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Additional  notes

XP Antivirus 2008 is a fraudulent program purporting to be an anti-virus program.
When you visit an infiltrated web site it will display an image designed to look like a warning that your computer is infected. Clicking on an invitation to correct the supposed infection will actually download a virus and the only way to get rid of it is to click on a link where you pay $49 to supposedly get rid of it.
Real anti-virus programs have trouble keeping up with different flavors of viruses which morph to change their signatures. See the link above for Anatomy Of A Virus.

To scan for a virus with AVG 8 start it in safe mode (F8) and then do the scan.

SmitFraud is the name for a class of fraudware, like that mentioned above.

Gmail can be configured as a POP mail server so you can use a local mail program like Outlook Express or Thunderbird from Mozilla to send & receive mail.

Settings in gmail allow you to also use the IMAP mail protocol (developed by the University of Washington). IMAP allows you to view just the mail headers and then decide if you want to read the actual mail. To use IMAP you have to make that choice when configuring your mail client, you can't just switch the behavior of a particular account from POP to IMAP, but have to create a different one.

IMAP also allows you to synchronize mail folders. In Thunderbird enable the setting which configures folders for offline use.

Once you have a gmail account you may also use the spreadsheet or word processor at docs.google.com.
You also have a web page at igoogle.com or google.com/ig.

One can also treat gmail as offline disk storage for any type of file. There is a plugin for Firefox allowing you to do that.
The plugin is called Gspace:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1593
Gspace FAQ:
http://getgspace.com/faq.html

Officially you can update XP to Vista but it's not recommended. Do a clean install of Vista.
Maxtor Blast (or free personal edition?) makes a clone of your drive. A good idea if you want to try the upgrade path.
Make sure you have enough RAM to use Vista. 2gig should be fine.

Vista's not so bad with service pack 1. PC's are just now being sold with SP1.

A caller using iTunes to read in compilation CD's finds the tracks are arranged in an undesirable way. The recommendation is to use the comment field so tracks you want to remain together have the same comment. Then sort the tracks using the comment field. Or use the "Date Added" field to do the sort.
Among other ITunes tips, stretta.com explains how the compilation flag works.

A caller who wants to play WMA files from a PC on a MAC is directed flip4mac.com.

A caller with a flip video camera wants to know if its file format can be converted to a common format. Look at the file extension (the 3 characters after the dot in the file name). Then, in google, search for ".fli convert .avi", if your extension is .fli, for example.