New Computers

[genlock]

New vista boxes
One laptop and one desktop.
Both H-P
I like vista so far.

[Hoosier Daddy]

My Vista machine is ordered from Dell.
An early (and necessary) Christmas gift to me.
Intel Core2 processor Q9400(2.66Ghz, 1333FSB) w/QuadCore Tech and 6MB cache 375W Power Supply.
8GB DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4X2GB.
ATI Radeon HD3650 256MB.
1TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive 7200RPM.
and a bunch of other (freebies) stuff I don't understand either.
Hopefully, there will be enough ass and muscle to this new computer to run Vista.
Figured it's better to buy now after the bugs have been worked out
than wait for whatever is coming in 2011 and sweat through all the Service Packs
and factory "uh-ohs" that Microshaft is famous for having.
Besides, the Odyssey is dying (Apollo 13 reference)
The Odyssey being my home computer.
We shall see.
I am getting excited, though.
The new baby shipped from Dell's underground batcave today.

[cgarison]

My Vista machine is ordered from Dell.
An early (and necessary) Christmas gift to me.
Intel Core2 processor Q9400(2.66Ghz, 1333FSB) w/QuadCore Tech and 6MB cache 375W Power Supply.
8GB DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4X2GB.
ATI Radeon HD3650 256MB.
1TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive 7200RPM.

Ouch! That will be 64 bit Vista which runs just fine but legacy peripherals can be a pant load. Oh! Even new wireless ethernet cards can be hard to install with 64 Bit Vista, but other than that all should work just.

[Lester]

I'm not entirely sure on the 64bit requirement. SP1 fixed the (approx) 3gb limit that 4gb machines are capped at... not sure if it extends beyond 4gb though.

But if it is 64 bit, you've made the right decisions. I haven't had a single problem with it yet... and I have been very impressed with it's handling of legacy software. 64 bit seems to be a lot more stable than its 32 bit counterpart.

[Hoosier Daddy]

I'm embarassed to admit it, but most of that stuff is completely Greek to me. I couldn't tell you what a RAID or a Radeon 256MB HD3650 or a DDR2 SDRAM is to save my own life. I just bought a stripped down box with only the peripherals I use (MS Office stuff and web design software) and then loaded up to my spending limit on anything I could determine made it run faster or have more memory. I'm re-using the (less than 2 years old) flat panel 'puter screen and hareman/kardon speaker system from my old Dell and I get a new keyboard and mouse for free. It came this evening, a week ahead of their "anticipated" delivery date. I'll be up late tonight putting it together and installing/transferring my old stuff over. Hopefully, by tomorrow, I'll be an apprentice Vista man ...

IMHO, Dell rocks. It's the only place I'll ever buy a computer.

[CoolBreeze]

Slightly off topic, but why I havent used IE in 6 years or more..

December 12, 2008 (Computerworld) The unpatched bug in Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) that hackers are now exploiting also exists in older versions of the browser, including the still-widely-used IE6, Microsoft Corp. said late yesterday.

Today, a Danish security researcher added that Microsoft's original countermeasure advice was insufficient and recommended that users take one of the new steps the company spelled out.

In a revised security advisory, Microsoft said research confirmed that the bug is within all its browsers, including those it currently supports -- IE5.01, IE6 and IE7 -- as well as IE8 Beta 2, a preview version that the company doesn't support through normal channels.

Users running any of those browsers on Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003 or Server 2008 are at risk, Microsoft said.

Even so, the company continued to downplay the severity of the threat. "At this time, we are aware only of limited attacks that attempt to use this vulnerability against Windows Internet Explorer 7," said the advisory.

Microsoft also spelled out the root of the problem, saying that the bug is in IE's data binding functionality and, contrary to earlier reports by independent security researchers, not in the HTML rendering code.

