My first kernel update

I finally got up the nerve to do a kernel update of my PCLINUXOS system. I made sure I had a good backup of all of my files before starting. Actually I made two as I tend to be a bit paranoid about such things.






The process is very easy. I launched Synaptic and then did a search for 'Kernel'. I selected the kernel I wanted and then let it install. For the first several weeks I kept the default kernel and manually switched to the new one. Once I was happy I then used the Control centre to change what the default kernel was.










I selected the new kernel that I want to change the defaults on.




I then clicked on 'Default' to make this the new default.


















The image is what KDE shows. It took me about 15 minutes to add the kernel and then later to change the default kernel that the system boots to. Just remember to make a good set up backups before trying this.

OS & Browser stats

It has been a while where I posted my stats on what O/S and browsers people are using to see this blog and my gardening blog. It is not surprising that on this blog that Windows and IE are not very popular, but, the gardening blog does show that Windows and IE are not the only game in town. For the gardening blog 16% of people are not using Windows and 38% are not using IE.

One strange result in the gardening blog is that someone is using 'Google 5' as their browser.

	Linux blog	Gardening
O/S
Linux	31.3	2.0
Mac	2.0	11.0
OS/2	24.2
Unknown	2.0	3.0
Windows	41.3	84.0
Browser
Firefox	70.0	26.0
Google		1.0
IE	20.0	62.0
Konqueror	2.0
Mozilla	4.0	2.0
Netscape	1.0	2.0
Safari	3.0	7.0

Less spam more mail

I have noticed this year that the amount of spam has dropped dramatically. I have been keeping track of my mail from Yahoo for the legit/spam emails for the last 34 months. For 2005 and 2006 about 80% of my email was spam. Last year it started to improve as only 70% of my email was spam. This year over 50% of my mail is now legit and the volume of mail is down over the same period of 2006/2007. The work that the authorities have been taking in taking down the spammers seems to be working. Hopefully this is a continuing trend and the various spammers are taken out and the bot nets removed.

The only downside is my personal email ID is now getting semi-regular spam, but, I flag the message as spam for my provider and they update their mail filters.

A few reminders:

• If you get an email from someone and you are not sure about the file attachment call the person, don't open the file.
• Use your ISP's spam filter.
• Use the spam filter in your email software.
• If it is a phishing attempt find out the legit email of the company targeted and send them a short note so that they are aware. Never click on the link within the email. Never send confidential information by email, companies will never ask you for your password, account information!
• When in doubt remove the email and contact the person. If it is legit they can resend the information.
• Keep you system up-to-date. It does not matter what O/S you run, keep it up-to-date!
• If you have anti-virus software, use it and keep it up-to-date!
• If you have a firewall, use it and keep it up-to-date!
• You can never be too paranoid, all it takes is one click and the crooks get information that they can use.
• For your papers/documents/bills at home, shred them before trashing/recycling them. A shredder does not cost very much and personal information that crooks can use is harder to get if it is in very small pieces. Shredders that can handle CDs are not much more expensive than regular shredders and they can also handle credit cards.
• If you get rid of your old PC make sure that you wipe the hard drive. It does not take a lot for someone to browse the drive and get personal information. If you are recycling the machine take out the drive (if possible) and take a hammer to the drive to really make sure no one can get the data on the drive. I had a neighbor who threw out their machine and I picked it up for spare parts. They actually didn't clean the drive at all and if I was less than honest I could have used that information. All I did was take a 5lb sledgehammer to the drive and then recycled it.