Re: Linux for Kids

From: Ohmster (notareal_at_emailaddress.com)
Date: 03/14/05 

Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 22:02:14 GMT

Mxsmanic <mxsmanic@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:6qr831lvlfk0kotftdh4i7pqef0s5sg7h7@4ax.com:

>> I built the XP Pro system for her and her family over a year ago. The
>> husband is a professional painter and one day, I came home from work
>> to see them completely pressure cleaning, patching, and repainting my
>> entire house! I freaked out because I just bought the house like two
>> years ago and don't have the money to paint the house, at all. The
>> husband simply told me that I really did need to have the house
>> cleaned, patched, and painted or else the damage would accelerate and
>> it would ruin the house. He told me that he was doing it because "it
>> needed to be done" and that he was able to do it. He did not ask for
>> money, he said you do what you can, when you can, and that is it.
>
> They just did this out of the goodness of their hearts??

Uh, yeah. I do the same thing, to an extent. Most of the world's
generosity, IMHO, is done by people for no other reason than then *can*,
and are the only ones able to do so. When I see a neighbor, family
member, friend, or even a total stranger (To an extent.) who needs help,
and I am able to provide it, I often do. I don't go around "fixing the
world", by any means, but my neighbor is a young couple with children and
has a small business. They have no computer or clue about them, yet they
have needs like "Where can I get pressure cleaner parts, at a no rip off
price?", "My kid's eye is all red and itchy with white dots on the lid. I
hear that this is a sty, what can I do about it?", "It is so hard to
manage the finances of a small business and a home, if only something
could keep track of all of this for me.", "My kid has to do a report on
Black History, we have no clue about this stuff and who has time to take
him to the library?". They need a computer. Since they don't even know
the first thing about them, other than the wife logs medical data at a
terminal at work, how could they ever purchase one that is good and know
they are getting the right product? They have no time or extra money to
speculate on what they need and to go and buy it.

I would have given them one out of spare parts but after the house
painting show, I skipped the spare parts, went to the MarketPro Computer
Show, and got them good, fast equipment and did not skimp on things like
the monitor. The computer show has 21" monitors, maybe 2-3 years old,
rebuilt, for less than $200. No one that I know would buy such a thing
but if there was one at their house in front of them, they would use it
and appreciate it. So they got the big monitor, AMD XP 2400 CPU (Not a
slow computer, suitable for their needs without breaking the bank.) 80Gb
hard drive, FX5200 video card (Something that would power the monitor at
a high res and could play games, but not to break the bank.), half gig of
RAM, Logitech Z-340 speakers with subwoofer, HP USB color printer,
standard keyboard, optical mouse, the whole system. The idea was to give
them something that would be speedy and have enough of everything and
nothing would be "on the cheep", other than the keyboard. They were
pleased and I got my house painted.

 
>> I built them a top of the line AMD system with a 21" monitor and full
>> multimedia capability, simply because I could, he did not have the
>> money for it, nor have a clue as to what he needed and would have
>> ended up with some shitty, proprietary HP or Compaq crap.
>
> Sounds like a good trade. It's nice to have a custom-built,
> top-of-the-line PC made to order for you by someone you can trust.
> Makes the perfect Christmas gift!

Well, building computers is not my trade, I repair TV and stereo for a
living, but I would never "buy" a store bought computer. The garbage that
they offer in the store is pathetic. All proprietary HP, Compaq, or Dell
stuff. Everything is built in, nothing is up-gradable. They are loaded
with "junk" software and advertising is built in everywhere, from the
BIOS splash screen that "hides all of the good stuff" to AOL and Dell
links all over the place. You get "MS Works", or worse, that Lotus Office
crap. Nobody wants that stuff but newbies think that it is good.
 
>> She called me over because her computer was slowing down real bad and
>> she could no longer go to the Trend Micro Housecall website to scan
>> for viruses. When I tried at her house, IE would shut down if you
>> tried to use Housecall and you would get the Trojan report just
>> before it did. That is why I had wanted to reboot her computer into
>> safe mode, when I tried to delete the virus startup link in the
>> registry, I was unable to do it, I got a permission denied message
>> when trying to delete the link. She has an administrator account and
>> so I was really puzzled at that message.
>
> Malware is getting sneakier all the time.