"The vulnerability exists as an invalid pointer reference in the data-binding function of Internet Explorer," said Microsoft. "When data binding is enabled (which is the default state), it is possible under certain conditions for an object to be released without updating the array length, leaving the potential to access the deleted object's memory space. This can cause Internet Explorer to exit unexpectedly, in a state that is exploitable."

Microsoft also hinted that the "oledb32.dll" file contains the bug when it added a recommendation that users disable or cripple the .dll's function as a stopgap measure. Oledb32.dll is a component of Microsoft Data Access, a collection of technologies for accessing different types of data in a uniform fashion. "OLEDB" stands for "Object Linking and Embedding, Database."

Copenhagen-based Secunia APS claimed that its research, which it said has been passed along to Microsoft, identified the vulnerability's true nature. "After having published our initial advisory concerning this [zero-day exploit], one of my guys was therefore tasked with figuring out the exact nature of the problem," said Carsten Eiram, chief security specialist at Secunia, in a post to the security company's blog early Friday. "It turned out that a lot of available information and assumptions were wrong."

Among those, said Eiram, was the belief that the vulnerability existed only in IE7 and was related to XML processing -- as some, including Secunia, first thought.

Also incorrect, or at least partly so, is the idea that setting IE's Internet security zone to "High" and disabling scripting will keep one safe from attack, added Eiram. "Technically no ... it is still possible to trigger the vulnerability," he said. "However, it does make exploitation trickier as it protects against attacks using scripting."

Instead, Eiram said, users should disable the oledb32.dll file by editing the Windows registry as per the revised Microsoft advisory.

Microsoft has not disclosed a timetable for patching the problem, and it did not reply to questions Friday about its plans.

One researcher is betting that Microsoft will again unveil an emergency "out-of-cycle" patch. "It's always difficult to guess with Microsoft," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security Inc., in an instant message exchange today. "[But] since they do know so much about the exploit, I would place a wager that they already have the fix and are doing QA [quality assurance]."

The last time Microsoft issued an out-of-cycle patch was in late October, when it fixed a flaw in Windows that hackers were already exploiting.

"Whether or not they will decide it warrants [out-of-cycle] and if it makes sense to issue instead of waiting, well, we will just have to wait and see," added Storms. "One thing is certain, this is getting a lot of attention at a time when Microsoft just released a bumper crop of client-side patches. They aren't scoring any points with Santa this December."

Last week, Microsoft released eight security updates that patched 28 vulnerabilities, 23 of them pegged "critical." Both numbers broke previous records that stretched back more than five years.

According to data from Web metrics vendor Net Applications Inc., IE is the most widely-used browser by far. In November, all versions of it collectively accounted for 69.8% of all browsers used.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Well ... I tried Opera way back when and hated it.
I've had several different flavors of Firefox and found it clunky and hard to learn.
Of course, maybe that's the ingrained IE 5, 6 and 7 I'm always comparing it to.
I REALLY like IE 7. It just, uh, "fits", if that makes any sense.

If Explorer is a bad way to go (and many techies agree with that), what say ye?
What's the best anti-virus/spyware/malware/hacker browser on the internets these days?

[CoolBreeze]

Interesting, because that's the reason I a;ways liked Firefox and Netscape before it: Ease of use. The controls really haven't changed in 11 years, while IE places stupid icons in place of real words for the "other than English" users in my opinion. Plus, they loaded up IE so heavily with crap that I just couldnt stand it anymore. Firefox fixed all that with a striped down lightweight version.

[Hoosier Daddy]

I hated Netscape. Netscape was cool for about six months, then everything else out there surpassed it. From that point forward, it seemed like Netscape was forever trapped in 1998, and almost every application was either labelled "Best Viewed in Netscape" or it required some kind of backwards toggling to make it display correctly on a Netscape browser. A lot of the Macromedia web design and graphics software had a tab to "view in Netscape", just to make sure something you built didn't suck when it was supposed to blow. I am glad Netscape has been buried in the internet graveyard, right next to GeoCities, CompuServe, IRC Chat, those hideous early versions of Microsoft FrontPage, and ICQ.



