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Help for Neighbor?



 
 
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  #46  
Old August 2nd 13, 12:40 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Juan Wei
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Posts: 553
Default Help for Neighbor?

Paul has written on 8/1/2013 4:25 PM:

The MBR isn't a problem, as you can pull the hard drive,
slave it to another computer (as a non-boot drive), and
just erase it. That's if your plan was to start from
scratch. Then, put it back into the machine.


Can't it be erased in situ by running a wiper program from a bootable CD?
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  #47  
Old August 2nd 13, 01:22 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Paul
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Posts: 18,275
Default Help for Neighbor?

Juan Wei wrote:
Paul has written on 8/1/2013 4:25 PM:
The MBR isn't a problem, as you can pull the hard drive,
slave it to another computer (as a non-boot drive), and
just erase it. That's if your plan was to start from
scratch. Then, put it back into the machine.


Can't it be erased in situ by running a wiper program from a bootable CD?


Normally, the answer is yes.

What you should be doing though, is entering the model number
of the computer into Google, to find out if there are any
issues with how it implements the basic features.

There was one brand in Europe, where virtually every generation
of computers they sold, it involved a different low level "trick",
such as using an HPA to hide the recovery partition. And it
helps to know all the details, before attempting to restore the
computer to like-new conditions.

Paul
  #48  
Old August 2nd 13, 03:42 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Warren Post[_2_]
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Posts: 20
Default Help for Neighbor?

On 08/01/2013 09:33 AM, Bob Henson wrote:
Warren Post wrote:

On 07/31/2013 08:39 PM, Paul wrote:
Juan Wei wrote:
ray carter has written on 7/31/2013 8:21 PM:
What I would do - would be to install Debian. YMMV


Why Debian over the others, say Ubuntu?

Because Debian might have an interface you can use.

Ubuntu has something that looks like Metro interface.

I feel a little nausea, when I see these icons on the left.


So install a different desktop environment. Unlike Windows 8, where you
have no alternative to the tile interface, Linux lets you install dozens
of different desktop environments.

On my computer at work I have Ubuntu running the Xfce desktop
environment. No problem.


Therein lies the problem with Linux too, though - there are more distros
and desktops than there are functional programs to use. All the familiar
programs that everyone wants to use only run on Windows. No video editor
(that works well), no Microsoft office, no latest games, the list is
endless.


While I could quibble with your description, I'd much rather make
explicit what you hint at -- that users should chose their operating
systems based on what they want to do with it, not as if they were
religions. For me, Linux is the better fit. For you, Windows is the
better choice, and vive la différence. Nor am I inclined to jump to the
conclusion that Windows isn't a good choice for the OP's neighbor.

--
Warren Post
http://my.opera.com/wpost/
  #49  
Old August 2nd 13, 03:44 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Gene E. Bloch[_2_]
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Posts: 7,485
Default Help for Neighbor?

On Thu, 01 Aug 2013 14:06:35 -0700, Ken Blake wrote:

On Thu, 1 Aug 2013 17:32:03 +0000 (UTC), Dave
wrote:

I've seen this when someone asked me for help. Although the person
involved denied having done something while online, I didn't believe her.
This type of call is common, I believe they simply want some money,


It may be that they simply want money. Or it may be that some of them
simply want money and others want to install malware, key loggers,
etc. Or maybe they all want to install such things.

I don't know for sure what they do, but my advice to anyone who let
such a person into their computer is to do a clean Windows
reinstallation and change all your passwords. The risk of not doing it
is too great; it's playing with fire.


Meanwhile, I feel pretty sorry for the victim. Realizing that you've
been had is not a fun experience (not to belabor the obvious).

Let's hope that the recovery processes are successful relatively soon.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)
  #50  
Old August 2nd 13, 03:49 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Warren Post[_2_]
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Posts: 20
Default Help for Neighbor?

On 08/01/2013 01:35 PM, Bob Henson wrote:
If you work in a company that uses Microsoft Office, you*do* have to have
it. LibreOffice in not sufficiently compatible.


Actually, I work in a company that uses MS Office, yet I use only
LibreOffice with no problems. No one has even noticed, and they're
nitpickers here. That's not to say that the situation you describe
doesn't exist -- I know of a few examples where your statement is
unfortunately true. I just wanted to point out that, happily, it's often
not true.

--
Warren Post
http://my.opera.com/wpost/
  #51  
Old August 2nd 13, 05:47 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
XS11E
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Posts: 793
Default Help for Neighbor?