Oooooo, it is getting really bad. They stick it everywhere, all the time.
Try to visit and actually use the online TV listings at TV Guide. Now
they don't stick you with malware, so far as I know, but the site is so
crapped up in every nook and cranny, that you have to be Gandhi to have
the patience to actually be able to view and use the listings. Now you
get websites installing trackers, browser hijackers, and "toolbars" on
your computer just because they figured out how to do this to almost
every website visitor. This is "just plain wrong", dude. It used to be
only those silly enough to download and install that "free screensaver".
Not anymore

>
>> Tracy probably did not get the Trojan installed on her computer. Her
>> son has an account on the machine and he is like any typical young 15
>> year old boy, trying out "kewl free stuff", etc. He is the one that
>> probably caught the Trojan. We reduced his account to "Restricted" to
>> see if that would stop allowing viruses to enter the machine.
>
> Did it?

Don't know yet. We will have to wait several more months to see if they
get viruses again or if Nick is not able to use the computer effectively
for school anymore because of the restricted account. I installed Max
Payne 2 on the computer before giving it to them, so that they would have
some kind of fun game to play and it sure looked good on that huge
monitor and the FX5200 vid card did a really good job at 1024x768. You
would think that a young teen aged boy would love this game and want
more. Nah, I don't think he played other than at first. Shame really, I
have just about every cool video game that comes out and would be happy
to pass them along when I finish playing them. He don't care about that
stuff or installing programs. He likes to download car wallpaper and
things like that, he will be getting his driver's license in about a year
or so. So we wait and see.

>
>> When I went on Saturday to help a friend with a small stereo repair
>> shop, he has a 2 computer network that I installed for him years ago.
>> The computer in the back is his and we put his customer database on
>> it, and the front computer is for the counter help and they can use
>> the DSL and the customer database program. Because the counter help
>> is always fucking around with the computer, he gets that one infected
>> quite a bit and has not clue about viruses or any such thing. When
>> the counter person said he could not complete the online web work
>> that day because the browser would not run, I took a look. Yep, sure
>> enough, IE would not run or would stall right away. One look at
>> running processes showed things like "xrvvaquyx.exe" running and
>> things like that. Uh oh...
>
> Yup, I've seen stuff like that. Never on my machines, but often on
> other machines.
>
>> I downloaded the free AVG AV program and scanned to find 14 running
>> Trojans on the system, 60 malicious files. Deleted them all and the
>> computer was okay again. Every time this happens, the owner wants to
>> restrict the front computer with passwords to stop the Internet from
>> running up there, but the front employees need to use IE in order to
>> order parts and file claims. What can you do?
>
> If they are using MSIE, you can fiddle with the security zones so that
> no site on the Net is trusted except the handful that you select.
> That's how I do it. Works great. You can hack the registry for MSIE
> to add more security categories, too.

Ohhhhhh, I did not even think of this! That is a very simple and helpful
plan. I am thinking of policy hacks to really limit the machine but I
never do this for him. He owns a small business, he makes money. He pays
me to fix difficult things on Saturdays but he won't pay 2 cents on the
computer unless a disaster strikes. He buys two computers for the
business, wants them both connected to the DSL broadband, networked
together, wants custom software installed for customer claims and
telephone directory that are networked to use common databases, wants a
backup system, etc., so on, and so forth. I tell him I will do it but
need about $250 to do the job right, he says no it is too expensive,
calls the Dell repairman for some fictitious warranty repair, and pays
him a hundred dollars to hook this stuff up and make it work. The Dell
guy gets a basic network going and leaves.

So I am not going to go and do advanced security on these computers
because he won't pay for it. He will want you to do stuff for the
computer in a small part of the 4 hours on Saturday that he does
sometimes pay for, or take the stuff home, make everything work, and give
him a nice, functional, and secure network for like $50-100. Not gonna
happen by me, that would be extreme charity work and I don't do charity
for business that is in business to make money.

Tightening up the basic IE security options in the regular user menu
would be a nice "freebie" though. Really good idea, too simple to even
think of, but in this case, it would be perfect.

My friend with the small business is funny. I give him a very simple
backup system, non automated (He won't pay for the software), and so uses
MS Backup because it is free. I set it up so that with one click and a
blank CD, he can backup all crucial directories for his business. Doncha
know that his first old computer, the one with all of the important
databases on it, is the one where the hard drive dies. I get him a new
hard drive and ask for his backup CD. The thing is almost 3 months old
since the last backup. He is screwed and lost all of his current customer
information and is back to doing things by hand until the computer
catches up again. All he has to do is be willing to at least pay
*something* for God's sakes and he could have automated backup software
that would backup all of the crucial data every night. Oh no, not my
buddy, the computer illiterate with the small business.

