I've Moved To Mac

[MortFurd]

I think the average users of both PCs and Macs are ignorant. I got called last week because security had detected that one of our computers had connected to a hacker site the week before. They were insisting that we run a virus scan on that computer before we could put it back on the network. When I got into the office, the techs were busy burning a CD to transfer the AV software to the affected machine. I had to explain that any proper virus would disable the AV before it could be detected.

I connected the affected laptop to the desktop machine with a standard FireWire cable, powered on the laptop while holding down the "T" key until the FireWire icon displayed. The AV software installed on the desktop automatically detected the hard drive in the laptop and started scanning it.

Anybody want to guess what viruses were found?

StupidUserWin32?
Nob0dy@home?

 

[JonnyFive]

Anybody want to guess what viruses were found?

Does "Bonzi Buddy" count as a virus?

Really, I don't know. What viruses were found?

 

[ZirconBlue]

I think the average users of both PCs and Macs are ignorant. I got called last week because security had detected that one of our computers had connected to a hacker site the week before. They were insisting that we run a virus scan on that computer before we could put it back on the network. When I got into the office, the techs were busy burning a CD to transfer the AV software to the affected machine. I had to explain that any proper virus would disable the AV before it could be detected.

I connected the affected laptop to the desktop machine with a standard FireWire cable, powered on the laptop while holding down the "T" key until the FireWire icon displayed. The AV software installed on the desktop automatically detected the hard drive in the laptop and started scanning it.

Anybody want to guess what viruses were found?

I'll guess: none.

 

[illogical]

Mac isn't taken seriously in the enterprise world. the fanboys forget that many apps are either *nix clone, UNIX, or Windows.

it is true the cheap (and inexpensive) printers are often Windows only. linux has the same driver issues as Mac; the vendors target Windows because it has 95% desktop penetration.

 

[Dan O.]

Does "Bonzi Buddy" count as a virus?

Really, I don't know. What viruses were found?

For a laptop connected to the internet without any virus protection, I expected to find every virus written for that platform and known to be wild on the internet. But I didn't stick around to watch. They would have told me if something showed up.


On another line, I saw an add for "The Tornado" USB file transfer device. I'm immediately thinking, why does anybody need to spend $59 for something you can do faster by just plugging the computers together with an ethernet or firewire cable. The FireWire target disk mode mounts your hard drive for direct access on the other computer. The link-local network is setup automatically when you connect to the ethernet LAN so you only need to enable Personal File Sharing to copy files between machines at Gigabit speeds.

 

[Starthinker]

Not to derail this lovely discussion, but I just started setting up the first of many HP L7780 printers. These are all-in-one bohemouths that do everything and the after the install you can fax from your PC using the phone line on the printer, manipulate photos from the card slots, and other various things. Plus you can access the setup screens from your PC and set up dial lists and groups, duplexing, etc.. I'm just courious if any Mac users have used one these machines on a Mac and were all these functions present without using a disk? I can see it printing and probably scanning right from plugging it in, but does a Mac pick up all the other options as well? What about an (x)nix machine? I just wonder how much plug and play can pick up without a disk. I wish I could justify purchasing a Mac for the office to try things like this but since 100% of our software vendors won't support Mac OS I can't justify the purchase.

And why don't manufacturers just put all their drivers on a flash drive on the unit itself? That would do away with installing from a CD altogether, regardless of which OS you use.

 

[JonnyFive]

For a laptop connected to the internet without any virus protection, I expected to find every virus written for that platform and known to be wild on the internet. But I didn't stick around to watch. They would have told me if something showed up.

I had a friend once who had an old 386 so infested with viruses that it took the thing twenty minutes to boot up. I think it ran only by maintaining a delicate balance of different pieces of malicious code.

On another line, I saw an add for "The Tornado" USB file transfer device. (snip)

Is it me, or is that just a glorified USB cable with some built-in transfer software?

 

[Darat]

...snip...

What particular features of vB do you actually know of that supposedly don't work except with IE? You don't actually know of any, of course. (If you do, tell vb so they can fix it.)

I know a few (please note you have slightly misrepresented my statement), some are mentioned in our help section and others can be found on Jelsoft's own vBulletin Community forum, if you want to take a quick look.

 

[Darat]

The what? Are you attempting to refer to the BETA version that was recently made available? - (with everybody very well informed that it was a beta.)

There's a difference between "released" software and "beta" software, y'know.

The actual released Safari, v2.0.4, is rock solid.

...snip...

Glad you know what released means.

 

[Joe Random]

I'm sorry, but I never used Apple DOS as I am not a Commie.

ETA: 59 65 73 1f 20 74 68 65 79 20 64 6f 2e 20 41 6c 73 6f 1f 20 49 20 6c 69 6b 65 20 70 69 65 2e

Heh.

22 54 68 69 73 20 6D 75 73 74 20 62 65 20 77 68 65 72 65 20 70 69 65 73 20 67 6F 20 77 68 65 6E 20 74 68 65 79 20 64 69 65 2E 22 20 2D 20 44 61 6C 65 20 43 6F 6F 70 65 72

 

[Ian Osborne]

Heh.

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I'VE WON! I'm a National Lottery millionaire! The party's next week, folks...

 

[MetalPig]

Oh, it works fine, unless you get a virus or other malware. Or you want to organize your files your own way for a project. Or you want individual control of what software to update. Or you want to grab a quick copy of something to the desktop. Or etc. etc. But sure, Windows generally works fine. Sort of.

I've never had the problems you describe.
I'm suspecting you lack the knowledge to make Windows behave the way you want it to. I'm very sorry, but that's not Windows's fault.

