Response to: “MS’ new OS still needs anti-virus software”

Read a blog posting on one of the planets that I subscribe, either Debian, Fedora, or Ubuntu that questions why Windows 7 should still need a virus program.  It touts how great Linux is due to it not needing a virus program.

why is it that in the year 2009, Microsoft cannot make operating systems that do not ever need anti-virus software? It cannot build any operating system that is safe and virus-proof?

The question may better be asked is why do the people who make viruses and malware target the Windows Operating System insted of the Linux eco-system?  Could it be that Linux now has a whopping 1% market share compared to the rest of the Operating Systems out there?  Could it be the people who fall to most virus/malware would run the most dominate operating system type out there?

My parents use Windows, they have no interest in running Linux, in fact I don’t want to “convert” them to Linux.  Mostly it is because I don’t want to try and support thier needs.  My dad does a lot of photo editing with the different Adobe products, he has some books, went to a class on using the products, etc and I don’t want to have to be the one who needs to find the best OSS product out there for him.  There are other programs that just run correctly with Windows XP/Vista they are not interested in learning a new product.

But they need virus/malware protection.  Why?  Simple, the people who write these target Windows users.  Because they can make money off them.  Also remember there are more flaws in OEM software in the WIndows world  then on the OS itself.

Am I suprised Windows 7 is recommending Anti Virus?  No, I am glad it gives me a warning when I don’t have a product out there

New Energy Generators in Old Michigan Factories?

Saw this article on mlive.com in regards to the possibility of using some of the old abandoned factories could be a part of providing alternative energy to help power Michigan homes.  I hope this is something that can move forward.

It seems there is an idea to put wind turbines and solar panels in these brownfield sites:

If all the suitable brownfield sites across the state were built out with solar panels and wind turbines, about half of the homes in Michigan could be powered by the output — 5,100 megawatts.

Think about it…. The state of Michigan which is known for the auto and for high unemployment could be the leader in wind energy.  If this could actually happen the state’s economy would turn around.

The cool part is that Meijer has already applied to have wind turbines on the roof of corporate headquarters to help offset the power consumption.

Also from the article:

Tapping brownfields for energy parks would draw $15 billion invested in wind and solar equipment and could create 17,500 job opportunities in construction and ongoing maintenance.

So here’s for hoping we can push this to completion and become a leader in green energy and green business

A wake up call for all politicians

My friend Robert Scoble and I have disagreed a lot lately in  the current discussion on politics that have take place on FriendFeed but on his most recent blog entry I agree with him on a lot of things

I would argue that his post should be titled “A Wake Up Call for All politicians” and not just Democrats.  There are some things towards the end that I disagree with but let’s look at what I think should be a wake call for all:

1.  Our education system:  Why is our education system lagging?  Is it because we have teachers that need to be removed but can due to tenure?  Is it because of the classroom size?  Or is because our colleges are not training the students correctly?  Maybe our education system is broke because the parents are not taking the vested interest they should?  But I totally agree the education system needs to be fixed.  No Child Left Behind was a start, but so much more needs to be done.

2.  Our taxation and infrastructure is whacked:  Yes our taxes are way too high but no one (Republican or Democrat) wants to cut programs or cut spending.  Plus our invovlement in Iraq is costing us a fortune, which in turns is costing us a ton in debt and taxes.  Lower taxes and make the current tax cuts permanent.

I think before we worry about broadband and other technologies we need to worry about our physical infrastrucutre. Our power grid is way outdated, in fact this is going to be a bigger and bigger problem as more and more people use alternative sources of energy (wind, solar, etc).  We lag behind the world in Nuclear Power Plants, lag behind the world in Oil Refineries, lag behind the world in so much…

So focus first on our infrastrucutre and then worry about things like IPTV, broadband, etc

3.  Our health care costs:  Not only are business drowning in costs, but people are drowning in health care costs.  I took my son for his 2 month shots and they were over $350.  Thank goodness for insurance covering all of that.  Why are these costs so high?

