Posted on 02/04/2005 7:54:13 AM PST by SmithL
So about a year ago, the SO finally upgraded her Net connection to DSL, carefully installed the Yahoo! DSL software into her creaky Sony Vaio PC laptop and ran through all the checks and install verifications and appropriate nasty disclaimers.
And all seemed to go smoothly and reasonably enough considering it was a Windows PC and therefore nothing was really all that smooth or reasonable or elegant, but whatever. She just wanted to get online. Should be easy as 1-2-3, claimed the Yahoo! guide. Painless as tying your shoe, said the phone company.
She got online all right. The DSL worked great. For about four minutes.
Then, something happened. Something attacked. Something swarmed her computer the instant she tried to move around online and the computer slowed and bogged and cluttered and crashed, and multiple restarts and debuggings and what-the-hells only brought up only a flood of nightmarish pop-up windows and terrifying error messages and massive system slowdowns and all manner of inexplicable claims of infestation of this worm and that Trojan horse and did we want to buy McAfee AntiVirus protection for $39.95?
Four minutes. And she was already DOA.
My SO, she is not alone. This exact same scenario, with only slight variation, is happening throughout the nation, right now. Are you using a PC? You probably have spyware. The McAfee site claims a whopping 91 percent of PCs are infected. As every Windows user knows, PCs are ever waging a losing battle with a stunningly vicious array of malware and worms and viruses, all aimed at exploiting one of about ten thousand security flaws and holes in Microsoft Windows.
Here, then, is my big obvious question: Why the hell do people put up with this? Why is there not some massive revolt, some huge insurrection against Microsoft?
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I guess this might be windows or my sound card but I can't hear anything out of my computer. I know it isn't the speakers because i've plugged in some headsets that I know work yet they do nothing. I reinstalled all my drivers and such and I still can't hear. Dell gives me the same "reinstall your driver" answer. Can somebody help! (sorry for the bad grammar.)
Software EULAs are very interesting things that are designed to shield the manufacturer from law suits, while insulating them from being sued for damages! Please note, you do NOT buy software, but license it. Since you don't "really" own the software,you don't have legal standing to sue tha manufacturer. In addition to that, the EULA will pretty much state that the manufacturer doesn't make any claims that the software will actually do anything useful, or for that matter, even be usable!
Mark
Mac Ping list... last half of article is about how great the Mac is... PING!
As always, if you want to participate on Mac threads... or don't... Freepmail me.
Thanks!
i was here before, but this is a good thread.
Bump!
:-)
I cursed and swore at my sound card for a week before I realized I had my speakers plugged into the wrong jack! Talk about EMBARRASSED!!!
This is what I actually wrote:
"Isn't NTFS basically the same type of file system as MAC?"
I never said that Mac uses NTFS.
The issue at hand was security. I should have been more specific. I was referring to 'access rights' which can be assigned to each file.
I believe both OS have similar ability to assign access rights.
OK I want to be noticed by the Linux community of nerds - off to write Linux virus......
We do constant security and virus updates.
Uggghhhh...
i feel for you.
i worked for a short time at my daughter's school, ( and volunteered a lot MORE time! )
The machines in the library were CONSTANTLY infected, usually because the kids would take a disk from either home or the school and stick it into a machine in the lab and whatever Daddy had infesting his machine was shed through the network....
Yuck.
My solution? I just downloaded Mozilla. Problem solved.
Yes, and both also feature different levels of user accounts and user privileges. One of OS X's nice points is that by default, you start with limited priveleges, and you have to manually enter a password to gain administrator access. On Windows XP, you're given administrator rights from the start. Being unable to access files only really matters if we're talking about protecting the /Windows directory from spyware- or virus-related tampering.
"Not a very good one, and not one that I would run..."
Completely agree although they are different in their usability. Notes is SOOOO much more robust, scalable, stable, user friendly, and cost effective for enterprises. Hence it is groupware, meaning...it is an e-mail client AND more...
Outlook is just e-mail with a cheap contact and calender thrown in, lol.
A better analogy...Outlook is like a sedan....Notes is like the Hummer!, lol.
