This is basically a groan/gripe thread. It's a matter of preference. Go use your macs, run linux of all kinds of flavor, and use Windows if you want.

People say Vista is all bad, when it really isn't. A recent report (that I cannot find at the moment) said that there were far more windows xp machines infected with spyware/malware than Windows Vista machines, x64 with less than x32.

Sure Windows enables all of the 'annoying stuff' when you first install it, but that's to show you the features it has. Just turn it off and stop *****ing about it.

How boring would it be if Microsoft kept putting out Windows XP for the next 5 years? You'd get the same interface, the same functionality, same bugs, same security holes, same system. Why not develop a new version, so that when you buy a new computer, you can have something new to look at, something shiny, something that's pushing the limits of what your computer can do to better advance operating systems in general?

I'm just tired of people bad-talking a perfectly fine OS.

Fun Sites:
reddit.com
xkcd.com (webcomic)
facebook?

Nerdy sites:
hackerne.ws
slashdot.org
freshmeat.net

Tech stuff:
dvice.com

I'd go to http://www.newegg.com/ personally. They usually have some really great prices on desktops, or even go to places like http://www.woot.com/ and http://www.sellout.woot.com/ They usually have some refurbished computers for cheap, and they're actually fairly decent.

The longer you wait, the better deal you're going to get, as technology continues to grow bigger, better, and faster.

Python isn't bad. It's what I used to start out. You can make some fairly interesting platform-independent programs with it. You'd be surprised what uses it. It's a fairly pleasant language, but there are definitely better ones.

Just out of curiosity, and to keep the Geek Girl thing going, are there any other girls other than aspiegirl who program? Or what's the most 'geekiest' thing you've done and/or moment?

Tips for spyware prevention:

1.) Use a secure browser (firefox)
2.) Run anti-spyware software regularly (Spybot S&D works well enough)
3.) Use Popup Blockers (AdBlock Plus add-on on Firefox)
4.) Use Script-blockers (NoScript, probably would be annoying to most people though...)
5.) Just practice smart browsing skills

And if all else fails...

Use linux :-P

A girl who knows what linux is? That's astonishing all in itself! Kudos to you, but I'm sure there are ways around monitor issues. You'll figure it out. :-)

I believe that you guys are talking more along the lines of gamer girls, which are all great and good, just not 'geek girls,' imo. But don't get me wrong, they're all great! I'm just leaning more towards the computer science-esque type.

I find it attractive if a girl desires to break away from the hold that Microsoft has over computers nowadays.

If a girl can compile her own kernel or speak numbers in a base other than ten, and/or code like the keyboard's on fire, I would melt upon shaking her hand.