PC & IT 01 (May 08 - Oct 08)

PC & IT 01 (May 08 - Oct 08)

Postby blid2def » Mon May 12, 2008 1:58 pm

(1) FIREFOX

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

Firefox is always the defacto browser I stick into the PC's I help to install, and the one I always recommend to family & friends. :)

Once you've got Firefox installed, the list of add-ons (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/) you can use is amazing.

Some recommendations:
- Adblock Plus: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865 (block ads, what else?)

- Forecastfox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/398 (weather forecasts)

- FoxClocks: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1117 (world clocks)

- Chinesepera-kun: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3349 (Chinese text dictionary-on-the-fly)

- Rikaichan - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2471 (Japanese companion of the Chinesepera-kun)

- Gmail Notifier - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/173 (checks your GoogleMail for new messages)

- iMacros - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3863 (record macros; automate mundane tasks in your browser)

- FoxyProxy - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2464 (quickly/automatically switch proxy settings, e.g. when you switch from office to home network)

- StumbleUpon - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/138 (discover web sites, and waste your life away browsing...)

- ReminderFox - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1191 (reminders...)

- IETab - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419 (use the IE browser engine to open a web page... inside the Firefox browser hahahaha - so you'll never need to click on the IE icon at all... useful for those sh*t websites coded by sh*t webmasters who create them only for use with IE).

As you can see; a lot of stuff that used to need small programs installed on the PC have not given way to little add-ons installed on my browser. Any wonder why M
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Re: Free / Open source s/w fanclub

Postby blid2def » Mon May 12, 2008 3:38 pm

(2) SECURITY & PRIVACY

1. Clamwin Anti-virus - http://www.clamwin.com/

2. Sygate Personal Firewall (very old but still usable; now part of Symantec) - http://www.tucows.com/preview/213160

3. Crap Cleaner (CCleaner) - http://www.ccleaner.com/

4. Eraser - http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

5. Spybot Search & Destroy - http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

6. HijackThis - http://www.merijn.org/index.php
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Re: Free / Open source s/w fanclub

Postby millionairemind » Mon May 12, 2008 4:45 pm

GR,

Got some hidden codes that then steal your data after you install it not?? I am an IT MORON... scared of all the viruses.. spyware... yada yada yada :shock:

What have been your experience with all these freeware? Y are they free in the first place?

Cheers,
mm
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Re: Free / Open source s/w fanclub

Postby blid2def » Mon May 12, 2008 7:25 pm

What have been your experience with all these freeware? Y are they free in the first place?


MM - you know, a simple innocent question like that can launch pages of essays... :D

To be frank, I can't say conclusively that "don't worry, none of them have malicious code". But, I can confidently say, having used all of them for a fair bit (some of them for years...), I don't foresee any issues.

It's fair to say, if you read something and don't quite understand what it's supposed to do, don't use it - ask around first, or Google it up and see if there are any complaints. So it's good you're asking here before running away to install any of them. :D

-----

To be honest, I'm not an IT expert in security or open source applications (I'm a generalist), but I'll just explain the one doubt you had about "Y are they free in the first place?".

When we talk about free software, we can talk about free in two levels: "commercially free" and "free of restrictions". You're referring here to the "commercially free" aspects, so I'll answer to that point specifically. I guess it's the same reason why people join forums, spend their time freely sharing info, code the forum s/w that we're using now, manage a forum for no commercial gain, etc. :D 'Cos the people doing it have too much time!!!!! Doesn't mean they're evil people though. :D :D :D

Anyway, s/w free of restrictions are often - but not always - commercially free, while commercially free s/w aren't always s/w free of restrictions.

Some more readings on this topic:

Wiki - Free software:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software

The Cathedral and the Bazaar:
- http://www.redhat.com/support/wpapers/c ... edral.html

Dinner time! Easier to talk over kopi for this! :D
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Re: Free / Open source s/w fanclub

Postby mojo_ » Mon May 12, 2008 11:13 pm

millionairemind wrote:Got some hidden codes that then steal your data after you install it not??

GD gave u the expert answer above. Here is what an IT moron like me too does - I use this little McAfee free utility below:

http://www.siteadvisor.com/download/ff.html

This utility will advise you the likelihood of spyware, spams and other nasty stuff before you click or download something... I've found it very handy before installing freeware... ;)

ps: select the IE option to download if u're not using firefox
Not what but when.
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Re: Free / Open source s/w fanclub

Postby blid2def » Tue May 13, 2008 12:00 am

Hmm, never tried that site_advisor thingie before. Interesting. :)

Well, the important thing to note first of all are the principles behind IT security (and privacy). Once you understand those, the next step is just finding the right software to implement those principles.

