Comments on: In Computer News

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:48:55 +0000

I tend to run a virus sweep, a defrag, and Ad-Aware, and then set a restore point before I make any changes. Experience is a harsh teacher and I want all of the back-up necessary if there is a problem that requires “reasoned discourse” [as in WTF is wrong with your crummy software!?!] with a vendor, so I do it a lot.

As long as everything was working when you set it, and you haven’t made any changes since, it should be good.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:35:25 +0000

I set a restore point once a month, usually at the first of the month, from Ad-Aware. (It doesn’t really matter where I invoke the restore point set; Ad-Aware is convenient because I run it every night.) This is not long before the typical monthly Patch Tuesday. I hope it’s good enough, because the older I get, the more reluctant I am to change habits that have served me well.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:55:19 +0000

I avoid MS “security” software like the plague. If they wrote a better OS, we wouldn’t need virus software.

I back-up and set a restore point before installing anything from Microsoft.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:39:51 +0000

And we lucky Win XP users are about to receive SP3, by Windows Update, if I understand correctly. To this point, I haven’t lost any USB devices to Windows updates… but that may change. BOHICA…

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:54:58 +0000

Vista is making the case with my clients that it is time to move on to something else. It is a bigger turkey than Windows ME.

I would think that most people would assume from the use of “cock-up” that this wasn’t a top shelf operation, although some of the people at CNet are getting a little testy about Vista lately.

I saw Jack’s comment, and expect to see it a MS press release “real soon now” when they tell us it’s a feature, not a bug.

It’s possible this only affects people who are running specific software that has done something “unusual” with the USB port, Quickbooks come to mind as a program often ranges far afield and uses resources it doesn’t actually need.

I first guess would be to a bad pointer in the software – who knows if they test on any current hardware that has “retired” the PS/2 ports.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:37:26 +0000

But as one of the commenters at my blog noted, this security update is 100% effective at stopping your computer being infected by spyware. After all, if you can’t browse to any websites because your keyboard and mouse don’t work, you can’t get infected by spyware . Those ‘Softies are just too smart for us :).

Note that modern chipsets no longer have support for the old PS/2 mouse and keyboard, they’re USB-only. Even my Macbook, internally, has the keyboard and touchpad hooked up to the chipset via USB according to System Profiler (click USB, you’ll see it on bus 4 along with the IR receiver). So if you end up with this bug, not only will it disable all current desktops, having a laptop is no guarantee that it won’t disable your keyboard and trackpad too!

Just to inform your readers, the Register UK is a tabloid, sorta the National Enquirer of computer news, and tends to go more for entertainment value. So don’t believe anything just because the Register said it. That said, I did verify this information with other more reputable sources before linking to the Register, which is generally far more entertaining than the rather dull U.S. computer media.

As for me, I will have Windows Vista on my machine when Yuma, AZ freezes over. That’s why I bought a Macbook — every other consumer notebook computer I tried to buy had Vista on it, I finally said screw’em and bought the only one that didn’t. And have been very happy ever since.

— Badtux the Snarky Penguin