John wrote:

On Thu, 01 Aug 2013 08:55:35 -0700, XS11E
wrote:


No Intuit software, no Quicken, no TurboTax, no Quickbooks (they
don't run properly in Wine or Crossover Office) and I personally
have no other reason to own a computer.


Go to the fora on www.codeweavers.com and tell the good
CodeWeaver folks about those programs being incompatible. They'll
fix them. It's in their interest to make *every* Widosed program
run in Unices and MacOSes.


They've been working on it for many years with some limited success.
Intuit does make Mac editions.

--
XS11E, Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project:
http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/
  #52  
Old August 2nd 13, 10:38 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
mechanic
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Posts: 1,064
Default Help for Neighbor?

On Thu, 01 Aug 2013 11:51:22 -0600, Ken Springer wrote:

One thing I'm beginning to relearn from my 8-bit days, you simply
have to find and try out different programs that do a particular
category of work (i.e. word processors) until you find the one
that does what you need, and fits you.


Unfortunately when you come out of your cave into the real world and
work with others, you find that it's important to use compatible
applications so that information and work can be shared. Like it or
not MS-Office is the default standard for this.
  #53  
Old August 2nd 13, 10:39 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
mechanic
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Posts: 1,064
Default Help for Neighbor?

On Thu, 01 Aug 2013 20:49:41 -0600, Warren Post wrote:

On 08/01/2013 01:35 PM, Bob Henson wrote:
If you work in a company that uses Microsoft Office, you*do*
have to have it. LibreOffice in not sufficiently compatible.


Actually, I work in a company that uses MS Office, yet I use only
LibreOffice with no problems. No one has even noticed, and
they're nitpickers here. That's not to say that the situation you
describe doesn't exist -- I know of a few examples where your
statement is unfortunately true. I just wanted to point out that,
happily, it's often not true.


Unfortunately often it *is* true!
  #54  
Old August 2nd 13, 02:11 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Ken Springer[_2_]
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Posts: 3,817
Default Help for Neighbor?

On 8/1/13 10:47 PM, XS11E wrote:
John wrote:

On Thu, 01 Aug 2013 08:55:35 -0700, XS11E
wrote:


No Intuit software, no Quicken, no TurboTax, no Quickbooks (they
don't run properly in Wine or Crossover Office) and I personally
have no other reason to own a computer.


Go to the fora on www.codeweavers.com and tell the good
CodeWeaver folks about those programs being incompatible. They'll
fix them. It's in their interest to make *every* Widosed program
run in Unices and MacOSes.


They've been working on it for many years with some limited success.
Intuit does make Mac editions.


I think Intuit only makes a bare bones version for the Mac these days.


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.8.4
Firefox 22.0
Thunderbird 17.0.7
LibreOffice 4.0.4.2
  #55  
Old August 2nd 13, 02:40 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Richard Rose
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Posts: 47
Default Help for Neighbor?

Nil wrote :
On 01 Aug 2013, Richard Rose wrote in
alt.comp.os.windows-8:

And you dont have to contend with bugs with MS cant fix that go
back Windows 3.1


Such as what?


Learn to program then you will find them out!

or NSA back doors!



  #56  
Old August 2nd 13, 02:49 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Zaphod Beeblebrox
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Posts: 868
Default Help for Neighbor?

On Fri, 02 Aug 2013 14:40:40 +0100, "Richard Rose"
wrote in article ...

Nil wrote :
On 01 Aug 2013, Richard Rose wrote in
alt.comp.os.windows-8:

And you dont have to contend with bugs with MS cant fix that go
back Windows 3.1


Such as what?


Learn to program then you will find them out!


OK, I'll bite - I know how to program, but haven't yet encountered any
Windows bugs that date back to the 16-bit Windows 3.1 days. Please,
give me an example.

--
Zaphod

Adventurer, ex-hippie, good-timer (crook? quite possibly),
manic self-publicist, terrible bad at personal relationships,
often thought to be completely out to lunch.
  #57  
Old August 2nd 13, 02:53 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Richard Rose
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Posts: 47
Default Help for Neighbor?

Zaphod Beeblebrox wrote on 02/08/2013 :
On Fri, 02 Aug 2013 14:40:40 +0100, "Richard Rose"
wrote in article ...

Nil wrote :
On 01 Aug 2013, Richard Rose wrote in
alt.comp.os.windows-8:

And you dont have to contend with bugs with MS cant fix that go
back Windows 3.1

Such as what?


Learn to program then you will find them out!


OK, I'll bite - I know how to program, but haven't yet encountered any
Windows bugs that date back to the 16-bit Windows 3.1 days. Please,
give me an example.


