imaginarynumber

But how would you know if you never run a scanner? The UnrealIRC servers were hacked back in November 2009 and they didn't notice until recently. Any linux user that has a "I don't believe in running a scanner" mentality and that downloaded the software will still be infected. Had that been a windows virus it would not have taken half a year to notice that the virus/malware existed in the wild. I agree that most linux users have a tendency toward being savvy. The same cannot be said for mac users. I know lots of Mac users that don't even know how to force a shut down. They got a MAc because they are sheeple. How many of those mac users will have recently picked up the malware in the screen savers that are doing the rounds again? IMO never running a scan is irresponsible and arguably can make one complicit in the spreading of malware. I even scan my mobile phone. It cannot be denied that as the number of mac and linux users increase so will the levels of malware. The main "problem" with M$ is that most users run with full admin rights they are at greater risk. With regard to MAC market share- much of this seems to be driven by the sheeple who went from crappy key based symbian phones to the iphone. Many of them never even tried WM or Android and were sucked in by the adverts, oblivious (blinded) to the glaring faults of the iphone. Actually given the proprietry nature of the iphone and the awfull itunes they possibly are better off buying a mac.

Regardless of which OS you use you should be bothered. No OS is virus free. At least M$ users are aware that they need a virus scanner. There are too many mac and linux users that are infected out there that will remain so because the owners will never install AV protection that they think that they don't need it!!!

Whilst I am happy with w7, if the iphone/ipad hype continues unabated then the future might indeed be linux. Through the release of the iphone and ipad apple have demonstrated that the public are gullible enough to be forced to run software that is officially endorsed. For many years windows mobile allowed owners the freedom to search for their own software and install whatever they wanted (be it in .exe or .cab format). Along came apple and the press measured the success of phone OS in terms of the amount of APPS available in an app store. Apps which must be endorsed by the OS maker. Sadly Microsoft have now seen the dollar signs and decided to follow suit with the forthcoming WM7. The public have voted with the wallets, they are happy to live in a walled world. It is not inconceivable that the whole app concept could jump from phones to computers. There is no doubt that M$ and Apple would love a slice from the 3rd party software market. This might indeed be a paranoid rant but I do not believe that windows mobile would have moved in its current direction had it not been for the iphone. Apple are proprietary all the way though, from the early days where they refused to use tcp/ip (opting for apple talk) to their appleface video calling. Microsoft aren't much better but at least they are better...

Those are impressive response times. I shall look at them in more detail later- I am happy to pay for a decent service (bar the one time I got ripped off). you are correct about paying peanuts and getting monkeys thanks

Phrases such as "I don't want to be rude but..." or this "without sounding too harsh" are often shorthand for "I value my opinion so much that I am going to express it regardless of any offence that it may cause". I took umbrage with you reply because you seem to be discounting what I say based on your own incorrect assumptions (which i shall address in due course). I am happy to accept that this was not your intention but your reply did have (IMO) a sanctimonious air. I do find it rather irksome that you keep telling me that I am wrong without even having the decency to back up or check your statements. The danger is that newbies will discount my warnings because you keep making me look like I am dumb or making things up. I have conceded that I was at fault for not doing so. That said I am not a complete novice- I have a reseller account, a basic hosting package, a couple of VPS accounts and an account that does actually offer unlimited bandwidth. There are companies that do offer unlimited (as Fasthosts DO claim to)- sure there might be a trade off with quality of service but the fact remains that they exist. Just because you believe something to be true, it does not make it so. Here is one of the ads that I sent to the ASA as part of my complaint about the misleading Fasthosts adverts. http://4t2.me.uk/scumhosts/Image0004.JPG if you can see the reference to the T&Cs then you are a better man than I am. Err... they do. Follow this link http://www.fasthosts.co.uk/hosting/personal-web-hosting/ and then click on the hyperlink next to monthly bandwidth. It says "With unlimited bandwidth included with every Fasthosts web hosting package, there are no unexpected costs or impact to your website, no matter how popular it becomes." Please do follow the link- your "criticism" of my naivity seem to be partially based upon your insistance that Fasthosts dont even offer unlimited bandwidth ???? I guess that this is based upon what you imagine to be fair play- it is not based upon fact. i agree. That might well be your experience but i did raise tickets (multiple ones). I was told that i had signed up to a year contract. I explained that I hadn't realised that. I asked to be released under the distance selling act but was told that as a business user I am not covered by the distance selling act. I retorted that signing up as a business user was an error- too bad was the reply. I asked if i could escalate the issue and was told that the company line would not change. The cancellation process has since changed for the better. When i tried to cancel you could not do it based on password only. You had to fill in a form and then send it back. I tried to phone support but could never get through. I sought legal advice and was told that I didn't have a leg to stand on, caveat emptor, read the T&Cs next time. Had I not been a business user I could have asked trading standards to pursue what I believe to be intentional misselling and an intentionally misleading sign up process. Frankly I cannot afford to sue them for a service which is costing me such a small amount. The only course left open to me was to complain to the ASA- they upheld all of my complaints. Other than that I will warn people about them whenever possible. _____________________________edit______________ Have just found a copy of the cancellation rules as they were when i signed up. Cancellations •After the minimum contract period, customers may cancel any package by contacting the Customer Care team on +44 (0) 1452 561858 (Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 5:30pm UK time). Customers must provide details of the account/package to close, including the account Owner Password for verification. Fasthosts will not, under any circumstances, close an account without first confirming the Owner Password. •Customers will be required to complete a Closure Confirmation form, authorising the permanent removal of all website and email services on the account, from our system. •On receipt of a completed Closure Confirmation form, the account will be scheduled to close. Fasthosts will acknowledge the closure by sending an email to the email address registered on the account. •If Fasthosts do not receive the completed Closure Confirmation form within 14 days of sending, the cancellation request will be discarded and the account/package will remain open. •Any incentives that were offered to customers when opening their account will also be cancelled. Customers may be given the option to purchase services which were offered as start-up incentives, in the result of a cancellation. •Fasthosts reserves the right to cancel the service at any time. Does that sound like a firm you want to deal with???

