats package I use :P). It all adds up to a considerable amount that I can't justify and I don't like using pirated software (in part because they're often riddled with viruses!).
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Surely virus targeting is just a function of popularity? The more users of the OS, the more viruses? I've never had one on either XP or 7.
I don't think its quote as simple as that, users don't write viruses, coders do, and they choose to exploit security holes in different OS's. If the holes are there then they exploit them
I really do think its a simple as that.
if 95% of the people use windows and 85% of those people use internet explorer and WMP then why would anybody write viruses/trojans/malware etc... for anything else plus the fact that probably 95% of hackers have got some sort of grudge/dislike against M$
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What Jim said.
The best software will always cost money, for the same reason decent hardware costs money. Anyone needing to compete in a technical market will need to pay for the best software to remain competitive. Opensource will improve but the best programmers will end up at Adobe etc where they get paid shitloads instead of doing it for free.
pirated software (in part because they're often riddled with viruses!
I thought this was a myth spread by software firms? Never experienced it myself, and I thought virus writers were too busy getting one over on Gates, not targeting their own?
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Surely virus targeting is just a function of popularity? The more users of the OS, the more viruses? I've never had one on either XP or 7.
I don't think its quote as simple as that, users don't write viruses, coders do, and they choose to exploit security holes in different OS's. If the holes are there then they exploit them
I really do think its a simple as that.
if 95% of the people use windows and 85% of those people use internet explorer and WMP then why would anybody write viruses/trojans/malware etc... for anything else plus the fact that probably 95% of hackers have got some sort of grudge/dislike against M$
The targetting though is only in part because of the number of users. It is (or was) a lot easier to write effective viruses for windows because of the inherent security flaw I wrote in the other posts (i.e. lack of tierd permissions). This is fundamental, irrespective of how many users there are. If you had locked down admin accounts from the start on windows systems then it would have been far harder for viruses to proliferate, irrespective of the number of users!
This is further compounded by people using cracked software which is often riddled with viruses. Why do people want to use cracked software? Because they don't want to pay for it! So they end up with an infected system. Not the best situation really.
Interesting preview of some of the features of Windows 7. Have to say many of these desktop useability features (moving things on the toolbar, previews, tiling windows evenly (although thats still a complex way of doing that!)) have been in some of the Linux desktop software/window managers for some time, I wonder where M$ got their ideas from ::)
BBC Windows 7 Snippet (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8315541.stm#id8310000/8315500/8315541)
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come on slackers, just admit that your wrong. its all about %'s, the security loopholes where just convinient. even if they weren't there (which they do exists on all software) the vast majority of virus's etc.. would be for windows systems.
had some good iphone/imac/apple jiving last week
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What Jim said.
The best software will always cost money, for the same reason decent hardware costs money. Anyone needing to compete in a technical market will need to pay for the best software to remain competitive. Opensource will improve but the best programmers will end up at Adobe etc where they get paid shitloads instead of doing it for free.
You should check out how the GNU project developed. Set out initally to write a UNIX-like (POSIX compliant) OS, and develop concomitant software such as a C compiler (gcc) and text editor (Emacs) but were flexible in the direction projects took. If someone liked they're efforts but wanted particular features that were lacking GNU embraced that and said "Sure, we'll develop that for you..if you pay us". This to my mind is an excellent way of developing software, you listen to what people want, and if they want it bad enough they will pay for it. Overall the software improves, your business has made money and you can pay yourself and your coders. Even better, because its opensource, everyone else benefits too as the feature developed for one paying customer.
More info on this here (http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu.html).
pirated software (in part because they're often riddled with viruses!
I thought this was a myth spread by software firms? Never experienced it myself, and I thought virus writers were too busy getting one over on Gates, not targeting their own?
Virus writers need a delivery method, whats to stop them from taking someone's cracked version and infecting it and then posting it back up on an alternative site, saving themselves shit loads of work and having a nice easy delivery system for very little work.
In part its why the advice to scan downloaded software for viruses is so pervasive.
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Windows Install Torrent Party (http://www.funnyordie.co.uk/videos/ef83afc272/hosting-your-windows-7-torrenting-party) :lol:
come on slackers, just admit that your wrong. its all about %'s, the security loopholes where just convinient. even if they weren't there (which they do exists on all software) the vast majority of virus's etc.. would be for windows systems.