For a start there was 32bit code in the 16bit Windows 3.1 code, you can
start there.


  #58  
Old August 2nd 13, 03:15 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Zaphod Beeblebrox
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Posts: 868
Default Help for Neighbor?

On Fri, 02 Aug 2013 14:53:17 +0100, "Richard Rose"
wrote in article ...

Zaphod Beeblebrox wrote on 02/08/2013 :
On Fri, 02 Aug 2013 14:40:40 +0100, "Richard Rose"
wrote in article ...

Nil wrote :
On 01 Aug 2013, Richard Rose wrote in
alt.comp.os.windows-8:

And you dont have to contend with bugs with MS cant fix that go
back Windows 3.1

Such as what?

Learn to program then you will find them out!


OK, I'll bite - I know how to program, but haven't yet encountered any
Windows bugs that date back to the 16-bit Windows 3.1 days. Please,
give me an example.


For a start there was 32bit code in the 16bit Windows 3.1 code,


In Enhanced Mode (which affects the operation of the OS itself, but is
not exposed in userland) and with the Win32s extensions, yes, that's
correct. So what's your point?

you can start there.


Start *where* exactly? Give me a concrete example of a bug in Windows
3.1 that exists today in Windows 8, and since you seem to be focused on
the programming aspect, give me a code sample that exposes the bug.

--
Zaphod

"Yeah. Listen, I'm Zaphod Beeblebrox, my father was Zaphod Beeblebrox
the Second, my grandfather Zaphod Beeblebrox the Third..."

"What?"

"There was an accident with a contraceptive and a time machine. Now
concentrate!"
  #59  
Old August 2nd 13, 03:54 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Richard Rose
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Posts: 47
Default Help for Neighbor?

Zaphod Beeblebrox submitted this idea :
On Fri, 02 Aug 2013 14:53:17 +0100, "Richard Rose"
wrote in article ...

Zaphod Beeblebrox wrote on 02/08/2013 :
On Fri, 02 Aug 2013 14:40:40 +0100, "Richard Rose"
wrote in article ...

Nil wrote :
On 01 Aug 2013, Richard Rose wrote in
alt.comp.os.windows-8:

And you dont have to contend with bugs with MS cant fix that go
back Windows 3.1

Such as what?

Learn to program then you will find them out!


OK, I'll bite - I know how to program, but haven't yet encountered any
Windows bugs that date back to the 16-bit Windows 3.1 days. Please,
give me an example.


For a start there was 32bit code in the 16bit Windows 3.1 code,


In Enhanced Mode (which affects the operation of the OS itself, but is
not exposed in userland) and with the Win32s extensions, yes, that's
correct. So what's your point?

you can start there.


Start *where* exactly? Give me a concrete example of a bug in Windows
3.1 that exists today in Windows 8, and since you seem to be focused on
the programming aspect, give me a code sample that exposes the bug.


I'm not an unpaid bug tester, do you own (*&(&^%^£(^& research!


  #60  
Old August 2nd 13, 05:06 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Dave[_48_]
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Posts: 172
Default Help for Neighbor?

On Thu, 01 Aug 2013 16:50:32 -0400, Chris S. wrote:


What it does, it does well - it's just very limited as to software
availability and hence what it can do - like a Mac, but much, much
worse.

--

Well said! And without emotion! Excellent!
+77

Chris


I agree, I've tried Linux and have Ubuntu in a virtual box, but rarely
launch it.
There are two things Linux Advocates miss. Businesses of course are cost
concious, but it's far more important for them to have software for which
they can rely on a pool of trained operators, either in house or from a
temp agency. Such people exist for windows stuff. Like it or not, MS
captured the market and although historically they have been slow to get
to where they are, Office is now an excellent product and if there are
problems with Windows 7 I've yet to uncover them .
The other thing people gloss over is the difficulty for completely non-
technical folks to install any OS. Heck, I have to show people how to
access their mail. They purchase their machine from a store with
everything installed and ready to run. If they add software like Quicken,
the process is painless. If they still have a problem someone like us can
help.
Oh, by the way, there is a third thing, Linux people in their NG's can be
obnoxious and unhelpful,correction, a lot of them are rude, obnoxious and
unhelpful.

A lot of the good software that runs on Linux and would appeal to the home
user is available for windows. I use Libre Office and Scribus. The latter
is quite good but you need to persevere initially. Same can be said for
The Gimp, but I'm afraid I'm not that persevering - elements 11 for me.

 




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