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Well. I can tell you that paying for something by using PayPal is as safe as you are concerned by your safety. I mean, if you use a strong password and a safe terminal to fulfill your payment requests, you are not likely to have an ugly surprise. But if you do underestimate the importance of having good safety habits, and you use an easy-to-guess password and a public --and probably infected with spyware-- computer, you are a good candidate for living one of those horror stories related to PayPal.Just stay on the safe side and you will not have any problem.Best regards,-L.

Have you tried to use a malware-detection software. There are plenty of those out there, but I think there are only few that worth the effort to download, run and keep. I used to work with Spybot and Adaware, but both have a limited rate of success. For an almost-perfect fully-automated malware solution I personally recommend the one that is called "Superantispyware". Yes, I know, it has a name that might remind those scams that are actually malware. However, it is very good. They have two flavors of their software: a commercial one and a free one. The free one is good enough for a one-time disinfection. If you are still in doubt for using it, it is always a good idea to read its reviews at those reputable malware forums out there. If they satisfy you, then go for it. You can download it from here. Another piece of software that might interest you is HijackThis. It is not automatic and in order to take advantage of it you must have certain technical knowledge. But it is great for removing some difficult-to-find infection and their traces. Again, use it until you feel it is safe after reading its reviews. Its homepage is this one. Hope they help.

I started to work with Linux many years ago, when the most important distro out there was RedHat 4.2. I really never liked it, but it made me feel curious about the existence of alternatives. Slackware was an old distro then, and I did not find it very attractive. But then I accidentally discovered Debian. And it was truly wonderful.Debian was not an easy distro to install or to maintain. But it had two things I was looking for: power and flexibility.Eventually Debian became the biggest distro out there, and it has been taken as a base for building many other distros. Ubuntu among them.I still think Debian is at the top of the hill of the Linux distros. But I cannot ignore many of its derivatives as terrific choices for those who are starting to migrate from other platforms. Ubuntu is a wonderful example of development. It is easy to install, to update, to upgrade and to maintain. It has free and good quality support. It hides most of the complexity of the Linux world to the beginner, but it does not restrict the full power of this OS to the initiated.Reading the posts in this thread I realize that for many people it is still very difficult to think in Linux as a serious production environment. Maybe because their favorite applications have not been ported to Linux. Maybe because their hardware is not well supported. Or perhaps just because they have been tied to other OSs for too long. That is normal, because migration is a process that takes some time.Although Linux is not for everybody, I think there are many people out there that could use it for their regular computer needs. It's only matter of trying. Live distros are good for this.And here comes Ubuntu again, that has reciently released a new version (8.04 LTS).Best regards,-L.

I agree with most of the posts in this thread, regarding how unnecessary is to install antivirus software in a Linux-only environment. The only justification I can find for installing an antivirus in a Linux system is to protect Windows that use that Linux box as a mail server, file server, etc. About your comment, Saint_Michael, there is something that can be added. The typical Linux user differs from a typical Windows user in the basic fact that Linux people are usually not oriented toward commercial applications. Linux users are bad potential customers because they have discovered a world that is not only free as in freedom, but also as in beer. As most of the current malware developments have immediate commercial intentions (to harvest your personal info in order to bug you with advertisement), Linux users are not interesting to malware originators... yet. But even if somebody wishes to create malware that can effectively be injected and operate in Linux platforms, he/she will soon discover that Linux handles security in a much more strict and effective way than Windows; that an easy-to-exploit vulnerability in any major distro is going to be corrected in matter of hours. It's just not worth the effort.

Microsoft will remove Windows XP from the shelves. You can bet about it.Remember that for them users are just people that give them good money in exchange for the right of using their poor products. That's it. Users do not own anything related to Windows, not even their own legally purchased copy. They only get a license of usage, which is very far from a title of ownership.So, Microsoft holds all rights and powers to do whatever they want with their products. They have already decided that Windows XP must die, and they can kill it the moment they wish.And also remember that they have invested a lot of money in the development of their Vista thing. Of course, they want to start getting it back as soon as possible. If Windows XP si still around, many people will stick to it. Which is something that Billy's firm does not want to happen.Get used to the idea. Windows XP is going to be killed by its own creator.Best regards,-L.

As far as I know, there is no solid evidence which supports the fact that Einstein really invented this logic puzzle. And the statement of "only 2%..." is very funny. How such a precise figure can be calculated by anybody (even Einstein himself) without doing serious statistic modelling? I think this is a typical example of something with an uncertain origin that has been attributed to a well-known personality, just for making it more appealing. This also illustrates the fact that people seldom check how reliable their sources are. Just take a look at this article in the Wikipedia: Zebra Puzzle and see it by yourself. Best regards, -L.

I think you really should see a doctor. Try to explain to him/her how you felt and listen to his/her professional advise.In my opinion, a drug test would be interesting. Sometimes at parties there are people who like to play bad jokes to the rest of the guests, like pouring substances in drinks, or so. Do you remember to have accepted a drink from somebody? Did you keep an eye on your glass all the time?Nowadays it is very important to be careful with the things you drink or eat. Especially in parties or public gatherings.Go to the doctor anyway. Whatever it had been, he is the right person to ask.Best regards,-L.

Well. You shouldn't be that mad with them. Remember that it was you who told them that they could enter without you.And, besides that, was it really so important what happened between all of you? Please, don't take offense from my words, but I think you are seeing a storm in a glass of water. I mean, nobody died, nothing really bad happened. So, what's the big deal?Real friendship is always above small difficulties. Never forget that.Good luck.Best regards,-L.