So yeah, screwing down the IE security zones would be a great idea,
thanks.

>> Last time I scrubbed the
>> computer, maybe a year ago, he has 3 p2p programs running and sucking
>> up all available bandwidth to collect and share about 3 Gigs of porn,
>> had casino programs starting and running on the system, of course AOL
>> got installed, several chat and messenger programs, and God knows
>> what else.
>
> Where are these people surfing??? You don't catch that from CNN or
> Hotmail Web sites.

Who knows what they do up there, all week long. They sit and they "play
computer", while they act like they are working. Because my buddy the
store owner is practically computer illiterate, he has no clue, other
than all of these customers that are over 7 days late should be getting
calls and why aren't they coming in to pickup their stuff, anyway? I
don't work there during the week so I don't know. He gets mostly kids
looking to earn a little extra money because the job won't pay for a
real, adult salary. So the kids tend to do what they have to when they
are there but don't really care about anything and use the computer as a
great toy to pass the boring hours of the day.

>
>> I scrubbed it all out and then decided to move the customer database
>> to the back computer and share it from there. No doubt these viruses
>> were going to hose that computer and it's entire hard disk all the
>> way, one fine day.
>
> What you need is a way to save a clean image of the hard disk, and a
> way to complete rewrite that image periodically, thus blasting
> everything on the machine unconditionally. Just do that once in a
> while, and they should be fine.
>
> Unfortunately, I'm not sure what products can do that. Suggestions
> are welcome.

Actually that is a pretty neat idea. I don't think that there are any
automated systems that will overwrite a hard disk and reinstall an image
unattended like that, but to make an image of the hard disk, right after
a clean install, with all important software and drivers already
installed, would be a great timesaver and boon to him. But, since he does
not view the computer as an important tool for work, not as important as
say, a screwdriver, he won't pay for anything that would be good for him,
not even a backup image, so he rides it out. Fix or patch the system when
it breaks if it can be done for next to nothing, or else squeeze it into
your once in a while paid work 1/2 days, and that is the extent of it.

>
>> It is pretty expensive though, like $1,200 or so.
>
> Whoa ... then what was the $149 price I saw on the first page? What
> was that for?

The $149 is for the ERD Commander Emergency Workstation license. Server
is $299. The $1,200 is for the whole administrator's package.

>
> Another option would be Knoppix, a version of Linux that will boot
> from a CD. I don't know if it has any NTFS tools on it, but if it
> does, it might do everything you need without having to pay for ERD
> Commander.

I have Knoppix and it is a good, bootable environmental tool. What is
better is the Knoppix STD disc, see here:
http://www.knoppix-std.org/tools.html

But still, linux won't do NTFS reliably. It may read NTFS but I am not
sure if Knoppix will, right out of the box. It sure can't write to NTFS
and there is no Windows Registry Editor, nor Windows Password Recovery
tool. ERD Commander is the only product that I saw that will let you
write a new password to a locked down NTFS machine. It cannot read the
password, as we both know, it is one way encryption, but you can easily
write a new one to the system. Another really good feature of ERD
Commander is the System Restore utility. It will allow you to do a system
restore on a non-booting machine and that sometimes is a lifesaver. Can
do the entire Windows System Restore or just restore a backup copy of the
registry. Pretty neat stuff. It is expensive but if you ever run across a
copy somewhere, it is worth picking up.

Of course, if you cannot get ERD Commander, there are many advanced
Windows things that you can do even with a free PE disc, make one from
this web page:
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

> The only problem is that some older PCs (such as one of mine) won't
> boot directly from a CD. But you might be able to set up boot disks.
>

Yeah that is a problem. If you cannot boot directly to the CD, then you
don't get the nice GUI to work with. But then again, older PCs that won't
boot to a CD are not usually powerful enough to run an OS where you might
need some of these really advanced tools. Anything that old might just be
worth replacing, put the old hard drive in the new machine and transfer
important stuff over to the new drive, if possible.

Nice talking to you Mxsmanic. 

-- 
~Ohmster
ohmster at newsguy dot com