We are in the same boat. I'm thinking about dropping the CD service, since we stream the large majority of our content from Netflix.

Starz going away isn't a killer, but it hurts. Better Watch Toy Story III while we still can!

I wish Netflix would go to a Streaming/2DVD per month package for like $12/month. We only use the mailers to get the most obscure content that Netflix only seems to carry (we have "The Mask of Zorro" with Errol Flynn right now).

Usually takes two weeks to get the family together to watch a DVD, especially during a school year. A package that limited the number of 90 postage charges Netflix got per month to two might hold subscribers and preserve their bottom line.

I propose using USB!!

However, I propose having USB access on removable PCI cards, or some similar removable interface. Keep the cards locked up unless you are doing an update.

Sure, a very stupid user could go buy a USB card to play his collection of Lady Gaga hits in the reactor control mainframe, but he's probably more likely to buy a USB player instead of going to the trouble of installing a card and rebooting the system.

A process engineer I used to work for had a Golden Rule: Design the work space so that doing things right is the easiest way to do it.

"Your lose."

Oh, fer de Cry Eye! That's "You're lose"!

Try and hold it together here, people!

Just want to second this. My little bitty computer shop has three of these DOA units. There is a law office investigating a Class Action suit regarding these.

http://www.finkelsteinthompson.com/investigation/hp_laptop_wireless_failure_investigation.php

Thompson LLP is investigating allegations that certain model laptops manufactured by HP are experiencing unusually high rates of wireless connection failures. The HP model numbers allegedly affected are the HP Pavilion dv2000 series, the HP Pavilion dv6000 series, the HP Pavilion dv9000 series, the HP Pavilion tx1000 series, the Compaq Presario V3000 series, and the Compaq Presario V6000 series. HP has continued to market and sell these defective laptops despite allegedly knowing, since at least as early as 2007, that these models carry wireless device defects.

Isn't just wireless that dies--it just dies first. The whole laptop follows.

Same problem is happening with HP and Compaqs Slimline desktops. Just had one of those in here with an identical problem. DOA. Fortunately I found the customer is entitled to a 12 month extension on his original warrantee. Runs out December 31.

Beware!

I'm not at all certain this is a nVidia problem so much as HP trying to cram a high performance graphic chip onto a motherboard without adequate heat dissipation. But it's a very real problem.

I clean multiple infected systems every week. I do it for individuals in my little bitty computer shop. They don't have images or good backups (or even their install CD a lot of the time).

I have a very good record of cleaning people's machines without resorting to a wipe (sometimes, you have to, because the system is so damaged). I don't get many people coming back quickly with renewed infections (amazing what having a properly patched machine with basic anti-malware software installed can do). I don't advertise, and word of mouth keeps me working steadily.

It's partially knowing what belongs in the Root, Windows,System32 directories of a healthy system, and learning to recognized the polymorphed names of suspect files (hint--polymorphed files use random use random names, most legitimate files have vaguely recognizable titles). Anything I'm not sure of gets an all-caps "UNTRUST" in front of its name. Screws up the naughties, and it's easy to undo if it turns out (rarely) that the file is a needed one. Also, once you find one bad actor, you can use creation dates and file sizes to snag the others tucked away in more obscure places (and nuke all old System Restore points). Plus, they have to be called in order to do their wicked work. Who care if you have a hidden malware executable or .dll if there isn't anything around to call it? Polymorphs can't be activated remotely for the same reason they are hard to detect with signatures

Now, I don't do big networked corporate systems, and I don't advise customers with super-secret important data (especially financial data--I've refused jobs with accounting firms) to trust that I can make them perfectly safe. That would be bullshit.

But for normal users with normal installations and standard use patterns, a cleanout is often a very good solution.

I remove these things for about 50% of my living. I used to see email viruses, CoolWebSearch, and other insta-installers. Now EVERY infection is a trojan.

They use compromised web ads on legitimate sites (I've personally seen pop-ups on websites for CNN and The Washington Post) and post recompiled versions en masse. It's the Zero-Day attack, where most anti-virus can't get definitions for the first 12-24 hours. Given how these folks blanket the web with their stolen ad spaces, they can hit a lot of people. $49.95 for every sucker they catch (assuming they don't also steal the credit card info--although I have not had any reports of this from the several infected people who have paid them and later came to me).

I've seen every flavor of anti-virus compromised. McAffee and Norton most often (the bad guys obviously target the biggest marketshare--plus folks who pay those two crap-sellers are the most gullible). But nothing can really protect against a competent Zero-Day attack.

The good news about this is that XP, Vista (and I assume) Windows 7 are no longer vulnerable to automated attacks. They need a couple of user clicks in order to bypass their unwillingness to install programs with Admin privileges. That's why everything is Trojans these days, at least for auto-updating systems.

