BILL GATES IS THE DEVIL – OR – ReInstalling Windows XP

15 thoughts on “BILL GATES IS THE DEVIL – OR – ReInstalling Windows XP”

1. bY THE BY..

   Anyone know a good web page buildign program that has a simple interface like Netscape Composer or Word, but is more universally compatible and has some other cool stuff in it? (Freeware, maybe?)

   1. yeah

      Learn HTML. Seriously. After a few months (many years ago) of trying to find the perfect graphical web page editor I broke down and learned HTML. It is so outrageously simple to learn and understand.

   2. Quanta Plus

      Well, I personally like Quanta Plus. The only downside is that it’s an application designed for the K Desktop Environment, which is only run-able on Windows using Cygwin.

      Quanta Plus runs like a dream on my Mac and Linux boxes. Dreamweaver is very popular for Windows, but like most apps for that platform, it’s $$$…

      There are a whole bunch of utilities for coding web pages listed on this page. Quanta Plus is listed, as are a bunch of freeware, shareware, and commercial applications of varying quality.

      Now, you’ve mentioned a desire to do “more” with your sites, though. You may want to check out real web-publishing environments, such as Movable Type (an extremely popular and easy-to-use CGI-based web application), Drupal (a PHP-based blogging, news, and content aggregation system that powers barnson.org), Plone (a Python-based all-in-one content management system), or others. The advantage of these kinds of tools is that they focus on publishing content easily, rather than worrying about your HTML code and templates. The downside is that, although most of them have a very “clean” look, they tend to look kind of bland. It’s ideal for people like me, who really just care that it’s a decent color scheme and don’t care much about building eye-popping layouts, but for people who are really into design, they are less than ideal.

      That’s changing, though, as CSS takes over the job of formatting. You simply use <div> tags to indicate the type of content you’re presenting, and then define where things go using CSS. Most of barnson.org uses CSS (except certain layout parts that I just haven’t gotten to yet), and it’s really helpful in figuring out minor changes without touching a whole boatload of files on your site.

      Good luck! Once you get into “real” web development tools, it can become addicting for a year or two as you figure out your ideal environment.

      —
      Matthew P. Barnson

   3. FREEWEBS!!!

      Use freewebs.com. Simple interface, easy to use… or you could just learn html.

      See? HTML!

      email me at zb_theyexist@yahoo.com Zachary: The Child Genuis

      EDIT by matthew: Fixed broken HTML. Remember to close your <a href> tags and don’t include extraneous half-tags next time, Genius.

2. Windows XP Service Paqck 2

   Keep an eye out for Windows XP Service Pack 2…it’s ‘susposed’ to tighten security on Windows XP a bunch. I’d wait about a month until it comes out, see what the consensus is from the guinea pigs, and then if all is well put that on.

   My $.02 Weed

   1. Separate firewall

      And the best measure Justin took to safeguard his computer?

      He put in a network-address-translating firewall between him and his cable modem. Go Justin!

      Although I’m a believer in “border security is no security at all”, the fact that it won’t stop a determined cracker is irrelevant to just getting your computer to boot up when a new worm hits the ‘net. It seems as if 90% of IT security these days isn’t “trying to slow down/stop the system cracker”, it’s “trying to stop the flood of worms, viruses, and trojans, while logging intrusion attempts”.

      I’m not sure I entirely agree with the focus, but it seems necessity dictates priority…

      —
      Matthew P. Barnson

3. Different output in Explorer and Mozilla depends on which…

   Different output in Explorer and Mozilla depends on which code you wrote.

   Check the W3C HTML validation page to sort your programming errors out.

   simple

   1. You missed the point, Simple.

      Unfortunately, Simple, you missed his point: that it is Microsoft Word’s HTML output which is borked if you’re using anything but Internet Explorer. Publishing web pages should be simple and straightforward, even if using a WYSIWYG tool such as MS Word, but the point of that reference was that Microsoft Word screws up web pages viewed in anything but IE.

