Microsoft
Microsoft Windows – New OS Why? People Don’t Update Either Way
Nov 22nd
The problem with Internet security nowadays is largely in part because people do not know how to update their computers. I fix computers as a side job, and you’d be surprised that many people have told me they don’t click the Microsoft gold shield in their system tray because there is a virus going around. What absolute ignorance. The Gold shield will update your computer to protect you as much as possible with critical updates. I am continuously flabbergasted with genuine stupidity. The default setting in all MS Windows products should be to automatically install updates, because the general public simply does not understand the importance of keeping their software shiny new.
Every time you see the gold shield in the bottom right hand corner of your computer, it is your obligation to click it and process the updates. As a Windows user, if you have a virus, a Trojan, or anything in between you are contributing to the massive problems that plague the Internet nowadays. Spam, phishing and lots of other things are predominantly broadcast from exploited machines.
Recent exploits in old versions of Internet Explorer have resurfaced this very issue of security.
“Symantec has conducted further tests and confirmed that it affects Internet Explorer versions 6 and 7,” the company wrote on its Web site Saturday. “We expect that a fully-functional reliable exploit will be available in the near future.”[Source]
People have relatively new installations of Windows Vista and they are using Internet Explorer 6 and 7. Why? There is Internet Explorer 8? “Ohhh, I don’t like the new version”, they say. But the new version is more secure, and more up to date. Get used to change; accept change for the better. It is necessary.
There is another major problem. PC manufacturers like to sell antivirus software packages. They preinstall them on machines, and give 60 free trials, and then expect people to pay the subscription fees to keep them active. This is absurd. Who in their right mind will pay those fees? By far the vast majority of people do not pay those fees and are using high vulnerable, non up to date software. This is a shame because AVG, and other companies, offer free anti virus that is continuously updated! Yes, I said continuously updated. New updates are issued all the time for free; do you understand free does not cost money?
If you are using a Windows computer update your antivirus right now. Do the world a favor and remove that botnet from your computer. Stop sending out mass spam emails right now. Run S right now. Install it from www.spybot.com. Install the apps, update them, then reboot your computer in safe mode. Hold f8 when your booting and select safe mode! Run AVG, then Spybot, then AVG, and Spybot again. Clean your machine now!
Now this will take some time to clean your virus infested Windows machine thoroughly. Maybe a day or two. Maybe you will have to reinstall the entire OS alltogether. Either do this now, or download Ubuntu and never think about antivirus again.
Linux the Future – Yippe I Will Eventually Have a Job
Nov 15th
With the economy uncertain and Microsoft Vista failing to gain overwhelming acceptance, many IT departments are considering a migration to Linux. Reference
I don’t know when it will be, but its coming quick. The simple reason that companies need to pay for Windows products will lead to abandonment. Why pay for products when you can get the same work done for free. Linux is clearly the solution, and with rapidly developing systems such as Ubuntu, there is no reason in the near future to continue to pay the large license requirements of Microsoft products. Ubuntu has faster security updates than Windows, and is substantially at less risk to infection and spyware. Right now Linux implementation seems to be a no brainer, but corporation are stubborn and are hanging on to the tail of a dying elephant. Windows products are paid for by corporations because there is an underlying notion that paying for a product gets better support; but this metholodoly is quickly failing. Open source products have the benifit of millions of eyes to fix bugs, and make improvements. Open source will produce superior products by all means, and all that is needed is a little more time for the status quo of Open Source products to reach the stability and reliability requirements of enterprise applications. For servers Apache is the status quo; open source. For desktops Microsoft still reigns because the software requirements are much more daugnting. With projects broken down substantially, such as Gnome, and KDE desktop environments the development of independently stable applications is inevitable.
VirtueMart Print All Products
Sep 17th
My experiences with VirtueMart are good. I have never been able to get the PDF feature to work though. Some workarounds are therefore required. Turn your online store into catalog mode, and then hit the show all products link in the mod_virtuemart module. Set the list to display 50 products at a time. Literally highlight all products then copy paste them into a Microsoft Word document. Word will automatically download the images from the associated urls and slap them into the document. After adding all of your products to the Word document comes the fun part; cleanup and tailoring.