Post #5656

[cgarison]

Well ... I tried Opera way back when and hated it.
I've had several different flavors of Firefox and found it clunky and hard to learn.
Of course, maybe that's the ingrained IE 5, 6 and 7 I'm always comparing it to.
I REALLY like IE 7. It just, uh, "fits", if that makes any sense.

I am exactly the opposite. Firefox 1.x won my heart and I have not gone back to IE6 except for work applications. Even Oracle uses Firefox now.

Chrome is out of Beta as of this past Thursday. The first version did not impress me too much, but I have some high hopes for the first real version of the tool.

[cgarison]

In the spring, I need to perform some upgrade work on Monster. New HDs to boost it to 3 TBs in the case, new video card and a fresh install of Vista 64 Premium. Spare parts is going to get the old Radeon 26XX video card, and upgrade to a full TB of storage. Then I have to come up with a way to house 5 hard drives to make them usable with USB 2.0 on the cheap.

Considering I am going back to school on weekends in January, I am shooting to start this work in May.

In 2010, I am going to go with build Monster 2 with the Intel Core I7, Windows 7, and probably 8 gig of memory.

[fearpeddler]

my vista machine is an hp, i've had it since early march, cant complain, runs quite well..

[Hoosier Daddy]

Well ... up and running on Vista.

Three words: I LOVE IT.

One minor problem with my 3 year old printer not wanting to re-install to Vista, but a 160MB "patch" from HP got me up and running. I was sweating like a whore in church when I reloaded my circa 2000 Macromedia Dreamweaver and Fireworks 4.0, but nary a hitch. A two generation old, no-longer-supported product from a now (acquired by Adobe) defunct company up and running at 100%. Probably more of a testament to Macromedia's programming Gods than anything Microsoft ever did. I am also fighting with Winamp to "read" my audio net streams.

I downloaded a TON of patches and updates to get me up and running. A 3 year McAfee anti-everything program came with the box, so I am hooked to those guys for the next 36 months. My last non-consentual sexcapade with McAfee wasn't a pleasant experience, but hopefully they worked out the bugs (and the virii) from that horrid version released in 2003. I had a choice between McAfee or Norton, and remember Norton as being so bulky it bogged the computer down just to run it. I'm sure that's also fixed by now but I had a really sour taste ...

The one thing I've really noticed is how big every program and update is. I downloaded 270MB of updates for Microsoft Office this evening. I guess they don't think anyone uses dial-up anymore -- or don't care. We are blessed with screamin' fast Time-Warner Cable internet here, but if you drive two or three miles up the road, you're back on a telco modem or clearing out trees to site your WildBlue or HughesNet dish.

Operationally, it's nice. Really user friendly, but that's always been Microsoft's selling point on just about every product. I will guess the people who don't care for Vista are probably those who tried to retrofit an XP (or older) machine and had problems. A new machine with a lot of ass and muscle shouldn't have many problems.

More later if I run in to more problems. I truly appreciate the advice and suggestions on what to get.

[cgarison]

Congratulations! It is far from being a bad OS if you have the right hardware. Computers built 2 years ago (labeled Vista Capable) with integrated video and especially Intel Graphics were doomed to fail in the new realm of Vista which was a shame for MS to design an OS so tied to GPU performance. Even Vista Premium Ready struggled with Vista due to ATI and nVidia driver issues. By far, Compiz on the Linux GNU desktop (pre packaged with Ubuntu and OpenSuse) is much more appealing to the eye with its effects and does it on a P4 1 Gig ram laptop purchased in 2003 without a hitch.

I will guess the people who don't care for Vista are probably those who tried to retrofit an XP (or older) machine and had problems. A new machine with a lot of ass and muscle shouldn't have many problems.