The number of available hosts to be infected will have made it more attractive, but I think that virus writing has evolved over time. Initially it was a proof of concept, then it was done maliciously to spite M$, and these days its done for profit (i.e. botnets for sending out spam). Thus people didn't initially just sit down and say "lets see, the most prolific home computer OS is M$, lets write a virus for that". They started off doing it to see if it could be done. Obviously thats not the case these days, but to just say its only because of the market place dominance isn't giving a clear picture.
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come on slackers, just admit that your wrong.
Not a fucking hope sunshine.
;D
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:-[
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Thanks to Tomtom for the heads up on this.
New Ubuntu release (purportedly faster than Win7)] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8326264.stm#id8320000/8327000/8327082)
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Your sales job has been better Slackers, I doubt anyone will sign up on the strength of that.
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Your sales job has been better Slackers, I doubt anyone will sign up on the strength of that.
:P Cheers. Haven't bothered watching the video myself, I just read the article.
The thing is that the majority of users just want a computer to...
a) Surf the net securely.
b) Email
c) Manage and upload pics
d) Write letters/simple spreadsheets
Thats it, they don't need the latest quad-core w/4Gb and Tb's of storage (ok maybe in the long term they will need that amount of space).
In light of this why shell out anywhere between £80 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Windows-Home-Premium-English/dp/B002NGJO4M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1256635320&sr=8-1) to [urlhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Windows-Ultimate-English-Pack/dp/B002NGQLTS/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1256635320&sr=8-10]£540[/url] pound for an OS, only to then have to buy antivirus, malware, adware office suite etc. on top of that. Just doesn't make sense, but then some people have more money than sense I guess.
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Note to slackline - watch videos before posting them. Boils down to 'its free! But it won't run any of your software... though you won't get any viruses... you can't access itunes, or much else... and at somepoint your probably going to need to code by hand.' Oh yeah, I'm sold.
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Well I read the article before posting and linked to that, the BBC/Simple Machines Forum (that UKB runs on) automagically embedded the video :oops: I guess I'm just too sad/backwards reading things these days ::)
Why would anyone want itunes its a piece of crap? (Even many iPod owners conceed this!)
Besides which it won't need to run any of the expensive software you've paid hard earned pennies for since there are free alternatives if all you want to do is as I highlighted above (caveat : for most people the need to have photoshop, or a variant thereof, is massive overkill and a waste of money).
I've never really coded anything in my life for Linux. I learnt C back in 1999 for my MSc but never really used it and dabble in perl for work on occasions. My main coding is in two stats packages (Stata (http://www.stata.com) and R (http://www.r-project.org)). Its simply not necessary to be a coder, but you do have to be able to read documentation, udnerstand it, and be able to edit configuration files (under Ubuntu they have nice GUI's to do this for you for almost everything, but all they're doing is changing text files in the background which you can, if inclined, go in and edit directly yourself).
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My main coding is in two stats packages (Stata (http://www.stata.com) and R (http://www.r-project.org)).
Busted - now I understand ;)
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you are persistant aren't you slackers.
maybe once you could give in and admit your wrong tho, or maybe that linux might not be the best solution.
I'm not sure to wad or punter you
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you are persistant aren't you slackers.
I'm perhaps a little too evangelical :-[
maybe once you could give in and admit your wrong tho, or maybe that linux might not be the best solution.
Sure I'm wrong, I hold my hands up.
Besides, its not like I have any social responsibility or even obligation, to let people know that an alternative even exists, its free, and will satisfy their needs quite satisfactorily (viz. (http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,12096.0.html)). They can keep on paying for their hardware upgrades that are required for the latest and greatest OS (although I do note that Win7 has started to address this and doesn't necessarily require a >3Ghz processor and +4Gb RAM), pay for their OS license, office software, AV/adware/malware/spyware and still have problems that they can't resolve without having to reinstall from scratch or pay a technical engineer (or PC World or similar ilk) to resolve. No skin off my nose.
