Warning...

In article , Davoud wrote:

Paul Schlyter:

The reason there are relatively few threats to OS X is that it has
fairly few users. If it should become a mainstream OS, then it
would be just as intensely targeted by virus authors as Windows is
today.

This is a myth. Are you saying that hackers and virus authors have no
interest in attacking people like these

No -- I'm merely saying they have less interest in this. I mean,
suppose you were a virus author wanting to cause as much damage
as possible. Would you then choose to target your attack at some
mainstream OS, or at some nice OS used by relatively few people?


http://www.annapolisappleslice.com/who.html?

As for "mainstream, I think that Unix is in sufficiently wide use to be
considered a mainstream OS. In its various guises it is certainly the
target of more attacks than MS OS's.

....and sometimes these attacks have been successful. Consider for
instance the Morris worm some 10+ years ago, which used a
vulnerability in the sendmail program.

--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Schlyter, Grev Turegatan 40, SE-114 38 Stockholm, SWEDEN
e-mail: pausch at stockholm dot bostream dot se
WWW: http://www.stjarnhimlen.se/
http://home.tiscali.se/pausch/

In article , Davoud
wrote:

Richard DeLuca
But, if you want to see George W. Bush gone in November, I figure you
got about another month to find a viable candidate. John Kerry ain't
it, coming across as both arrogant and aloof.

We haven't had a Mac vs. PeeCee war here for a long time. Just as I
start to get into it, you sugue into politics! This may be the first
segue of its kind in SAA; I'm pleased to be a witness to it.


Well, I'm glad you're so pleased, and I'd love to take the credit for
that segue but I'm afraid I can't do that. It was our friend John who
started this thing, and I quote:

At least with the Commander in Chief (Shrub not Cheney - allegedly) I
can still maintain some hope that come November he'll be gone. Unlike
MS, alas.



And mark my words, his Vietnam experience is gonna come
back and bite him in the ass.

It's interesting to see how the Lying Liars of the Party of Nixon are
trying to belittle the service of a thirce-wounded veteran in contrast
to their AWOL Guardsman! Bush doesn't amount to a pimple on a
Commander-in-Chief's ass.


Uh, I didn't say Kerry's 'service.' I said his Vietnam 'experience,' a
subtle but important difference. But I'm sorry I'm at least partly
responsible for starting this- I have nothing against you or Mr. Kerry.

Starry Skies,
Rich

HeHe! I use nothing but Linux, so no wories here either.

Too bad Linux can't run quality do-something software. I tried
Linux, here is what I found:

Firstly, Linux is very hard to use. Yes, many distributions are easy to
install and KDE has a nice user interface. That is only there to trick
unsuspecting users. Try installing software in Linux. Most of Linux
software is available as source code. Many Linux cult members lie
that it is easy to install from source code. All you have to do is type
3 commands: ./configure, make and make install. That is nothing but
bull. Every distro puts files in different places. The configure is
supposed to guess where all the files it needs are. It always 500%
of the time fails. You have to edit files with cryptic garbage to get
it to work. After all of that you learn you need a crap load of
dependencies. These are library files needed for software to work,
similar to .dll in Windows. So then you have to search all over the
internet looking for the crap load of dependencies and after 5 days
you find them all. You try to install them and you get warnings that it
cannot be installed because other crapware needs an older library
file. So you spent 5 days for nothing.

There is rpm which is precompiled software packages. This is a little
easier but you still run into dependency hell. Then there is Debian's
apt-get and Gentoo's emerge commands. You type apt-get GIMP
and it will download GIMP and its dependencies and install it. This
is very easy, however this only works for a very small amount of
software. The vast majority of the software will not work with apt-get
or emerge. Now you know why Linux distros come with several CDs.
They are loaded up with software because it is the only way to install
them.

Linux is not stable. I have had several kernel panics in the past 5 months.
I have had nothing but freezes and lock ups. Windows 2000/XP is
10 trillion times more stable than Linux. I have built 20 computers
since Windows 2000 has came out and all 20 have never had a freeze,
auto reboot, bsod, hiccup or a burp. Many have run several months
24/7 without even a warm boot. On top of that you can run something
called quality software. You put in the CD and insert finger in ass and
the software is installed without problems.

