A new blogging venture
Sunday, 25. February 2007, 00:26:44
for the past several weeks, i,ve been writing articles for a local weekly newspaper. so far i've covered internet safety. you know, how to be safe on the internet and keep the gremlins and goblins off your computer with free software programs. the articles are mainly targeted at windows users, because most of the adware and spyware is targeted at windows computers and most of the programs are for the windows operating system.
i was sitting outside smoking my pipe and having some coffee and was thinking about how i could broaden my readership. why not publish the articles on my blog! so here i am poised and ready to inform those who need informing and maybe give some new insight into the web for others, and then again, maybe not.
i was sitting outside smoking my pipe and having some coffee and was thinking about how i could broaden my readership. why not publish the articles on my blog! so here i am poised and ready to inform those who need informing and maybe give some new insight into the web for others, and then again, maybe not.
I am also doing an occasional book review for the paper. i don't know how they are going to handle some of the technical titles i plan on covering, but i hope to reach some of the web and print designers in my community.
i hope you enjoy the articles i will be posting.
Untitled #1
The night was cold and dark. No, wait, that's the wrong article. If You Own a PC and Surf the Web, Then Maintaining Your Computer Is A 24 Hour Job; this is the title of this column, but I thought the paper wouldn't use a title that long so I let my art background come through for a fitting title.
Notice that I said PC, that's because Macintosh (Mac) users don't have that much of a problem with such things or I'm not aware of anti-spyware and anti-adware programs for Mac users. In fact, Mac users are not plagued with the virus problems like PC (Windows) users -- yet.
My name is Dwain Alford. I used to work in print and broadcast journalism. I have a B.F.A. degree from the University of Montevallo. I have taught photography at Alabama State University and the University of Alaska, Anchorage. I took computer classes in Anchorage, Alaska on a Mac in 1994, got my first computer, a Windows PC, in 1996 and began “teching” computers in 1999. I learned about fixing and maintaining computers for survival. I didn't have a lot of money to pay someone else for fix, repair or upgrade my computer; and besides, my wife's son, an electrical engineer, got tired of helping me and started giving me references to read about any problem that I would have. I am very grateful for this now, although at the time I didn't think so highly of the idea.
As I grew more confident with installing programs and installing parts, I began to seek out computer repair shops who would share their knowledge with me. There are not many who will, but for the few that did, thanks! I have a pet peeve about wanting to “save” computers and computer owners from the nastiness of the World Wide Web. Delusions of grandeur? Maybe.
Alas, I am not a guru and do not claim to be one. I still have to have technical assistance when I do not have the understanding I need to solve a problem. I am an open source (free software) advocate. I consult in the areas of web and print design and computer system design.
What I plan to do is help you to install programs that will help to keep your computer free from viruses, spy-ware and ad-ware. This will be done with the use of free software. I will share sources for free software for word processing, graphics and page layout. I also plan to write book reviews about computer books on web design in a “real world” fashion. Maybe you have questions about your computer and the software that you use and would like to have them answered. Maybe I can ... and maybe I can't.
Sometimes, just restarting your computer solves the problem. Computers get stupid too, don'tchaknow.
Next time I'll discuss free ad-ware, spy-ware and anti-virus products.
Well, my time is up; I thank you for yours.
WIDGETIZE
Antonie Potgieter # 25. February 2007, 00:42
Even so...I think it's just a matter of time before Linux will be plagued like Windows (and even Mac). The reason why there are is such a vast amount of virusses, spyware, etc... on Windows is because the people whom write/program these things target the most popular operating system available. Eventually they'll be attacking Linux, Mac, etc... as they move along.
I'm currently running Windows Vista Business and MS has really done alot of hard work to improve the security of Vista compared to that of XP and previous Operating Systems. I even had a hard time running an IIS web server on my own system due to folder permissions and related factors.
Thanks for the articles you'll be posting. I'll definitely be watching your blog for new posts often. Please don't stop posting.
All the best,
Antonie
KDD # 25. February 2007, 06:04
it's not plug and play like windows and you have to set up hardware connections in most cases and if you're not familiar with that, well, try xandros.
it's not free, but it's more of a plug and play flavor of linux and is set up to run some windows programs as well.
speaking of how secure linux is, i had the opportunity to run ubuntu 6.06.1 lts for a while. i received a notice that some package updates were available. when i went to retrieve them i got a warning that the package updates were not what they seemed to be, that somebody might be trying to take over my machine.
believe me that that was not a very good feeling. i had my problems with ubuntu and tried opensuse 10.2. all went well, except that after the installation i couldn't get the network to run properly and had no clue how to make it run (need more linux books).
i like linux and will eventuall run it as my os and also as a server os, but for now, i gotta do windows.
speaking again of windows, i thought it not so good when microsoft had to issue a service patch before vista made release candidate because of security leaks. nothing's perfect in this world and maybe people expect too much from microsoft, but it's of their own making.
thanks for reading and stay tuned. i have past articles coming out every day this week until the first. after that it will be every week around wednesday that a new article or book review will be posted. i'll open the archives after wednesday.
Antonie Potgieter # 25. February 2007, 06:24
I have two installations of Linux on my machine, dual booting with XP and Vista, though I actually prefer to use Windows right now since I use many applications running on it such as Photoshop, Flash, etc...
My predicament is that MS will take over. Most people can't wait for MS to fall to the ground, but I don't think that will happen. They are truly opening up to a vast variety of different areas. Web design, server side scripting, database management, Windows desktop development, etc... Not only did they recently release an AMAZING set of free development tools known as the Express 2005 series, but they keep on encouraging developers to take on technologies like IIS, ASP.net and related factors in order to make the world a better place for everyone.
I'm a full time programmer, specializing in PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, etc... though I recently started teaching myself ASP.net with C# for the very first time in my life. All I can really say is that i'm totally shocked and amazed by the power that MS pushed into ASP.net making use of the well known .NET framework. Where I'd usually easily spend 2-3 days on a PHP application, I can achieve the same task in litterally 4 hours using ASP.net. It's a revolution. Don't know it that well yet, but from what I've seen and tried, it's great. Especially the built in Ajax extensions.
Oh my...
Sorry for hijacking your blog
I've gone completely off-topic here, but I decided to not delete it if that's fine with you. You have the ability to edit the post though if needed.
My point was...in response to your post...YES, Linux is great, but it's a runner up and will most probably always remain a runner up. I realize now that I've changed my mind so much about this already, but with the release of Vista and after trying it for myself I started realizing that MS simply is the way to go.
Server platforms ???
Yes, most remote servers are currently running on Linux platform, though that's also changing. MS is putting a huge amount of work into making their server OS's and software (IIS) more and more reliable, fast and efficient. I just installed IIS7 on Vista and it's great. I totally love it. Not only do I run ASP.net and SQL on it, but I also managed to isntall PHP, MySQL, phpMyAdmin, etc... on IIS as well.
I hope more people will jump in and post their comments on this topic.
Once again...sorry for hijacking with the off topic stuff. I guess it all relates to computer security is some way.