Final Post

No – I’m not dead yet!!

This is a final post at Tigerstail.wordpress.com because I am tired of seeking knowledge and bitching about that which is. It is time to use my skills to develope the solutions to all of the problems I have discovered.

Join Me at jimmicap.wordpress.com

Screwing up XP!

I’ve sort of been suggesting that part of the reason that Vista has not been universally accepted is because Windows XP is a mature, sable and secure operating system which has no need for a replacement except perhaps in the gaming community. There are many independent companies that understand the system and are writing independent security software to defend you against Virus, malware and to secure your privacy against unwanted preservation of sensitive data or images.

The truth is you can do a pretty good job of defending your machine by using Firefox as your browser with settings that insure your privacy and erase all surfing history. Naturally, you can back this up with Ccleaner and an independent antiviurus and your in pretty good shape. You may want to use your traditional XP search function to check for cookies that may have been missed and to check the images in all hidden and back-up files. After everything unwanted has been eliminated, defragment your system and overwrite your unused space with a seven pass disk wipe.

From what I know of forensics, that is probably enough to prevent the repairman at your computer repair shop from reporting you to Homeland Security and may be enough to prevent recovery of images and files after you reformat your hard drive. (However, if it were my freedom at stake, I would give the drive the Lot’s wife treatment and buy a new drive.) Overall, I am fairly well convinced that XP is a defendable operating systems for mere mortals that follow a set routine and pay attention to security.

Since this belief is probably true, it leaves, Microsoft and the government out in the cold when you choose to observe their nefarious connections. No, you cannot stop unwanted predators from connecting to your machine and probing you but you can keep your machine clean enough that there is little there to find. Now with Vista, this is clearly not the case. There are back-ups of everything as the default and many are complaining that that use of Vista will be a one way ticket to jail or unemployment as your total computer use is an open book.

So what is the answer for Microsoft and the Government to threats from a protectable XP operating system? Simple, introduce an unavoidable SP3 service pack. I mean I avoided the upgrade for IE7 forever or at least until there were so many vulnerabilities that were left unplugged until I down loaded it even though I use Firefox. I suspect avoiding SP3 will eventually leave me so exposed that I will have to do it and ultimately upgrade myself to a system as unknown and undefendable as Vista. Once this happens I may as well switch to Vista.

Oh well, shit happens.

Resistance is Futile, Knowledge is Soporific!