Come on. School is not that bad. Just wait until you graduate from college and have to make a living by yourself. Then you will remember your old school days with nostalgy. But I agree with your view about homework. I think it is abusive. Young people should have time for developing their own projects, ideas, talents... Taking even more time out of them with after-school tasks is preventing them to get in different --and interesting-- fields. Things should change with basic and mid education. Definitely. But I still think school is a good place to be. Best regards, -L.

You know, at certain moments in life it is easy to feel frustrated by the feeling of not being in the right school, or in the right job, or with the right person.That is perfectly normal. But it does not mean that you have just to sit down and wait till that feeling passes. You need to be proactive in order to get out of that crisis (yes, it is a kind of crisis) and with a satisfactory answer to your doubts and fears.Why don't you take a couple days to carefully consider your present situation? It would be great if you remembered why you made that choice from the very beginning. You could have lost track of your own original goals, and you could also have lost most of the joy of the process of becoming a professional in the area you are interested in.Whichever conclusion you get at the end, remember that it is always wise to admit a mistake -- in case you positively realize you have made one. And don't forget that all mistakes can be corrected if you really want to.I wish you the best.Regards,-L.

Can you explain in detail how did you do it? It would be very interesting for most of us (who are newbies on phone modding) to see how it is done so that we can also try. Thanks in advance, -L.

I would raise the limit of your recommendation to people with a lot of physical RAM (1Gb+). In my experience, people with less than that should stay away from changing these settings, because Windows XP uses pagination files in the hard disk to emulate RAM when there is not enough of it for the system and applications together. Thanks for the info. Very useful indeed. Best regards, -L.

Yes, AVG is good. But IMHO Avast is even better. And it's free for personal and non-comercial users. You only have to register online (it's quick and painless as far as I can remember). It's only weak point is that it feels a little bit heavy on slow systems. But in most modern computers (1 Ghz+, 512Mb+) it should feel just fine. Hope to have helped.

It looks nice. I would only change its battery (6 cell) for a longer-lasting one (8 cells). Sometimes Dell gives you the option to change the default battery included in their laptops for an extra charge (or even give you the choice of buying a second --and better-- battery at a preferential price).Memory looks well, too. Especially if you are planning to keep Windows Vista. I recommend a 64 bits edition, if they give you the opportunity to choose.Go for it.Best regards,-L.

I have seen many antivirus software "solutions" running on and ruining Windows-based PCs. The fact is that most antivirus are so heavy that, even if they succeed in protecting the computers where they are installed, they sensibly slow down their performance.With that in mind, I think that one of the best antivirus around is still NOD32 by ESET. It's really light and fast, their updates are frequent and incremental, and it has the highest detection rate I have seen.I am not related to ESET in any way. I am just saying what I have seen through my own eyes.Of course, there is no such thing as an unbeatable antivirus. It also helps to have what I call a "defensive computer policy", which includes browsing only trusted websites, opening only safe files, etc. But NOD32 would be my choice if I ever needed an antivirus.

IMHO, Linux does not fail as a Desktop OS. It works perfectly well.Of course that for a Windows user Linux may always seem to be messy and unfriendly. Windows users have been educated to think that way. Microsoft (and their hardware and software fellow companies) have done a good marketing job to make their products dependable. But you can see not only people, but companies, governments, etc., using Linux variants as their main desktop production environment. And almost all of them are quite happy with it (if they weren't, they would definitely go back to to Billy's OS).And I agree that nowadays there are many Linux distros. Probably *too* many. A lot of them have no specific purpose, and those can be discarded when choosin which distro to install in a new box or working environment. But there are some that have been put together to fulfill very specific requirements, and that do their job flawlessly.Linux might be seen as a geek toy, but it is more than that. Still, it is not an appropiate OS for everybody, just as red color shirts don't see well when they are worn by different people. It's just matter of testing it and see if it works for each individual purpose.Best regards,-L.

Hello, all and thank you for taking a moment to read.I wonder if it is really possible for a regular internet user to make money online. I mean, I know that there are many people telling their "huge payoffs" and their "wonderful revenues", but I have never met a real person with a real story of (at least relativa) success.If you are one of those real people I have not met yet, please feel free to tell your story. How much time you need to invest in order to start earning real money? What do you need to do? What are good options to start? What things is better not to try?Thanks in advance

Paint Shop Pro is a great option. It used to be a wonderful image-editing program, and a strong competition to those high-end programs like Photoshop. It is only matter of choosing the right version for your OS and hardware, the one that runs best with both of them. Google for it; there are still several evaluation versions around of those oldies.Best regards,-L.

As far as I know, changing languages is only possible in Windows XP Media Center Edition. If you have any other version of XP, you'd better go to backup your data and do a fresh install.Best regards,-L.

I don't fully agree with this opinion. PayPal is actually safe enough for doing credit-card-based transactions. The weak points in safety come not from PayPal itself, but from the weakness of your password and the level of compromise in the computer terminal from where you start a payment. I mean, if your password is that obvious as "12345" and/or you use a public computer in one of those cyberstands that are all around, you are definitely in trouble. But if you use, let's say, a strong passphrase (and you are careful enough for keeping it only for yourself), and use your own Linux-based computer to generate your payments, you have basically nothing to be afraid of. Still, I have to say that it is a good idea to have a low-credited card there... just to be sure. Best regards, -L.

Brontok is a difficult threat to remove.In my experience, the best thing you can do is using a combination of several tools. First, uninstall your current antivirus (if any) and install (and use) the evaluation version of NOD32. That can help to clean most of the infected files. But, in order to really clean in deep, it is always a good idea to download and run some free apps that have been specifically designed to get rid of trojans like Brontok.There are two that are very useful: one is Brontok-remover (mentioned by Grafitti above) and the other one is Elistara. This last one is in Spanish, but it is worth the effort.Good luck!Best regards,-L.