As I said before, I'm a generalist, so I can't say I'm too clever with all these; someone with a better understanding and way of explaining this should feel free to correct me.

Basically, we look at security from four angles:
- Authentication, Authorization, Access Control and Auditing

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAA_protocol

---

Adapting that set of principles to home PC s/w installation, then you could look at it this way (may not be exhaustive list):

- Authentication:
(a) Is the server providing the s/w who it says it is? (e.g. is that a spoofing site?)
(b) Is the s/w you click and download, and what actually reaches you, the same?

- Authorization:
(a) Do you allow the s/w to make changes to your computer's settings (e.g. registry in Windows, default program settings, set itself up to auto-run on startup)
(b) Do you allow the s/w to attempt to connect to another computer entity outside of your PC, during setup?
(c) Do you allow the s/w to attempt to connect to another computer entity outside of your PC, on a periodic or ongoing basis?
(d) If allow the s/w to connect to another computer entity outside of your PC, do you allow it to do so only with that computer entity?

- Accounting / Auditing:
(a) Do you review the system's logs for unusual system and network activity? (e.g. a service running in your PC, suspicious connections or attempts to connect to external computers, unusually high level of disk activity)
(b) Do you scan the PC for viruses, trojans, adware, spyware, etc?
(c) Do you regularly clear your browser cache, cookies, stored passwords, etc?
(d) Do you use hard-to-guess userids and passwords, and do you regularly change your passwords?

Yada yada yada. Personal IT security & data privacy is something that should no longer be the concern of the techies, but should be an important concern for all folks who use the PCs for their transactions - be it at home or in the office. Unfortunately, I can't say that there's an easy/convenient way to learn/do this.

Some folks may think that "it's okay lah - I'm just a small dot in the bazillion of people on the Net; why would they want to kachiao me?" Well, for one - they may not want to kachiao you, but if you don't do your part and your PC is compromised, you can become a useful pawn for them to kachiao others. See: distributed denial of service attacks, spam mail, virus transmissions, etc.
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Re: Free / Open source s/w fanclub

Postby blid2def » Tue May 13, 2008 12:05 am

Just as a quick note/follow-up on an earlier question from mm regarding the concerns over the quality of free s/w:

If the s/w concerned comes with source codes (not just commercially free), then we're talking about transparency. Sure, you may not be able to read and understand the code yourself, but there are others out there who do, and who'd take their time to read and compile them. The key thing is that the transparency is there, and there's a means to open up, inspect the code and call a rat if there's one (see the Cathedral and Bazaar document for a discussion on this).
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PC / IT

Postby LenaHuat » Wed May 21, 2008 9:21 pm

Hello Fellow Forumers

A Chinese website caused my laptop to sort of crash. :evil:
Couldn't boot. I resorted to the most elementary of solutions - used my laptop Fujitsu recovery disk to reinstall Windows XP. :?
After the process, cannot read Chinese font.
Does any1 know how to install Chinese language font from a FREE RELIABLE source other than Microsoft???

So sorry to trouble U but will be grateful if any1 can help.
Please be forewarned that you are reading a post by an otiose housewife. ImageImage**Image**Image@@ImageImageImage
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Re: SOS Please

Postby blid2def » Wed May 21, 2008 10:09 pm

LenaHuat wrote:Hello Fellow Forumers

A Chinese website caused my laptop to sort of crash. :evil:
Couldn't boot. I resorted to the most elementary of solutions - used my laptop Fujitsu recovery disk to reinstall Windows XP. :?
After the process, cannot read Chinese font.
Does any1 know how to install Chinese language font from a FREE RELIABLE source other than Microsoft???

So sorry to trouble U but will be grateful if any1 can help.


Eh, out of curiosity, is there a reason why you don't use the Chinese fonts that come with Win XP? Don't have the installation disk? (though I'm not sure if it's needed when you enable them)
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Re: SOS Please

Postby blid2def » Wed May 21, 2008 10:12 pm

Anyway, scroll to the bottom of this Wiki page - see if any of those links help.... I haven't used them before myself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Multilingual_support_(East_Asian)
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