More regulation for them.

Let me state upfront I have no beef at all with the residents of the U.S.A. What I do take issue up over is people who should know better offering the U.S.A. as te world when it clearly is not.



Mr Bill Stearns is an erstwhile guy who on the face of it seems to have the users security at heart. He often produces papers on that very subject but then he goes and spoils his work with comments about U.S.A. based national security.



I strongly believe the buck stops at the doors on the ISP'S. They can create a walled garden and force anyone with applications that do damage to others into it. Once there they can be offered on-line tools to aid in the cleanup of the users system. Once and only once, the users system is shown to be clean will they be let out and back into the big bad Internet. A pool could be created via all the worlds ISP's and one single huge walled garden created from those funds. If an ISP will not join this walled garden then perhaps we should be looking to not carry their data at all. Tough, perhaps but tough is where we need to go. Self regulation. Not U.S.A. regulation that affects no one but the U.S.A.



If the above is seen as unworkable then it shows a total lack of willingness and foresight on behalf of all the worlds ISP's.

Why do these people always think in terms of the U.S.A? It is NOT the world on its own. What affects the U.S.A. also can, and usually does, affect other countries but people like him in the field he works in constantly harp on about U.S.A. and its national security.



Why do they do that? They do it simply to gain traction to the points they make. By dropping in casual remarks about how the U.S.A. will suffer at the hands of nefarious people almost guarantees their remarks will be noticed.



As a none U.S.A, person i can assure you that the U.S.A. is not the end all and be all of security and as people harp on and on about U.S.A. this and U.S.A. that all they are doing is making the rest of the world hate the U.S.A. a little bit more with each such comment.



Sure, botnets suck big style. As does SPAM. But wait! Most of the SPAM in the Internet world comes out of....The U.S.A. Yes, that is right.



So while people go on and on and try to score points by mentioning National Security and the U.S.A. in the same sentence they  immediately alienate the rest of the world.



We, that is all none U.S.A. peoples of the world know they are an insular race but this sort of thing simply shows a lack of awareness and will quite simply alienate everyone else around the world.



Well done Sir. You have achieved your aims.

There I was...

...sorting out yet another MS Windows machine that its owner had got clogged up with all manner of dodgy stuff. That one made 18 this week.



Viri, malware, spyware etc are all designed to slow PC's running MS Windows to a crawl. Not only that but they are designed to create a sometimes huge botnet which if you are tagged, your machine will become part of the attack.



As I was fixing yet another MS Windows machine infestation my thoughts turned to why is this situation so bad? I think I have the answer.



The people who create the tools to fight these infestations do not want to totally stop then from infecting your machine. No. They would have no way to extract money from you for thier products if they did that. The same goes for Microsoft and their lacklustre efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice as they have claimed to be doing for quite a while now. How many of they prosecuted? One, if my memory serves.



Not one of the so called Security outfits, and this includes Microsoft, are interested in stopping and much less interested in prosecuting the people that create Viri, malware and spyware simply because if they started on this road then the cash cow that is Security programs will run out of steam very very quickly.



So you, poor MS Windows user are left to fork out yet more money for the latest and greatest "secure" MS Windows and the latest and greatest security application and of course let us not forget the firwalls that everyone and his grandmother say you should have. More money spent there and along with all this you are left with machines that at best manage to boot and at worse crash and burn on booting.



They simply do not care.



Go Linux, you know it makes sense as we have none of these viri, malware and spyware things to content with.

When Ubuntu sucks.

It can suck bad...



Rather an open statement in that title. My meaning is basically that there are still areas of this Linux distribution that will give everyday users major headaches. Before someone tilts and attacks me for saying something sucks in Linux let me state clearly right now I have used and continue to use Slackware Linux and more recently BlueWhite64 Linux and I have never run an MS OS on my main workstation for more than a few days and even then because back then it took that long to download the install files, and never will. In fact, every machine on my local networks runs Linux and I am a vocal advocate in favour of it.



That said. One area where Linux in general can suck less is wireless. Sure once everything is working as it should then as usual it is rock solid but when it does not work it can be a struggle to get it working.



A case in point was my recent foray into installing Xubuntu (and for the record Kubuntu, Edubuntu and plain Ubuntu all exhibited the same symptoms) for my wife. For many reasons I understood she has struggled to get to grips with Slackware so after looking at many a-distribution we both settled on Ubuntu. She likes XFCE4 so for obvious reasons Xubuntu got the nod. This gave us too many other issues so we moved to permanently to Ubuntu.