I'm not sure to wad or punter you
I'd go for punter, it'll balance out some of Magpie's wadage :P
:hug: :-* :kiss2:
My main coding is in two stats packages (Stata (http://www.stata.com) and R (http://www.r-project.org)).
Busted - now I understand ;)
Well I am a statistician (http://www.themixingbowl.org/static/img/smilies/geek.gif)
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The thing is that the majority of users just want a computer to...
a) Surf the net securely.
b) Email
c) Manage and upload pics
d) Write letters/simple spreadsheets
Thats it, they don't need the latest quad-core w/4Gb and Tb's of storage (ok maybe in the long term they will need that amount of space).
How many users actually think about security when they are surfing the web? I suspect that most of them just push the mouse pointer round the screen clicking away at anything and everything put in front of them and say "of course I surf securely blah blah blah" when put to the question. Other than that you are largely correct but telling your mates in the pub (slackers mates excluded here obviously ;) ) that all you need to do all of the above is a 5 year old laptop running one variant or another of linux is not going to garner a huge lot of kudos is it. Not saying you are wrong slackers but that is the way it is - people get awfully excited by numbers in IT hardware and most have no idea what they are actually referring to!
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There in lies the crux, most are under the illusion that they are secure under M$ when in fact by default they aren't.
Unfortunately I've only one friend who I drink with who's also into Linux (although thankfully I've not alienated those who aren't into IT....yet!). I have converted my wife and my neighbours (although neither get excited by it) and a guy I share my new office with is as unimpressed with M$ as I, but is a Mac fan (but hey, thats just a *NIX variant under the hood since OSX is based on BSD ;)), but I have introduced him to LaTeX (http://www.tug.org/texlive/) as a sensible alternative to Office software in the two weeks I've been there :thumbsup: , and he may well be trying out Linux again in the near future (having used it during his degree though).
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You sound like a crack dealer slackers.
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You sound like a crack dealer slackers.
It is rather addictive moreish :-[
EDIT : To put in irreverent Peep Show reference
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You sound like a crack dealer slackers.
It is rather addictive :-[
Crystal Meth I recon.... :-*
Its a slippery slope.. next you'll be pimpin Ubuntu outside schools...
(http://media.commercialappeal.com/mca/content/img/photos/2008/03/19/23gangs8.jpeg)
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Its a slippery slope.. next you'll be pimpin Ubuntu outside schools...
i bet he'll still have to cut it with talc, or Lotus Smartsuite...
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but it's free and secure! ;D :kiss2:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/03/karmic_koala_frustration/ (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/03/karmic_koala_frustration/)
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but it's free and secure! ;D :kiss2:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/03/karmic_koala_frustration/ (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/03/karmic_koala_frustration/)
Its as secure as anything else, if you leave holes in it then you'll be exploited. The beauty is that by default there is no user with global access to everything as there used to be under other OS's.
Its a common misconception that new releases should work perfectly, thats never the case, with M$, GNU/Linux distros or any other piece of software (proprietary or FOSS). Software is always under development (look at various threads about the latest photoshop/lightroom/whatever) and its not down to the hackers/coders fault, but to the users whose perception is wrong. I'd be a bit miffed if I had problems with something I'd paid for, but if I've paid nothing for it then I can choose appropriate remuneration based on how good I think the product is and not feel cheated.
The above stated problems are only really associated with binary distros though where you jump versions of packages to a new standard. Never have that problem with my source based distro, which just updates each installed package to the latest available in the package management tree (usually soon after its been stabilised by upstream, and often unstable versions are available for testing too).
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My Word! (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8427474.stm)
:lol: :lol: :lol:
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AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH
My XP driven laptop (only computer) will not cooperate with any external devices - either through the USB ports, Firewire or any PCI card adapter. It pretends that it can't find the drivers. Have uninstalled and reinstalled SP3, but no joy.
internet searches reveal that this happens for all sorts of reasons
Fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck.
Arse.
Bill Gates is coming round after he's been to the pub. If he can't sort it out I'm going to kick him in the nuts (again)
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what external drives are they and what are they formatted with?
