As an programmer by hobby I can tell you for certain that no single Anti-Spyware/Anti-Virus application, or any combination thereof, will ever guarantee complete removal of Malware or Viruses. In fact, it’s safe (and scary) to say that with any given infection, after running (even multiple) scans, that your computer will still retain some trace of that infection, which will often lead to either a relapse of the infection, (possible at a later time) or hidden TSRs (Terminate and Stay Resident Programs) that just do their dirty work “under the radar”, without your knowledge that they are running in the background on your computer. I won’t go into just where these traces can hide, since they are only limited by the maliciousness of the virus’s creator, but suffice it to say, “Just learning how to clean your registry” is not the solution. If anyone doubts any of this and wants to stick by their favorite Anti-Spy Anti-Virus Application, consider this qoute: “Surveys show that 77 percent of people believe their computers are free of spyware, but in fact it’s present on 80 percent of computers”. You’ll find plenty of similar stats anywhere you look for them on the internet….

That said, the only true way to guarantee that your computer will be free of Malware is to periodically “Nuke” your hard drive or at least your main partition. Sound scary? It should! It’s a complete wipe of your hard drive or parts of it. Done right and it can be a simple process resulting not only in peace of mind concerning your Spyware/Adware/Virus concerns, but it will also give a great boost to your computers overall performance and organization. Done wrong and, well, you might end up having to pay a hefty bill for a technician to re-partition and reinstall an operating system to your computer, as well as possible loss of important/sentimental data. I’m not going to say how it’s done here because if you don’t have some idea of how do it already you shouldn’t even try. But if your going to do it anyway, I can only offer this advice:

1. Put all your personal data, photo’s, documents, music… ANYTHING you don’t want lost forever onto a CD or appropriate storage device, even make two copies so you have backup in case anything goes wrong with the first. Test to make sure you can reinstall all files back onto your computer.

2. Make sure you also have a CD (or multiple CDs) that contains ALL the original files and operating system that came with the computer. If you don’t have one most computer will give you the option to create a “restore” CD or a set of them.

3. Most computers these day’s have a hard drive partition containing all the system restore files needed to restore your computer back to it’s “factory” configuration. Even if you have this, STILL make a system restore set of CDs, because even if you only wipe you main partition and leave the system restore partition alone, the data that brings you to the “system restore” menu might get erased during the process… In which case, even if you don’t use the restore CDs to restore your computer, it will at least act as a “boot disk” and get you to the correct menus.

4. Speaking of step 3, never “Nuke” your restore partition. If you don’t know how to choose, or if you don’t know what I’m talking about…. Just don’t do it!

Anyway, I didn’t mean to take it far, but I couldn’t resist the topic! (:

I know two way's, but one is kind of a "trick" and is the one I'm using now.... The first is the more obvious... Kazza is loaded with spyware, but there is a version called "Kazza lite" that doesn't include the spyware, but you have to be careful to download the right version as even some versions of "lite" contains spyware. The second way is a cool trick that I'm using right now. For Myspace there is a service called "Project Playlist", which isn't supposed to be a "free download" service, but rather a way to just add more music to your profile, and with it's search engine you can find just about any song you want (as long as it's popular enough that someone has posted a link to it). The trick is that although it's not made to be a download service, when you search a song you get to option to visit the page the song is from. At this point, although the page ITSELF never has a direct link to the song, Project Playlist still keeps a window open up top that lists a direct link to the song. You used to be able to just "Right click and save" to get the song, but they're no longer posting it as an actual link. You can get by that though by having a music player that let's you save the media your listening to like the latest version of Windows Media Player. Then all you have to do is copy and past the link to your browser, then use your Media Player to save the song to your computer! There's probably a lot of other way's to do it too, but that's just the way I'm doing it for now. It may not be as satisfying as say, watching 10 songs get downloaded at once using a peer to peer, but it's surprisingly fast as your usually downloading directly from file storage servers instead of some strangers "somewhat iffy" connection. Hope this helps!

A herring... I don't know! They seem to excited about waterfalls too!

Only if she told her friends about it... still not sure, I'll have to get back to you on that one.....

Have you ever tried licking your elbow after someone says "It's impossible for you to lick your own elbow? Are you trying it right now?

Miss my plum crazy '73 Duster 340... And acquired taste to be sure, I know how you GMers feel about Mopar fanatics! I haven't tried yet, but you can't post photos in these forums?

Does being "forced" to watch "Yellow Submarine" a gazzilion times count?

Heya! I started to put up a profile here a week or two ago, but haven't really visited often since. Just thought I'd take a shot at getting more involved, especially since on closer inspection most people seem really cool and down to earth here! Anyone have some good info or advice about this site? Like, are we allowed to invite people to visit Myspace pages? Is there chat or IM here? Profile advice? Anyway, I can sense myself going on and on already, so again, just saying hi, and I think anyone, no matter who you are, will find me easy to talk with if you feel like messaging me anytime!