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Public Access Computer Security Tool

Submitted by Lori Ayre on Sun, 09/19/2004 - 5:00pm

Nice work, Gates Foundation! They finally made their handy "pac installer" available to everyone. The PAC Installer used to be buried on their pacomputing website but they've hauled it out of the back closet and are featuring it on its own prominent web page!

Here's where it's at: http://pacomputing.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=7593 . [Updated link 12/6/04]

Backups

Submitted by Lori Ayre on Mon, 04/12/2004 - 5:00pm

How often do you actually performs backups of data on your PC? I know I've been pretty bad about doing it because I haven't had a drive large enough to accommodate all the data easily. Every once in a while I'd copy everything from my desktop to my laptop or retire folders to a CD but I wasn't being systematic nor frequent about doing it.

For one thing, trying to copy only the changed files was a big pain because you had to go folder by folder and sort by date. And copying everything again took too long.

Gates Computers - The PAC Installer

Submitted by Lori Ayre on Sun, 10/26/2003 - 4:00pm

The PAC Installer is what the Gates Foundation uses to lock down their computers. Here's what they say about it:

The Public Access Computer Configuration Tool is a software security system designed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for public access computers. You can install it to help keep a computer stable by restricting access to the computer and creating customizable profile environments designed to meet the needs of public computer users without compromising your ability to keep the computer up and running.