Wayne Chirnside wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:



WC> RE: security cameras
WC> The media around here reported that much of this is because
WC> business owners don't change tapes or maintain the VCR.

RJT> Oh?  Even still,  they're going to be recording at the slowest speed,
RJT> which doesn't make for real high image quality...

WC> I've seen 1,000 hour camera tape machines advertized.

Oh really?  And these use standard tapes?  I wonder how they do that...

WC> Stable release, compatable hardware?

RJT> Sure.  It's Slackware 8.1,  same as I'm running on the other box,
RJT> which I haven't had any problems with in that regard,  and the hardware
RJT> is pretty comparable,  both boards being VX chipset,  both about the
RJT> same speed CPU (one a K6-200,  the other a P200).  I'll see if I can't
RJT> get around to swapping some stuff around this weekend,  maybe.

Still haven't gotten to it yet,  too busy reading echomail...     :-)

WC> RE: Malware.

RJT> Seems to me you could pull it down with linux and still not have to
RJT> worry about too much...   It doesn't _run_ things that show up in mail,
RJT>  at least.  And most of that stuff seems to be aimed at the windoze
RJT> platform anyhow.

WC>  98 isn't as stable as 3.1 was, I'm doing power off resets :-(

No,  it's not.  Though I haven't had *any* signs of instability on the 98
box here,  not at all that I can remember.  I loaded it up with just about
all of the games I could find,  for the grandkids.  There were one or two
that just wouldn't behave,  and I ended up taking them off.

Is there anything in particular you can see as being related to the instability?

WC> re: malware

WC> That's my feeling as well as after rebate the price is enough to
WC> cover difference between the more expensive RAM sticks here to run
WC> the latest and greatest Linux.

RJT> They want to sell you expensive software to help deal with the holes
RJT> that are in other expensive software that you're running...    Right.

WC> 13 Meg of "fixpacks" later and it still locks up :-(

For what,  98?  I'm not running any fixes with mine,  just the original
distribution cdrom.  But then,  I'm not trying for any net connection with
that box either,  or worrying about any security holes.  When I do get
around to getting net-connected,  it ain't gonna be 98 that has a modem
hooked up to the box,  no way.

WC> Why don't ISP's burn anti-virus and worm software into a PROM and
WC> screen traffic for this malicious code? For the price they charge
WC> you'd think they could offer a clean product.

RJT> They are not there to deal with content,  only with providing the
RJT> connection, which is as it should be.  Although some folks are trying
RJT> to change that...

RJT> These days we have the music industry trying to twist arms with
RJT> legislatures so that ISPs can be responsible for "people downloading
RJT> pirated MP3 files".  I don't know how they can pre-judge that the files
RJT> are illegal -- I have a perfect right to make an MP3 out of a recording
RJT> that I own,  just like I'd have the right to take an LP and copy it on
RJT> to tape so I could play it in the car.

RJT> A typical windoze user might want a provider to look at content and
RJT> filter out binary information containing viruses.  A firm that was
RJT> writing anti-virus software and who was getting "samples" mailed to
RJT> them (I've seen that happen) would not find such a service particularly
RJT> useful,  or desirable.

WC> I see no problem archiving it amd sending in a nonexecutable format.

True.

RJT> And having anybody upstream of the end user having any control
RJT> whatsoever over content opens a whole big legal can of worms,  one that
RJT> I'd rather not see opened,  because we don't have a big enough can to
RJT> put them back into.  There'd be no stopping it,  as is amply evidenced
RJT> by the government's behavior in other areas.  They've been chomping at
RJT> the bit for a long time to gain some sort of control over "the
'net",
RJT> and I suspect that the big push to get all the schools wired up has
RJT> some connection with this.  I guess we'll see.

WC> I see you're not familiar with the "office of Information 
WC> Awareness".

I'm not sure about that one,  I know that a whole lot of things have come
into play fairly recently,  and haven't kept up with it.  But this is
tending to be more topical elsewhere,  maybe we oughta take it up over
there...?

WC> Viruses and trojans I could do without much as the WHO wiped out 
WC> smallpox.

There do seem to be more agressive responses to some of that stuff,  people
getting nailed for sending stuff like that out,  when they can track them
down.

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