I am a Linux Advocate (satire)

I am online using a pendrive running Linux Mint 17.

Supposedly I am an über hackers, but don't feel I am that special. If I was, then I would bullying everyone on G+ because they don't get Linux and I do.

My hacking started circa 1993 until today and I hope to be hacking when I am old and grey. Maybe I hacked from the time I started modemming in 1984.

Whatever. I do not feel special, but few people understand me. I can count on one hand how many other people know what I am talking about.

Sadly, the athletes and the popular girls in school have no clue whatsoever. And their self esteem is so low that they have to ignore or bully me.

I love Linux. I live, breathe and would die for it. However, that is a stark contrast to my job description: security guard.

Except I am a computer security advocate. Computers running Windows are more likely to get infected by malware than a Linux system.

However, a hacker would have to get root on my router before he even gets inside my LAN.

Anyway, now that I have outed myself, I can bear the silence that will proceed from this point forward due to misperceptions of hackers.

Hackers are not the reason why your Windows computer got "hacked" - that was an automated script. The guy who programmed it is probably sitting in a car trying to hack into your router to get free Internet.

I do not identify with him. He has probably tried to hack his way into my LAN and failed.

If I could, I would be running snort to ensure the security of my network but I am not on my Linux at the moment. I have enjoyed Mint on my netbook.

Now it is time to test drive it on my PC. It was child's play to turn my flash drive into a Mintdisk.

Later on today I cam going to teach my Panjabi friends at the gas station about chromecast and how to use it.

I feel good.

Have fun, Windows users. I have gone light years ahead of you. So, phear me! :P

Data Clouds (satire)

After reading that the Chinese government said Ubuntu, Windows and Android are not safe, I went to Google "EU and computer security Ubuntu" to see what I could learn to confirm this.

According to what I found, UK's security branch says Ubuntu is secure, and the Dutch concur.

However, data stored on cloud servers is vulnerable to US Patriot Act. See this article for more information: http://askubuntu.com/questions/58821/how-safe-is-eu-based-ubuntu-one-cloud-data

IMO the safety depends on the OS used.

Android is as safe as the smartphone owner wants it to be, without the complication of entering a throw-away password everytime I boot up my Linux PC. I don't rank securing my data on my smartphone as high as I do on my PC.

As for Windows, a weekly backup onto an external hard drive is recommend from the My Documents folder.

My security trick is I never save pictures I did not create unless it is related to a post on G+, and rely on G+ to store my photos safely. When Photos gets full, I look for the oldest pictures to back up. Sometimes I even purge old pictures if necessary.

Yes, I use G+ as backup for my photos. Drive could be used to archive the oldest album when I run out of space. Since Drive is a Google cloud, I consider it as a temporary file storage area to store these files until I need to store it on a flash drive or on CD-R or DVD-R disc.

However, I am not concerned because it's not full yet. Also, I can always start from scratch in the case of Google+ losing my pictures. That was the reason why I used G+ to backup my photos.

Of course, when I last upgraded my system in December, I used a partition I have created for the purpose to backup almost everything in my user directory. Currently that consists of about 25 MB on my current installation.

Now is the time to backup to format my backup partition and begin the long process of backing up my pictures.

---

References:

Results for Googling "Eu and computer security ubuntu":
https://www.google.ca/search?q=Eu+and+computer+security+treaty&oq=Eu+and+computer+security+treaty&aqs=chrome..69i57.13893j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=Eu+and+computer+security+ubuntu

Chinese Government Says Ubuntu Windows and Android Are Not Safe; Launches New OS:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Chinese-Government-Says-Ubuntu-Windows-and-Android-Are-Not-Safe-Launches-New-OS-418452.shtml

Problem: Windows Firewall Turns Off By Itself After HP System Recovery

Problem: Windows Firewall Turns Off By Itself After HP System Recovery

Description:

Windows Firewall turns off by itself after HP System Recovery.

Windows displays notification that Windows Firewall is turned off.


In Windows Firewall, there are Exceptions for DISCover - Digital Interactive System.