My experience of xp is that if it needs drivers it will download them for you and only work after a reboot
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cameras, powered drive, usb powered drive, graphics tablet, usb stick, card reader, video camera - started off by new stuff not working, now even stuff that used to work seems to be driverless.
working my way through google, but am thinking that I may need to reinstall XP
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Sounds buggered to me, I would boot off a linux live cd (say Ubuntu) and see if you can see external usb devices then. At least you will narrow it down to being a hardware or software issue. Linux live cd's allow you to boot into linux without installing anything so your xp installation will remain untouched.
Here is a guide which you can follow if you are unsure what to do (it is for getting files off an old computer but the first steps will be the same for you):
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/ (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/)
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A reinstall should fix it fine, thought thats what you'd done, but you meant just the service pack
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Tried the Umbongo disc and found my hardware to be fine. Cheers for the reminder Tris :thumbsup:
Have reset my laptop to it's factory condition and it's all going fine. Just need to reinstall software :yawn:
My first foray into the world of The Penguin was quite pleasant.
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No probs - hope the re-install goes well.
A penguin permanently in your machine could cause issues though ;D
(http://ftp.enneenne.com/pub/docs/misc/presario/linux_inside.jpg)
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Glad you liked the penguin lagers :thumbsup: Next step dual boot?
I love the irony of people using Live Linux CD's to check/rescue/repair their M$ installs.
Surely M$ are missing a trick here and could develop and sell such an item to the masses, oh but wait, why pay for such a thing when you have one freely available :-\ :lol:
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Surely M$ are missing a trick here and could develop and sell such an item to the masses, oh but wait, why pay for such a thing when you have one freely available :-\ :lol:
They do, it's called WinPE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Preinstallation_Environment)...and it's free
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Surely M$ are missing a trick here and could develop and sell such an item to the masses, oh but wait, why pay for such a thing when you have one freely available :-\ :lol:
They do, it's called WinPE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Preinstallation_Environment)...and it's free
Neat, never come across that (not that I've ever looked or would use it when there are Linux LiveCD's that I'm far more au fait with).
Surprised more people don't know about it (or recommend it).
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Usually it makes sense to use a different OS live CD to check for problems on a machine, so you can overcome possible
Windows software issues as I said to lagers above.
Maybe you could use a WinPE cd when you have issues with Linux? :lol: :lol:
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Usually it makes sense to use a different OS live CD to check for problems on a machine, so you can overcome possible Windows software issues as I said to lagers above.
Maybe you could use a WinPE cd when you have issues with Linux? :lol: :lol:
Nah, I'd just use OpenSolaris or a BSD variant (or a different distro's live CD/different version of a LiveCD, but its not really an issue with Gentoo since "releases" don't exist at all).
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Anyone using a 32-bit version of windows is vulnerable to a security attack (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/19/microsoft_escalation_bug/) (proof of concept has been shown to work on XP, Vista, Server 2003/2008 and Win7).
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OK. Before I ask the question I am going to say that I know that none of this would probably happen if I had installed Linux instead of M$ Windows7... but...
WHAT THE FUCK ARE SYSTEM IDLE PROCESSES???? EH? just what the fuck are they Bill? tosser.
I've a nice new machine, and it crashed for the first time last night (blue screen after a freeze) and now when I re-boot the HDD churns for about 1-5min (only when all the screens come up after booting) which when I investigate further turns out to be these mysterious system idle processes. I've had them before on other machines and am in the dark about them. So...
1. What the fuck are they...?
2. Why have they suddenly started on my machine....?
Grr... >:(
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It's a sort of a fake process designed to show you how idle your system is - simple really :)
99% = 99% idle (i.e. not doing much)
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2. Why have they suddenly started on my machine....?
Also - they have been present on Windows machines since Win 2000. I doubt very much they have just suddenly just started, unless you have just upgraded from Windows 95/98 :lol:
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2. Why have they suddenly started on my machine....?
Also - they have been present on Windows machines since Win 2000. I doubt very much they have just suddenly just started, unless you have just upgraded from Windows 95/98 :lol:
Yup - I've seen them around for ages, but on my new laptop they have just started immediately after booting - and this only happened after that crash. I would like to know what they are and how I can stop them!
I wouldnt mind, but they do actually chew up a fair chunk of resource and slow the machine down... grr.. (again!)
On happier matters you any plans to head out climbing sometime Tris? might be heading to the Stockport wall in the next few days..
