does this seem familiar?

[tonyg]

There is some truth in what you say about the risks of older machines. Especially when lost of small businesses use Win 95 and Win 98 machines for thier work files and don't need to change. It makes them especially vulnerable.
The alternative isn't very nice either-constantly upgrading in order to maintain functionality.

It is sort of a catch 22. MOst people are somewhere in the middle between these two extremes.

I suppose that for older machines changing the OS to Linux might be the best way to make the machine secure, but people on Win95/98 machines usually aren''t very proficient with Linux.

[Tobian]

Linux can be a massive red herring in and of it's self. For one it CAN be a massive instalation nightmare.. While Windows can be awfully complicated, at least most of the time it's fairly automated. You need a Linux-head to install Linux. That is improving immenselly, but usually the services which are nice and easy.. also aren't strictly speaking 'free' either!

Linux also is not immune from viruses or security holes - it's just it's so small compared to ancient windows installs (where people haven't updated) that it never gets attacked as much, but it DOES ! Because most Linux people are technically savvy in the first place, to have gone down that route, they make sure they update security patches and such, rather than fall into the trap of 'well my my machine is so old and I'm so unimportant, what would a hacker want to hack into my machine' route.. and I have seen Friends fall into this trap, not installed any kind of security and BANG they got a big mess of viruses and spyware! Also if you set Linux to work just like Windows... it can be just as insecure! It's mostly how windows is configured by default that makes it insecure (that and big software holes! )

In some ways Windows 95-98 users are possibly more technically savy than their XP counterparts - because they have banged their heads against the Windows wall over the years as to learn more about how their computer works than the XP crowd... XP is a lot simpler to set up, and abstracts the user from the hardware more than ever! None of that helps much with Linux installs hehe

[tonyg]

I am pretty much in agreemenet with you here.

I had a roomate who installed Linuxz on one of his PCs and I thought the whole process was far to complicated for Linux to present a real challenge to Windows. A user had to know what he was doing to install Linux, adn that eliminated 90% of the PC users.

Sure Linux does have it secrity holes (eerything does), but like you pointed out, it has fewer, is targeted by feweer viruses, and the average Linux user is more capable of protecting his computer. All in all is makes for a safer enviornment. And, at least is is still supported, as opposed to Win 95.

For years my "safest" computer was my HPC.. It had no anti-virus software, but there were no viruses designed to attack it.

I also agree with the whole Win95 users are probably more tech savvy than XP users. THat is one of the tradeoffs with making things simplier to use-the average "user" doesn't really know what his machine is actually doing. When I was learning how to use a computer, I learned machine and assembly code. It gave me a much better idea of what the computer was actually doing, as well as a great deal of control over the process. THe "obect oriented" programming languages of today make it a lot easier to do complicated things, but at a loss of control.

[spyone]

For reference: all images posted to this thread display just fine for me.

On systems: I do worry about hackers. I maintain a firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware stuff, and I still worry. I also do not leave my computer connected to the internet when not in use: even when using the DSL (I'm currently on dial-up), I disconnect and shut off my modem if I'm not currently web surfing: no sense leaving yourself vulnerable for no reason.

I made the move to a Windows system (back in 1997) because there was one thing I wanted to do that my MS-Dos system wouldn't: reach the internet. I must admit, the ability to have more than one file open at a time is nice, but I often doubt if it is worth the huge amount of hard drive space I give up for it: MS-Dos 6.0 fit on my 20meg drive with lots of room to spare. My old Win95 machine has a 2 gig drive that Win95 takes up more than half of. I upgraded to a used Win98 machine a few years ago primarily because it was cheaper than buying new drives. (It seems I always need more drive space.)

Would I like to try playing (insert MMORPG name here): you bet. Am I willing to pay more for a video card than I paid for my system to do it: not a chance.
The Win95 system was a gift, and one I could never have afforded on my own. The win98 system was $300. Around that time, Gateway contacted me to offer to buy back my Win95 system. I forget what they offered, but not only did I tell them I wouldn't sell at that price, I told them I would gladly buy additional computers identical to mine at that price.

Gathering dust, I still have an old AT compatable coumputer: it is a Leading Edge Model D with an amberchrome monitor, it is the first PC I ever owned (my mom got it at a yard sale), and it happens to be one of the computers I built at my first job, back in August of 1986. And it all still works, and I enjoy the games it plays.