Now that you know it is next to impossible to install software in Linux,
lets take a look at a few impossible to install astronomy programs for
Linux. Firstly, the main reason to use astronomy software is because
of the extensive database they come with. Stars to 15th magnitude
and the ability to download UNSO A2 data is an absolute must. Over
100,000 deep sky objects are a must also. We like to look at something
other then M this and NGC that over and over again. There are great
objects such as the coat hanger cluster and strongman cluster we
would like ploted. Also, CCD imagers need a large database so they
can identify the objects they have imaged.

KStars is a popular Linux astronomy program. First it is version 0.9
that means beta and it is buggy and crashes. Also it doesn't have the
data as described above. Remember TheSky version 1 running on our
386 and 486 computer with Windows 3.1? Even that is far better than
Kstars. Xplns isn't any better either. It plots a few stars and a puny
deep sky database of 10,000 deep sky objects. Guide has over a
million deep sky objects. Cartes Du Ceil is free and is far better than
Kstars and Xplns put together. That's right folks: Windows has better
free software than Linux does.

XEphem the king astronomy software to the Linux cult. After I spent
10 days trying to compile I ran the software and I laughed. What a
joke for a user interface. When you click on an object (that is if you
can find an object with is puny database) you have to hold down the
mouse button for the data to stay on-screen. The display looks like
the astronomy software we used in the 80's. It isn't Starry Night. It
only has basic typical hum drum features that any other charting,
ephemeris software has. Guide has tons more features. To be fair
you can purchase the CD version which has something called a
database but why bother - there is Cartes Du Ceil and it kicks
XEphem's ass.

Linux has no alternatives for the great programs like Deep Sky 2002
or SkyTools. Those are very useful programs and Linux has nothing to
offer for planning and logging.

Windows is freedom. It gives you the choice to run top quality astronomy
software such as TheSky, Skymap Pro, Skytools and Guide the best
astronomical software there is period. You can even have free software
such as CDC, Hello Northern Sky which blow away Kstars, Xplns
and XEphem software. You even have the freedom to run Linux-like crap
such as crappy Sky Globe. Do yourself a favor: run as fast as you can
away from the communist evils of Linux and embrace the freedom of
Windows 2000/XP.

Say no to Linux.

Paul Schlyter wrote:

In article ,
Sam Wormley wrote:

Ed wrote:

"Sam Wormley" wrote in message
...

"An Apple a day keeps Bill Grrrrrates away"

Yeah, right. Mac users never use Microsoft Word for Macintosh,

:-) ....perhaps Ed never does that, but I know Mac users who use
Microsoft software sometimes. Thus the statement "Mac users never
use Microsoft long list of software" is false....

Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft
Internet Explorer, Microsoft Virtual PC, Microsoft Entourage, MSN,
MSN Messenger, Microsoft Windows Media Player, Microsoft,
Microsoft, Microsoft. And Mac users certainly never use Microsoft
hardware like Microsoft keyboards and Microsoft mice.

Innocent--I don't use any Microsoft hardware or software. Not even IE.

...and you never ever visit any web site on a server running Windows
and Microsoft IIS? If you visit such a site, you're using Microsoft
software, even if it's not running on your computer.... g


Good Point, Paul -- Certainly I'm a victim of Microsoft vulnerability
as is anyone connected to the internet. May all sys admin folks around
the world remain vigilant and patch fast and often!


Getting yourself religiously free from Microsoft (or any other brand)
is getting increasingly difficult in a world which is getting more and
more interconnected: we just don't KNOW what we're actually using.....

--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Schlyter, Grev Turegatan 40, SE-114 38 Stockholm, SWEDEN
e-mail: pausch at stockholm dot bostream dot se
WWW: http://www.stjarnhimlen.se/
http://home.tiscali.se/pausch/

Paul Schlyter:
No -- I'm merely saying they have less interest in this. I mean,
suppose you were a virus author wanting to cause as much damage
as possible. Would you then choose to target your attack at some
mainstream OS, or at some nice OS used by relatively few people?

I would go for the high-profile users, including those using the
variety of Unix that is Mac OS X. And that's just what they do; most
attacks are directed at Unix.

