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Piss off every performance-oriented computer user on Earth

I'm going to personally recommend a codec pack called CCCP, or the Combined Community Codec Pack. It's primarily meant for viewing anime, but I've never come across any video it couldn't play (aside from MOV and RM). It claims to be free of any sort of malware, and there are a lot of good people vouching for it.

If anyone has any information about malware being present in this codec pack, please respond to this post; since I have this installed on my system I'd be very interested in hearing it. :-)

As least with RH/FC systems, when Bitstream donated fonts in 2003, they have been just as good as any Mac where as Mac > Windows with regards to fonts.
Before that, they were horrible.

http://linux.softpedia.com/screenshots//Fedora-Cor e_2.jpg

when you buy an Ipod, you're agreeing to use it the way Apple says you can.

No. No. No. And also, No. What am I agreeing to? Did I sign anything? I don't think so. Well, maybe a credit card statement, but then I'm only agreeing to pay for it. That's it.

If you would so desire to use Apple's iTunes interface to interact with this device, then you have to agree with the use of iTunes' EULA.

Well to that, iTunes can kiss my f*cking ass. You don't have to use iTunes by any means. There are alternatives to iTunes. Hell, some of them even have games that don't suck.

Remember, if you buy a piece of hardware, it's not licensed to you, you're not borrowing it, and you don't have to agree to jack shit. I am sure there are some issues about writing software to circumvent such (crappy/pointless) security measures as FairPlay. But those are unimportant to the end-user. You didn't sign anything saying you wouldn't install software that would hurt Steve Jobs' feelings (well at least I didn't). Exercise your rights. This is the best piece of software for the iPod I've seen in a long time. I'm downloading as we (I) speak.

I would have no objection to to MS totally taking security in house. Locking down the kernel and only allowing API access would eliminate most of the defects in Vistos. The only difference is the end use pays MS a yearly subscription instead of McAfee $274.5, Symantec $4.14 billion) and the rest. Of course charging after the fact for defects in the product is a very odd way of doing business. Myself don't plan to pay either of them a cent for 'security'.

Actually the compiled data is just statistical data based on the audio. The audio isnt directly used. You cant get the original audio from the compiled version.

What rock have you been hiding under? Dont you know what a mp3 is? ;) I highly doubt they are even considering distributing raw pcm data. It will be compressed in one form or another. 1000 hours of CD quality mp3 is only roughly 60gig (your numbers are wrong I think) and voice doesnt need CD quality.

Microsoft has decided that backward compatibly with DirectX 9,8,7 isn't really necessary as there will probably will be even less compatible with Vista.

Even so, dear Microsoft hasn't totally forgotten us. Some sort of "compatibility" will be available through a software layer (probably some emulation) which will have its price in system resources, as it will run much slower. The good news is that DirectX 10 will relieve some of the burden on the CPU.

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Utilities/Desktop-Man ager.shtml
multiple desktops. next.

Yeah, I tell people that I hate using right handed pencils.....Ned Flanders rules!

per the Question:
Use FireFox for your browser:
http://geckotip.mozdev.org/index.html

For your Palm (well, your computer kind):
http://handheld.softpedia.com/get/System-Utilities /LeftScroll-7380.shtml

Layne

Google Cache is great for the forum thread.


Torrent

Other Mirrors Listed (from the forrum) Below.
https://uploads.sgul.ac.uk/uploads/5499300/FairUse 4WM.zip
http://ranobe.com/up/src/up132003.zip
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Othe r-VIDEO-Tools/FairUse4WM.shtml
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/FairUse4WM/11 56529648/1
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6BZYVF56
http://www.filefactory.com/file/f75e74/
http://www.badongo.com/file/1270460
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=B5M9PXUM

Is this another recall, or is Slashdot about three weeks behind in the news?

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Recalls-D efective-Windows-Small-Business-Server-2003-R2-Pro duct-31365.shtml

its a blizzard game released by blizzard created from blizzard original content. i'm pretty sure they get 100% of the money after the initial store sale. unless their parent company takes a cut.

I used RockXP on a number of occasions, on XP Home and XP Pro. It allows you to change the key, and it's very simple to use. It can be found on http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancement s/RockXP.shtml .
The website of the developer (http://www.korben.tk) seems down at the moment

T-Mobile is GSM. T-Mobile will unlock your T-Mobile phone for you after you have used their system for 3 months, even if you only have a pre-paid plan.

Be sure you get a Quad-Band GSM phone like the Motorola RAZR V3 (now V3i). There are only 4 GSM bands, and a phone with all 4 bands allows use in Europe, Asia, and any place there are GSM providers, which is becoming everywhere. (Apparently there are some areas that use a 5th band, called GSM400, but that is not used in modern systems. See this GSM frequency chart. You can also look at the Wikipedia GSM frequency chart.)

I certainly don't want to recommend the Motorola RAZR phone. When I look at some of the features, I'm amazed at how poorly implemented they are. Maybe Motorola deliberately makes quirky phones so the company can sell better ones later.

TDMA and CDMA are older systems with much poor sound quality. They can sometimes, but only sometimes, be unlocked, too. But it is better to throw away an old phone and get a GSM phone.

