Ian

Well at least I'm glad it is not a virus. My cookie settings are not particularly strict but I still get the damn thing at least once a day sometimes more.

I know that you depend on advertising, but you should bear in mind that any advert that is so intrusive that people are prepared to spend significant time to defeat them can only be counter productive for the advertiser and the host site. For all that I know, Party Markets may be a good company that gives a really good service, but I will never have anything to do with them because of that advert.

And neither will I.

I am deeply paranoid and totally suspicious about any firm who markets their product so intrusively and aggressively or is headed up by such a 'pushy bastard' policy maker within it, who finds a need to market his firm's products that way.

I vow never, ever, to give them any of my business and I urge others to adopt the same policy.

If they need to push so hard then it is utterly obvious that a sensible customer ought to resist.

Just try shopping in a vegetable market. See how you feel when someone aggressively tries to push some of their fruit or veg' at you. Exactly the same logic applies. If you want 1lb of tomatoes and they try to make you have 2lbs instead, you'd tell them to 'stick 'em', wouldn't you?

Party Markets, IMHO, are just arrogant tossers!

And just what attitude do you feel they would they adopt, when they have such a business mindset as they illustrate with their attitude to marketing, if you had a problem with them that required some 'customer service'?

Their attitude to the subject of 'care about the customer' is totally absent.

I look upon the Party Markets ad as being akin to a colonoscopy. It's certainly not something you'd willingly put your name down for.

Being on the free service, I've refrained from complaining about the Party Markets advert. However, I think MAM is alienating it's own customers by turning the actual MAM LOGIN field into an annoying advert!

"it is utterly obvious that a sensible customer ought to resist" (my emphasis)

Therein lies the crux of the issue - I bet that's not the type of customer they're looking for... I can't help thinking that advertising via pop-up ads is a deliberate attempt to attract the kind of people who click them ;-) You lose, they win, right?

PlanB - try being a paying customer and having all manner of distracting flashing adverts apparently determined to divert your attention away from the data you've paid to see and the split-second decisions you have to make. You have to block all MoneyAM's ads in the end if you want to concentrate. I wouldn't have minded seeing the ads if they had been more subtle - after all, I want to know if there's a new CFD provider in town and so on. There's a company looking at setting up as a MAM/ADVFN competitor so if it gets off the ground maybe there'll be a bit more competition next year which should be a good thing.

It might be a coincidence, but my comp has picked up "Right Media"
at about the same time as this popup started overlaying opening page.

It is not detected by Avast or superanti spyware.
Spybot S&D detects and appears to delete, but when I reboot it's back again.
Free ZoneAlarm is always on High.
I drop the privacy setting to med High from High to use email.
OS XPpro.
Suggestions welcomed to remove without having to reformat.
Tks.

Some information about Right Media - http://www.benedelman.org/rightmedia-deception/

SpyHunter (from this link - http://www.uninstall-spyware.com/uninstallRightmedia.html) claims to be able to remove it, but I've never heard of SpyHunter, so don't know if it is (a) any good, or (b) malware, though I've not found any links (so far) that identify it as such

Any comments/views about Avant browser please chaps/chapesses?
I ran Firefox & was getting to like it but I've a new packaging labelling software prog that only runs on IE or Avant.

I seem to be seeing a lot of people complaining about 'hanging' when browsing. It seems to be happening more & more to everyone. Is it just my perception or have others noticed it? Also my PC gets more fragmented than it used to. I run Fix It disc defrag once a week & notice that my disc is about usually 9% fragmented. This never used to happen.

The date on my machine is correct. I know this to be the case because I have checked on it with a visual inspection. I have also sent myself some test e-mails, with and without Read Request receipts. Everything checks out OK at my end.

However, for the second time in a few days I have received an e-mail from someone else with an incorrect date reference.

The latest one, which is a Read Receipt for an e-mail I sent on the 15th is from the recipient. It arrived on my machine this morning (no problem with that as he might only just have read it today). The e-mail is dated today (17th) but says the recipient has read it but on the 18th (which is tomorrow!)

I paste the receipt below, with simple suitable edits, to show you the gist of what it says:

This is a receipt for the mail you sent to
"Fred Blogs" at 15/06/2009 16:42

This receipt verifies that the message has been displayed on the recipient's computer at 18/06/2009 09:35

Can I properly infer and conclude the recipient's machine's date must be incorrect?