 

[jimlintott]

I've never had the problems you describe.
I'm suspecting you lack the knowledge to make Windows behave the way you want it to. I'm very sorry, but that's not Windows's fault.

I too am certainly lacking in this Windows Knowledge because I can never get it to behave the way I want. If I do get it doing what I want it seems that it just changes itself back for mysterious reasons. On the other hand I find Linux very easy to make work exactly the way I want and it keeps working that same way seemingly forever. I'm no more knowledgeable of Linux than Windows. Maybe Linux is just easier to use.

If special knowledge is required maybe it's best not to hold out Windows as the easiest to use.

Where I'm coming from:

The clumsiest interface I have ever used is punch cards for input and 132 column tractor feed printer for output. I used DOS for many years. Win 3.1 Win 95, 98, XP. I don't have any real problems with Windows I just don't like it. I've been using Linux for ten years and have played with many of the various desktop managers. So I have used many different interfaces and operating systems. They all have their pros and cons.

Windows pros: It runs the software I need for work.

Windows cons: It's the only thing that runs the software I need for work.

KDE is hands down the most versatile and powerful desktop manager I have had the pleasure of using. I'm using Gnome lately and find it okay but limiting. The Beryl or Compiz effects are outstanding. Maybe the best 3D desktops going.

I recently was browsing the web on IE7 running on Vista and found it almost unusable. Mostly just unexpected, for me, behaviour from IE7. I probably would have been fine with FF.

While I don't like Windows I use it regularly and have few problems with it. Most serious stability problems have been hardware related. I do consider randomly changing things I didn't want changed to be a lack of stability. In that regard it is probably the least stable desktop OS available.

I need a new machine for the living room and just might buy a Mac. I hope to never need Vista but I wouldn't be surprised if I end up with one of those at some point.

Arguing about which OS is best is like arguing about who owns a better hammer when neither of you have the skills to build a house.

Whatever gets the job done. All the current desktop OS are pretty amazing really.

 

[illogical]

re: virus "protection"

if someone was eating food out of dumpsters, you might question their sanity (or hourly wage). yet some windows users do just that, downloading infested files from p2p networks. the fact is, no on-demand scanner can detect *all* modern trojans, because most are essentially undetectable. this means windows users have to run bulky on-access scanners/firewalls/ips. that works great except for the multitude of custom versions that can be bought for a couple hundred bucks.

the advantages of linux/mac are: user-level apps (xp runs at admin by default), better browsers (ie 5 and 6 have My Computer Zone), services disabled by default (2k and xp sp1 have dcom/lsass). most of these issues weren't fixed until sp2 and vista. no linux distro has a security reputation that bad.

i use windows at times, but it takes a month to make it into a workable OS.

 

[illogical]

if you changed it to:

"hat are the reasons then [for using the Mac]? What makes surfing the web easier (better?) on a Mac than it would be on a Windows PC?"

the clear advantage is Mac/*nix for security. the advantage to Windows for IE-optimized sites and certain types of web application. IE can be run on *nix (and probably Mac).

 

[illogical]

"Whatever gets the job done. All the current desktop OS are pretty amazing really."

i agree it's amazing that Vista can hog that much memory and cpu.

 

[Rat]

re: virus "protection"

if someone was eating food out of dumpsters, you might question their sanity (or hourly wage). yet some windows users do just that, downloading infested files from p2p networks. the fact is, no on-demand scanner can detect *all* modern trojans, because most are essentially undetectable. this means windows users have to run bulky on-access scanners/firewalls/ips. that works great except for the multitude of custom versions that can be bought for a couple hundred bucks.

Yes, some Windows users do that. Some also do other stupid things. Is this about the users or the OS? Anyone with a whit of common sense shouldn't even need antivirus, but I am running it anyway (I have no sense), and it's taking a total of 30MiB of memory; not really that bulky. If I run something like Clamware, it takes far less memory. So Windows users don't 'have to buy' bulky on-access scanners at all.

the advantages of linux/mac are: user-level apps (xp runs at admin by default), better browsers (ie 5 and 6 have My Computer Zone), services disabled by default (2k and xp sp1 have dcom/lsass). most of these issues weren't fixed until sp2 and vista. no linux distro has a security reputation that bad.

(but Vista doesn't, and the short manual for XP advised you not to do so). (We've been on IE7 for a while now, but I use Firefox anyway. There's also Opera, and various others). (Yes, an OS from over half a decade ago has a vulnerability in it. Well done).

i use windows at times, but it takes a month to make it into a workable OS.

Apparently it takes you a month. It takes me as long as it takes to install, plus a little time (how little depends on definition of 'workable') to set to my preferences. One to two hours, maybe, if I'm sat at it the whole time.

 

[Dan O.]

Is it me, or is that just a glorified USB cable with some built-in transfer software?

That's about it. Of course, USB is a single master bus so it needs extra hardware to transfer data between two masters. What makes the Tornado special is the device load it's own custom device driver that takes over both machines when you connect it. This would make a great tool for someone that needs to bypass system security.

 

[JeffJo]

More humility!

Where does it come from?

There it was - another post by CFLarsen! Like ALL his posts, it was totally content-free, but by golly he's got another click on the ol' counter. Where do all of CFLarsen's posts come from? All science can say is: it's obvious they don't come from knowledge or intelligence; must be some kind of twitch.

 

[coalesce]

Heh.

22 54 68 69 73 20 6D 75 73 74 20 62 65 20 77 68 65 72 65 20 70 69 65 73 20 67 6F 20 77 68 65 6E 20 74 68 65 79 20 64 69 65 2E 22 20 2D 20 44 61 6C 65 20 43 6F 6F 70 65 72

Are these Liz Taylor's measurements?

Michael