4.  Our immigration policies:  Congress voted to build a fence and also the money for a fence but nothing has been done.  Why?

And not just our borders w/ Mexico but the different workers that are coming to work and live in America.  When MS has to open an office in Vancouver just to help meet the needs of its foreign workers there is a problem.  We are losing great minds, their income, the secondary jobs they provide for spending that income, plus everything else they and future generations would provide to America

I disagree with Robert on some of the concepts he brings forth in the last two points but everything else is something every politician should be promoting.  Now if we could find real men and women who would stick up for their beliefs and help make America a better place it would be great.

Where and what is this generations Moon Shot?

Firefox doesn’t let me pick my search engine??

On the blog search engine land, there is a very interesting article by Danny Sullivan.  In it, Mr. Sullivan argues that because Google made such a stink about Microsoft making Live Search its default for Firefox 3 search.  It is a valid argument that I wish more people would take up.  MS was forced to allow people on a fresh install of IE7 to decide what the default search engine was.  I choose to use Google, instead of Live Search.  However there doesn’t let me add Live Search to the list

In fact w/ MS IE7 I can chooe a whole list:

 

Something that can’t be done with Firefox, but I can choose to search Creative Commons (what is this?).

 

The comments are the greatest:

“This story is a joke and you should be [sic]embarassed for posting it.”

“The coexistance of Google and Firefox runs deep enough that you can type a keyword into the browser and you will be directed to the #1 website that is in Google search results for that keyword 90% of the time. Type in a word or a phrase (laptop, cheap laptop, iphone, Danny Sullivan) hit Go and see where you end up.  In IE this is not possible”

Gotta love fanbois

.NET and MySQL

Found something interesting from Redmondmag.com that I didn’t know about and I bet you didn’t know about either.  Microsoft is a large supporter of MySQL, in fact it was recently signaled out for its contributions to the open source database.

An article here has a quote that probably sums up what you think: “Seriously?”

I learn something new every day

Would you trust your health records to Google Health?

And its beta?

Ok this is a little wierd to me, I wouldn’t trust my health records to any company that is a search company. In fact out of the 5 people I showed Google Health to none of them would trust their records.  And more specifically to a beta product.

Why would I want to put my information online with a search company?  Will I be searching for things and see paid advertising for health problems I may or may not have?  What happens if this product doesn’t pan out and I “lose” the information I have put in their?  How safe is the information stored there?

Better yet, when I go to my doctor can I say “upload the visit to google heath for me?” If I tried that, the office would stare at me and then laugh.  Then I would have to take notes and spend my own time uploading the information.  Seriously a waste of my time.

Google has some great products, but this seems to be a flop, a real stinker… However since it is “Google” people will just use it

Problems with SuSe Enterprise Linux 10.1 and Wireless

I work with a product called Altiris (now a part of Symantec) that supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SuSE Enterprise Linux for imaging and software distribution.  However there is next to no training on how to use these products for Inventory, Software Delivery, etc.  So I am in the process of working on actual hardware to test.

The laptop I have is a Dell Latitude D830 and is using an Intel Wireless card.  In Ubuntu the card works out of the box, however I am unable to find a solution to get it to work.  Anyone out there able to help me?

Thanks

A response to “Why many MCSEs won’t learn Linux”

Found this post via techmeme in regards to Why man MCSEs won’t learn Linux and am disappointed by some of the reasosn given but agree with some of them.

A little background about myself.  I am not a MCSE, but I have several Microsoft Certifications, MCSA MCP, MCT, along with my LInux+ certification and several years helping out with the Ubuntu distribution.  I use Linux on a daily basis and at work am considered the Linux guru, which may not be saying much about my co-workers.

The biggest disagreement I have is the difference between a Windows admin and a Unix admin is “the difference between rote learning and the application of theory to practice.”  This statement assumes that MCSEs memorize the tests answers, get the certifiation and then couldn’t admin their way out a situation that doesn’t fall on the test versus Unix/Linux Admins who “understand key ideas and acheive expertise by expanding both the set of ideas and the ability to apply them.”  In other words, Unix/Linux admins are smarter because they can apply practices and ideas, not test questions.