My machine's operating system is Windows XP Professional. The time is correctly maintained automatically. However, I do know you can mess the clock up by say, checking on the time clock on the information bar, going ahead a month or so to check what day of the week a certain date falls on and then clicking on 'OK' instead of 'Cancel' to finish off with. Might my recipient have done something like this?

Am I correct in assuming this is also the case for other operating systems on people's computers, where the OS is not Windows based?

Vista, Windows 7 and many Lynux distros have a pop up calender on the task tray clock so it is less likely that the date is indavertently changed by the way you suggest on those OS's.

The internet time service often did not work properly (or at all) on Windows XP and Vista. It is possible that this was fixed on XP SP3 and Vista SP2 but I haven't checked and wouldn't count on it. Windows 7 and Lynux have no problems with Internet time servers.

Does anybody have an opinion on locally hosted affiliate software (Mega maybe?)?

Two that have been brought to my attention are:

Post Affiliate Pro 4

and

iDev Affiliate

Anyone know how to setup Opera Mini Mod 2.06 on Sony K800, I've been told to alter the connection settings in the menus of Opera, but I can't seem to find it

Which is better Crossfire or SLI video card, and which one should I get thats got at least 4 DVI's and HDMI connections?

About to receive my new HP Laptop. Will be going wireless as there will be two machines needing internet access. What wireless modem/router would you recommend bearing in mind that one of the machines will be used for trading (streaming charts, java trading platform, etc)? Have been looking at some Netgear models. Also, do I look for just G or Super G (G+) models. And to make it even tougher to choose a model, my son insists we must have a router that allows his Nintendo Wii to connect as well! Grateful for suggestions...

In my experience, most WiFi ADSL routers all have similar features but the Netgear is probably the easiest to setup and use. They also tend to be reliable although I have known them to fail. The G+ ones may give you a faster speed and/or greater range but you probably need Netgear clients to take full advantage. Don't expect to get anything like tha advertised speed or range but it should be good enough for Internet access.

If you are only using one computer at the moment then I would guess that you are using a USB ADSL modem which for security reasons should have ben thrown away years ago. If you are not using a USB modem but have an Ethernet ADSL router then you could save some money by adding a wireless access point to the network.

Don't forget that although WiFi is getting better, it will never be as good as an Ethernet cable so you should use those where practicable.

Thanks Optimist. You're right, I am using a USB ADSL modem atm. Which means I will have to go in for a combined modem/router now. I realise wireless won't be as fast as wired access..but guess I'm gonna have to live WITH that as I am keen to get rid of the wires.

Just in from Exec's chums at Computer Doctors.

"Subject: Hoax - Update for Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:04:35 +0100

Warning to all customers from Computer Doctors

If you receive an email supposedly from Microsoft titled, "Update for Microsoft Outlook / Outlook Express (KB910721) Please do not
click the embedded link.
This is a drive-by site that will infect your PC.
If you wish to update outlook or Outlook Express, please go to windows updates on your start menu.

You have received this message because you are an existing customer of Computer Doctors Ltd"

TP

Anyone have any bright ideas how I can tell whether my router's WiFi is dying or whether I'm suffering from interference from the (large number of) neighbours with WiFi?

symptoms are that I cna usually see a high-strength signal from the router, but can't connect (doesn't authenticate). This has happened over the last couple of days.

Scanning the area shows up to 10 visible WiFi networks at any one time.

You are probably right about the interference. You should be able to select a broadcast channel on the router to avoid as many as possible of your neighbours. However, if you are using a 108 Mbps router you will probably then be limited to 54 Mbps.

Also worth thinking whether you may have made any changes to the house, e.g. putting up mirrors or moving router or laptop.

Apologies if this has been done before which I'm sure is the case.

Daughter finally gets a shiny new mac. No probs getting on to the net but I know nothing of security for macs so paranoia setting in.

Seems avast is ok for macs. Anything else i need to do?
Cleaner not available but been reading about Onyx, securely erase trash, erase free space 7 times, App Zapper, Clean Space, zero my hard drive 30 times so Nasa can't get it......

Am i in the right ball park :-))