This GSM band usage shows which countries use which GSM bands.

To get your carrier to unlock your GSM phone, display your IMEI by dialing *#06# on your phone. Then ask the carrier to provide the unlock code.

This GSM Coverage Chart shows all providers in all countries.

Find info about each model of phone using the Softpedia phone chart. Note that there are many models of Motorola V3. Older models take photos with fewer pixels, for example.

To change mobile phone provider company, just change the SIM card in your phone. GSM phones are made so that you can do this yourself.

--
U.S. Government violence encourages other violence. You pay.

T-Mobile is GSM. T-Mobile will unlock your T-Mobile phone for you after you have used their system for 3 months, even if you only have a pre-paid plan.

Be sure you get a Quad-Band GSM phone like the Motorola RAZR V3 (now V3i). There are only 4 GSM bands, and a phone with all 4 bands allows use in Europe, Asia, and any place there are GSM providers, which is becoming everywhere. (Apparently there are some areas that use a 5th band, called GSM400, but that is not used in modern systems. See this GSM frequency chart. You can also look at the Wikipedia GSM frequency chart.)

I certainly don't want to recommend the Motorola RAZR phone. When I look at some of the features, I'm amazed at how poorly implemented they are. Maybe Motorola deliberately makes quirky phones so the company can sell better ones later.

TDMA and CDMA are older systems with much poor sound quality. They can sometimes, but only sometimes, be unlocked, too. But it is better to throw away an old phone and get a GSM phone.

This GSM band usage shows which countries use which GSM bands.

To get your carrier to unlock your GSM phone, display your IMEI by dialing *#06# on your phone. Then ask the carrier to provide the unlock code.

This GSM Coverage Chart shows all providers in all countries.

Find info about each model of phone using the Softpedia phone chart. Note that there are many models of Motorola V3. Older models take photos with fewer pixels, for example.

To change mobile phone provider company, just change the SIM card in your phone. GSM phones are made so that you can do this yourself.

--
U.S. Government violence encourages other violence. You pay.

Has anyone else noticed that the ads on the informative article page:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Atom-Sorting-Ma chine-29616.shtml

are about industrial conveyor belts? (I got "Belt Conveyors From the Industry Leader, QC Solutions") I can certainly understand it, given that the article has the text "'conveyor belt' consisting of lasers", but it's still wrong and funny!

There is a bit more detail here, including a picture:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Atom-Sorting-Ma chine-29616.shtml

Since January 2002, Microsoft has put a stronger emphasis on protecting PCs by attempting to implement stable, secure code into Windows XP and their new operating system.

Google "ipod killer" -> 1,160,000 results.

We've seen iPod killers from Sony, iRiver, Dell, Nokia, and of course Creative.

Microsoft has been killing the iPod for years now. They need to get their other iPod killers out of the way to give their new device a piece of that tasty iPod flesh that Apple competitors have been feasting on for years.

Nobody mentioned Quicksilver

Photo-Paint 9 for LInux was and remains a free download. Corel Photo-Paint 9

How about my dog? Will paris hilton start a new line of dog space suits? I think her chihuahua looks adorable. That's hot

NO they don't. Hence my point. The game doesn't just have to support direct9, they have to support win98.
Of the three mentioned, Galactic Civ 2 is the only one which runs on windows 98

WoW does not support win98
San Andreas also requires windows 2000 or XP


Hence my point. The games may run use DirectX 9, MS may have been patching Win98 and have given it support for directX 9, but the games themselves do not. In other words... it doesn't work... because the venders have decided not to support windows 98 anymore (directX 9 notwithstanding)

[sarcasm] Oh, yeah, right it's ALL the user's fault. And *nix allows remote users to make changes to your system without your knowledge or permission whenever you're online too. And let's not forget that ton of Unix viruses that have made the internet nearly impossible to use because all the servers keep failing. And of course, *nix also requires a whole bunch of third-party software to secure it as well. Oh, and all OSes have browsers with Active X![/sarcasm]

Yes, a lot of users are stupid. But if the vulnerabilities weren't there in the first place there would be far fewer problems. If Windows was as secure as OS X -- and sorry, Apple fans, it's not as secure as some other *nix distros -- a virus would be a rare thing simply because it wouldn't have anything to work with. So, yeah, if they fixed it that would eliminate most viruses right there. Despite the stereotypes many would have you believe, there are a lot of Mac users who are just as clueless as the Windows user you're describing, but their systems haven't been compromised because the OS they're using isn't horribly insecure to begin with.

How to secure Windows by yours truly (hope this makes sense; I haven't had much coffee yet):
1. Firewall! Better still firewall + hardware router.
2. Anti-virus. I recommend Avast! for 2k and XP, AVG for 9x. If you want to pay for anti-virus, I've heard NOD32 is the best, with Kaspersky's coming in a close second.
3. Win Patrol prevents many changes fromt aking place without your permission; just scroll down the page for the link to download the free version.
4. If you're using Xp, get xpy which can disable a whole lot of Windows problems, such as the remote regsitry severice which allows remote users to change your registry whenever you're online -- yes, MS made it that on purpose and isn't going to fix it -- and Active X, Windows' most infamous security hole. You need to know what you're doing with this program though; if you don't, get someone who does to help you.
5. Be careful. Research *everything* you'd like to install. Check the program's ratings at download sites and do a search on the program's name with a good search engine.