Hi Numb, It might be the case that the reseller package is different to the basic hosting. Their use of "unlimited" can be likened to T-Mobile's who say that after 3gb of bandwidth they will block access to anything other than basic html content.

LIUNUX??? is that a snide Chinese version

Sorry you are wrong. Plain and simple. The terms were not mentioned in the glossy ads. This is evidenced by the fact that I complained to the ASA who slapped Fasthosts on the wrists. fasthosts DO purport to offer unlimited bandwidth- they still do. This is not unlimited and IMHO intentionally misleading. I had stoopidly thought that i could offer files- directly accessible through the site but this is prohibited as the unlimited bandwidth only applies to html pages- You have to scrutinise the T&Cs to find that. http://www.fasthosts.co.uk/hosting/personal-web-hosting/ Minutes after opening my account and discovering that their backend did not work properly I went and opened a Bluehost account- it does allow all of those things that Fasthosts seemingly infer that they offer. With regard to cancelling the fasthost account, I can not. When you go through the sign up process they automatically opt you into the introductory discount, by agreeing you are inadvertently signing up for a year. The only way to opt out is to untick the I Agree to the Terms and Conditions box. This will then allow you to sellect the monthly contract. I agree that I am at fault for not reading the T&Cs clearly- that said, they contradict themselves anyway and I studied Economics at Uni and not Law. Come to think of it I have not read the T&Cs here either and for all I know there might be a clause that says that after a year of free membership I have to give up a kidney. When one deals with a large firm you do not read all of the T&Cs, you assume that they will treat you in a way that is morally and legally fair. Unfortunately Fasthost do not. Life is too short to pay a lawyer to check the T&Cs every time you buy something on line. With regard to sounding harsh- yes you do- i hope that you never have to make an insurance claim and discover that you are not covered because of a clause that is hidden in pages of legalese. In such an event I am sure you will say "oh well my house burnt down but i dont expect anything from the insurers because i didn't notice clause 345.467.446.6.3 part f" I expect to be ripped off by firms that operate out of regent street mail boxes and not by Mega Global Inc type firms such as Fasthosts. i would even go so far as to say that the mags such as the Dennis Publishing titles are complicit in this. I guess you dont read bad feed back about firms (in mags) that derive so much of their income from them. I was naive but nobody deserves to be ripped off.

Not sure which graphics card you have but with my nvida i right click on a blank part of the screen and select the card- then i go to colour settings where i have sliders to change colour etc

Why not just tweak the colours in the graphics card settings???

The main "problem" with windows is that they (microsoft) give you choice. Apples are often more "reliable" because you can only use hardware sanctioned by them, this reduces the risk of driver issues but pushes up costs. I for one am happy with W7 and ubuntu running on VMware. The whole "Apple means no viruses" is pants- there are more viruses in the windows world because there are more windows machines, hence there is more incentive for virus writers to target windows. There are many apple owners with infected machines who don't have AV programs because they don't believe that they need them.

I must be getting old!!!! Years ago a last minute flight cost peanuts. Microsoft were evil and Apple were Ben and Jerry. Now Microsoft look postively open source compared to Apple. Wait 5 years and apple will add a hinged lid/keyboard/cd drive/etc to the Ipad and the press will herald the ground breaking invention of the i-laptop.

Not sure about that!?!?!?! My i7 Z11 vaio is amazing. Granted it cost £2300 but it is worth every penny- ok I had to sell my kidneys on ebay to buy it but hey-ho. I agree that the lower end vaios are over priced but at the higher end you are paying a premium for premium quality/features. Often the higher prices that you pay mean that you are making fewer compromises. In VERY general terms I would look at £700+ for a decent PS capable laptop. Just a shame that their customer support is crap...

I agree- they have been helping themselves to my bank account for nearly a year now- soon i can go through the tortuous cancellation process of faxing them my finger prints and a photo of my mum so that I can be free of them. As a reseller on fasthosts don't you find the fact that your customers can't even set up their own mysql databases means that you waste alot of time enabling them to do what they could do themselves if they were using almost any other reseller. From memory fasthosts "resold" customers can only ftp and have no backend (cpanel, etc)

Just to expand on the point that Wesh made about the hosts that offer unlimited bandwidth- all too often the terms and conditions actually prohibit this. As an example, I was foolish enough to open an account with fasthosts.co.uk, i wanted a not for profit site where people could download htc roms for their phones. I didn't notice that the introductory 3 month discount meant that i was locking myself into a 12 month contract. I should have UNTICKED the "I agree to the terms and conditions" to be able to have a monthly contract!?!?!?! I tried to cancel the account within minutes of using it, on discovering that the sql databases didn't work properly. Their 24/7 support took 24 hours to reply. I am now paying for a service that i refuse to use. I have since discovered that unlimited traffic is only applicable to basic html pages and not content. The second mistake that I made was signing up (partially in error) as a business user. This means you have no distance selling rights or cooling off period!!! NEVER believe the reviews in the glossy PC mags (eg any of the Dennis Publishing mags)- the likes of FASTHOSTS spend a lot of money advertising in them. The best advice I can give you is to read the terms and conditions- in the case of fasthosts these contradict themselves- if such ambiguity exists go elsewhere!!! Good luck