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I would like to know what they are and how I can stop them!
I wouldnt mind, but they do actually chew up a fair chunk of resource and slow the machine down... grr.. (again!)
On happier matters you any plans to head out climbing sometime Tris? might be heading to the Stockport wall in the next few days..
You can't stop it - it isn't actually doing anything... like I said, if it's at 99% or similar it means that you're machine is doing bugger all. If your system idle process is at 0% cpu then your machine is running flat out and you need to find out which process is taking up the cpu.
Basically ignore the system idle process, look at the graph first on the performance tab on the left, if the graph shows your cpu is flat out then you look at what processes are taking the cpu.
Say you have:
winword.exe = 50%
excel.exe = 20 %
system idle process = 20%
Other 10 processes @ 1% each
The the system idle process just makes up the difference, in this case 20%. In this case winword.exe (MS Word) is the fucker screwing your machine...
Unfortunately am working late for rest of this week, but was planning to go to Stockport over the weekend at some point - how does this fit with you? Would be good to hook up..
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I get what you're saying, but this is with nothing else running... so the CPU is at 50-80% (its a dual core), the HDD is whirring and none of the other background programs are running more than 2-3%... except for this system idle process with 50-80%!!! whats it doing!
Late sunday aft (6ish?) seems to be a fair time when its quietened down from the kids parties!
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I thought it shut at 6pm? I reckon I would be knackered at 6 though - can you not do earlier?
I guess I'm not doing too well at explaining this one :lol:
Like I said initially - it is not really a process (compared to the others). If it's at 95%, it means that your cpu is 95% idle, NOT that is using 95% of the processing power. It is the opposite...
Read this (http://getsatisfaction.com/microsoft/topics/how_can_i_fix_a_low_system_idle_process_its_running_at_about_0_to_90) to see if they explain it any better than me ;D
PS - what os are you running? you may want to find out if something is using up your mem/reading or writing to your HD instead - maybe that is what is killing your machine. It's definitely not the system idle process!!!
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Lets see if I can explain this in the simplest possible terms.
Idle means doing nothing. If your computer shows (on the graph) that it is running at a constant 25% (i.e. the processor is calculating 25% as many calculations per second as it physically can), then the "System Idle" is merely showing what is left i.e. 100 - 25 = 75%.
Don't think about it as being a process in itself, more that it is what the processor has available for other processes.
It's not what is going on, it's what isn't going on.
Make sense?
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Oh cock. I see what you both mean :-[
I'm relating slow performance (churning HDD) to the high idle processes and blaming it... :spank:
I shall go and eat my hat/humble pie...
Its W7 and its only just started doing the HDD churning thing (after a crash not any new sw etc..)...
I think I'll just have a glass of wine and sit down for a bit!
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Also - thinking about this and you saying that your machine is running slow, what do the two graphs (on the left of the performance tab in task manager) which show cpu and memory usage look like? Are they showing that the machine is struggling in either or these two areas?
If they both look ok, then the next candidate is hard disk. This is a little trickier to troubleshoot. If you are using a fairly recent Windows OS, you will be able to select what columns you can view (view->select columns) in task manager's processes tab. If you choose to add I/O reads,I/O reads bytes, I/O writes and I/O writes bytes you will be able to see what processes are reading and writing the most to your disk(s).
A better process explorer is Sysinternals process explorer that Microsoft realised was far superior to theirs and pinched it (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx)). This will probably mean nothing to you though, so only have a look if you're bored etc :)
If after doing this and it all checks out, then another possible reason is that you have spyware/adware/virus and a main software component like explorer.exe or rundll32.exe could be fecked and that is why it is running slow. I have seen this before, but for the person involved it needed a rebuild. Try installing/running windows defender/spybot s&d and adaware (they are all free and between them will rid your system of spyware). This is the most likely cause if you have installed any toolbars or similar recently...
Good luck..
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If you had a system crash (WTF I thought Win7 was stable ;)) it might be worth checking the integrity of the hard drives/partitions to rectify any errors that may have occurred when the system crashed (which might have happened if there was a read/write cycle occurring at the point of crashing).
Can't remember how to do this in M$-Win though I'm afraid.
