progress in operating systems

The usual buzzword is: Service Pack Linux

-- These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's. I hate spam.

Well worth while for 2 bucks. When I buy a new laptop (for a customer) it can take *hours* to get rid of all the crud. It's a nauseating experience.

• subscribe now to the Sony experience .... * sign up for our newsletter ... * register now * Click here to view our privacy statement... * join the Viao advantage club and get free air miles... * Do you agree to the licence? * upgrade now to Norton antispamware professional version * YOUR COMPUTER IS NOT PROTECTED * take a tour of... * this trial software will expire in 31 days * Do you agree to the licence? * Windows Genuine Advantage... * Enter your 41 digit verification code

There are typically three separate subsytems competing to block your internet access (OEM, windows, Norton). On the other hand if you were foolish enough to connect a vanilla windows machine directly to the internet you would be infected before you have finished downloading the GB of essential "service pack" updates.

Yeah, I remember :-(

This is yet another reason why I do not want a "new and improved" OS because it most likely obfuscates stuff even more.

The drill here: Unplug the ethernet cable and turn off the wireless. Turn it back on only after configuration and when stuff like IE has been thoroughly disabled.

This maybe of interest to you,

Martin

Some are still doing that? Have they figured out yet that HTTP isn't just about web pages, or do they still try to replace XML-RPC streams with ads?

You still have a 5-1/4" drive? I didn't even bother with a 3-1/2" drive with my last PC ~2 years ago, and the one before that had its

Actually, I doubt that there's still a floppy in the house. When I ditched the the P-120, the driver disks (3com 3c509B, Diamond Stealth 32) went with it. Given the green tinge and slimy feel, they probably weren't readable, anyhow.

Although, I *do* still have a few rolls of punched tape, containing the first BASIC programs I wrote.

Don't know. My browser snips all that. You can see it trying to flare up and then die. But I've seen mail printouts from folks who fell for deals like Yahoo etc. Thoroughly cluttered with nags. They don't even realize how quickly some of that can drain their expensive inkjet cartridges.

I do get the occasional 5-1/4" to look at since I design fast analog/mixed stuff. A few months ago it was wave digital filter routines from the days when people still drove around in souped-up Plymouth Furys. Luckily it wasn't on an 8" floppy.

I migrated my stack of punch cards from my first Fortran program to the recycler. Didn't see a point in moving it across the ocean where you pay several Dollars of freight charges per pound.

I don't think there's any way I could have brought up my current CAD machine the first time without a floppy- to load the RAID drivers. Well worth the $19 (including a USB card reader in the same cutout).

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Problem is, the mail order places don't provide much info anymore these days. It's harder to find out how many cutouts and slots are free and which kinds of slots. Got to move the two floppy drives over to the new machine, for the same reason that you discovered.

What's 'UAC'?

Thanks, Rich

Huh? "Service Pack"? "Linux"? How are these things related? ;-)

Cheers! Rich

Not very easy to DL a service pack upgrade without an Internet connection... D'oh!

That's what micro-fiche is for. You could have taken shots of 100 cards at a time, and transcribed them later from a single 1 ounce stack of films.

Sure, but what for?

If you buy the parts you can get really, really good information online these days, almost *too* much and too good.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Specifically, problems with the same programs which won't work for any user who doesn't have write permission on the "Program Files" directory (i.e. at least a Power User).

In this instance, I can sympathise with Microsoft. The only way that they were going to get programs to behave properly was to break those which didn't.

So long as the application developers could get the user to work around the problem by giving everyone Power User user status, Windows was never going to have meaningful security.

On Unix, it's always been a given that normal applications won't be able to write anywhere except for $HOME or /tmp (and anything written to /tmp isn't likely to stay around for very long).

You need the networking to download the service pack.

IOW, it's a good idea to have an external router/firewall, rather than connecting a modem directly to the PC and relying upon the PC's software firewall. Dedicated routers don't normally run Windows, so they tend to be somewhat less prone to getting hacked.

Fortunately, it gets passed on...

Got to be careful there. Service packs can also wreck things. Plus you can always download that later, once it's all up and running. I won't take the risk of leaving a PC open during first install and have all kinds of programs "call home". No way. If some SW insists on calling home it's outta here.

Got that in place here :-)

Not very safe to have an OS auto-download a SP without first perusing the web to see if that SP is beneficial or breaks things.