Then there is this concept that I am sure Dell in Microsoft does not like to think about. I had a friend who was amazing on computers. He was a natural, and was also very good at web design. Not uncommon for him to stay up all night working on projects. He taught me a lot. At one time he had at least three computers in his home. (I usually have 4).
He gave it all up! He doesn't use email or have an internet account. He doesn't have a computer! He just has a cell phone. He says he has more time now and life is simpler. He just got tired of it all. I've often thought about that.
I was telling him about this new thing called Google and he just kinda glazed over and changed the subject. I guess he'll never spend any time on GreaseSpot or any other sites. But I know he likes TV.
And Brady, in my unprofessional opinion, the single biggest problem with computers all over the place to day is Spyware.
I believe it is now causing as much harm as viruses. And people are not aware of it. They blame the computer or Microsoft or the programs. But the blame is with sneaky internet sites and lack of prevention and maintenance on the part of the user.
And Brady, in my unprofessional opinion, the single biggest problem with computers all over the place to day is Spyware.
It's definitely one of the top ones, but I don't know if spyware or spam is worse. Both are annoying, although the spyware doesn't bother me because I take precautions. Spam is a problem that is mostly solved by all the filtering software I use, but it still gets through sometimes. I think that spammers deserve to be executed.
Igotout is a pleasure to meet you. You, Steve! and others have eloquently helped many in this forum by providing lots of useful technological directives. I too have used Google for gathering technological data, thus, aiding me in my learning endeavors as well. Google is perhaps the best single search engine on the WWW, although, I personally like to use dogpile.com, which will check on 20 plus single engines simultaneously (it?s a personal choice).
Thank you for sharing your friend?s ordeal. I can somewhat relate to him (as you do) because it?s possible for an individual to burnt out (figuratively speaking) and totally lose interest. There are times that I don?t want to be near a computer, especially after compiling a very comprehensive program/application or Web site. These types of compositions can be time consuming (as you already know).
Quote:
?And Brady, in my unprofessional opinion, the single biggest problem with computers all over the place to day is Spyware.?
Although, Spyware (tracking software) and spam (mentioned by Mister P-Mosh) are widespread and hated by everyone, a higher evil for ?corporate America? and the ?public sector? are the traveling Internet Hypertext worms. These worms can cause a negative impact on society and the economy when they successfully attack large corporations and organizations, thus, shutting them down. They are every organization's nightmare. A high severity Internet worm can shut down an institution, dead in its track, making it worthless until all infested networked computers are clean. This is a rigorous process that takes a lot of time to fix adequately. As you know, there?s a big difference between a virus and a worm. Worms attack Web servers and if successful (ay caramba!!), the network will be severely infected. It will regenerate and send itself to other IPs. It?s a nightmare whether you happen to be part of the public sector or private sector.
I work in one of the largest (state-of-the-art) high school in the country. The school is only 3 years old and it has over 1,200 computers (and growing), which serves about 4,800 students and 330 plus faculty/staff members. Sometime during the beginning of the school year, about 200 hundred computers got infected with the Blaster.Worm, which necessitated the shut down of the entire network in order to identify and disinfect the infected computers. Thereafter, it was reghosting city, so to speak for all the computer labs. And many of these labs needed to be reimaged with its own specification according to its curriculum, software bundle, and licenses given. In short, the computers became useless for about 6 weeks, not a good thing, especially for the computer classes. IPs were immediately created for the computers used by the administration in order to keep the school afloat.
It?s unfortunate that many ?techies? (mostly computer programmers) create, compile, and modify viruses/worms applications in order to attack entities within the parameters of the WWW. To me, this is another form of terrorism.
Sounds horrible, Brady. I am sure those infections wreak havoc and are a lot of work to clean up. I have zero experience in large networks like that but it would seem that there would be a way to have the worm or virus stopped in a workgroup environment in much the same way as we prevent viruses individually?
What about Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition as shown here:
I can only speak from the experience of mostly day to day users. Spyware seems to jam people's computers up more than anything these days. I am talking about home users who do not have access to an IT guy at work who can help them out. Everybody seems to be convinced about Virus prevention. But most have no clue about the other crap they can get from the internet and what to do to prevent it.
But I have also found that sometimes people are just plain lazy or disinterested in doing what it takes to really keep a lean, mean, machine. In spite of the wealth of information at their fingertips.
Sometimes I don't blame them. Computers are still complicated in my opinion. Most want to just turn the dumb thing on, use it and then turn it off. I wish it were that simple. Maybe someday it will be.
I totally agree with your observations in regards to spyware (always did) and the laissez faire attitude that most home user posses. These individuals are clueless and for the most part, their systems are definitely hindered by their indifferences.
In regards to ?prevention,? as you already know, certain types of patches are created for combating worms. But these patches can only come into fruition, only after the worm has surfaced and attacked. In other words, prevention can only be possible after the infection has already occurred, diagnosed, and patches have been created. These ?first? generation worms will infect some networks, otherwise, we wouldn?t hear about them. Unfortunately, there is no crystal ball to let us know in advance what type of worm will attack. Once these worms are diagnosed and patches are created, then, and only then, can networks be fully protected. Networks are always in the prevention mode (they should), but they still are vulnerable to a point. There?s always going to be a degree of vulnerability to the unknown. Prevention is the key (as you said), but there?s always going to be a danger from those unknown worms that haven?t been compiled yet.
In fact, I?m modifying a worm as we speak? (just kidding) :D-->
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excathedra
for the techies....
?
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igotout
Google taught me everything I know.
