[Techtalk] Re: [Newchix] security question

[Andrew]

On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 11:28:13 -0400
Lisa <linux at giftedlyoutspoken.com> wrote:

> I had a weird incident this morning.  
> 
> I shut down last night due to electrical storms in the area.  I also
> unplugged the CPU and the modem (maybe paranoid, but easy enough to
> do).
> 
> This morning, I plugged the CPU back in and started it up.  ....

	Not sure what this is, but I've had similar troubles when un-plugging
the computer. I use Mandrake only and have used it for one month short
of two years now. It would happen with my old Macintosh too, a second
restart was necessary to get everything straight.
	When changing the time a restart is recommended,  linux of
any flavor requires very, very few restarts, You may have hit on two the
very few times when a restart is recommended.  For newbies like
us, the restart process triggers automatic updates and gets everything
in sync. There is the alphabet soup for experienced (CL) users, and the
rare restart for'us newbies'.

	Not even the incredible M$ publicity machine should have you believing
a computer can read your mind, though with a little effort they could
convince most people that is coming in their next rendition...So buy
now...

 >After a bit of hair-pulling, it dawned on me that I had not
> re-connected my cable modem. 

	Been there, done that, it is soo anoying
 
> After rebooting with the internet connection live, everything started
> up fine... no konqueror screen or taskbar indicator, and no problem
> starting kmail.
> 
> HMMM.
> 
> AFAIK, a live internet connection shouldn't be a prerequisite for
> booting a computer!  So why do I get a different result if I boot
> "with" a live connection vs. "without" one...??
> 
> I've been having recurring problems with the system getting SLOOOWWWW
> for no discernible reason... which leads me to worry that I might be
> infected with something.  I am twice as worried that
> something untoward is going on here.

 	There are 30 to 80 thousand virus for Window$ all available to
be slightly altered and used again to infect window$, There are none
available for Linux, none. It's hard to believe M$ window$ was that
poorly designed, but it is.  

>"alphabet soup with slashes thrown in" 

	haa!, yes, and the worst of it is, when as a desktop user, you do get
to using that alphabet soup, six months later when you need it again,
you can't remember it. Like anything new, getting a notebook and writing
it down is very helpfull.  Linux is about choices and there are many,
those choices require you to remember new and different things, not all
that many more that your old familiar space, but still new and different
stuff.	Remember this, You have Linux as the underlying operating system,
and a pretty "X" window part that you see on top, that "X" window part,
called the GUI (graphical user interface) can be called KDE, Gnome or
several other names, depending on which you choose.  I believe Suse uses
the KDE, GUI as default.  It is the CL (command line) alphabet soup that
is universal in Linux. So anyone familiar with the CL can be of
assistance to you. The GUI's are all a slight bit different, again this
is the core of  OSS (0pen Source Software),  it is the ability to
choose.	Unfortunately when using the GUI, someone would need to be
familiar with both your choice in the Linux distribution (SuSe?) and the
GUI (KDE?) you are using.  As a result the 'gurus" revert to the CL as a
way of being sure we all speak the same words. 

	In the CL, there are about, probably less than, 12 commands that are
very nice to know, not many really. The commands for instance, "ls", is
short for list. Typing"ls" calls a program that lists the stuff in the
folder/directory you are currently 'in'. Another CL program is"locate"
that is very helpful in finding stuff located any place on your
computer. Many of these CL programs have the dash and a letter to modify
the commands, the space-dash-letter placed after the command  The
command for getting your net connection up and running after plugging in
your modem is"service network restart" typed into terminal program.
Certainly restarting the computer and triggering the automatic processes
is easier for you, for now.


> Thanks,
> Lisa
-- 

	Andrew

This e-mail composed using the
Linux Operating System and
the Sylpheed e-mail Program.
I use the Linux distrubution,
 named Mandrake.