Honestly, the biggest issues I have had in the last 11 months with Vista was due to problems with Intels chipsets and bus setup and not with MS operating systems. After finding a couple of dozen glitches within Vista this past winter, I discovered I had the same exact glitches with my installation of downgraded XP Pro. So, I did a little research and found that the default BIOS setting on an ASUS mobo were not correct for my Core2Quad CPU plus it came with a poorly tested BIOS with a few glitches. After a month of tweaking and testing, the hardware kinks were worked out and the computer was back up and running.

The amazing thing is I that I had the same glitch this past summer with project SpareParts. The only parts that I purchased new for this PC was a new Core2Duo processor and a new Intel mobo which had the same BIOS issues as the ASUS board. It looks to me that Intel messed up the specs that they used on the writeup of how to setup the defaults for their chipsets.

Funny part is that even the big manufacturers of computers had these issues with computers this Spring. HP, Dell, and Lenovo all got tripped up by the Intel chipsets and had minor hardware conflicts that caused files to get corrupted on the hard disk with PCs built in late 2007 and very early 2008. It was not the fault of MS when this series of glitches smacked end users, but in the end, Vista took another black eye.

[CoolBreeze]

I hated Netscape. Netscape was cool for about six months, then everything else out there surpassed it. From that point forward, it seemed like Netscape was forever trapped in 1998, and almost every application was either labelled "Best Viewed in Netscape" or it required some kind of backwards toggling to make it display correctly on a Netscape browser. A lot of the Macromedia web design and graphics software had a tab to "view in Netscape", just to make sure something you built didn't suck when it was supposed to blow. I am glad Netscape has been buried in the internet graveyard, right next to GeoCities, CompuServe, IRC Chat, those hideous early versions of Microsoft FrontPage, and ICQ.



Post #5656

The reason Netscape "fell behind" is because Bill Gates stole all of Netscapes best ideas and incorporated them in IE, which was a pitiful browser at the time. He then configured IE to do things that would basically shut Netscape out. Recently, Netscape won a VERY large lawsuit against Microsoft for all of these transgressions. The IE browser is SO bloated now that only the die-hard fans would put up with it. Firefox comes as a stripped down browser that you can add all sorts of goodies to because the code is Open Source and people are always writing cool add-ons for it.

[Lester]

I REALLY like IE 7. It just, uh, "fits", if that makes any sense.

Serious security flaw found in IE
Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer are being urged by experts to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7784908.stm

[fearpeddler]

most people dont use proper firewalls either, that flaw is not a major risk if your network is set up properly..

[cgarison]

Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer are being urged by experts

from Mozilla

to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed.

[cgarison]

In the spring, I need to perform some upgrade work on Monster. New HDs to boost it to 3 TBs in the case, new video card and a fresh install of Vista 64 Premium. Spare parts is going to get the old Radeon 26XX video card, and upgrade to a full TB of storage. Then I have to come up with a way to house 5 hard drives to make them usable with USB 2.0 on the cheap.

Considering I am going back to school on weekends in January, I am shooting to start this work in May.

In 2010, I am going to go with build Monster 2 with the Intel Core I7, Windows 7, and probably 8 gig of memory.

May came and went along with the planned upgrades.

So, in preparing for Windows 7, Monster is getting the extra HD space it so truly needs, 8 gig of ram, and looking to purchase the ATI 46XX video card with a gig of ram.

Spare Parts is only getting a new video card. Hard Drive prices did not plummet as much as I anticipated so only Monster ended up with new drives and some external storage. The big experiment will be the upgrading of the WalMart $299 laptop to Windows 7 and Office 2007. That should be the fun experiment in the next three weeks. Fun times.

(edit)

I'm not entirely sure on the 64bit requirement. SP1 fixed the (approx) 3gb limit that 4gb machines are capped at... not sure if it extends beyond 4gb though.

Not sure what MS did to make the change in SP1, but my upgrade to 8Gb made a noticeable difference in speed on 32 bit Vista.

I am still moving on to 64 bit on Windows 7 next week.