Hi Paul, > Any thoughts on Linux or Mac?
The government's business is to know what its citizens are doing. You realize there are computer science divisions of the NSA and CIA, right? Do you really think they are sitting back and letting new technology defeat them? I only know a tiny bit about programming, having given up after VB3. There were too many changes and too much new documentation to read through. But I did learn that a lot of the key code is directly compiled in binary and encrypted. I don't know how much of Linux falls in this category, particularly since it is supposed to be open source. Yet, there are several commercial packagers of Linux these days. What did they add, and who are "they"? MAC is proprietary. What would Steve Jobs say if the CIA cornered him and claimed it was a matter of national security? I don't know, but I imagine that since he remained in business he has friends somewhere. This much, obviously, is speculation and pure conspiracy theory. However, the fact that Windows has had so many "security flaws" is a matter of public record. Perhaps you remember when Windows first started using VB Script that it was possible to literally write a few lines and completely wipe out someone's computer with an email message. The reasoning for allowing this was something like, "well let them try it and see what we do to them in court." It was as though they believed the world was filled with docile sheep and no wolves. Knowing a little about VB programming, I would never use the technology or open any emails with attachments or scripts. But boy, they sure did have some major virus attacks, and often by kids with too much time on their hands. Now XP Pro has this gawd awful automatic update feature. In the middle of the night they are loading new software into my computer to "fix security flaws." Okay, if it were a few megabytes two or three times a year, maybe. But when I checked my loaded software list in the Control Panel, there are several gigabytes of fixes being installed three times per week, sometimes. I had to shut it off because it literally filled 5 gigabytes of my only free space in just one month after completely reformatting the drive. I had to delete needed programs for the time being just so I could defragment the drive. Windows XP Pro was supposed to be top of the line, rock solid software. In my mind, especially because of my dad's career in the top echelons of the military, I feel like my computer is being searched constantly. There certainly have been many instances where my computers were sending huge amounts of data over the Internet for long periods of time. Of course, knowing that I'm a person of interest, I just stay out of trouble and don't care if they want to see what's on my hard drive. It's just the inconvenience resulting in lost system resources that bothers me. I've been keen to the government's intelligence interests for a long time. I'm always looking for their slipups, like the "last phone calls" that quickly emerged after 9/11. One time I caught an FBI agent tailing me as I was heading to a Wal-Mart store. When I got to the store, he parked on the side of the building and left his vehicle to follow me in. I double backed through the vending machine entrance and spent five minutes peering through the dark windows in his car just to piss him off and let him know I saw him. When he caught on and came back to his car, I just smiled at him, he smiled back, and I walked away. I knew he was FBI because I saw him in front of the local Federal building looking into my car at the Radio Shack electronic lab sitting on my front seat. This was just a day or two after the first truck bombing of the WTC. For all my whining, I really don't mind the snoops. I think they are doing a great job at protecting our country and not abusing the rights of our citizens (for the most part). Aside from getting sloppy with their snoop work, they have done nothing to interfere with any of my freedoms in spite of my colorful past. Dave