      And thus Justin was forced to “code” a web page, when all he really wanted to do was write up a quick blurb and publish it. One should not be forced to wade through standards and validation in order to put one’s ideas on the Internet.

      Not everyone is like me, or, apparently, like you. We “get it”, and perhaps even enjoy esoteric, tough-to-troubleshoot technical problems related to HTML and HTTP. Most people don’t 🙂

      —
      Matthew P. Barnson

4. OK, Blame bill gay[tes], BUT…

   Ok, blame IT, but before you speak you should know what you’re talking about, which is not.

   You decide which, between Winamp and Media player or anyother player, has the right to play music files (that can be of many different type, did ya know???).

   So, PLEASE, if you have NO experience with computer, do not fill the net with you useless words.

   simple

   1. Quanta Plus Windows

      So, PLEASE, if you have NO experience with computer, do not fill the net with you useless words.

      Simple,

      I see you arrived here at barnson.org by searching Google for “quanta plus windows”. I, like you, have searched for a way to run Quanta Plus on Windows; outside of Cygwin + KDE (which has really been a bear to keep running reliably for me; it tends to hang a lot), I haven’t found a way yet.

      Now, as to the question of whether Justin should “fill the net with useless words”, well, this is a weblog, not a technical reference library. As one of my personal friends, he’s allowed to post here without limit about whatever the heck he wants, really, within reason and the family-friendly nature of this web site. I consider barnson.org to be a “virtual coffee house” of sorts, where we chat about the stuff that interests us.

      That which doesn’t interest the group tends to get the fewest replies; that which does gets active participation. Glad you dropped in on our coffee-house table; hope to see you again.

      —
      Matthew P. Barnson

   2. Simple, huh..

      Simple, I apologize profusely for taking up space on this highly technical board with my silly question. I should remember that if I don’t know something I should refrain from asking. That way I can continue to know less while you can continue to be better than me, and clearly, you are.

      Honestly, though.. what I find amazing is not your impressive technical skill, but your creative reinvention of the English language.

      I’ve spent a fortnight trying to figure out what “Ok, blame IT, but before you speak you should know what you’re talking about, which is not.” means.

      Not what?

      Do you mean to say “Ok, blame IT, but before you speak you should know what you’re talking about, WHICH YOU DON’T”? Implying that I don’t know what I’m talking about? In which case, certainly… I will abstain from any and all conversation at any time with anyone about anything I have not studied in detail.

      Of course, you could mean “Ok, blame IT, but before you speak you should know what you’re talking about, which is not IT.” Again.. I assume “it”, who was the cousin on the Addams family. In either case, I certainly know nothing about him, so again, on the topic of Cousin It, I will never speak to anyone again. Now if you mean Information Technology, this will, of course make shopping at CompUSA very very difficult – but I have a solution. Piglatin. If you mean something iese.. itray isray otnay earclay, eniusgay.

      Innalyfay, “You decide which, between Winamp and Media player or anyother player, has the right to play music files (that can be of many different type, did ya know???)” has become my new John 3″16. I’m having it made into T-Shirts. Wearing one now. Now, English professors have been shooting me evil looks all day and I don’t know why! I certainly do know they all have the right to play my music. Its guaranteed in the Bill of Rights I believe. Not a history buff, could be wrong. Unfortunately, they often ask if they can be the ones to open my files the next time I open them. I politely say no, with a hint of sarcasm and send them on their way, because I don’t have the open mind you do about it. I guess I just have to be open to these equal rights by different programs… as long as they don’t get special tax breaks, which would be wrong.

      BTW, perfect name.

      1. Linux

         Use Linux… No virus no troyans

         http://www.distrowatch.com

         1. DUH

            Linux has plently of viruses. Its just how you watch your computer… Most people think they’re all secure, or don’t care and act hard but they’re goofs and dont have the slightest clue.

