Death of an old friend.....

[yoippari]

I have a windows box with spybot (something went screwy and it wont complete a search) adaware, symantec with most of the options disabled (I use it mostly to screen downloads) and I use opera for online sites I check often (forums, sites I should bookmark but don't, etc...) and firefox for general internet stuff. For e-mail I use thunderbird and while the junk filter only get about 25% of the spam it is easy to clean up the rest.

I tried linux but without good documentation I had a hard time getting it set up entirely. That and there was no good drivers for my video card (ati 9500 pro) when I was playing with it. I still want to build a beowulf cluster out of whatever spare computers I can get my hands on. Then I just need to find a program that will utilize a beowulf culster.

Just something to play with if you get board with windows is litestep. It is an explorer alternative. The shell can do anything explorer can and more, if you are confortable programming. It's kinda like linux, it is great, if you can manually set it up.

For the longest time I hated macs, in fact I have a old powermacII ram stick for the body of my keychain. But I have slowly realized that macs have their ups just like windows.

[Archangel]

going to disagree with Dread on the word only. there's a diff between spyware and virus. Yes, all levels do it.

Remember, everybody, the 'net was designed to be fully open, it's up to you to shut the door.

send me viruses? all twelve of them? ha, find me.

Mac viruses generally have one entry route. Shut off autoplay in QT and you're safe.

Probes have to get through router firewall and powerbook firewall.

Practical advice for Blu. Viruses/spam are stopped at two levels. My server, Primus.ca, catches them on the emails and notifies me. My email program, Mail, also is trainable to stop Spam but Primus does a very good job. Too good, my son's email was stopped as porn because he used Lolita and video in the same paragraph: there was no connection in context.

[auld argonian]

Total MacHead here...and when my Win-Tel friends complain about having to get a new machine every two years, I simply smile...I can usually get at least five or six years out of a Mac without any hardware modifications. It's never worth even trying to upgrade most any Mac...except for loading them with the max possible memory.

The usual complaints about the "high cost" of Macs is invalid: it's far offset by the years of service without hardware upgrades. The only place that they've got you nowadays is that Apple seems to be doing a major operating system upgrade every year. They have been naming these after felines: Jaguar, Tiger, Panther...we're now waiting for Ocelot, Serval and Garfield....possibly Bucky (if you don't get "Get Fuzzy" in your local paper, you are missing some really wry humor!). These usually empty about $100-120 US from your pocket but are generally very worthwhile.

best

auld argonian

[starbkjrus]

Kilted MAC-Head here :mrgreen:

20+ Years IT also though so Blu, you are getting some goodj windows advice. Use a software firewall (ZoneAlarm is good) and if you have broadband use a router with built in firewall (Linksys to name the brand I use). If the router has wireless get a copy of Networking for Dummies and set the wireless security levels at the highest settings. It can be a pain to generate and set up the security keys but it's worth keeping the kid next door out of your network.

On my windows machines I use SpyBot Search and destroy and Adware SE - Personal addition for spy / add ware removal. You'd be VERY suprised how much of that is out there. Firefox as a browser or Opera perhaps. My windows machines are all company owned so I have the company standard Norton Anti-Virus from Symantec so I can only say if you don't like Symantec then try McAfee.

Good Luck.

Wow......Auld A. Bucky Kat on a PowerMAC G5! That could be very scary

[Rob Wright]

Another MAc user here, an imac G5 for me and soon to be adding an ibook. I will never go back to windows ever.


Rob

[Dreadbelly]

I use a Blue and White Yosemite Tower. 300mhz. 384 megs of ram. Totally and completely built from scrap parts and bits. Hooked to a 19 inch monitor. I run OS9 because I like it more than OSX.

As for software selection, that's pretty much a myth. I have everything I will ever need and then some.

My system might not be the fastest, but she's got it where it counts. Crashes happen once in a blue moon. Plus, I built her. I made her. I know what makes her tick. I know that when she boots, and the video looks a bit scrambled in one corner of the monitor, all I got to do is give the tower a light tap with my foot near the rear to make the video card that I salvaged wiggle back in to place in the PCI slot. (It never quite fit right) The OS has been totally hacked and altered with a dozen different programs and the user interface has been tweaked with Res Edit. Plus, she can boot from a cold start and be up and running and online in about 30 seconds. My wife says my computer is a lot like the Millennium Falcon.

I'd like to get ahold if a scrap pile of damaged and scrapped iBooks. I see lots of them on ebay. Actual lots. Crates. For a couple of hundred bucks. I know I could build an iBook or two out of those and maybe have enough parts to keep it going for a good long time.

Oh. And word of advice to to hardware hobbiests.

DON'T TOUCH THE CRT TUBE!

[Southern Breeze]

Oh. And word of advice to to hardware hobbiests.

DON'T TOUCH THE CRT TUBE!

If you never listen to anything Dread says,LISTEN TO THIS!The voltage in these babies is very high and lethal(one touch and your screwed).The CRTand capaciters can hold a fatal amount of current even when it has been unplugged for days.I"ve taken PC repair classes and I still leave them alone.Also,Don't mess with the power supply in the case.If it goes bad replace it and don't open it.

[Sciuropterus]

We have a new Mac Mini and a 12" PowerBook in the office, the Mrs. has a G4 tower in her office.