Windows Vista Source Code Leaked!!!

Except I would put Fiber Optic Broadband at the top of the list. It's only available in limited areas, though.

Good point. I agree.

Tim
the only concern I have with cable broadband is not secure. If you do business on it and send cofidential inf not encrypted some one can be sniffing in the line and capture the data.

I do most of my work in the office at a T1 speed, but at home is just dial up nightmare
ChuckP

Chuck, ANY connection to the internet should be considered not secure including your T1 connection.

I have several redundant connections at work including a T3 and ALL of them are scoured by port scanners.

It is true that a cable connection (and to a only slightly lessor extent DSL) often puts you on the same network segment as your neighbors but in the big picture it is largely irrelevant.

I strongly suggest that you not connect your computer directly to your Cable/DSL modem. Buy a $50 (or less) NAT router with a firmware firewall and put it between your Cable/DSL "modem" (or what ever connects you to the internet) and your computer.

XP service pack 2 (XPSP2) includes a software firewall that can help (though annoying sometimes) but should not be trusted on it's own. Always use a NAT connection to the internet even if you only have one computer.

.
 
The blue screen says:

dll:\file<$>joe%btfsplk is corrupted

Harry, I don’t possess mind reading powers but an Emachines with W98 is a guess having a 60% probability of getting a hit.

I looked up your Monster 550 and sticking in more memory is throwing good money after bad. It has a Pentium III 550 CPU, which is toasty and excruciatingly slow.

I can stick a modern motherboard in your old box along with a processor that does things about 10x as fast for $100 in parts assuming you’re satisfied with your existing 15 GB HD and CD/DVD drive.

A modern HD with 80 GB storage capacity goes for about $40 plus shipping. A modern DVD recorder/player goes for about $25 plus shipping.

W2K (Windows 2000) was the operating system immediately preceding WXP (Windows XP) and both are quite bug free. WXP has more bells and whistles but otherwise is the same as W2K.

If you decide to go with a new computer, Dell list a line that comes loaded with WXP. Their model 930s has everything you need and then some, including a 19” LCD monitor, all for $550. Probably your best bet if you stick with the basic model and don’t get sucked into extra software and extended warranties.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/winxp_inspndt?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

PS: I have a couple of sticks of memory that will fit your machine that you’re welcome to if you want it. Just collecting dust around here.
 
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Barnstorm's list is great:
1. Cable Broadband
2. DSL Broadband
3. Cell Carrier Broadband (if unlimited time and download is an option)
4. Broadband through your power-lines from your power company's ISP services
5. Metropolitan Broadband (wireless from a local ISP) (make sure they setup the wireless connection)
6. Gnawing my arm off
7. Satellite Broadband
8. Dial up.

Except I would put Fiber Optic Broadband at the top of the list. It's only available in limited areas, though.

I just got set up with Fiber Optic to the home, it is through AT&T in the chicagoland area. I love it! The internet is just as fast as they promise, the TV is just as good as cable and the DVR is much smoother than the old one from the cable company (Comcast), more like TIVO. My only gripe, that I'm sure will be cleared up soon, is that it doesn't get the AMC channel. That is the channel that shows "Breaking Bad", Angie's and my favorite new show.
 
Chuck B., thanks for that info and about the Dell. I've heard some good stuff about them lately.

Anyone have any bad vibes about the new Dell?!


Cheers :)
 
Chuck B., thanks for that info and about the Dell. I've heard some good stuff about them lately.

Anyone have any bad vibes about the new Dell?!


Cheers :)

The only bad vibes I have heard about the Dell is don't use their financing. See: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/dell_financing.html

The wife bought a Dell (with XP) a few months ago. We received it 4 days after she placed the order. The only thing I didn't like was all the extra junk (software) they installed on the system. Took me a couple of hours to get it off.

One thing I would recommend is turn-off XP's security and in it's place install Zonealarm. http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/home.jsp I have had the free version of Zonealarm for years and every test I have tried it passes with flying colors.

Also get a good anti-viruses program I use http://www.pctools.com/free-antivirus/ another free software.

Leon
(kc0iv)
 
Buying a new computer is like buying a new automobile or household appliance.

They bait you with a “price leader” which doesn’t have much profit margin and then try to “upgrade” you with the model that has the high speed hubcaps and a hefty profit margin.

Today’s “starter” computers are more than fast enough if you’re not into state of the art 3-D video games or don’t do a lot of transcoding of videos from one format to another.

There is so much free software online that there isn’t much point in buying the stuff. OpenOffice.org works just as well as Microsoft’s word processing stuff and it’s free. The free virus and firewall programs work as well as the high priced stuff.
 
Why so many of you are still "playing around" with that Micro$soft stuff is beyond me. You folks really should try Linux ... IT'S OPEN SOURCE ... IT'S FREE ... and does the same and often, far better work than that Micro$oft nonsense, reads all the Micro$oft software as well; word processing, spreadsheets, web browsers, etc.