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without reading Tris' last post, I think you have hardware failure somewhere, probably hard disk and unrelated to the OS you are running (ie it would of happened with linux as well) or maybe a virus of some sort
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Thanks all - strange if its a hardware fault it only manifests itself at startup....
I'll monitor over the next couple of days and see what happens...
T
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only skim read the thread, probably a virus if its only on start up
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without reading Tris' last post, I think you have hardware failure somewhere, probably hard disk and unrelated to the OS you are running (ie it would of happened with linux as well) or maybe a virus of some sort
I'd be interested to hear the results of this.
Do you suspect the MBR is infected Jim?
I'm yet to come across any viruses in penguin land in nine or so years, so something that can sniff out root passwords and get under the hood to infect the system would be useful to know about as the info in the MBR can only be updated by root user under Linux and only an idiot logs in with that account.
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only skim read the thread, probably a virus if its only on start up
Left it scanning when I went to bed last night - no virus found (using avast).....
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without reading Tris' last post, I think you have hardware failure somewhere, probably hard disk and unrelated to the OS you are running (ie it would of happened with linux as well) or maybe a virus of some sort
I'd be interested to hear the results of this.
Do you suspect the MBR is infected Jim?
I'm yet to come across any viruses in penguin land in nine or so years, so something that can sniff out root passwords and get under the hood to infect the system would be useful to know about as the info in the MBR can only be updated by root user under Linux and only an idiot logs in with that account.
If you read it again, that is only refering to it if it has hardware failure which is the most likely
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without reading Tris' last post, I think you have hardware failure somewhere, probably hard disk and unrelated to the OS you are running (ie it would of happened with linux as well) or maybe a virus of some sort
I'd be interested to hear the results of this.
Do you suspect the MBR is infected Jim?
I'm yet to come across any viruses in penguin land in nine or so years, so something that can sniff out root passwords and get under the hood to infect the system would be useful to know about as the info in the MBR can only be updated by root user under Linux and only an idiot logs in with that account.
If you read it again, that is only refering to it if it has hardware failure which is the most likely
:oops: it was early and I'd just got up (read it and mixed the order of things up in my head whilst processing it). Apologies.
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Tom - if it only happens at startup, try to rule out what programs are starting. If you don't have a hardware issue, it could be you still have spyware (this will not be detected by most AV scanners).
Click start, then type msinfo32 in the run box (search programs and files).
This will bring up the system info panel. On the left click software environment, then startup programs. This will list on the right what starts when you boot into windows. Make sure that everything that is starting is as expected or post the results here or PM me with the list if unsure..
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Interesting fallout from the "Chinese hackers attack Google using IE6 vulnerability" story.
Turn out that the vulnerability is also present in IE7, IE8 and most MS Office applications, running on XP, Vista and Windows 7
MS are planning to issue a patch today. Their understated security advisory is here (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/979352.mspx)
Microsoft is investigating reports of limited, targeted attacks against customers of Internet Explorer 6, using a vulnerability in Internet Explorer. This advisory contains information about which versions of Internet Explorer are vulnerable as well as workarounds and mitigations for this issue.
Our investigation so far has shown that Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 4 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 is not affected, and that Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, and Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 on supported editions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 are vulnerable.
Blog entry here (http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2010/01/20/advance-notification-for-out-of-band-bulletin-release.aspx), from "The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC)
- Working to help protect customers from vulnerabilities in Microsoft software"
Cup of penguin anyone?
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Interesting fallout from the "Chinese hackers attack Google using IE6 vulnerability" story.
Turn out that the vulnerability is also present in IE7, IE8 and most MS Office applications, running on XP, Vista and Windows 7
:lol: Would no doubt have been found earlier if there had been more eyes looking at the code, and fixed as soon as it was discovered!
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Cup of penguin anyone?
No thanks - I'll stick to using Chrome on Windows 7 :whistle:
Despite what people think of MS, Windows 7 is a solid OS. Everyone knows IE is shit anyway, this just enforces the point..
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Although I love Win 7 (so far) I've found it slightly frustrating getting some of my older peripherals, printers, vid cams etc. to work well with it. Especially the "looking for solutions", "oh no there are none", whats it doing if you then click on the device and update the driver and lo and behold there is a new version out there?