COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Big Kev]

Regarding Windows XP, I recommend my customers move on, there is a substantial body of evidence that XP is already twice as insecure as later variants of Windows before Microsoft turn support off altogether.

A stay of execution?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25758308

[Pluggy]

I put Security Essentials on an old XP laptop last night, and it was warning it would stop updating in April then, maybe it hasn't got so far yet......

[Pluggy]

Windows 9 :

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/16 ... offin_lid/

[Stanley]

Pluggy, I took the trouble to read that. What a mess.... Meanwhile, in another part of the forest Ubuntu quietly does the biz......

[chinatyke]

I use a Mac computer, but I am reluctant to throw away my old pc which has a licensed copy of Windows Vista Ultimate installed. Other than keeping it updated I don't use it. So I decided I'd try Ubuntu that seems to be so popular with everybody. I downloaded and burnt the ISO image for Ubuntu 13.10 to a DVD and tried to load it on my pc. That's when I discovered it only had an AMD Sempron 2500+ cpu and wouldn't work with the new version of Ubuntu. BAH!!! Confirms what I already suspect - that I should sling it in the junk pile! Pity because it has a new power supply, case, and DVD reader/writer. I have an external storage case that will take the HDD, and I suppose I could remove the DVD drive but then I don't know what I would do with it.
Question/opinions please: would it be worth buying a new mother board and cpu or better to just trash it? The vdu isn't that great either! Or give it to a museum?

[Pluggy]

Did you use the 64 bit or the 32 option ?. In theory at least a machine that can run Vista should run Ubuntu 13.10 without trouble. The Sempron 2500+ is a 64 bit processor albeit an early one. I've run recent Ubuntus on lesser processors. Most XP machines will run Ubuntu easily, but most of them would struggle with a later Windows. I use it to breathe new life into tired XP machines on a fairly regular basis.

Assuming its a Standard case and not a propitiatory special, it should be fairly easy to upgrade with a new board, processor and RAM, but beware if your DVD drive (or HDD) is old school PATA, modern boards are usually SATA only.

[chinatyke]

Thanks Stephen. My information is that it is a 32 bit cpu so I used the 32bit Ubuntu. It is from 2005 (?) when AMD first issued this cpu and not the AMD 64 version.
http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD-Se ... OX%29.html

Anyway, because I couldn't get it to work I did all the upgrades and now the pc won't go beyond the page that says "Press DEL to enter SETUP, F11 to enter Boot Menu...

Just trying to get the thing re-started with my Vista master disc. I'm not concerned, it doesn't matter if it ends up as junk but it would have been nice to "breathe new life into it". Thanks for your advice.

Added: Yes, the HDD and DVD are SATA connectors. The HDD is only 200 GB capacity so has little value. I just don't like admitting to myself that it is a dinosaur and should be retired! Or the fact that I'll then need to spend money to buy a laptop (which will be hundred times better!)

[Stanley]

China, I sympathise with you! I would be just as loath to ditch the old box. I have an old IBM Activa upstairs that simply won't give up. The only reason I keep it is because it runs my scanner and when I installed Ubuntu the FM2 wouldn't look at it, no driver available. So it sits there plugged in and ready to go if needed. Oh, and it has another advantage, it has an old 3 1/2" disc drive. It still runs like an old steam engine and if and when it dies it will get a decent burial!

[Stanley]

I remember when Pluggy built the FM3 there were voices who wondered why I wanted such a powerful box. I was manipulating a lot of images and data yesterday and it was a joy to have instantaneous rendering and transfer. Made a big job as easy as possible.

[Pluggy]

I'd read it as envy Stanley

[Stanley]

No, I just think they didn't realise the scale of some of the jobs I have to do. I well remember digitising the transcripts in the LTP from bad carbon copies using OCR. It took me 3 years and an average of six hours a day, seven days a week. The main drag was waiting for the old IBM to chomp its way through the OCR process. I had to sit there watching the blue boxes growing on the screen. I said that if I'd had the FM1 it would have saved me two years of my life. I haven't got an OCR programme now so have never tried it on the FM3 but I'll bet it would be a revelation! OCR can gobble resources like nothing else I have ever tried.

[Pluggy]

Don't you just love Microsoft. Lately they have been effectively blocking access to anything Microsofty on the Internet using anything earlier than Internet Explorer 8. When I do a Windows re-install on a Vista machine, I want to put Internet explorer 9 on which is the latest you can have on Vista, but if you go to the IE 9 download page, it absolutely insists you have to put IE 8 on. So I download Chrome and use that to install Internet Explorer.....

[Stanley]

Manipulation, control and captive clients. The dirty recipe for making money.....

[Stanley]

Canonical sent me 84mb of updates this morning, seem to be mainly nvidia.... I don't understand what they are but always load the lot!

[Pluggy]

The joys of having an Nvidea graphics subsystem, mines a boring Intel chipset jobby which rarely sees updates.

[David Whipp]

Tom has ordered components to build his PC and they are arriving in dribs and drabs. He doesn't seem very interested in putting together a report of the project...

Alison was keen for me to oversee his purchases, to make sure he was getting 'the right stuff'; I had to point out that my place is in the kitchen...

[Stanley]

Overseeing Tom... You wouldn't be welcome, probably best to let him make his own mistakes.

[David Whipp]

Agreed. Mystery is how Alison thought I had the expertise.

My other role is I'm the one holding the plastic.

[Pluggy]

My other role is I'm the one holding the plastic.

Sounds about par for the course.....

[Tripps]

I had a call this morning from Alan Smith from Windows Technical Support From his accent, and the fact that he said 'good afternoon' when it was 10:30 here led me to believe he must have been one of the Bangalore Smiths. I wasn't in a mood to prolong the encounter, but wondered afterwards what the angle was. Do they just want access to my computer, or are they going to try to charge me for their services?

[plaques]

This scam is quite an old one but may be still going the rounds. Someone tried it on my wife's sister in Australia but came unstuck because she didn't understand what he was talking about.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012 ... -technica/

[David Whipp]

Tom has completed his PC build; now contention on the broadband is even poorer.

Mind you, I see more and more fibre being laid to cabinets around Barlick...

[Stanley]

"now contention on the broadband is even poorer."
Not sure what you mean David. Less argument or more?

[David Whipp]

"now contention on the broadband is even poorer."
Not sure what you mean David. Less argument or more?

Less speed, more argument.

With Lucy's tablet, Tom's PC (and probably, simultaneously, his Xbox as well...) our broadband gets spread ever thinner. I think the word used to describe this is contention.

However, I see lots of fibre being installed to BT cabinets round Barlick, which should give us an opportunity of better broadband speeds. (And a bigger cake for the family's gadgets to fight over.)

[Stanley]

I understand now. I'll bet they complain when the heat is turned down as well..... Thank God my family life was in the dark ages when these things didn't arise. Only one answer, tell them all to leave home! (Jack's internet usage is zero....)