1984

Why try a chevette when you can get a corvette for free?

Thanks MrG!

To be honest, I've used both of those too and didn't personally notice a difference in speeds at all...but I guess if someone has less ram or such it might affect them.

I just use the vista built in firewall (along with my hardware one) and really i could take it or leave it. I don't see any slow down of system with it on vs. being off so i figure what the heck. If you have enough resources then it doesn't really make a difference....

I had the commodore vic 20 which came before the 64! lol....great to see a few older (as from the beginning of the forum) posting again!

looks good!

I have a toshiba laptop like you hazel and i use vlc to play all files that i watch on it. To be honest in nearly 2 years I have yet to watch/use a single dvd in it.......i find vlc player pretty much plays anything.

I didn't know that. That's an awesome feature which i personally would find VERY useful. Thanks for that!

Yeah I can see that. I discovered firefox before opera and spent a lot of time getting to know it and it works good for my needs. Not to say that opera wouldn't, but when something is just working so good for me, I figure why mess with it. I definately noticed that opera was a bit faster then firefox and IE (and to be honest, I like IE with the pro add on as well) and it has a lot of customizable features too. It's probably just the time it would take to learn all the equivalent features in opera that I love in firefox that keeps me from playing with it more. Plus it doesn't support my 64 bit vista and i like to keep my set ups pretty much uniform, so i don't think i will give it a good shot again until it's supported.

No doubt!

I think Opera gets a bad rap sometimes. It's a pretty fast browser and very customizable. Not my preference, but I could see using it if I spent the time to learn it better.

I think out of the freeware ones Avira probably has the best detection rate, but i couldn't stand the look of it. I hated the nag screen with it and went to Avast though. Out of the paid for products probably Kaspersky has the best detection rate, but i went with second best Nod32, just really liked it. Next year I might make the change to Kaspersky to give it a shot.

I use my hardware firewall (router is WRT350N) and the built in Vista one. I tried a ton of freeware ones and always had problems with them so I just 86'd them and went to stock and couldn't be happier.

No doubt! I have 4 of them and a toddler as well.......always picking up ornaments!

Ours is fake too, and not as nice as yours.

I used to use that and remember thinking that it was good at the time. Now that I have tried nod32 I'm going to stick with it for awhile, maybe the only other one I will try when my lease runs out on it is Kaspersky. I really like the Kaspersky interface and it has a great detection rate. Nice find.

lol...I'm not touching that one with a ten foot pole!

Anything that cuts off oxygen to my brain can't be good. I need all the brain cells i can get!

I agree with most of what you posted. Never say never though with legalization. In Canada we are more liberal in some ways and I could see it being first decriminalized and possibly legalized. It is already legal in limited use for medicinal purposes. I don't use drugs and really don't have use for them. I don't even drink alcohol anymore and don't smoke. I see people that have graduated to harsher drugs from marijuana and seen others that have never tried anything harsher. I think there are social (legal as well as personal) issues that can result from it's usage but not for everyone. It just can't be healthy though to inhale smoke, regardless of the amount or the substance, into one's lungs. I didn't know that about FDA approved drugs, never thought of it before about smoked drugs. And I am good and no worries, life is busy for me and I know yours is too! Hope you have a good xmas!

What operating system are you running? And did you post a hijackthis log and have in analyzed anywhere? That's what I would do first because it sounds like some kind of malware turning it off on you. Does it happen if you are disconnected from the internet too?

Hiya Krit, haven't seen ya in awhile!

That's the difference I guess. Some live from the comfort of their home and can armchair quarter back by watching videos and explain how others think and what they should do. Others have the physical or mental fortitude to go and protect the rights and freedoms of those people to do that. Obviously democracy comes at a price. Unfortunate but true. I don't like war, would not join the military personally, but I am thankful for those that do serve their country. I work with people that have killed in the line of duty and I can say that they are family men, not mindless killers, and did not look forward to it at all. It exacts a large mental toll on a persons psych and is not something that they relish. I would never be one of those people that denigrate soldiers (or any other person for that matter we all lead different lives) for doing their job.

http://www.pendriveapps.com/

I think anyone that goes into a war zone in a violent area is brave.....Not all of us are cut out for that kind of thing. But specifically (Quote from the article): "They were members of the Quick Reaction Force, or QRF, a team of soldiers that are usually called out to emergency situations within Kandahar City or just outside city limits, Globe and Mail reporter Graeme told CTV Newsnet on Sunday morning." Basically they were ones that went to some of the more high risk situations in an already dangerous area. It's a terrible thing when anybody dies, a fact of life and war, but these guys (like us all) were sons, fathers, brothers, etc. Someone somewhere is missing them terribly.

Are you meaning that your firewall is turning itself off? If so, that is odd.