...and sometimes these attacks have been successful. Consider for
instance the Morris worm some 10+ years ago, which used a
vulnerability in the sendmail program.

That you had to go back 10+ years to come up with an example of a
significant attack on Unix speaks volumes about the difference between
Unix and Windows.

I don't like limitations, and that's why I use a computer than runs
software written for the Mac, Unix, and Windows.

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com

I don't like limitations, and that's why I use a computer than runs
software written for the Mac, Unix, and Windows.

Davoud

My guess is that you use a Mac because you like Mac's, or did you only switch
to the Mac once it became capable of running Windows and Unix software?

I like PCs because they are inexpensive to buy and repair, easy to work on and
configure, and run the software and periferals that I need to run.

I shy away from propietary hardware if possible, whether it is Mac, Sun or name
brand PC, I don't like being at the mercy of the manufacturer when something
does go wrong, upgrades are more expensive and sometimes impossible.

Give me a good "clone" and an OS that runs the stuff I need to run and I will
be a happy camper...

jon

(Marty) wrote in message ...
Howard Lester got an email with my address with an infected attachment
of some kind on it, although I didn't send him anything. Might be a
little careful of anything that looks like it's from me for a while...

Be careful of *everything*. Nowadays, viruses forge the return
addresses, collecting them from the infected computer's e-mail folder.
IOW, Howard may have gotten that e-mail from *anyone* who has your
e-mail address.

For this same reason, all those notification e-mails that you get from
someone else's antivirus software are useless. For some unknown
reason, the antivirus people insist on sending out these notices, even
though they know that the return address is bogus. Treat such
messages as the spam that they are.


Clear skies!

--
------------------- Richard Callwood III --------------------
~ U.S. Virgin Islands ~ USDA zone 11 ~ 18.3N, 64.9W ~
~ eastern Massachusetts ~ USDA zone 6 (1992-95) ~
--------------- http://cac.uvi.edu/staff/rc3/ ---------------

John Steinberg wrote:
I do hereby certify the above as unabashed troll bait. Respond at your
own peril.

So why do it? How about this: spare us your stupid off-topic trolling.
There are newsgroups out there where this sort of stuff is welcome. I
would think by now, John, you would have realised that your silly
computer-OS-as-religion rants are not appropriate here.

Hey, Pops! Don't let the humorless crabby apple wet blanket hypocrites get
your dander up. It makes your hair look salty and it annoys pig.

(Not sure about the pig part. A strange tongue, Earth)

Anyways, keep a spotless socket.

-Junior





"John Steinberg" wrote in message
...
Greg Crinklaw fired off this warm and fuzzy missive:

So why do it? How about this: spare us your stupid off-topic trolling.
There are newsgroups out there where this sort of stuff is welcome. I
would think by now, John, you would have realised that your silly
computer-OS-as-religion rants are not appropriate here.

I think what I think I like most about you, Greg, is your ability to
whine about the far too often cruel nature of Usenet (and countless
other issues) and then, when the mood strikes, dish it out with the
best of them. How many times have you left s.a.a forever due to
personal attacks?

Of course it's *not* hypocrisy when you author the screed.

Comments noted, and ignored, but thanks for sharing.

Anyway, I'd like to see you make those same comments to my face, Greg.
In the future I hope you would address your comments to me as if I was
standing in front of you. Or you can simply killfile and/or ignore me.
Your call.

It would be remarkable and laudable if *someone* in the PC using
universe could step up to the plate, address the issue of the near
weekly barrage of new PC malware, without engaging in argumentum ad
hominem, or simply moving the argument over to a playing field where
they set the goal posts.

Have a nice day!

--
-John Steinberg
email: lid

Uncle Blothar says the Fetts on Nimp are still worth a tumble.

-Junior


"John Steinberg" wrote in message
...
Oh, I'm fine, junior, the humorless types never spoil my day, but my
hair *is* salty. I blame your Uncle Blothar - he insisted I invest in
that crazy salt lick start-up on planet Nimp during the bubble. Wish I
could wash that stuff out of my hair like your mom rinses the U-235 out
of her beehive.