AOL Sucks

My friend recently recieved a laptop and noticed it ran slower everytime he used it. I installed Microsoft's Anti Spyware Beta (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=321cd7a2-6a57-4c57-a8bd-dbf62eda9671&displaylang=en) and ran a scan.

After removing the problems it found, we decided to go to microsoft to search for updates. Unfortunately for my friend, his household uses AOL dial-up. We figured that would manage and signed in. After suffering the painfully long sign in and the disturbingly annoying sounds we were connected. Just as i was typing "Microsoft.Com" into the address bar, Anti Spyware picked up 10 new programs trying to upload themselves to the machine.

I use NTL broardband and Mozilla's Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/) and have never had anything try to install it's self...

In addition to this, I noticed that AOL's browser is very glitchy and behaves much in the same way as an experiment using Delphi's browser component I performed a couple of weeks ago.

Video Gaming

I'm sure you've all heard the argument that video games encourage violence, or that they turn our brains to mush. Then there are the studies that show gaming improves awareness and hand-eye coordination, and can also teach you about stuff. E.G. I didn't know what 'drive trains' were until I played Sega GT 2002.

Personally, i love gaming. It feeds my crazy imagination, and also lets me vent my stress by beating the heck out of Sindel, or flying past a dodge viper in my honda civic. I find i can picture problems easier. For example, if in a math problem I have an object moving in a straight line and then turning, I can see it as my car cornering on Micro Machines.

I also find that i seem to know how the console thinks now. I often 'Glitch' games. For example, in Mashed, I have managed to win by sliding sideways. In Mortal Kombat Trilogy, my fiend and I have moved faster than my screen seems to be able to handle and pull off moves whilst blocking.

I also see one valid counter argument. The balence between Study/Work with Gaming. I believe that each person has thier own setting. The phrase "All work and no play makes X go crazy!" seems to fit nicely, howver all play and no work presents the danger of failing in studies/work etc...

RPs

If you like stories, but can't put anything into understandable English, (like me) then RPs are for you.
You and others write a story on a forum. Each post adds one or two paragraphs to the story. You invent your own characters and then just go crazy.

Checkout the EverythingX RP Arena for examples.

Removing Files...

Have you ever just been looking around your machine and thought, 'I haven't used that in ages. Delete!'

So you tell your OS to delete the thing and it comesback with one of the following messages:
'Only system admin may edit this file.' (Even though you're the only person who has ever used this system)
'Cannot delete as the program is currently in use.' (And you un-installed it months ago.)
'This file is read only.' (Even though the 'Read Only' box isn't checked.)

Why can't they make an OS that just deletes a file regardless. All I want is a message saying "Are you sure?" just in case i lean on the delete key whilst trying to access my internet browser.

That would make viruses so much easier to remove. I'm sure you've suffered the programs that install them selves, and even though you've got several anti-ware programs targeting it, it re-appears half an hour later and re-boots your machine without warning.

Personally I believe that the OS designers should let us delete whatever we want. Even if it does run the risk of removing the OS it's self because someone clicked the wrong icon when on a clean out session...