Yes, I hail from computing's cretaceous. I also still own an Apple II.

[tonyg]

Well, I think the image viewing problem wasn't due to your machine. I used to be able to view that image, but the link went bad for me as well. THat is why I got picks for here (actually they are hosted elsewhere and just linked to here).

IMO the best, cheapest way to be able to get into the newest stuff without shelling out lots of money for a new graphics card is to buy a used PC. These days you can usually find a decent machine fairly cheap, and it will adress all your issues (like CP speed, RAM, and HD space) at once.

IF you just want to get more HD space, you can always pick up an externa hard drive. I use a handhelp PC as my primary computer, and uit's 20GB hard drive is practically filled up with Windows XP Pro, and the other progarams that I use. No problem, as I keep most of my files on a 300BG external HD that I bought nre for $120. What I reallylike about it is that should something happen to my computer, or when I upgrade, I can just plug the hard drive into a differenert computer and have instant acess to all my old files.

[Tobian]

It has to be said, however, that the biggest single reason for buying new machines is age... eventually ALL computers die, and die so hard that it's a new computer or nothing (I've had it happen on a new computer!) You're lucky to still get that machine to run. They built old machines to last longer, but anything that complex is always due to die at some point!! Tonyg's right about the 'all in one's they can be fairly good value if you shop around: You can get a half decent machine in the $300-400 mark!

I also recomend an external hard drive - it's the easiest way to back EVERYTHING up - I just have mine plugged in to a USB port, and every now and again i turn it on - run an awsome piece of software called http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp Replicator - and it runs a compare against all my 'work' files (in the specified folders) and only copies over the newer stuff - foolproof and damn handy! That's my computing tip of the day

[JALU3]

spyone,

This is about as close to BouncyCaitian's orginal as I could find. Let me know if you can see it.




Here is another image from the same series, but with better resoulution that the above.

I'm told that this is a great anime . . . but gotta finish watching a couple other series first. Finish up Love Hina, and Azumunga Diaoh. Thank God for being near a place with a good set of Anime DvDs to rent.

[spyone]

Not that lotsa folks haven't already posted, but I found it here: http://www.llbbl.com/data/RPG-motivational/cluebat.jpg

It's in a gallery of "RPG inspriational posters" that was originally done on a board somewhere and gathered up into a gallery by some kind soul.

What anime is that from?

[Phoenix]

Thank God for being near a place with a good set of Anime DvDs to rent.

You suck....

[spyone]

A little thread necromancy here.

This thread turned out to be about 50% about the dinosaur I use for computing, so it seems like the right place to crow about my upgrade.

I must admit, I was forced to upgrade: Back in the first or second week of august, something on my Win98 system became corrupt and it would no longer talk to the internet. The Tech Support guys at my ISP had me do the electronic equivelent of burning some incense and sacrificing a chicken ("Try deleting your Internet History"), but to no avail. So, they decided to pronounce that I must have a virus.
It is effectively impossable to prove you don't have a virus if you can't connect to the internet. I installed new anti-virus software, but I couldn't connect to the internet to download the latest updates. (And, since it was anti-virus ware for Windows 98, it needed like 8 years worth of updates.)
So, I resigned myself that the only things I could do would be:
A) Take my tower to some computer store, have them examine it to see what the problem is, and be told by them that they wouldn't work on it and I should just buy a newer system, or
B) skip that step and buy something on sale.

My used hardware connection closed shop about a year ago, so I was going to have to buy something NEW. But it would take me at least until October to save enough money.


Anyway, I found a really good deal at Circuit City, and got a Athalon Dual Core 3800 with a full gig of RAM and a 250 gig drive and a flat LCD monitor!!!
I'm a little embarrassed to say that all I've done with it is check webcomics, check my email, and play solitare. If I need MS Word or Works, I gotta use the old Win98 system, at least until I can find the CDs those programs came on so I can install them on the new thing.
And I need to pick up a USB flash drive to speed moving files from old to new.

Anyway, I'm back.

[Tobian]

haha, welcome back, and it's good to see you relented eventually, that system sounds pretty neat, should keep you going for a while I ended up paying this damn thing off for about 6 months (and I already want a faster machine haha!)

As to software, why not try downloading open office it's freeware, and it's designed to be Microsoft office compatible, so it should open all your files (especially if they are from old versions of Word or Works), can't hurt, as it is free !