In my travels as a Windows consultant I have met a large number of Windows admins who not only are willing to try new ideas and new utilities but then apply those ideas to solving business needs.  As a consultant for a management product the people that are hardest to get to change are the Unix/Linux people.  A Linux admin is more stuck in their ways and assumes they know the best way to do things is the way they have always done things.  That no one could ever come up with a better management tool or utility to help them out is a common occurence.

The author of the post makes a comment that scripts from a book in 1984 provides great scripts that still run today.  That is great, but is it still the best way to manage the devices?  Is there a more powerful way then a script or cron job?  Some form of centralized reporting software that can track hardware/software inventory, patch management, and software delivery?  Or should we still rely on these scripts as the “best” way to do things.  A Windows admin is more wililng to adapt and change to the best practices.

Also the author compares a Windows 2000/2003 admin trying to figure out how to admin a Windows NT box.  I remember when I made the trasnsition from NT 4 to Windows 2000 and it was a large change.  However I didn’t give up, I was forced by my company to adapt or to start looking for a different job.  I wonder if the people the authors talks about that are  Windows are admins that shouldn’t be in either a Windows environment or an Unix environment.

Feel freee to argue

KDE 4 Release Schedule Announced

On the DOT an announcement was just made for the KDE 4 release schedule. Congrats to the developers and the team and everything.

April 1, 2007: Subsystem Freeze
From this date forward, no new KDE subsystem or major changes can be committed to kdelibs.
May 1, 2007: Alpha Release + kdelibs soft API Freeze
Alpha will be a source-only release without translations. The kdelibs API is “soft-frozen”, meaning that changes can be made but only with the consent of the core developers.
June 1, 2007: trunk/KDE is feature frozen
Trunk is frozen for feature commits. Internationalised string changes are allowed. A list of main modules that will be included in the final release will be made.
June 25, 2007: Beta1
Beta 1 is prepared and released after some initial testing. The incoming bugs will be reviewed for their severity. After this release, a new Beta version will be released every month.
September 23, 2007: Total Release Freeze
This is the very last date for committing anything that isn’t reviewed on the development lists.
September 25, 2007: Release Candidate 1
Targetted date for first release candidate. Only regressions (breakage caused by the KDE 4 port) or grave bugs can be fixed. Starting with this Release Candidate, a new Release Candidate will be put out every two weeks until the codebase is sufficiently stable and all showstopper bugs have been fixed.
October 23, 2007: Targetted Release Date

Great job

Robert bites the hand that fed him

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted here, but Robert’s last post has gone over board. Scoble attacks MS that they suck and can’t do well. I just don’t understand why the sudden change in tone of voice? Scoble became an Internet Celebrity because Microsoft allowed him to post his own thoughts and ideas, but lately things are going out of control. The world is starting to revolve around his thoughts and his ego has gotten out of control.
In a great article on the Times Online, makes special note that his career is where it is because of what Microsoft allowed him to do. For many tech readers his voice was a softer side of Microsoft, was the “soul” of a “kinder, gentler” Microsoft, but it seems like he is now out to bash Microsoft whenever he can. He has previous posts were he praises products and then later changes his position to colaim that it “sucks.”
How much of what he does is just deisgned to drive traffic to the company he works at versus what he actually really thinks? In fact, how do we even know what he really thinks? Can we take his blog @ face value any more or has he become another shill for Google and part of the whole M$ sucks crowd that I believe is helping to prevent the growth of alternate choices to Microsoft.
I wonder if Google ever looses its popularity will we soon be reading posts from him about how bad Google is instead of how great the product is. Oh yeah and an example of how MS search sucks is because a search for Robert doesn’t show his name as first post. Wow talk about an ego trip… The first link for Jonathan isn’t this site on either sites so they suck.

Part of his arguments is that Google reader is great and is the most popular reader out there, that Google and Apple listen to their customers and those companies make changes based on customer feedback. But really is Google going to change what it is doing because someone suggests it?