I’ve just managed a setup, which if I didn’t see or do it for myself, I wouldn’t believe it: I’m running Windows XP inside Ubuntu like another program.

If you’ve spent any amount of time on this blog, you will by now realise my non-too-subtle affinity for Ubuntu.  Yet, I still need Windows for some unported software, so I’ve been unable to totally boot Bill’s bloat.

I’ve very cleverly (I thought) set up a dual boot so that my default OS is Ubuntu (currently 8.10 Intrepid Ibex) and with the tap of the ESC key Windows XP is a secondary option in my Grub boot loader.  This is however still a pain in the donkey, because when I need to do some minor tasks in my Windows-only software I have to shut down, reboot, do what I need to do, shut down and reboot again. This could happen several times a day as the tasks trickle in.

So it was then that I had my dinner in front of YouTube this evening, watching the new and interesting stuff featured on the front page.  There was this Mac vs. PC clip that set me off on the PC path (I’m always keen to witness the new skirmishes on this war-torn front).

And, as you do, I clicked through on the related stuff until I got to this clip, “How to run Windows XP on Linux Ubuntu with Virtualbox“. Now I’ve dabbled with Wine aplenty, but have had nothing but hangovers, as often I can get the programs to run, but then invariably some or other important function is rendered impotent. So this claim to run Windows on Ubuntu intrigued me no end.

Sun XVM VirtualBox

As the clip above illustrates, those great guys and gals at Sun have perfected (I hope and pray) this free, open source software, which doesn’t run one or two Windows applications in Ubuntu, nay, it actually runs the entire Windows operating system in Ubuntu.

And it does so smoothly in a few very easy steps.

I downloaded Sun’s VirtualBox from their website and installed the software in Ubuntu.  Then I installed the VirtualBox software in Ubuntu and after a few questions it had readied a virtual harddrive for my Windows installation.

Once you launch this virtual environment, you work inside a normal Ubuntu program window. In this instance though, the program window represents a virtual computer screen as if you’re working on another computer, or box (slang), within Ubuntu.

You then push a virtual power button on your virtual box, and it starts up much like a real computer. If you’ve assigned your CD drive, it boots from there and in my case from my Windows XP installation CD.  On your virtual screen, which represents your virtual computer, Windows XP then installs itself like it will on any computer.

Windows running on Ubuntu

And moments later, you have a fully working install of Windows XP, running in an Ubuntu window, which you can even minimise to your Ubuntu taskbar if you want.  Some clever connectivity lets you access your Ubuntu shared folders from within Windows via a virtual network, so you have a fully integrated environment.

For me, this is sheer bliss, because now I don’t have to reboot my machine – ever.

Taking it a step further, I connected my old, cracked Acer LCD and used Ubuntu 8.10′s slick Dual Screen Setup (no headaches like up until as recently as 8.04), so the laptop is entirly Ubuntu, and the LCD is, for all pratical pruposes, Windows XP.

This allows me to do my  normal stuff on my laptop unhindered, and then when I need to reach over into Windows XP for some graphic or web tweaking, I simply move my mouse cursor to the right and viola!, I’m in Windows XP.

Unbelievable.  A computer geek’s wet dream.

I love Ubuntu.

Ps. I noticed in quite a few videos people mispronouncing the word Ubuntu.  It’s pronounced “ooo-boon-too”. It’s a Zulu language word (from the Zulus, an indigenous people in South Africa) and, in a very broad sense, means humanity towards others.

“What’s this Firefox?”, asks a friend as he clicks on the new icon I put on the desktop of his fresh install of Windows XP.  “It’s a web browser”, I say, intentionally not ending my sentence with ‘like Internet Explorer’.

“Oh”, he says as it launches and he immediately sees it’s a program he can use to surf the web with, “why do I need it?”.  I eyeball him for a moment, wondering if I should tell him about the scary reality of Internet Explorer, but opt to only say “it’s faster, you won’t get a virus from a website through it and it’s secure”.

He looks at me with suspicion and asks “do you work on commission or something?”.

Internet Explorer Is Not Secure

If you follow the link above you’ll find umpteen stories of Internet Explorer bugs.  It seems as if Microsoft has issued enough patches to build an entirely new browser already, but the latest bug is possibly the scariest of all.