For those of you who are afraid to take a chance and kiss off Micro$oft, ever heard of "dual boot" machines?

tyc
 
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Why so many of you are still "playing around" with that Micro$soft stuff is beyond me. You folks really should try Linux ... IT'S OPEN SOURCE ... IT'S FREE ... and does the same and often, far better work than that Micro$oft nonsense, reads all the Micro$oft software as well; word processing, spreadsheets, web browsers, etc.

For those of you who are afraid to take a chance and kiss off Micro$oft, ever heard of "dual boot" machines?

tyc

I would LOVE to but I make a living off of securing and engineering networks and I could not eat if I only worked on Microsoft free networks (nor would I be good as I have to know all aspects of the security involved).

I do intend to buy one of the new duel-booting Macintoshs as my next laptop though...

.
 
For those that do not want to dual boot the machine but would like to try linux; download a copy of Ubunta to a CD. This will allow you to run of the CD without loading Linux on your machine and will allow you to sample the operating system.
 
For those that do not want to dual boot the machine but would like to try linux; download a copy of Ubunta to a CD. This will allow you to run of the CD without loading Linux on your machine and will allow you to sample the operating system.

Another alternitive is to download the free VM ware virtual machine and load Unix on it.

.
 
Harry if you need some ram let me know I have a bunch of older ram just laying around most of it is 64k some 128k and 2 sticks of ddr 512 each. Let me know what configuration it is and how many slots you have and I'll send it to you. I also have 5 or 6 ink jet printers 2 laser printers 2 or 3 cd internal drives 2 agp video cards several AMD Athlon cpus assorted heatsinks and fans and about 10 hard drives in assorted sizes, also a bunch of other stuff cables connectors etc.
 
On the Dells I have only used one, a laptop with and intel chip and it really ran hot. My wife has worked in IT for about 15 years and they had a lot of trouble with Dell about 3 or 4 years ago. Where she works now they use HP and as far as I know they are pretty happy with them.
I see Buy.com has the acer for 249 back on, pretty good deal
http://www.buy.com/prod/acer-aspire...n-64-3800-2-4ghz-1gb/q/loc/101/206805239.html

no tax free shipping I have bought from them about 5 times no problem.
 
Why so many of you are still "playing around" with that Micro$soft stuff is beyond me. You folks really should try Linux ... IT'S OPEN SOURCE ... IT'S FREE ... and does the same and often, far better work than that Micro$oft nonsense, reads all the Micro$oft software as well; word processing, spreadsheets, web browsers, etc.

For those of you who are afraid to take a chance and kiss off Micro$oft, ever heard of "dual boot" machines?

tyc

My wife has to use Windows since most of the work she does on the computer is work she does for school and they use Windows products.

While programs like Open Office can read Microsoft they can't write directly back to Microsoft as far as I know. Also their are some programs that will only run on anything except Windows and there is nothing else that will do the same job.

While a "dual boot" machine is fine for someone who wants to play around with something like Linux. In the case of my wife's machine I don't see any advantage of a "dual boot" system. In her case all the software is furnished by the school district at no cost to her. And the one piece of software she uses that isn't is a program that only works on a Windows based operating system.

So yes there is are reasons to use Microsoft software.

Leon
(kc0iv)
 
With the open office suite, you can tell the software in which format you want the save to default to. Mine is set to default to office 97 parameters. As such the word documents or the Excell spreadsheets work fine.

Some Windows related problems that I have seen would be create an Excell document in Office 97 and open it with Office 2007 and then save. When you reopen the document in Office 97 any date formats will be wrong.

On the Open Office Suite, if you open a Word template, it may not display 100% correct. Most of the ones I have seen have been using ATP navigator templates for FAA forms.

I guess the most important thing in the end is what you are comfortable using and that it does the job. To some the 486's still do the job.
 
I would LOVE to but I make a living off of securing and engineering networks and I could not eat if I only worked on Microsoft free networks (nor would I be good as I have to know all aspects of the security involved).

I do intend to buy one of the new duel-booting Macintoshs as my next laptop though...

.

Do you really understand what is meant by the term "dual boot"?

tyc
 
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... While programs like Open Office can read Microsoft they can't write directly back to Microsoft as far as I know.

Also their are some programs that will only run on anything except Windows and there is nothing else that will do the same job.

While a "dual boot" machine is fine for someone who wants to play around with something like Linux. In the case of my wife's machine I don't see any advantage of a "dual boot" system. In her case all the software is furnished by the school district at no cost to her. And the one piece of software she uses that isn't is a program that only works on a Windows based operating system.

So yes there is are reasons to use Microsoft software.

Leon
(kc0iv)

Do you understand that once you've used Open Office (which by the way is also available FREE for those with a Micro$soft OS) writing back to that "closed" Micro$soft system makes zero sense. If for any reason you want to go back to Micro$oft, the files which were created with Open Office or other like "Open Systems" (and there are a lot of them!) can be saved in the *.txt format, then u/l into the Micro$oft side of your hard drive. Most (if not all) Micro$soft software will read ASCII code - almost as well as a Linux or Unix machine.