This Microsoft Technet Windows Client TechCenter forum message thread mentions this:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/itproxpsp/thread/cc78153c-1811-46c3-a1a3-7d2c7dc3e7ba

"Friday, October 16, 2009 7:15 mouse47
...

I had installed Spybot with Teatimer. Teatimer (when set to paranoid mode) lets you know when it is scanning a new process. I kept trying to quick get to Task manager when I would see teatimer's notification and the windows security pop-up come up at the same time. After many attempts I found out it was "myFTP.exe". A google search said it was from a program called DisCover (digital interactive systems). I did indeed have DisCover on my computer. I came with my computer. I have never used it. It's some kind of drop and play gaming application."

Solution:
Go to Add/Remove Software (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307895)
Look for Discover
Delete entry only for Discover

TYVM, Gentle Readers!!!!!!

It's been a couple months and hits to my blog have increased tremendously.

A month ago, I decided to monetize my youtube account, too.

Though the income has been modest ($1.81 for gandhara and 72 cents for youtube), you'll hear no complaints from me.

So almost daily I thank Google for their ad service.

Please don't get paranoid over the picture accompanying this blog entry, gentle readers.

Most of the statistics do not retain personal information about your choice of OS.

That cannot be done by Google. They do not have that mentality like cyber-criminals do.

I heartily endorse Google for their resistance to corruption by net-bot farms and hacking by foreign interests. Most of the information leaked was perhaps because one Windows computer was pwn'd, due to lack of security on that PC. I bet it was freshly installed too.

So thanks to the internets. You've been good to me and to Google!!!

Pageviews by OS Reveals iPad Mobile User Reads Gandhara.Blogspot.Ca

WOW! I noticed that someone used his iPad to view my blog.

Thanks but next time, could you post a comment? Maybe I need to pan iPads...

GooglePlus has helped me immensely by allowing me to merge the blog with my G+ account.

Thanks for viewing my pages, gentle reader!!!!

How Exposure to Open Source Has Set Me Free

While using Linux for exclusively for the past 5 years, I've been exposed to the concept of Open Source software (open-source software).

Open Source software is that it is free, and comes with source code.

In brief, Open Source is software that sets you free. Over the past 10 years I have used Debian Linux and FreeBSD, having installed it on low end PC computers. As well, I have installed Knoppix on PCs on which Window XP would not installed.

So my computer experience would be considered to be advanced and extensive by a few people. Though, I view my experience as intermediate, since there is so much more to learn.

As an advanced computer user, I would have no exclusive preference for any kind of operating system since I would feel comfortable using Linux, OS X, Windows, Solaris, BSD, and Unix.

Thus am I thankful that my experience with open source software has set me free.

Antivirus and Internet Security Solutions

As an anti-virus and internet security solution, Avira has recently been useful.

Just today, a client asked me to get rid of the dreaded Windows Rootkit virus. USing the free Avira AntiVir Rescue System LiveCD, and later, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware in Windows safe mode, I was able to complete that task within 4 hours.

Then after using CCleaner, I also found a trojan that runs at start up. The trojan was given the process name of NFIJUGARORO, yet ran an executable named ipoyamuzage.dll. This particular bug also required me to use regedit to carefully delete it.

Avira: http://www.avira.com
Malware Bytes: http://malwarebytes.org/
CCleaner: http://www.ccleaner.com/

What Windows Really Is

From Windows as a GUI over DOS to DOS-less NT, then later XP, and onwards to Vista, this product has basically merged the MSDOS kernel into the GUI, mostly to inculcate the "point-and-click" mindset first fostered with Apple Mac.

However, development of the X Window System happened independently of the influence of Xerox Alto on Mac OS, and Microsoft's license of certain aspects of Macintosh user interface from Apple.

Then through aggressive marketing, Windows came to dominance.

In response, Mac OS became Unix-like in 1999 with the release of OS X.

References:
History of Mac OS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mac_OS
History of Mac OS X: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mac_OS_X
History of Microsoft Windows: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Windows
History of X-Window System: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System#History