Re: Just venting (totally OT)

Mandy <mandy2uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Rowland McDonnell) wrote:

Mandy <mandy2uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Rowland McDonnell) wrote:

Mandy <mandy2uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Rowland McDonnell) wrote:

Mandy <mandy2uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Rowland McDonnell) wrote:

Mandy <mandy2uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Rowland McDonnell)
wrote:

Mandy <mandy2uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

lying_***@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

x-no-archive: yes

Mandy <mandy...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[snip]

What is on the Apple menu?

Just a few bits - controls to shut down, sleep, restart, and log out.
Access to the `System Preferences' panel. The `About this Mac' thingy,
and a couple of other bits in that sort of line.

Oh right!

It's very non-confusing when you see it. Much to the annoyance of old
Mac hands like me, because the old Apple menu could be stuffed with
stuff that'd confuse the hell out of you but was very convenient for
people like me.

However, enough people were annoyed at the lost abilities that software
to give 'em back has been written, and everything I used to do via the
old cluttered and confusing Apple menu is available to me some other way
now.

[snip]

I've got 21.6 hours of more-or-less chamber music on CD. I know how
long it plays for because it's all been ripped on to hard disc so it
can be `just left to play' - the iMac's downstairs, plugged into the
stereo, and the `chamber music' playlist is being run through as I type.

It's lovely to have just playing like that, and 21.6 hours means we're
not going to get sick of hearing the same stuff over and over all that
quickly (and there's another shed load of CDs on the way).

Blimey!

Except that the boxed set of 8 discs doesn't contain CDs, it contains
`consumer rights denial' non-standard audio discs, so they're going to
be sent back with a note that we don't like being defrauded because
Amazon advertised 'em as CDs.

You might change the way you do things, you know. I've done so...

it's things like PSP tubes that would take up
the room but I won't be able to use PSP on it so that's OK :o)

You could use PSP if you installed Windoze on it, mind. But aside from
that: I shouldn't think that PSP files would take up *huge* gobbets of
space, not with modern hard disc drives of `tens of gigabytes' at
least. Or am I wrong?

PSP on it's own wouldn't take up a lot of room but the tubes would easily
eat up the space on the laptop you've seen within the first few days and
there are more coming out every day so ideally I need hundreds of
gigabytes not tens!

!!!!! Hundreds of gigabytes? What the hell is a PSP tube, then?

But if you need that sort of space, and you want a laptop, the sensible
thing to do to my mind is to get yourself a Mac with a Firewire port
(fast!) and an external hard disc drive or two. If you got a Mac with
Firewire 800, you'd be able to use external hard disc drives quite a bit
faster than many computers get to access their internal hard disc
drives.

Hard disc drives that fit into laptops aren't as big as they get, and
they're more expensive than desktop HDDs, which is why using external
discs is sensible if you want a laptop.

I've got a neat box that holds two HDDs - I wish I'd got the Firewire
800 version of the box, but there you go. Anyway, I got the box, got a
couple of HDDs, and plugged 'em in. These days, 500GB HDDs are
commonplace - you could easily get a box with 1000GB of fast hard disc
space in it. That'd do.

[snip]

I wouldn't suggest you (or anyone sane) bolt on all the bits I've
added, but there's a subset of my add-ons that I think really
ought to at least be considered by everyone. If you get a Mac,
let me know, and I'll lead you through it. I promise it'll be
pretty much painless, not very time consuming, and I can promise
you'll understand all the bits I think you should consider using.
Cost of these bits? Umm. It is /possible/ to add 'em all for free
if you lack money and aren't troubled by, erm...

I think I know what you mean and I'd prefer not to do it that >
way... it may take longer to get the software on the machine but I'd
be legal :o)

Fair enough - it's generally the better way. There is plenty of
shareware that you can use without restrictions and you just get
nagged to pay up. And beware of the rip-off shareware authors who
break consumer law. I don't see why they should get any payment at
all, the bastards.

It looks like there is a lot of freeware and shareware available out
there!

Oh yes - although I've met Windoze users who have been unhappy that the
balance on the Mac side is `more shareware than freeware'.

That's no problem to me! If the programme does what I want it to do then
I don't mind paying for it :o)

None of them do what you want, that's the problem. Sorry, I'm in grouch
mode again - but I really do hate software 'cos it's almost all crap.
And I don't like the idea that so many people seem content with the crap
that we're given.

[snip]

We don't have a network, just PCs and laptop that all use the
ame router to get access to the net! :o/

Yeah, but hang on: that means you *DO* have a home network!