As of "playing around" with Linux, do you understand that it is a full fledged competitor of Micro$soft? Do you understand you do NOT have to pay $100 (or more!) for a fully operational OS for your Dell or your HP, or your IBM? Do you understand that you do not have to pay out that kind of money for an OS which will work on those machines and do everything and more than "Window$"?

That there are are some propriatory progrmas that will ONLY run on Micro$oft (junk games and the like for the most part - if you're into that sort of thing) it wouldn't at all surprise me but if you're in business or just a hobbiest, in this day and age if you are foolish enough to stay with Micro$soft, if you want to donate to the Bill Gates Charity Fund, I for one do understand it's your money, it's your right but the question begs, if you can get an OS for zero dollars (of if you wish, on a DVD for only five or ten dollars - why would you spend over one hundred dollars for a lessor grade software OS to perform the same work? On this end, as I know and understand these things, the common sense just isn't there - but then I could be wrong.

tyc
 
Do you understand that once you've used Open Office (which by the way is also available FREE for those with a Micro$soft OS) writing back to that "closed" Micro$soft system makes zero sense. If for any reason you want to go back to Micro$oft, the files which were created with Open Office or other like "Open Systems" (and there are a lot of them!) can be saved in the *.txt format, then u/l into the Micro$oft side of your hard drive. Most (if not all) Micro$soft software will read ASCII code - almost as well as a Linux or Unix machine.

As of "playing around" with Linux, do you understand that it is a full fledged competitor of Micro$soft? Do you understand you do NOT have to pay $100 (or more!) for a fully operational OS for your Dell or your HP, or your IBM? Do you understand that you do not have to pay out that kind of money for an OS which will work on those machines and do everything and more than "Window$"?

That there are are some propriatory progrmas that will ONLY run on Micro$oft (junk games and the like for the most part - if you're into that sort of thing) it wouldn't at all surprise me but if you're in business or just a hobbiest, in this day and age if you are foolish enough to stay with Micro$soft, if you want to donate to the Bill Gates Charity Fund, I for one do understand it's your money, it's your right but the question begs, if you can get an OS for zero dollars (of if you wish, on a DVD for only five or ten dollars - why would you spend over one hundred dollars for a lessor grade software OS to perform the same work? On this end, as I know and understand these things, the common sense just isn't there - but then I could be wrong.

tyc

tyc,

While I understand your passion for Linux but what you seem to not understand is in some cases whether you want to or not you are forced to use Microsoft products.

As I showed, or tried to show, in the case of by wife the school district supplies the Window's programs she uses. She then sends these files out to other district employees which also have Window's bases operation systems. She also uses proprietary software that is written for a Window's bases operation systems that is used as part of the school district. I might add the district paid over $100K for this proprietary software so I don't think it would be a classified as junk software.

Her other use of the computer is for custom work she does in her side business of machine embroidery. The embroidery machine she has and it's software is Microsoft based. To my knowledge there is no Linux based system that does the job. I'd also add that machine and it's software cost over $10K. Again I don't think that is some kind of junk game.

One more program that that I used when I was driving OTR was a program called Driver's Daily Log. While some drivers have used a Windows Emulator and have had some success with both Apple Mac and Linux other have not worked. Again to my knowledge there is no Linux program that will do what Driver's Daily Log will do. While I was driving OTR I used this program many times per day. I made my living using this program.

It is one thing when someone is doing their own work and don't have to interface with anyone else. It is another matter where you have to work with other people's machines.

ASCII code is great for text files it something else if you have to have formatted text of direct file transfer to another machine based system.

Why waste your time using a "dual boot" system when you can do it one time and be done with it.

Leon
(kc0iv)
 
I tried 2 different distributions of Linux a few years ago, one by Red Hat and one by Mandrake.

Both produced blinking red error messages, something to the effect that the Kernel was having a picnic or the Colonel was having a panic. On two different machines no less, one with Intel chipset and one with Nvidia chipset.

I decided then and there that life’s too short to bother with such riddles and into the dumpster they went.

I appreciate the fact that some welcome the challenge.
 
I have a dual boot machine as well as a Linux only machine. I use the Linux only machine most of the time for e-mail and browsing. Plusses, Much faster and more stable, it's free, no bugs, free upgrades, no viruses, etc. minus, once in a while I run across a video or audio file that it won't play, looking for the plug-in to make it play is often more difficult.

The current version of Ubuntu is far superior to the red hat and mandrake versions of the past. There are several flavors of Linux that run off the cd drive now that are really good. They have to be small to fit on a CD and they are a tiny bit slower than if loaded on a hard drive but they boot up quick and run very well on most machines. If anyone wants to try a good one, let me know.
 
A long time ago Microsoft made the wise decision to target the business end of the computer world. They integrated networking and computer management features into the OS as well as coming up with productivity software, and they continue to expand on that model.

That’s how they got where they are and I’d say they’ve done a fair job of it. If Linux or Mac had the market share that MS does they would have hackers attacking them just as often as MS.

Microsoft isn’t perfect and Linux and Mac are trying to catch up, but they’ve got a long way to go to knock MS out of the business world.
 
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