Hasn't really cut down on the amount of infections, to my jaundiced eyes, however.

I've also seen my first 'infected' Macintosh (running Leopard 10.5). The infection consisted a link in the user startup that launched Safari and sent it to a website advising the user that they were infected. The site tried to download a windows executable, but that obviously didn't accomplish much.

I still got paid for deleting the link and about 8 executables, so no complaints.

The key to fixing Windows infections is to start with an offline scan on anther computer. Use at least two and preferably three anti-malware products, including MalAwareBytes. Windows Defender does a very good custom on a slave drive.

Afterwards, boot the (still infected) machine in Safe Mode and update it with the Spybot Includes file (get that from MajorGeeks). Scan the machine in Safe Mode. Spybot might not find as many nasties as it used to, but it is still very good at detecting compromised system settings. There's quite a bit more, including repairing damaged system files and such, but the best first step is an offline scan on a clean computer, and then a Safe Mode scan with Spybot. After that, you can most likely use the computer to clean up traces on its own.

I have heard these Trojan pros are former KGB computer warfare people who lost their livelihoods when the former Soviet Union collapsed. Since they were trained messing up computers in the US, they just went ahead and kept doing what the knew best. A lot of the stuff seems to originate in poorly policed Eastern European servers.

I use the *buntu and Suse variants of Linux on a daily basis. Unless this offers any real advantage I won't move to it even it I purchase a netbook with it I would probably format and load Ubuntu on it.

And YOU are the last person Google is trying to get as a user for the Chrome OS. You're already in the Open Source boat, and in fact, you're helping row!

Google can make a big difference if they provide a lightweight OS that runs on cheap equipment and gets the user decent Web functionality. Get their email(GMail), their Facebook, their YouTube and their free Flash games. And get all the advertising that goes with it.

Maybe even write some papers and share photos with friends (store said content in the Cloud and never lose their stuff).

Currently, Charter Communications (Boo!) a big Evil ISP, doesn't even support Windows 98se, Windows Millenium, and Windows 2000 computers. They don't support Mac OS9 or Linux either. If one of their customers calls up their tech support for any of these operating systems, they say "Sorry, not supported, can't help you".

Even though every one of these OSs are perfectly capable of connecting to Charter's high-speed connections and using their POP email clients. I set em' up all the time. Works great.

But ask Charter and they say "Sorry, not supported. Click."

Chrome OS, from Google, and with a simple set of instructions for email and ISP connections (phone droid scripts) instantly gets over this major hurdle for computer doofuses (Gawd luv em'). A single Chrome OS, based on Linux, can be the gold standard for the unwashed masses, that gets them out of the clutches of Micro$oft and $teve Jobs (for case designers) (BTW, I luv Steve, have used Apples since the Apple II, and own Apple stock--but a lot of folks resist giving up the coin needed to get that first Apple computer).

If Google pulls off a lightweight OS with the core functionality "the folks" need, that can run on the cheap hardware that is currently choking our landfills, it will be huge. HHHUUUUUUUUUGGGGGEEEE! {/Donald Trump}

I've been a Charter customer here in Wisconsin for over 6 years. It's for my business. Just high-speed internet, no TV or phone service. I've been quite happy with the service and reliability.

I have DSL from our local phone company. I am less satisfied with the phone company service in terms of both reliability and service. For example, the phone company issues passwords to customers and won't let them change it. That's supposed to improve security, but it really means customers write the passwords on their monitors, or have Windows remember it, and when the computer needs service or replacing, they have no idea what their passwords are.

As a long time Mac guy, and Green Bay Packers fan, I have no love for Paul Allen. But I don't hate Charter.

I read the article. They boasted they could reflash the BIOS every time the computer boots.

• "It was very easy. We can put the code wherever we want," said Ortega. "We're not using a vulnerability in any way. I'm not sure if you understand the impact of this. We can reinfect the BIOS every time it reboots."

That's not preventing me from cleaning the BIOS by reflashing it. That's infecting the bios from the hard drive to continue an infection.

If you wipe the hard drive, the malware returns through the BIOS. If you flash the BIOS, the malware is rewritten through from the hard drive at boot. That's probably why they're working on a rootkit to hide the hard drive half. Make it a lot harder to eradicate.

However, my standard procedure is to pull a hard drive out of the infected computer first and scan it as a slave. That disables the vast majority of malware protections. If this exploit showed up in the wild, then after detecting it, I would also have to reflash the BIOS (not just wipe user settings with the jumper) before putting the hard drive back into the computer and finishing the cleanup. One more thing to do, but nobody said malware cleanup was supposed to be easy.

One other question I have is what type of machine this thing is infecting? They name three operating systems, but don't mention whether it was different motherboards/BIOSes. If the bad guys have to write hardware-specific code bits for every different manufacturer (and every new BIOS), they're the ones who will be working harder.