Even though I can't see the other machines that are connected to
it?

Well, they'd have to have the right services turned on, and your
computer would have to be listening in the right way, and you'd all
have to have your filewalls opened up to permit traffic.

Ah right! Not the sort of thing for me then...

Umm. Why not?

I'm paranoid about opening up my firewall "just in case..."

Mandy, you use WinXP without SP2. It's wide open to hacker attack from
the internet - you've escaped so far (if indeed you have) simply by
having the protection of a router, not opening dodgy emails, and not
visiting dodgy Websites. Your PC's firewall is not what has protected
you. The protection that it does supply is also provided by your router
- and since `the bad guys' can't get past your router to attack your
PC's firewall, your PC's firewall is not doing anything useful (although
it would be useful if you didn't have a router - it's not like it's
broken, it's just redundant with your setup).

They don't get to you by bashing through firewalls or routers: they get
to you via dodgy Website and dodgy spam emails. The router and firewall
cannot help protect you against those attacks.

You are exposing yourself to the hugest imaginable risk if you use your
WinXP box on the internet without SP2 - it doesn't get more open to
attack than `just using WinXP without SP2'.

Opening up the single port needed for filesharing in your PC's firewall
when it's connected to the internet via a router is very nearly
`absolutely zero risk'. Not *quite* zero risk, but it might as well be.

Using WinXP without SP2 is *HUGE* risk - you might have a firewall, but
that's no protection if you've not got SP2.

Look, you admit yourself you don't understand about computers. I do -
how about you at least admit I might have a point, and ask somone else
for advice and see whether or not they agree with me?

Please Mandy, I'm trying to spare you some serious problems. I know
there are issues to deal with when it comes to the software you use, but
I promise you that it's worth finding out how to work around them.

I get very paranoid about
hackers having access to my machine

They won't have access from you opening up a single service on the
firewall on your PC connected to the home network. Your home network
is hidden and protected from hackers by your router. There's `outside'
and there's `inside'. The only way they can get to you in practice is
if you actually call them in - by, for example, doing something stupid
on a dodgy Web site which installs some dodgy software on your computer
that connects to the hackers and gives me access. Unless you actually
do something to invite them in, you're invisible to the hackers.

Ah right!

But because you're using WinXP without SP2, you have no protection
against dodgy Websites and they can infect your computer very easily
without you knowing about it regardless of the fact that you've got a
firewall. If you install SP2, most of that risk goes instantly.

As it is, you're wide open to hacker attack. Utterly wide open -
completely, totally, utterly vulnerable and unprotected. If you
installed SP2, you'd be pretty damned secure and safe.

and the paranoia leads to psychosis
:o(

But as someone else has pointed out, you were perfectly happy to leave
you Win XP machine wide open to hackers by not installing SP2 on it.
And opening up a service firewall on a PC on a `normally set up' home
network does nothing at all to expose you to hackers. Assuming you've
got a normal router, your home PCs are invisible to the outside world.
A normal router does a job that counts as a pretty damned effective
firewall, and some of them have software in addition to that to provide
even more protection.

Oh right!

Which means the firewall on your PC offers no protection against outside
attack - not because it doesn't work (it works as advertised and does
what it's supposed to), but because outside attackers just can't get to
it due to the protection provided by your router.

And even if they could, they'd still need a password to log on for
filesharing if you had filesharing enabled.

And in any event, opening up a firewall on a PC to the extent that
permits file sharing only shouldn't cause any problems at all under any
circumstances - after all, you still need to log on to a machine with a
password to get anywhere at all, don't you?

Nope. The only passwords I've got are for online things like webmail and
free webhosting and things like that!

That's because it's not been set up.

You can't connect remotely for file sharing without a password. If you
don't happen to have one - well, if it *has* been set up, you don't know
about it.

You need a password to connect for filesharing on any even remotely sane
computer - even the oldest Mac computers need a password for that, and
they had almost no security built in at all.

[snip]

I've not paid any attention to that at all - the way to find out
would be to ask on uk.comp.sys.mac if `Windoze XP version <blah>'
will work under Boot Camp (Boot Camp is the name for Apple's software
to allow you to choose which OS to use when you boot up).

I don't know what version it is... if I remember to ask Steve when he
comes home I'll ask then! :o)

Doesn't it say on the packaging?

I don't know where the packaging is!

<thunk>! (that's the sound of my head hitting the wall)

I'll ask him and see if he knows
:o)

<grin> You do that.

Rowland.

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