:)-->
Then there is this concept that I am sure Dell in Microsoft does not like to think about. I had a friend who was amazing on computers. He was a natural, and was also very good at web design. Not uncommon for him to stay up all night working on projects. He taught me a lot. At one time he had at least three computers in his home. (I usually have 4).
He gave it all up! He doesn't use email or have an internet account. He doesn't have a computer! He just has a cell phone. He says he has more time now and life is simpler. He just got tired of it all. I've often thought about that.
I was telling him about this new thing called Google and he just kinda glazed over and changed the subject. I guess he'll never spend any time on GreaseSpot or any other sites. But I know he likes TV.
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igotout
And Brady, in my unprofessional opinion, the single biggest problem with computers all over the place to day is Spyware.
I believe it is now causing as much harm as viruses. And people are not aware of it. They blame the computer or Microsoft or the programs. But the blame is with sneaky internet sites and lack of prevention and maintenance on the part of the user.
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excathedra
awwwwwwww so nice to see my favorite techie
?
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Tom Strange
yeah! it's good to have you guys around... thanks... many thanks...
I'm on the outside, looking inside, what do I see? Much confusion, disillusion, all around me.
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Mister P-Mosh
It's definitely one of the top ones, but I don't know if spyware or spam is worse. Both are annoying, although the spyware doesn't bother me because I take precautions. Spam is a problem that is mostly solved by all the filtering software I use, but it still gets through sometimes. I think that spammers deserve to be executed.
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Brady
Igotout is a pleasure to meet you. You, Steve! and others have eloquently helped many in this forum by providing lots of useful technological directives. I too have used Google for gathering technological data, thus, aiding me in my learning endeavors as well. Google is perhaps the best single search engine on the WWW, although, I personally like to use dogpile.com, which will check on 20 plus single engines simultaneously (it?s a personal choice).
Thank you for sharing your friend?s ordeal. I can somewhat relate to him (as you do) because it?s possible for an individual to burnt out (figuratively speaking) and totally lose interest. There are times that I don?t want to be near a computer, especially after compiling a very comprehensive program/application or Web site. These types of compositions can be time consuming (as you already know).
Quote:
?And Brady, in my unprofessional opinion, the single biggest problem with computers all over the place to day is Spyware.?
Although, Spyware (tracking software) and spam (mentioned by Mister P-Mosh) are widespread and hated by everyone, a higher evil for ?corporate America? and the ?public sector? are the traveling Internet Hypertext worms. These worms can cause a negative impact on society and the economy when they successfully attack large corporations and organizations, thus, shutting them down. They are every organization's nightmare. A high severity Internet worm can shut down an institution, dead in its track, making it worthless until all infested networked computers are clean. This is a rigorous process that takes a lot of time to fix adequately. As you know, there?s a big difference between a virus and a worm. Worms attack Web servers and if successful (ay caramba!!), the network will be severely infected. It will regenerate and send itself to other IPs. It?s a nightmare whether you happen to be part of the public sector or private sector.
I work in one of the largest (state-of-the-art) high school in the country. The school is only 3 years old and it has over 1,200 computers (and growing), which serves about 4,800 students and 330 plus faculty/staff members. Sometime during the beginning of the school year, about 200 hundred computers got infected with the Blaster.Worm, which necessitated the shut down of the entire network in order to identify and disinfect the infected computers. Thereafter, it was reghosting city, so to speak for all the computer labs. And many of these labs needed to be reimaged with its own specification according to its curriculum, software bundle, and licenses given. In short, the computers became useless for about 6 weeks, not a good thing, especially for the computer classes. IPs were immediately created for the computers used by the administration in order to keep the school afloat.
It?s unfortunate that many ?techies? (mostly computer programmers) create, compile, and modify viruses/worms applications in order to attack entities within the parameters of the WWW. To me, this is another form of terrorism.
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igotout
Sounds horrible, Brady. I am sure those infections wreak havoc and are a lot of work to clean up. I have zero experience in large networks like that but it would seem that there would be a way to have the worm or virus stopped in a workgroup environment in much the same way as we prevent viruses individually?
What about Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition as shown here:
NAV Corporate Edition
I can only speak from the experience of mostly day to day users. Spyware seems to jam people's computers up more than anything these days. I am talking about home users who do not have access to an IT guy at work who can help them out. Everybody seems to be convinced about Virus prevention. But most have no clue about the other crap they can get from the internet and what to do to prevent it.
But I have also found that sometimes people are just plain lazy or disinterested in doing what it takes to really keep a lean, mean, machine. In spite of the wealth of information at their fingertips.
Sometimes I don't blame them. Computers are still complicated in my opinion. Most want to just turn the dumb thing on, use it and then turn it off. I wish it were that simple. Maybe someday it will be.
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Brady
Hello Igotout,
I totally agree with your observations in regards to spyware (always did) and the laissez faire attitude that most home user posses. These individuals are clueless and for the most part, their systems are definitely hindered by their indifferences.
In regards to ?prevention,? as you already know, certain types of patches are created for combating worms. But these patches can only come into fruition, only after the worm has surfaced and attacked. In other words, prevention can only be possible after the infection has already occurred, diagnosed, and patches have been created. These ?first? generation worms will infect some networks, otherwise, we wouldn?t hear about them. Unfortunately, there is no crystal ball to let us know in advance what type of worm will attack. Once these worms are diagnosed and patches are created, then, and only then, can networks be fully protected. Networks are always in the prevention mode (they should), but they still are vulnerable to a point. There?s always going to be a degree of vulnerability to the unknown. Prevention is the key (as you said), but there?s always going to be a danger from those unknown worms that haven?t been compiled yet.
In fact, I?m modifying a worm as we speak? (just kidding)
:D-->
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