Good news & bad news

[DTS]

Bart

I will find out about these. Also, I will quote you...to a friend who I'm going to let take a look at these. It is possible you are correct about the files I saw today.

I will call him right now and post after gives me an answer.

Dennis

[Black Bart]

Spyware

I think maybe the "spyware" removes different kinds of stuff than the file cleaners because they sell that in a different program. Then they are selling a third program for "pop-ups," which is advertising, and maybe Dennis' Ad-Aware would kill off those.

Say Dennis--another thought--even if you have 500 files on the computer, that might not be any significant amount since computer memories nowadays have millions of bytes of memory and you might not need to do anything at all. Guess you're right--we need to ask somebody that knows about the stuff. P.S. Thanks for pointing out that my "key" was a "button"--I'd never heard of that before.

[Lion]

Kids

Black Bart,

The kids ain't gone until their stuff is outta your cellar.

And, your other topic really is related. Now that my kids are semi-gone, I don't have a teen or twenty-something to ask all my computer questions. Much harder on the telephone or IMing when I don't even know the jargon. A friend called with a technical question. I had to have her call my daughter at college to get the answer. (I'm sure my daughter thinks I'm looney having some stranger call her cell, but I knew she knew the answer....)

[DTS]

Ok

Just got off the phone with my friend (I asked for an "old computer geek", he said he would look up some numbers for me!). We ran a little experiment and deleted all the cookies then he had me go back to IE and immediately to taxbook.com. I then went back to the control panel and two cookies were back in there. They helped me get to the TMI board.

Then deleted everything in the control panel, cookies and files (GIF images, JPEG, etc) then went back into taxbook.com and they were ALL back in there. About forty of them, just to get to taxbook.com!!!

So, I guess these will not hurt anything. They just help us manuveur around the Internet.

Like Lion said, at times like this, it might be nice to be 20 years old again!

By the way Bart, my computer here at home is not slow at all. Lightening fast. I'm having tons of problems at work, so when I get there on Tuesday, I'll check everything out and see what I have there. I'll let you know. All my scans and defrags can't seem to help at the office. Very troubling.

Dennis

[geekgirldany]

Sorry I haven't responded yet. Staying with my mother who got extremely sick after eating a Sonic's hamburger. I ate a steak sandwich and didn't get sick... yet. But she got sick within 12 hours. I should call the dang health department.

Anyways, yeah webroot is pretty good. But I don't believe it takes care of spyware. I have a couple of customers that run it, then run a trojan scan, run a spyware scan.

I actually just buy the complete package. Panda Platinum 2006 Internet Security. It has everything you would need to protect your computer. There is no need in having three or four different programs. Just one It does cost $80 but is well worth it when a customer comes and pays me alot more to clean our a virus or spyware.

The thing with cookies... they can be good. Like Amazon, taxbook, ebay, and other sites. Ususally when you clean them out they pop right back like Dennis said.

[DTS]

You're back!

Very sorry to hear about your Mom. Been there, but she'll be better in a couple of days.

We've been trying to hash all this stuff out by ourselves. Very scary! I got rid of Norton about a year ago. It was missing way too many things. I went with Panda Platinum and I love it.

My computer at work is showing no spyware, trojans, etc. Clean as can be, crawling like a snail. I really feel my problem is I have no SP2 and my processor speed is too low, 1.57 Ghz.

This week, I ordered two Dells and they are loaded, so I can't wait to start them up and watch them fly.

Dennis

[Black Bart]

Lioness

We mostly have attics here, but it's the same story and yeah, I've got about half of his stuff still upstairs. Mine (age 38) has already made the rounds of school, colleges (3), jobs (lost count), cars/trucks (12), motorcycles (5), out-of-state moves (3), marriages (3), house trailers {no wisecracks, if you please} (2), houses (1). I sure will be glad when he reaches the age of majority in Arkansas (40) and can go out on his own.

A retired (doctor) client, who has similar problems (extravagance, sloth, ignorance, immoderation, irresponsibility, booze, tobacco, dope, dames) was in the office the other day. Since misery loves company, I always ask about his ne'er-do-well wastrel son (Doc married late in life) and he does the same.

BB - Anything new?
Doc - Yes. I shipped him off to the Colorado mountains.
BB - How?
Doc - What's fastest?
BB - Air, of course. Where'bouts?
Doc - Unsure--somewhere near Pike's Peak, I believe. My fading memory has become an asset.
BB - From boondocks to extreme boondocks, eh?
Doc - Say what you will, it's working.
BB - How so? Not writing for dough?
Doc - Please! Don't be ridiculous. Of course that continues, but the upside is that he's not here. He's 2,000 miles away. If a crisis regarding money, women, or the law presents itself, I'm virtually unreachable here for several hours by which time the problem may have resolved itself or been averted. Too, if the situation becomes intense or threatens to get out-of-hand, there's a fail-safe option. Now, I can simply claim they have the wrong number, hang up, and take the phone off the hook.
BB - Hmmm. How much is a one-way ticket?

Yes, they really are handy with tech stuff. During this weekend's matrimonial crisis, he replaced my backyard motion detector light fixture which has been out since the last wedding. If there's a spat over the Christmas holidays; I'm getting the VCR reprogrammed.

Regards, BB

[Donanita]

Website to Checkout

is cookiescache.tripod.com. If your wondering about deleteing the cookies checkout this site.I go into internet options,viewfiles,edit,select all and delete. When you go back to the website such as TaxBook the cookies will return so no harm in deleting them.I tyr to delete mine daily so my computer doesn't get boged down with junk. Had a neighbor install Winwasher on his computer and it make his computer crash.Took him and Dell forever to get some of his info back.Guess it works on some and not on others.

