Securitron Doom/Linux Blog.

 

Mummy, this water tastes funny!

My JavaScript code at the top of this page has been repaired. The number for Sunday was 7 and it should have been 0. So the image for Sunday did not appear. Sorry about that.

I have been using Windows XP as I posted before, and I am not very impressed with the lack of security on this OS. You set the Internet settings to high, and you still get an infestation of Java bugs and Spyware / Trojans. Why this is still happening I have not idea. I thought they could fix Windows by now. And they are planning a 64BIT version of Windows as well as Windows Longorn. I think they should make Microsoft Software much much, more secure than it is now, I mean Linux is much more secure than Windows XP and Windows 2000.
I use the Shorewall Firewall software on my server as well as Iptables, and I have had no problems with it at all. It is much more secure than Windows XP SP1 using Internet Explorer 6.0 when connected to the net. I use Linux exclusively at home, but I still care about those who use Windows even though I would not use it.

Having the system directories of Windows read-only for everyone except the Administrator would be quite a good way to secure the system. Linux is like this, you need the Aministrator or "root" password to do any changes to the system. This would not be too hard to implement would it? If you could lock down a system like us Linuxers have for ages. I mean, Internet Explorer & Windows XP are a running joke compared to Linux. Sure Debian and other Linux Distros are needing security patches as well as Windows, but there are a lot of determined crackers out there. It does not mean that Linux is less secure than Windows at all. Just having a Linux machine connected to the Internet with an Ethernet card and you could then connect your machine to your Windows XP or 2000 machine and the Linux server could have a firewall installed to help protect your Windows machines from the dangers of the Internet. software such as Squid Proxy can block banner ads and save your bandwidth for actual content.

You can get a HOSTS file from Windows Help Site. This contains a long list of unwanted sites and banner ads that will help in blocking unwanted banners and other crap. The should go a little way to stemming the flow of unwanted crap that the Internet is full of at the moment.

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.txt New Windows HOSTS file.

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts2.htm More information about this file.

Below are some very useful links for Windows XP users.

http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/installxp/installXP1.htm

http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/securitycenter/index.htm

http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/security/page_1.htm

http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/xptweaks/supertweaks1.htm

http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/backup/1.htm

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp

http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/defserv.htm

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ Superiour Firefox browser.

http://www.tweakhound.com/sales/xplite.htm Tweak your XP installation.!

You can't say I do not care about my readers, but this shows a little care does it not? Most of my visitors use Either Internet Explorer or FireFox, so I am encouraging users to switch over to FireFox whenever possible. Ie, soon. I use Portable FireFox 1.0 and I would never use Internet Explorer at all. Mozilla 1.6 is also a good choice and works perfectly with Hotmail. Sure there are wrapper apps like Crazy Browser, but they are just a wrapper around a dreadfully insecure core. Setting up Internet Explorer is a pain as well, you fiddle with the settings and you still cannot get JavaScript working once it is disabled. Better to use Mozilla, it has simpler setup menus and works very well once enabled. Usually, the crap downloaded by Internet Explorer goes in C:\Users\Owner\Documents\Local Files\Temporary Internet Files\ or something like that, you get the idea. Anyway, this branches off the home directory of the user, so if you delete the whole thing, then you will get rid of all the crap that fills the directory. Usually Spyware apps & Trojans.

I have had this experience myself, with a Windows XP SP1 machine. Your experiences might differ. But the idea stands, clearing the Temporary Internet Files folder is a very good idea.

In case anyone is curious about my system, here is some information from a small System Information application I coded in ISO C.

<System-Info>

System information program.

Pertinent information about your system.

*******************************************

--Tuesday 26 April 2005 20:05:05 EST.
--There have been 1114509905 seconds since Epoch.

--System name - Linux
--Nodename - Gandalf
--Release - 2.6.3-4mdk
--Version - #1 Tue Mar 2 07:26:13 CET 2004
--Machine - i686

--Uptime = 806360s
--Load: 1 min 0 5 min 0 15 min 0
--RAM: total 194809856 free 14475264 shared 0
--Memory in buffers = 11137024
--Swap: total 348323840 free 333205504
--Number of processes = 63

*******************************************

</System-Info>

The pigdemon image has been removed from my pages, It seemed to make my blog posting process more smoooth, so the pig is dead. And I save a little bandwidth as well. Hard to believe it is Autumn here, it is so hot outside at night. Like a summer night, but it is nearly Winter! Global Warming sure takes its toll.

I hope you like the new design for my site. I am staying with this design for a long time and I am very happy with how fast it loads now. The new titlepic is quite cool too. I redesigned this site as I needed the pages to load a bit faster and look a bit different to the look I have been using for a while now. I am staying with the white background and will be concentrating on the content in the future.

Loving Hell Revealed 2, I wish I could finish the maps though, especially MAP25. This is the map that subscribes to the overwhelming force principle of large groups of monsters to face the player room after room.

But the latest map I am making will be quite hard too, but also very good. It has huge outside areas and extreme differences in height between sections making fro some quite cool views. It uses the Console Doom textures and will be the largest map I have made in terms of height differences. Get it here: Citadel of the Cyberdemons. This is quite a hard map & will be a good challenge for the player indeed. This download is only a beta version, I will be accepting feedback on this map to help improve it and make it the best map ever. If only more wad makers did this, we would not have maps going around like "ASSHOLE" & Doom JR... Or even Thissux.wad, The _Worst_ Doom2 Megawad ever! Total Donkey Blowing bullshit! Horse rimming utter Crap. Anyway, I have better things to worry about than the state of some megawads.

They are planning to build a desalination plant in Sydney AUS to adress the water shortage. This is something I have been wondering about for a while. Now they are finally going to build it. Soon, they will be able to supply Sydney residents with all the water they need. A much more plausible idea than a canal across half the continent which is totally unfeasible and outrageously expensive. If they used the plant to supply water and did not use the dam for a while then it would have time to fill up again, but there is the risk of becoming complacent about water usage as well, since we live in the driest continent on our planet. But any new water source is a good thing. Although they are desalinating the same water that the sewage outfall goes into... Sounds lovely indeed.

Mummy, this water tastes funny!
¶ 4/29/2005 08:58:00 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

 

Stupid windows XP annoyances.

I have been using Windows XP and I am very annoyed with how it manages to get viruses as soon as you have finished with the virus scanner.

You finish the scan and 10 minutes on the net later you shut down the browser and scan the machine again and you have more spyware and trojans on it. And the stupidity of the users who install the stupid browser addons and toolbars that carry trojan horses and other bullshit. The main reason for Windows being infected with all this crap is the stupidty of the users who use it.
¶ 4/26/2005 01:04:00 PM 1 Comments Links to this post