The bug allows the dark underbelly of the Internet to access your stored passwords in Internet Explorer. You know, the ones where IE offers to remember your password and you say OK. Yeah, those ones.  According to the news reports there are over 10,000 websites out there that can exploit this bug and get to your passwords.

Thus far only gaming passwords have been exploited, but the news is out, so you can bet your other passwords that soon whatever you’ve saved will be access.  Think email, social networking, your company intranet, forums – whatever you use a saved password for could potentially be stolen.

I omit banking on purpose, because if you’re using Microsoft Windows and have saved your on-line banking username & password anywhere on your Windows computer, then you deserve to be robbed of every last penny as payment for the knowledge that you should never, ever, do that.

Does Microsoft Care?

Well, according to Yahoo! Tech, Microsoft is working on a patch, but haven’t said when it will be available.

It’s a pretty big hole and now the whole (bad) world knows about it – undoubtedly it will be a while before all good netizens will know about it, so it’s going to be a free-for-all for the quick and clever hackers until Microsoft plugs it.

Why are hackers so quick and Microsoft so slow?

Don’t just change your browser

So, what can you do right now to be safe online?  Simply change your browser. There’s Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome, take your pick.

And if you want safer computing in general, then you’ll have to change your operating system.  Of course, I recommend Ubuntu, but I think anything non-Microsoft is much, much safer.

Bottom line, be safe on-line, don’t use Internet Explorer.

Update 18 Dec 08: Microsoft came through in seemingly record time to release a patch for this bug.  You can get it via WIndows Update or the MS Download Centre (KB960714 for Security Bulletin MS08-078)

To be fair, Firefox recently released v.3.05, which also patches a few bugs, amongst them some security holes it deemed critical – the difference, it should be noted, is that Firefox released this patch before most people knew anything about it, unlike Microsoft that seems to have a reactionary way of doing things. In Firefox, check for updated by launching the browser, then on the menu go HELP -> CHECK FOR UPDATES…

Bottom line is unchanged.

Last night I saw The Day the Earth Stood Still, apparently it had an updated message.  I’m not one for movie reviews, but as an undisputed eco-warrior, I have things to say.

I didn’t enjoy it.  I didn’t enjoy it for what it was trying to be and I didn’t enjoy it for not being what it could have been.  It just sucked.  I laughed once and oh-and-ah’ed once and that was about it.  Keanu Reeves sucked.  He was Neo and this wasn’t the Matrix. It doesn’t work that way and people notice.

And you would imagine Hollywood helping out in giving the US’s image a bit of a PR boost by treating the alien nicely.  But no, the first thing they do is shoot the bugger. And then when asked if she represents the entire human rice, the person trying to inflict her will upon the alien says “No, I represent the President of the United States”, which we should then accept of enough of a representation of the human race to be sufficient.

So the story rolls on and I’ll spoil it for you now, because you’ll be able to guess the outcome 5 minutes into the movie anyway.  “I’m a friend of the earth”, he says and immediately you know it’s not what he’s saying, it’s what he’s not saying – he’s not a friend of humans. Everyone will die!  And true enough, talking to a Chinese looking and speaking alien who chose New York to live in, of all places, the Chinese alien reports that humans are destructive and are killing the planet and they should die.

Is that your official report?

“Is this your official report?” is the question that ultimately seals the fate of the human race.  “Then the process shall begin”.  So the heroine finds out that the planet will be wiped clean of humans and she says no, we deserve a second chance.  But you know that in Hollywood nobody is dying and the earth will be fine.

In the end the woman convinces the alien not to destroy the planet because her step-son, the little shit who is hell bent on killing him, decides that he doesn’t want to kill him.

But it’s laughable, because the boy decides he doesn’t want to kill the alien, because he sees the alien reviving somebody he just killed and the boy thinks, “ah, he can revive my dead dad too”.  So suddenly, because he has a use for him, the boy befriends the alien, but typically, after he discovers the alien can’t do anything for his father who died years ago, he doesn’t want to be friends with the alien anymore. Isn’t that just typically human?

The alien’s heart melts when he sees the step-mom and son, who didn’t get along so well, hug. And he then decides to call off the death and destruction.

So the moral of the story is: we’re killing the planet with our selfish and inconsiderate behaviour, but hell, lets hug and everything will be ok.

Die, human scum. Die!

