Re: Just venting (totally OT)

Mandy <mandy2uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Rowland McDonnell) wrote in
news:1ibhg77.y47mdz64gp1pN%real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

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:
[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.

It sounds, from what you've said, that it's like the Windows Start menu?

Not even remotely like it - except that you *could* optionally have
hierarchical elements to it. But everything about it was just totally
different aside from it being a computer menu, really. Pull-down rather
than pop-up for starters...

Yes, you *could* use one part of it in a similar way to the Windoze
start menu - but, oh look, it'd made perfect sense if I had a Windoze
box and a Mac and you and I could say `See, you get this with Windoze,
but on the Mac it works like that' and it'd make perfect sense at a
glance (well, two or three, anyway). But to explain it in words, to
you, right now? Tricky.

[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.


Blimey!

<shrug> It's pretty common these days, that sort of fraud.

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?

You know gifs and jpegs are pictures of things? Well a tube is that
without the background and other tubes added on top of it.

? Umm???

For example let's take one of Steve's photo's of a steam train... a PSP
tube hasn't got the fields and trees and birds in it and instead of steam
it's got ribbon... does that make sense?

I'm afraid I can't form a mental picture of what's going on from that.

It basically takes things out
of a picture that you don't want and adds in things you do.

http://www.geocities.com/mandyspsptutorials/Tutorials/PSPtutorialintermed
iatetubes.htm shows you what I mean

'fraid not.

I remain baffled.

I get the idea that you're talking about cropping a picture to remove a
background. I can handle that idea. I don't know why doing that job
means you have to talk about a tube. What's a tube, and how is it
different to a cropped image?

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.

Blimey!

On the other hand, normal 400 MBit/s Firewire as fitted to the Mac
laptop you were looking at will do you fine - you won't get a great deal
of benefit from the higher speed unless you do video work or regularly
throw around really huge files.

[snip]

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.

Oh right!

*ALL* of it. This isn't a complaint about Windoze. It's a generic
complaint about software for all types of personal computer. Linux
stuff seems poorest quality overall. But aside from that - none of it's
good enough as far as I'm concerned.

[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.

Except you don't, do you?

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).

Yeah?

Yeah.

Oh right!

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.

I don't open spam or visit sites that haven't been recommended by someone
I trust!

Doesn't matter - your Web browser can be spoofed to visit a dodgy site
when you think you're visiting one that's perfectly okay.

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'.

I don't use XP now that I've got Vista though!

<rolls eyes> So why I am worrying so much?

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.


Ah right!

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

I don't use XP any more though!

Okay, I get you. Argh. All that mad flapping panic I was doing.

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?

Oh you've definitely got a point!

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 don't use XP since I've got my new (this) machine though!

<sigh> So there's no need for me to panic any more, is there?

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.

I'm not using XP though, I'm using Vista!

Okay - I somehow missed that.

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.

Even though I'm using Vista with a firewall on both the machine and the
router and don't go to sites that haven't been recommended by people I
trust?

I was assuming you were using XP without SP2. But the firewall and the
router are no protection against the modern type of attack, and and only
going to recommended sites is not a good enough defence because your Web
browser can be spoofed into telling you you're going somewhere safe but
actually taking you somewhere dodgy. It's all about exploiting security
holes here and there in your Web browser and OS. MS IE is the least
secure commonly used Web browser.

Any time a problem like that turns up, a fix is developed and released
with a software update eventually - which is why it's important to keep
all your software as highly updated as practical.

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.

My passwords are easy to guess! lol

Not so clever. If they're easy to guess, you're wide open. They use
computers to run through passwords when doing `brute force' password
attacks, and they've got clever techniques so if you have an obvious
password, they'll be able to find it.

Of course, because that sort of attack is known about, a lot of computer
services won't let you retry your too quickly - or too often, in many
cases. `Three mistakes and you have to contact the email address', sort
of thing.

[snip]

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.

I don't know about a lot of things by the sound of it!

Oh, that sort of thing is something you have to ask about or look up or
whatever.

[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)

He said via email that we've got both Home and Pro but that isn't what
you meant is it??

That's probably enough information to tell if it's okay for a Mac. If
you've got both Home and Pro, you certainly have at least one version
that'll work. Probably certain, anyway...

[snip]

Rowland.

--
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