Linux and the Future of the Internet
Apr 29th
Currently a vast majority of the internet is filled with websites that have the sole intent to acquire capital. Quick, practically instant websites that are designed for this purpose are destined to fail primarily because they rely on duplicate content. New original content is necessary, because readers want to see new opinions and new ideas. Start from scratch, write your own material, which primarily entails determining the content that you wish to discuss. I like discussing fads occasionally; digg.com, and news outlets are great sources for temporary topics. Success will come from discussing topics that are timeframe independent. I will elaborate on this further by making a comparison to the relationship between Linux and Windows. Linux is the future of computer operating systems. I love discussing Linux for many reasons. Obviously is it fun to talk about Linux because it is a completely functional alternative to Microsoft Windows, but there are other long term implications. Free versus paid, open source versus closed source, and secure versus questionable integrity. The main reason Windows has questionable integrity is because hackers assume that 99% of computers are using Windows. They write viruses, malware, and other malicious software targeting the status quo. The first thing they look for is access to the computer via various ports. This is why on a Windows machine a firewall is of crucial importance. The first step in gaining access to a computer is having a means of entrance, which entails access to ports. A software firewall can be implemented, but nowadays eveyone has a router, and most if not all routers have built in firewalls. Although considering router firewall, there are still millions of internet users that don’t use routers, and are lacking a software firewall thus providing external access to ports on their computer. With access to a computers ports, attempts can be made to access various programs. This is a difficult tactic, and required pre-knowledge of programs running on a particular computer and the operation of those programs including potential software flaws (holes). In general the most effective method is convincing a computer operator to download an application, and then install it. With a background process running on a computer many malicious things are possible. The program can contact the deviant third party and notify them that control is available over a new computer. Once this happens the flood gates open. Every and any possible fraud, scam, spam, ect is destined to occur. There programs are typically called bots, and the third party deviants having control of many bots create bot nets. With use of Linux this situation is much more difficult to achieve. First and foremost there are countless Linux distributions therefore it is much more difficult for a deviant to determine the particular software running on your computer. In fact for this reason alone Linux is not the target of viruses nearly as much as compared to Windows. Also it is widely assumed that any person using Linux is aware of much of this information, and is more likely to be able to handle such a situation and produce a resolution. Linux is open source, therefore holes, when they are identified, are patched relatively quickly. Windows requires a hole to be identified and then reported to Microsoft. Then private programmers must resolve the situation in a closed source fashion. A “Windows Update” or a service pack is usually offered in such situations. The future of the internet is consistent with the same reason Linux is a good choice over Windows. The internet flourishes on open source, honest, original content. I equate make money online websites and other manipulations to the same reason Windows is the most used operating system in the world. It requires shortsightedness and the need for instant gratification to use Windows and build make money online websites. To elaborate WIndows is easy to use. It is pre-installed in most all computers sold. Make money online websites are basically templates that are posted on the internet instantly. Both are instant and require no choices or decisions. Just like choosing Linux over Windows, because of the benifits, a quality website involves a choice. A choice to understand what a quality website is, rather than a desire to acquire the results of what a quality website provides. A quality websites provides the same results are instant make money online websites. Although, the intent of a quality website is to provide new original information, with making money being secondary. Instant gratification is a futile endeavor, and most likely ends in failure. Quality results involve choices and effort. It first takes the choice to use Linux over Windows, and then it takes effort to learn the different nuances. Because learning is involved it takes a period of time to become fully acclimated to the new environment, which is far from instant gratification. The results are worth the effort, in that viruses, spyware, and other malware are effectively avoided. As for quality websites, it takes the choice to build original content, which takes effort to contemplate and write. The immediate result is the expression of new ideas, and the sharing of them with others. The main benefit of creating a website as such is that it will produce lasting results. Writing information that is long lasting, and not always regarding fads will provide useful information for years to come. It takes time to produce a quality website, but the results include great Google indexing (and other search engines) among quality feedback by comments. I find it quite rewarding to communicate with my readers via comments
The choice is yours. Instant gratification, which most likely ends in failure, or put in the time and effort to create lasting results. I recommend choosing Linux for the benifits described above, but above all I recommend Linux because it involves learning. It involves stepping out of the status quo. Instant gratification is the status quo on the internet, which is substantially by the plague of make money online websites and other scams/frauds. The future of the internet is quality versus instant. I believe that in time failure to achieve instant gratification will result increased quality websites. Websites such as this provide lasting information in an attempt to spread the knowledge necessary to create a quality website. Think outside the box, do not necessarily follow the norm, and always push the threshold of the status quo. Start a blog today and write your thoughts and idea that are unique to you. Write your ideas on the internet and you will be surprised to find that they will be useful and potentially inspiring to other people. Always encourage progress, and suggest change rather than stagnation. Help people learn, and share with others what you learn. The time is now, and the soon you start the longer your project will have to mature and spread on the internet.
Windows Who? Bloated – Complex – Ohh and You Have to Pay for it?
Apr 13th
Everyone is talking about Windows nowadays. Why use it? Since the dawn of the modern desktop computer Microsoft has dominated relentlessly. In more recent years Apple has emerged as a major competitor, with their niche being people who want simplicity! As Linux becomes increasingly user friendly, and easy to install the demise of Microsoft’s Windows is appearing closer and closer.
Its no secret that Windows Vista wasn’t the resounding success that Microsoft hoped for. While Microsoft managed to push decent sales, it failed to surpass Windows XP’s success and received a largely critical reception from the press. Microsoft is taking the situation seriously, and is pushing aggressively to replace Vista, with Windows 7 in 2010, hoping for better luck. (reference)
Apple is great, their software is great, their hardware is great, but you have to pay for it. Linux, especially Ubuntu is quickly becoming a major competitor in the computer world. Dell has rapidly adopted the operating system because of its stability, lack of viruses and spyware, and other benefits. The most important benefit is that its completely free. Why would Dell want to purchase licenses from Microsoft, and then have to charge the consumer? They can simply use Ubuntu, charge the consumer a little bit less, make the consumer more happy and still make their incredible profits. Linux the the future. It takes about 30 minutes to completely setup up a brand new webserver. Viruses, and spyware are basically not effective against all Linux distributions, so I ask the question again, why use Microsoft Windows?
Google Rules – Microsoft and Yahoo Try to Keep Up
Apr 13th
Google is at the top of the food chain. There is a huge list of competitors from all over the world, but none even come close to the widespread use of Goolgle Adwords,and Adsense. Yahoo has a marketing system of their own, and so does Microsoft, but the incentive to use these systems is not great. Google is synonymous with the web, and anyone who uses the internet knows who Google is. Therefore most people use Google for their internet searching. People who use Google see the paid search results on the right, and top of the screen and those who want to start a website will first think of Google for their marketing, and advertising needs.
While Microsoft and Yahoo! engage in their odd mating ritual, they are benefiting the very company that is driving them to seek partners. Internet advertisers can’t figure out what the two companies will look like in six months, so search leader Google is set to profit from the confusion. (reference)
The question is why choose a company that is barely competitive when you can choose a company (Google) that is guaranteed to be effective, and potentially profitable. For the foreseeable future Google will remain strong. It will take a long time for a major competitor to emerge. Google is creative, and bold with their web based software and their Adsense/Adwords programs continue to provide outstanding services to websites.