[DTS]

I misspoke...

about using Panda Platinum. I meant to say Panda Titanium.

Bart,

I don't know where you come up with some of these "conversations", but they are very entertaining. This last one had me grabbing my stomach (I'm laughing now as I'm typing just thinking of it). Been some time since I've laughed that hard.

Thanks, Dennis

[Black Bart]

PandaMan

about using Panda Platinum. I meant to say Panda Titanium.

Bart,

I don't know where you come up with some of these "conversations", but they are very entertaining. This last one had me grabbing my stomach (I'm laughing now as I'm typing just thinking of it). Been some time since I've laughed that hard.

Thanks, Dennis

When you got rid of the files under "View Files," was it the Panda program that did it or did your tech guy know how to do it with just the regular free Windows clean-up/defrag program or in some other "free" way?

Regarding "conversations": I really don't have to manufacture them. I occasionally...ahem (what's a good word for "stretchin' it"?)...enhance my chats (sounds kinda like those "forward-looking" financial statements, doesn't it?), but for the most part, the "characters" are "real" in the sense that they have a physical presence in the world, although I have blended many of them (clients, friends, relatives, acquaintances, and myriad characters) into composites; detailing various anecdotes and events as they were related to me over the years. For instance, the "doc" is a "real person" (albeit a dentist) and is my retired client. He did send his son to Colorado, he does send money to him (monthly), and he would sincerely like for him to be abducted by aliens. "Smart" Twin is a meld of a part-time realtor and two used-car dealers (now out-of-business), one of whom repoed with a .45 automatic rather than GPS and the other who once made a veiled (enough to avoid indictment) attempt to bribe the IRS agent auditing his business. Millie is my deceased aunt and my live step-mother-in-law. Rube is the taciturn stoic who mechanics on my car (a man of few words--dust virtually flies from his mouth when he opens it to opine). M.W. (nickmane-Minimum Wage) Ben is indeed my profligate offspring, the further discussion of which would be as painful to me as the loss of your files and cookies were to you, so...if I may be excused...

Although the advent of modern innovations, trends, and technology has hauled the neighborhood kicking and screaming into the 21st century, some of the people here have not gone along peaceably, and they retain their old manner and customs. At one time this was a fairly "rough" place. During the first half of the last century, there were a number of "killings" here. A convict was shot dead in my grandmother's back yard as he jumped her fence running from the sheriff. My father-in-law's father once stopped a lynching. I'm an older guy, but several of my clients are/were older than me and lived through "hard times" (the Great Depression) and even further back when "bull-punchers" dragged logs out of the woods with teams of oxen. Just by virtue of longevity I've heard some quite colorful and (what I consider to be) interesting stories. It's not, as they say, "rocket science" to accumulate them--almost everybody has some if they live long enough--I imagine you've got a few yourself. Tell us one sometime. I'd like to hear it.

P.S. The Fraynch teacher came by and I asked him if my story-tellin' tricks were okay and he said they were because I'm supposed to have an "artistic license." I didn't want to hurt his feelin's (he's the sensitive type), so I didn't tell him that I really don't have one (shoot--I didn't even know my old one had expired).

P.S.P.S. I've got to let up on this nonsense though, as I'll bet that, while Bees* and Beau* are cuttin' me some slack during the "off-season," they've probably had just about enough of this foolishness and folderol
.
*Fellers, I promise to stick strictly to "tax focus" after the first of the year.

[dmj4]

Free stuff

I run AdAware, but I have been told that all the free stuff removes some unwanted files but puts others in.

I know very little about computers (I was born too early) but I have been told that more than once.

[DTS]

Cleanup

Bart,

The process I used yesterday, was the sequence you posted. Panda did none of that yesterday. I do have icons for defrag and disk cleanup on my desktop that I use on a regular basis. Panda will constantly update itself daily and monitor stuff. Also, I do a scan w/Panda once a week. I have not had anything slip by, to my knowledge.

About your entertaining stories...half of my family is from Arkansas, the other half (Norwegian) is from SD. Though I love both sides, the most entertaining stories come from the Arkansas side!

Dennis

[Black Bart]

Dennis / Panda

Bart,

The process I used yesterday, was the sequence you posted. Panda did none of that yesterday. I do have icons for defrag and disk cleanup on my desktop that I use on a regular basis. Panda will constantly update itself daily and monitor stuff. Also, I do a scan w/Panda once a week. I have not had anything slip by, to my knowledge.

Dennis

Just curious, but since the Panda program is a commercially sold program to (I assume) get rid of all the garbage and stuff on the computer, why were those 400-500 files you mentioned still on the computer? I'd have thought it would have zapped them out. Thanks.

[DTS]

???

Bart,

As I understand some of this, there are some good cookies and some bad. They let us move around the Internet more quickly (???) and are not harmful. I guess the protection knows what is good and what is not. I don't believe anything that was in the files the other day had anything to do with a threat. I could be wrong though.

I have a program called Ad-Aware that will separate them into catagories then advise us that the ones in a certain group are not a threat and there is no need to delete them.

Once in awhile, I'll go to a site and Panda will recognize and alert me that a particular cookie is present and unwanted, I then have to give it permission to leave it alone or remove the threat. Also, it provides antivirus protection for emails, coming in and going out.

I'm sorry I don't have a better understanding of all this so I could give you a better answer. Wish I did. Many more people on this board have a much better understanding of all this than I do. Why don't you jump in and give Bart and me a handle on all this?

Dennis