            Hence, 3 programs:

            • Kaspersky Antivirus
            • Microsoft Antispyware
            • Sygate Personal Firewall Pro

            [Massive edit for content here] [You people] download those Service Pack 1 CDs, like this [person. It’s] full of hidden viruses.

            NOTE: Viruses will not return after you format. If they do it’s your Windows CD. I’ve seen so many people make this mistake. Get a good copy of Windows XP PRO SP2 and load. It’s that easy.

            EDIT by matthew: User cannot spell, punctuate, capitalize, or refrain from profanity or insults. Edited for clarity and content. Allowed post to go up because he actually used the word “hence” correctly. However, should user return, the IP address will be banned if he cannot refrain from excessive profanity.

            1. Linux and virusses

               First thing: note the date on the original posting. August 8, 2004. If I recall correctly, Windows XP Service Pack 2 wasn’t out yet (I believe it was released in November of 2004; I could be wrong, though). All SP1 installers were having issues with automatically being exploited the moment they connected to the Internet. Very, very sucky time to try to reinstall Windows, particularly if you didn’t have some sort of external hardware firewall which protected you from worms.

               Viruses will not return after you format.

               Unfortunately, that’s a specious claim. Although turning on an inbound firewall by default is an excellent step in the right direction for Microsoft, nevertheless until you’ve run the updates, the firewall does nothing regarding outbound connections from your machine. There are numerous exploits which will automatically infest your machine if you attempt to browse the web using Internet Explorer without installing the latest security patches and rebooting first.

               You can ensure you don’t get infected right away by first visiting mozilla.org and installing Mozilla Firefox to browse the web, rather than IE, and immediately afterwards use Firefox to download and install AVG Free Edition. Free for home users, and it’s a very competent, non-invasive virus scanner. It’s worlds better than the CPU-hog that is Norton Antivirus. Once that’s done, download your latest SP2 updates from Windows Update, and you’re fairly safe if you set your PC to auto-update. Just make sure your firewall’s turned on all the time.

               Linux and UNIX, however, definitely still have several advantages over Windows for virus protection:

               1. It has a smaller installed base. This alone makes virus-writers, who are going for the “low-hanging fruit”, less likely to write virusses for the platform.
               2. The installed base tends to be technically clue-ful. Obviously, as the “masses” continue adopting Linux or UNIX widely (as has been predicted for ten years, and is happening today at an accelerating rate), this becomes less of an advantage.
               3. The security model has been tested longer, and is inherently more secure, than the Windows model. The largest portion of the reason for this is due its simplicity and age: it’s been around forever, and it’s very easy to wrap your head around the basic UNIX security model. Hence, it’s easier to write secure non-root programs on UNIX which won’t open up system-level security holes.
               4. UNIX and Linux machines are generally set up to be secure by default. Windows, on the other hand, sets the default user as a computer administrator, and roughly 50% of all programs I install fail to work at all unless run from an account with administrative privileges (or without a ton of post-install tweaking on file and registry permissions to allow a non-administrative user to function). Mac OS X and Linux have the solution right: prompt the user for the root password when performing privileged system functions, and prefer to install programs in the user’s home directory to avoid asking for root-level access at all. Of course, smart virus and spyware writers will write their programs to prompt for the root password, invalidating this protection, but fixing bugs in a program is much easier than attempting to fix clueless users 🙂 In a corporate environment, administrators can afford to spend the time “tweaking” a program’s install script to make these modifications automatically, but 99% of users will simply leave their account set to “computer administrator” and forget about it.

               My suspicion is that, as UNIX-based systems (including Mac OS X) continue to grow in popularity, more rootkits, virusses, trojans, and worms will begin to spread. However, just comparing numbers of system-level compromises, you have to add together every distribution of Linux, FreeBSD, and proprietary UNIX operating systems, PLUS every piece of popular open-source software, in order to surpass the number of Microsoft Windows exploits over the last ten years.

               —
               Matthew P. Barnson

            2. Linux Viruses?

               It was mentioned that Linux has a lot of viruses? According to this, there are less than 10…

               Matthew S.

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