TCPA: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid (if you use a PC)

macmegasite ^ | 02/23/2003

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

All of the anti-TCPA information on the internet is single-sourced to a single man, a communist Cambridge professor who teaches computer security. His TCPA-FAQ has been completely and utterly trashed and debunked by engineers working on the TCPA project.

Ross Anderson (IP communist)

If you're technically inclined and can read specifications check out the offical TCPA-FAQ for yourself.

[Hootch]

This is such crap.

Mac is good PC is evil!!

Everytime I turn around, mac people are giving Steve jobs credit for inventing something he didn't invent.

Steve Jobs is credited by most mac users with creating the GUI. A widely known fact is that Xerox created the GUI.

Now listen to Mac people... Oh ITunes (Macs own digital music personal recorder) is now the latest thing that Mac has and is given credit for creating. It has been around for 5 years at least. RIO was one of the earlier products.

I am not a Mac basher. I have both a Mac and a PC and there are different things that each does better than the other. The problem is, those gaps are narrowing and at this point PC's are a cheaper solution and have much more software available for them. The products that Apple makes(Airport, Itunes Player, etc either only work with Macs or at a minimum require a Mac to setup(in the case of the airport, a great wireless access point but unfortuantely require a mac to configure.).

If Mac could get their head's out of the sand long enough to acknowledge that there is a large market that would buy some of their proucts if they would make them compatible, they might do better than they are(and yes, I know they are doing better).

[TheBattman]

Huh? I've never experienced such a thing and have been a Mac user for 9 years. No spyware, no hardware keyed software, no back-door security intrusions. Heck, I've not even had a virus on my computer in 8 years (and no extra measures against them).

I'm not going to tear into an anti-Microsoft tirade right now. I will just say that I enjoy using the Macintosh platform, especially with the latest version of the OS -"Jaguar" - the power and stability of Linux, with the ease and user-friendly interface of the MacOS. The platform satisfies my needs by doing the job asked of it - day-in and day-out without a complaint. Easy upgrades (95% of CD drives, 100% of Hard drives, industry standard RAM, etc.).

I am not a computer snob - I use what works for me. If you feel like bashing an OS or platform, find a message board for other geeks with nothing more constructive to do with their time. This thread was for intelligent comments regarding the latest, though not surprising, stunt by Microsoft.

[Cold Heat]

As long as the dang thing works!

[org.whodat]

Stuck in the NINITIES, 20 years ago people had eight-track tape players. Ten or twenty years from now, the computer will move way beyond the mac and MS. If not a bunch of computer geeks better find a new profession.

[Billy_bob_bob]

I can understand the Microsoft faithful boosting their cause, and I can understand the idea of disparaging the opposition, but at some point don't you guys get tired of sounding like of bunch of drunken Volgons? "Resistance is useless! RESISTANCE IS USELESS! You are all fated to die, die, die! RESISTANCE IS USELESS!"

Why don't you all go off and do something nice for a change, like maybe writing some of that famous Volgon poetry that brings such joy to the universe?

[Musket]

You couldn't pay me to go to XP.

Why's that? I just bought a laptop with Windows XP Pro on it. What's the skinny on XP? I recall some controversy when XP came out, but being a Mac person I soon forgot about all of it. Now that I actually have this XP thing in my home I'd like to know more about it. Do you have a link with some details?

tia!

[Ouachita]

[philetus]

W2k Pro does every thing I need without the setup hassles.
I've heard good and bad about XP. I just don't want it.

You can find a lot of good stuff on XP here:
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp

[Cold Heat]

Work with your XP, and make sure you get the updates auto loaded.

As you learn the system you will find some things that it does that you can turn off, if you have privacy concerns. Xp has online fault reporting and on line remote access for MS techies. I turned mine off and never used it.

Get zone alarm if you want to know exactly what it is doing and make zone control the internet. I do and I am quite sure nothing goes on that I do not authorize. I think people who hate Gates are trying to get people to believe that XP is somehow unsafe.

I was one of the first to get it and saw the de-bug process. The OS, (while complicated) is good, and it works. I had some complaints early on, but they have all been addressed via patches. It has worked fine for months now.

[Spirited]

"I turned mine off and never used it."

Mind divulging how in a step by step process?

[Cold Heat]

I am a great "do" person and not a teacher.

Hang on a sec and I'll do some checking to see if I can point you to the program that you use to access the processes.

[Cold Heat]

OK , their are many ways to do this so I am going to tell you how you get in, but I cannot ground guide you as to the applications to turn off. I experimented.

One place is accessed from "My computer". You go to system info on the top left of the screen. You can turn off remote assistance and sharing there.

The next place is through the "Control Panel". You go to administrative tools. You go to processes and a number of other screens that will tell you what windows apps are running and what their current boot status is. If you know what you don't want, you can disable, pause, and enable anything you want. Be care full here. Write down any changes you make so that if you disable something that another prog in dependent on, you can reverse what you did.

Read the security stuff about XP on various sites. I personally like some of the sites like Tech TV and ZD Net. They have some walk through on how and what to turn off.

CNTRL/ALT/DEL will bring up the screen to give you a real time look at everything that is running. I use it to spot processes that are running that I was not aware of. I look at it often to spot data miners and worm bugs.

This OS is complicated so don't change anything without researching the dependent applications. Most of the changes I made were done months ago and I don't recall what they were. There were two that I recall and involved remote assistance apps. When XP first came out, you had to dig deep to get at this stuff. The fixes/patches and other upgrades since have made it easier.

[Sabretooth]

Go download XP-Antispy at www.xp-antispy.de and you can just check off the stuff you want to turn off.

Works great.

[aruanan]

Seems like Mac users will never be happy unless they can bash other operating systems...

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! I've seen more glee from you in your anti-Mac sniping than in any Mac user talking about non-Macs.

[hoosierskypilot]

MS will never be happy unless they can fully control their users

No kidding! How long before Gates signs with the AMA to simply imbed the chip in our brain?

[Bush2000]

But oddly enough MS wants to treat PCs as if the user is only leasing it from MS.

A. You're not forced to buy MS products. There are alternatives. Buy a Mac. Or use Linux.
B. If you do buy a MS product, nobody can make you upgrade your PC. Ever.
C. If you find MS's grasp too tight, try going to Apple and take your marching orders from Stevie Jobs. Don't like your hardware options? Too bad. Don't like your software options? Too bad.

[Bush2000]

"Why do those PC people keep sniping at us...?"