Only idiots doing unsafe things get trojans and virii. I work on the net. I'm on sometimes 18 hours a day 7 days a week. I've never gotten a trojan or serious virus (spyware of course, its either busted by AdWatch or cleared regularly by Spybot and AdAware, its not virulent or dangerous, it won't make your comp DOA).
Its a lot like sex. If you mess with dangerous sites (warez, cracks, some porn and gambling sites) and don't use protection (a good browser, good virus control, good spyware controls) you are going to get a disease or virus. If you use sense and protection, you'll be fine. THis idiot is confusing the fact that 90% of people use Windows is WHY there are so many virii targeting them with the vulnerablities of the operating system. I've used it since v3.1 and its always been good to me, its made me a nice living. Screw Mac. I do graphic work and coding php, cgi, perl, javascript and some shtml html and css and Windows is fine for me. I do use Firefox to browse because I like the tabs and extensions (I'm addicted to AdBlock, every site I visit regularly has no banners, flash, in fact any extraneous graphics and they load quick and painless with no distractions). Plus the dictionary extension, the Zoom, the plaintext highlight capture to clipboard, etc.
"Windows should do something similar"
I agree. Microsoft should go back to the drawing board, and totally redisgn Windows from ground up. XP is great but in some instances we are still running NT processes.
Longhorn might be the key...
I didn't know Microsoft's legal department lurked around on FR.
And what macintosh cost three times a PC? A 500$ mac and 500$ dell are pretty comparable.
Does it occur to anyone that one of the reasons so many viruses and worms are written for PCs is because it is the largest, most widely used, target platform?
Sure and then I realize that just like a saab and a yugo have different measures of safety no matter what proportion they are used in, so do operating systems.
Despite Mark Morford being absolutely wrong on every issue on the planet save this one, I still like the guy, in an odd way. His writing has an odd sort of run-on, evocative, touchy-feely eloquence that I quite like.
For what it's worth, I strongly suspect he's bisexual.
First_salute, there's accounting software available for the Mac, too. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Roses, why waste your time? Tell your people to buy Macs and they won't have these problems. Then you can use your time for more productive and worthwhile things.
Jokker, if the Mac doesn't smash into the lightpole and the PC does, maybe it's time to switch.
Sicon, I can laugh at the iProduct, too, even though I'm a Mac user, particularly since it's a really nice sly parody of the Apple ad style. At the same time, that doesn't mean Apple doesn't make great products. That kind of loyalty comes from the products being great.
Anyway, TommyDale asks why we blame Windows, or at least why Mark does. I wrote a Slashdot post answering exactly the same point, so to save a bit of energy in the world, I am repeating it below.
Mark Morford, despite what he claiims in the article, is not a technical user. He's just a guy who insists that when he or his significant other plug a computer into the network, it should continue to work successfully.
It's okay to say that if you're a technical user you can secure Windows by simply obtaining up to date firewall hardware and/or software, loading SP2 from CD, buying $100 worth of anti-virus and spyware programs, and installing them before you connect your new computer to the network. Technical users can do things like that. Of course if you, as a technical user, value your time at more than $0 an hour, you've already spent the difference in cost between your generic PC and a 17" iMac with the gorgeous screen.
With Microsoft, Dell, HP and all other PC OEMs selling products to the public in an irresponsible manner, I don't think it's the fault of the users. Users who are buying something marketed as an appliance should not have to know how to make it safe. It should be sold to them safe, or the manufacturers are committing fraud on the public -- which is what both Morford and I believe.
If Mark and his SO have found a better way through Apple, I personally applaud them for making their choice. I've made the same choice, with the same results. I'm not as bullish on Apple as he is, since for some reason the person on the street is highly resistant to change, even when it's from a lousy product to an excellent one. But he's right in insisting that the computing products he buys adhere to minimum standards, such as, well, continuing to work after you plug them in the network.
I'm a technical user - I develop software for a living - but I would rather avoid a platform that makes me work harder on keeping it running than doing the work I need to do to perform my job -- which is plenty hard enough, rest assured!
Certainly you would have to agree that, for the point of view of all but the most rabid technical users, a product that doesn't blow up five minutes after you plug it in is far superior to one that does ... right?
D
ROFLMAO!
Yeah, I know about that, because I have to install the certificates on our machines where I work.
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