In my version of the movie the alien lands in 1920 to warn humans that by 2020, if we don’t do anything, they will come back and kill us, otherwise the planet will die, which it can’t, because it’s of vital importance to the universe (hence the drastic action).  Then he comes back in 2008 to say, we haven’t changed our ways and they’ve decided to kill us early. So this remake ensues pretty much as it is.

Then, when he simply leaves at the end and you think it’s all over, it cuts to 2020 and shows how us humans have done aboslutely fucking nothing to change our ways and that all the hugging in the world didn’t change the environment a bit.  Aliens then come back, and there’s no further communication, just the earth being swept clean.  All humans are killed, all manmade things are destroyed and the planet starts to recouperate.

No Hollywood’ification of the real issue this movie touches on and no raping the message in favour of audience approval ratings.

I think this remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still had an opportunity to convey a message, to speak to people.  But it chose to be Hollywood bubblegum instead. So no message and not even decent entertainment value either.  What a waste of time and money – their’s and mine.

Today is World AIDS day, the day to spread awareness to stop the prejudice and also to stop the spread of the infection.

Prejudice against HIV Positive people are rooted in the same things as other prejudices – fear, which stems from lack of knowledge. HIV Positive people are often ostracised from communities and their social circles for various reason, amongst them the fear of the uninformed of somehow contracting the disease.

So let’s inform the uninformed and dispel the fear.

How do you get HIV?

HIV isn’t hiding behind a blind corner ready to pounce and infect you. No, HIV infection only occurs when HIV infected fluid somehow gets into your blood.

Blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk are all good carriers of the virus. If any of these infected fluids enter your body (comes into contact with your blood), through the mouth, vagina, tip of the penis, anus or any breaks in the skin, HIV can be transmitted.

Any form of sex that includes coming into contact with semen (including the clear pre-cum), vaginal secretions and blood, can potentially transmit the virus, i.e. vaginal, anal and even oral sex (ulcers, lacerations, bleeding gums, etc.).

It is also possible to transmit HIV through sharing infected needles when doing drugs or DIY tattoos and body piercings, accidental needle pricks, blood transfusions and from a mother to a child during pregnancy, labour and also breast feeding.

HIV Positive people often don’t look sick, and the vast majority of those carrying the virus, are unaware that they do. Therefore, asking a stranger before sex whether or not they are HIV Positive does not constitute safer sex – protecting yourself with a condom does.

How you won’t get HIV

Saliva, sweat, tears, faeces and urine are not known to cause HIV infections, mainly because HIV in these substances do not appear in concentrations large enough to be harmful. You therefore are unlikely to get infected by casual contact with these bodily secretions.

Mutual masturbation using hands only, is a pretty safe form of sex, provided both partners have healthy, unbroken skin with no open wounds or fresh cuts and sores. Remember, semen and vaginal fluids transmit the disease, but it has to enter your body, which it can’t do through healthy skin.

You also can’t get HIV through kissing, hugging (important, because HIV Positive people needs hugs as much as the rest of us), shaking hands, massage, insect bites, sharing showers and toilets or living in the same house with an HIV Positive person.

If you always use a condom during the entire course of vaginal, anal or oral sex, and avoid general high risk activities, it will greatly reduce your risk of getting HIV and many other nasty sexually transmitted diseases.

Know the facts and pass it on

World AIDS Day is but 1 global opportunity to make a difference. You can help to slow or, who knows in the near future, even stop the spread of HIV by knowing the facts, implementing them in your own life to keep yourself safe, and sharing that knowledge with those around you.

Sources:
http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/hiv?page=basics-00-05
http://www.aidatlanta.org/education/faq.shtml
http://www.mnaidsproject.org/learn/transmission.htm

The clock struck midnight (that was over an hour ago) and my computer’s clock said it’s Monday, December 1. Where has the year gone?  So much has happened.

Anyway, far from this being a soppy sentimental post about what was and what may be, it’s really just a celebratory post.  What am I celebrating?  The end of a mamoth posting marathon of course.

These blog entries regarding trips that I take are lots of work – the trip to Thailand took me a full week to complete. I should have been able to do it daily really, because I had my computer with me.  But it was for work, so time not working was spent away from the computer. Luckily I had loads of photos to reference, so it was easy to recall.

Anyway, 7 days, 15 posts and over 100 photos later Tour D Tom Yum has been documented.  The typos and grammar mistakes will get fixed up as I read through them again in the coming days, but for now, I’m shattered.

Off to bed I go.