While the install phase of all the various Ubuntu flavours is painless, getting her wireless working was not under any of them. But, at first, no matter what we tried her wireless refused point blank to initialise even though the OS itself said it was found and even though this particular card had worked, and was working, fine under Slackware. It is the usual chicken and egg thing. No internet connection because the device will not start but one needs the internet to either locate a newer driver or to seek help in getting it working. We are lucky here in that we have other machines for these purposes but many do not and are in point of fact single machine users.



In these modern times wireless is everywhere and in a large number of machines, laptops in particular, it is often the only connection available. So, when Ubuntu found the wireless but insisted it was a wired connection we had a fight on our hands.



After much messing about with /etc/network/interfaces we could not get Ubuntu to alter its perception that the wireless connection was a wired one and gave up on a known working PCI wireless card, inserted another one, which used the exact same driver, but again the not working persisted. After much editing of various files finally the wireless connection was coaxed into action.



Before we coaxed the wireless connection into action we added several files to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist that were the root cause f it not working and others added to /etc/modules and to ensure the wireless card came up at boot we added the network details to /etc/network/interfaces. Once all that was done a quick run of /etc/init.d/dbus restart and /etc/init.d/networking restart finally kicked the wireless card into life with all the correct details for our wireless network.



All that above should not have been necessary and would most certainly trip up any new users to our beloved OS. It seemed to me that the reason the card refused to work was that the auto-detection process loaded the wrong driver files. Much hair tugging later these drivers were removed and added to the blacklist and the right driver to load added to /etc/modules.



Sometimes auto-detection can cause more hassle than it is worth and it is that that sucks not the distribution itself though I suppose because the OS uses auto-detection it can be said to the cause of the problem.

Patents?

So Microsoft have claimed Linux infringes on 235 of their patents but they will not say what they are due to paperwork.



What is all that about then? It is crap of course and stating paperwork as an excuse not to tell anyone what the patents are is even more crap.



The world plus dog knows how patent battles are done and they are not done by shouting "infringement" and then not saying what is infringed.



More FUD by Microsoft. That is all it is. FUD.

Which Distribution?

This is going to be a long blog post.



When I build a machine for someone, or get the job of setting up small to medium sized office I often get asked a few questions about the OS that they will have installed. Some outright request an MS Windows install and some more enlightened managers ask about Linux. Below I have complied a short Q&A.



1) Which Linux Distribution is right for me?

2) There are many hundreds of Linux Distributions and finding the right one for me without the need to install each and every one is a royal pain in the arse.

3) Is Linux like MS Windows?

4) I have been told that Linux costs more than MS Windows.

5) Won't I/we have problems if we use a Linux Distribution when other use something else?

6) What is the differences between the various Linux Distributions?

7) I have been told Linux is hard to use.



Some of those questions do not have a quick and easy answer but they can all be answered in a fashion that can be understood by everyone.



Answer 1) The right Distribution for you is the one you and whoever it is that will be using it feel comfortable with. Myself I would recommend one of the Ubuntu distributions. Of those I recommend Xubuntu or Kubuntu.



Answer 2) See answer 1. Of all the distributions available very few will actually fit the vast majority of users and potential users. X and Kubuntu are excellent at hardware detection. They are easily monitored from remote and are easy to update and add extra packages.



Answer 3) Yes and No. Yes in that an OS operates the same way at the very base level. They allow for copy files, they allow editing of files etc etc. No because if all OS's where the same what would be the point of all the various OS's out there?



Answer 4) Cost or Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) comes up all the time with offices with more than 4 computers and is a massive subject and I don't have the time nor space here to cover every facet of it. The truth is that you can get a Linux distribution for nothing but getting someone to maintain the whole network can be expensive. However, weighed together a Linux distribution is cheaper as the cost of the OS itself is nothing. However, there is a lot more to TCO than I cover here.



Answer 5) A Linux distribution comes with or can be added later, lots of applications that can handle 99% of all formats out there. Be they document formats, video formats or music formats. So, the short answer is a no you will not have interpolarity issues.



Answer 6) The main differences between all the various distribution are: package management (some have it, some do not). Some have a GUI to work in, others do not. In short the differences can be huge.



Answer 7) If you can use a muse and keyboard you can use a modern Linux distribution.



I have been short in my answers and have not gone in depth on any given subject so if you would like more information on a Linux distribution then feel free to email me at mr.jeepster at gmail dot com (replace at with @ and dot with .) the email address is obscured in an attempt to squash spammers. If you do email me then I will answer any questions you have and will if requested send an information pack which I compiled myself. I can also offer my services as a Remote Administrator and installer of Linux Networks.



I hope that some of the information given here was and is useful to you.

Oh dear what can the matter be.

