I became a fan of Jerry’s writing in the ’80s when he was a columnist for BYTE Magazine. This was back when magazines printed a lot of useful technical information, hacks, program listings, and electronics projects. A fellow programmer was a subscriber, and introduced me to the magazine, and particularly “Chaos Manor,” Jerry’s column. When BYTE was sold to another publisher, it’s format turned more to product reviews and coverage of the IT business industry. In other words, it became geared more for managers with IT budgets and less for programmers, hobbyists, and end users. Not long after that the magazine ceased publication altogether.

I missed Jerry’s anecdotal accounts of his struggles with technology. He did product reviews too, but always from the first-person perspective of a non-technical person (an author) actually trying to implement, rather than just cover, the products. His often humorous tales were always informative and entertaining. I was delighted when I discovered a year or so ago that Jerry was still writing his Chaos Manor Reviews, as well as Other Musings. I should have known that his talent and desire (need?) for self-expression would have steered him toward the online publishing world, and was chagrined that I hadn’t thought to search on his name sooner.

Looking for ultra-light linux for kids’ PC

About this time my kids’ old Window 98 PC seemed to be grinding down to a halt as they tried to get it to do more - IM, online games, etc. I tried a couple of small linux loads known for good performance on old hardware, like Puppy Linux and Damn Small Linux (DSL). While both of these are great distros, on this hardware Puppy Linux bogged down with too little memory, and DSL had problems with the USB wireless network adapter on that PC. I even put in an old 16 bit Intel NIC and spent a couple of evenings fishing CAT-5 cable through the attic and wall, but still had some problems with DSL recognizing it.

Someone Mentioned FreeBSD

On some forum (can’t recall where), someone mentioned FreeBSD as a viable option for old, slow hardware, so I decided to try it out on the kids’ PC. After some tweaking of the device hints to get it to use the old NIC, it worked great. Performance is acceptable for the hardware (300 mhz Pentium II), and it runs most Linux software in addition to native FreeBSD code. After some more online research about the relative strengths and weaknesses of FreeBSD vs. other BSDs vs. Linux, I decided to reload the server with FreeBSD. This server is built on a DELL Dimensions platform, with a 2 Gigahertz Intel processor and 256 Meg of memory. It has 2 internal hard drives, a 30 Gig Maxtor 6E030L0, and a 160 Gig Seagate ST3160215A (which came out of a failed external USB SimTech drive.

The Plan

Since the Seagate had a lot of unused space, I wanted to use part of it to back up stuff I wanted to save, but I also knew I would need some of it free for the FreeBSD installation. The trouble is, it was formatted as a ReiserFS file system, which FreeBSD can read but not write to. So the plan included steps to shrink that file system and leave enough unallocated space for FreeBSD to create usable storage. So the steps in general were:

1. Estimate space required to backup user data and development work.
2. Shrink the ReiserFS file system to create unallocated space on the disk, but leave enough on ReiserFS to accommodate the backup.
3. Change the partition sizes on the disk (shrinking the file system does not affect the underlying partition size).
4. Backup desired files.
5. Download FreeBSD and create installation CDs.
6. Install
7. Restore files and configure applications (samba, cups, apache, quanta Plus, etc.)

Next: Part 1 (coming soon): Using resize_reiserfs and cfdisk.

Beginning in 1991, Bob began buying young trees from the Genesee County Conservation District. Every spring he would buy 1000 seedlings and plant them around his home. “It’s one of the best ways to enhance the beauty and improve the value of your home,” he says. Bob is a code enforcer for the city of Burton, and knows a thing or two about home values.

Read Full “Zirnhelt’s Trail” Story on NewsFlavor.

1. Your system doesn’t really have the infections these programs claim. Or to be more accurate, they have no way of knowing one way or another, since the so-called “scans” they do are completely fake. Nor could they remove the infections if you did have them, since they do not actually fight spyware or viruses, but are likely to install some of their own. Of course, if you elect to do this, future scans will say that your system is now clean.
2. These programs are obnoxiously persistent. Any attempts to cancel the scans, close the windows, or kill the processes just result in another process being launched.
3. These programs prevent legitimate anti-spyware programs from installing and running. Generally, when trying to clean spyware out of a system, one of the first things I do is install and run Adaware from lavasoft. Vista AntiVirus 2008 would not let me install it, popping up a fake system message saying basically that the Administrator for the PC has configured it to disallow “installations of this type.” Spybot Search & Destroy did work, but did not remove the two nasties I was dealing with. SpyGuarder similarly prevents the task manager from launching, claiming that “Task Manager has been disbled by your Administrator.”
4. The presence of either of these programs indicates that you may have the zlob or other dangerous trojans.

No doubt some of you would have advised me to run various legitimate anti-malware applications like SpyHunter, which can apparently automate the removal of SpyGuarder and Vista AntiVirus 2008. Pride and miserliness made me opt to do it by hand, which I did with the help of instructions found here and here.

Vista AntiVirus 2008 has several other identities, all which do the same bad things to your system, such as Windows Antivirus 2008, Windows AntiVirus Pro, etc. These, as well as SpyGuarder, are advertised on professional-looking web sites, and give the appearance of being the most advanced anti-malware products on the market. Do not be fooled, do not install either of these products - the commercial or the free versions - on your computer under any circumstances. If you find you have been infected with either of these anyway (it’s possible to pick them up via “drive-by” infection), take steps to remove them immediately.

Added 7/1/2008: I had to go back and remove yet another fake security program. His commercial virus protection had long since expired, so I installed AVG Free, which found and removed about a dozen viruses and trojans, but then his desktop and taskbar disappeared. After searching around on the internet, I found that Malwarebyte’s RogueRemover Free is a great free tool which completely fixed the desktop problems and removed some additional adware / spyware. It will definitely be joining Adaware and Spybot Search & Destroy in my arsenal.

Of course, I expect to be paid for the articles I write, but I’m also doing it for the excitement of seeing my byline in print. Plus, although FAM eventually expects to make all their articles and stories available on-line, they are not ready yet for that. In the mean-time, Mike (the publisher) has given me permission to post them on the 3 sites I write for (Associated Content, Helium, and Triond). I’ll place links in future postings.