Posted on 12/29/2013 6:20:53 AM PST by canuck_conservative
“I type all correspondence using only my alt key and the ascii value for each character.”
01001001 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101001 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00101110
> I do all my writing in binary.
:)
(For the lazy... http://www.binarytranslator.com )
“I’ve known for a while that XP support is being phased out by MS. ... Right here on this private PC - who cares? My surfing radius is limited to known websites, I don’t open unknown email attachments, etc.”
I’m not a security expert and don’t play one on TV, but I am pretty much of a geek. Unfortunately, XP won’t be safe after the end-of-life.
* Expect a storm of viruses to be released after the EOL. “From a security perspective, this is a really important milestone. Attackers will start to have a greater advantage over defenders. There were 30 security bulletins for XP this year, which means there would have been 30 zero-day vulnerabilities on XP [without support].” — http://threatpost.com/microsoft-xp-end-of-life-an-important-security-milestone/102789
* Limiting your surfing to known websites isn’t enough because most websites pull in graphics and scripts from third-party websites. You can never tell where any website element comes from. There are vulnerabilities that rely only on a malformed graphic, no script is necessary.
* You need to run a good firewall, not the firewall that is built into XP. A virus that spreads by pinging will find your computer regardless of what websites you visit.
Give Linux a try. It is free. You can install it on your computer alongside your XP installation. Linux won’t get viruses, has tons of good free software, and you might like it.
http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop
http://www.linuxmint.com/
Thanks, I think I will. Tried it a few years ago but just played around with it a bit, didn't use it on a daily basis. Given the XP risks, now may be the time to give it a more serious look.
Obviously, a bug in need of a fix. I don't want no stinkin' app defining data retention periods.
That is a good thing. Facebook sucks. Facebook is too much in one place. I refuse to use it except as a search engine driven lurker.
That zucks.
My dear wife mainlines Facebook all day
And Pinterest.......
Its stunning
Her girlfriends do too
I only snort Free Republic.... I can handle it...lol
Too funny. Years ago, when things apparently were going too well for me, I studied up on writing machine code.
“I type all correspondence using only my alt key and the ascii value for each character.”
Joking aside, I actually have designed forms with boxes and borders onscreen using the ASCII graphic character set. It was tedious.
“Give Linux a try.”
“Thanks, I think I will. Tried it a few years ago but just played around with it a bit, didn’t use it on a daily basis. Given the XP risks, now may be the time to give it a more serious look.”
I was so put off by Vista that I jumped straight from XP to Linux and never looked back. I also recommend trying Ubuntu and Mint to start with. There are several variants of each, so you ought to burn some demo disks and give them a spin. Although the demos give you a taste of the OS, only an full installation to HD will show you how good the performance can be. You may find that some video cards aren’t compatible with one OS or another, so you might have to try several. Older Dell computers in particular just love Linux.
Obviously, a more patient man than I.
“Too funny.”
01010100 01101000 01100001 01101110 01101011 01110011
“Joking aside, I actually have designed forms with boxes and borders onscreen using the ASCII graphic character set. It was tedious.”
Let me guess... Vim or Emacs?
I’m an Emacser, and I would do everything in Emacs if I could. Leaving Emacs for another program is like wearing a new shoe, or a baseball glove that hasn’t been broken in yet. Emacs is the old shoe that just feels right.
By the way, Emacs has an “artist mode” that lets you draw boxes quickly. :-)
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ArtistMode
“I also recommend trying Ubuntu and Mint to start with. There are several variants of each, so you ought to burn some demo disks and give them a spin. Although the demos give you a taste of the OS, only an full installation to HD will show you how good the performance can be.”
Moltke, this is some very good advice from TexasRepublic. Try a few versions on CD before you settle on one, but you won’t really know until you install.
If your machine is an older one, look into using a Linux with the XFCE desktop. Linux Mint has an XFCE version and Ubuntu has “Xubuntu” which is also XFCE. XFCE is lighter weight than the standard Gnome interface. Older hardware loves it. You’ll be surprised how fast your computer feels!
Thanks for both your suggestions. I’m sure one of the newer Linux distros will suit me.
Happy New Year!
“Let me guess... Vim or Emacs?”
Neither. I was designing screen forms in a MS-DOS database programming environment called Borland Paradox 4.5.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.