Slackware has always been something for those of us who like stability over bleeding edge crash every few minutes type Linux distributions. Slackware has always been looked down on by those requiring a clue and never has this been more apparent when one sees rubbish such as this link below.



pidgin.im/pipermail/devel/2007-May/000651.html



Slackware, and by extension Bluewhite64 and SlamD64, have included Gaim, now called pidgin, since for as long as I can rmember. Not once has Slackware or its included Gaim been broken, it has always worked with AIM, MSN, Yahoo etc etc. Where these guys get off on saying such rubbish about Slackware is  something only they know.



Slackware's lack of dependency tracking is one major reason for its stability. Just because these guys cannot setup Slackware does not by any stretch of the imagination mean the distribution itself is in any lacking. No, it is they who are lacking and by posting such rubbish for all to read they have admitted their own limitations.

How Far Has Wine Come ?

Sorry Jeep, your title was just waiting for another drop in *phrase* =) Warning: Wine in and of itself causes much debate, public drunkenness & heated discussions on the Internet and around newsgroups in general but it doesn't always have to be the case. There are emulators for many OS's OS's OS's ... I can understand both sides of the Wine Pros and Cons Long Living Debate and the affect ( negative or positive ) on the Linux World. That is not the point here. This is simply a POST concerning success running some apps on an emulator. period. It ( Wine ) has it's times of need and just plain ol fun when the most original looking and feeling software remake of your favorite game ( mine is good ol "Galaga" and "Asteroids" =) is windows only. Let's face it, Linux does not have three rows of software available at your local Computer Store. Check Jeeps post here which explains many angles on the Linux Desktop vs Windows that would also have an extreme affect as to why so much software is still only available for the Windows & Apple/Mac Platforms. I have been intending on posting this since the success I had running wine in the recent days. I am very impressed with the latest "wine" and would like to say a few words about it and keep in mind we can also post as comments to this post of course any apps we find that are running on wine IF and when we need to. Possibly to submit them to the wine database which is very handy for a quick look/see if a particular application you want to run is in the list or not and if so, possibly save you the heartache of a pointless effort OR a give you the information you need for a successful fast solution. I will start by saying in all honesty, I have tried wine in the past, lost faith and frankly, did not have the need to run any windows applications. Years ago, and when the project first started up I was always disappointed. Although many apps were and may have been supported at the time it always seemed that the one I wanted to run was either not supported at all or very limited. I gave them a thumbs up for trying so hard nonetheless. It has been probably 3 years since I have had a need or reason to run a windows application. Moving forward... I decided to give it another go earlier this year and was very pleased and surprised. I am happy to report that the all three different times I have had the need or want to run a windows application this year it has been a success. The original application can sometimes make life much easier. NEWS FLASH - All three apps I tried so far worked prefectly! *nod* to wine developers for "keeping on keeping on" as we say. 1) Wine & Wine-Tools installed perfectly on Slackware-11.0 ( plus updates ) 2) Each and every application worked almost perfectly. The only thing that did not work in two out of the three apps I have run succesfully on/under wine was window resizing. 3) Even this, amazingly, one the applications even went through it's "auto-upgrade!" This touches on another comment I need to post here The Windows Software I am running using Wine:

• PokerStars Free (Play) Money Tables for me! - for this site

NOTES: This one was an executable installation and went through the familar windows "setup" installtion windows perfectly and set it up in my ~/.wine/ directory as needed by wine. No root was needed at all. Although I did install wine as root system wide. PokerStars even went through a normal "auto-update version upgrade" with no problem at all right before I made this post tonight. hmm .. Interesting =) I think I should post a comment here to this affect as it could be possibly an answer to one of many issues concerning the Linux Desktop for the average Home user which is simply installing commonly used apps in in your ~ ( home ) directory ( FOLDER for windows users ) like OpenOffice.org for one of may examples and auto-update is np. Windows re-sizing does not work.

• Picasa for Windows

NOTES: Yes I also have Picasa for Linux which, by the way, is distributed with it's own wine server and depends on wine , not system wide but included, to run. I wanted to try both ways so I did and both work fine.

• Roland's BR Wave Converter 2.0

NOTES: Window resizing does not work. It sees the Roland BR-600 through which Linux sees as a standard usb-storage device with no problem and no special hand config was needed for it to read and write to the device. Thanks to Roland for making the device spec to UMS also. Wine has come a long way. Whether you agree or disagree with wine's "affect" or what it may do to the Linux community is not the issue. That is a long and heavily debated topic. The point I want to make is that it is working for more and more applications and it works well. I may have the need for a few more apps running under wine who knows? =) Anyone know of a original "look & feel" Galaga for Linux or Windows to download? =) Later people.

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