Personally, though, I tend to think Winsdows is hopeless. Patches aren't enough, the system needs to be built from the ground up with much higher security. That means a lot of programs wouldn't even work after that. And would MS provide this as a free fix to all of their customers? Ha!

But speculation is useless. Microsoft is never going to try to really fix Windows; as successful as they've been already, why should they? Especially not when they can make money selling services to protect Windows! Never mind that they should've built a secure OS in the first place like practically everyone else did.

I'm not sure the iPod is a good example as you're shoehorned into using iTunes (hence not really free of Apple at all)

I'm sure that's what Apple intended, but there are alternatives: iPod Plug-in for Winamp 1.33, iPod nano Player 3.1, MyPodPlayer 1.0, YamiPod 0.99.2 (which is pretty popular) and iDump. There are undoubtedly others too. (Of course, this is all off-topic so I expect it will be modded as such.)

I'm not sure the iPod is a good example as you're shoehorned into using iTunes (hence not really free of Apple at all)

I'm sure that's what Apple intended, but there are alternatives: iPod Plug-in for Winamp 1.33, iPod nano Player 3.1, MyPodPlayer 1.0, YamiPod 0.99.2 (which is pretty popular) and iDump. There are undoubtedly others too. (Of course, this is all off-topic so I expect it will be modded as such.)

I'm not sure the iPod is a good example as you're shoehorned into using iTunes (hence not really free of Apple at all)

I'm sure that's what Apple intended, but there are alternatives: iPod Plug-in for Winamp 1.33, iPod nano Player 3.1, MyPodPlayer 1.0, YamiPod 0.99.2 (which is pretty popular) and iDump. There are undoubtedly others too. (Of course, this is all off-topic so I expect it will be modded as such.)

I'm not sure the iPod is a good example as you're shoehorned into using iTunes (hence not really free of Apple at all)

I'm sure that's what Apple intended, but there are alternatives: iPod Plug-in for Winamp 1.33, iPod nano Player 3.1, MyPodPlayer 1.0, YamiPod 0.99.2 (which is pretty popular) and iDump. There are undoubtedly others too. (Of course, this is all off-topic so I expect it will be modded as such.)

I'm not sure the iPod is a good example as you're shoehorned into using iTunes (hence not really free of Apple at all)

I'm sure that's what Apple intended, but there are alternatives: iPod Plug-in for Winamp 1.33, iPod nano Player 3.1, MyPodPlayer 1.0, YamiPod 0.99.2 (which is pretty popular) and iDump. There are undoubtedly others too. (Of course, this is all off-topic so I expect it will be modded as such.)

I boot it with Knoppix Live CD

Better yet, a live Knoppix DVD.

Unless, of course, you're a perfectionist that you believe Linux must be installed natively, but I beg you try it and examine its features before judging it. There's no harm in trying.

And you'd find it surprisingly featureful.

There are currently 4 bsd projects that i'm aware of. They include FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and DragonFlyBSD. In addition to these projects which each develop their own kernel and userland, there are linux style distros PC-BSD and DesktopBSD which do not develop their own kernel or low level userland. (they add gui shit) These two track freebsd progress as well as other projects like frenzy that do live cds.

Just to add to what you've listed, there are some lesser-known but quite interesting *BSD projects out there.

AnonymOS, an OpenBSD 3.8-based LiveCD with strong encryption and a preconfigured TOR proxy service for net anonymoity.

http://kaos.to/cms/content/view/14/32/

NeWBIE, a NetBSD-based LiveCD aimed at being a desktop LiveCD that includes the Fluxbox desktop environment.

http://arudius.sourceforge.net/

FreeeSBIE, a FreeBSD-based LiveCD (includes install script) which includes Fluxbox and XFCE4 desktop environments. The FreeSBIE toolkit to produce custom LiveCDs is even included in FreeBSDs' ports tree. (There is a Romanian-created flavor called RoFreeSBIE, links at Softpedia http://linux.softpedia.com/progDownload/RoFreeSBIE -Live-CD-Download-9067.html).

http://www.freesbie.org/

There may be other projects, but those are the ones I'm familiar with. They are all very nice, and worth a try.

As to PC-BSD, I'm more knowledgeable than the average PC user, but I found PC-BSD to be quite impressive and usable, without being too terribly dumbed-down.My G/F (Yes, I have one, but I'm 48 and also play lead guitar in a gigging and recording blues band. :-P) actually prefers it over XP or Mandriva.

The .PBI software packages aren't too numerous as yet, but there has been steady development with new .PBIs appearing at a fast enough pace that I'm sure the number will be respectable before too long.

Bravo, laffer! I wish you luck with MidnightBSD, and I'll keep checking that URL. I look forward to any new ideas being applied to FreeBSD, as it seems a very solid base, and IMHO has not been taken anywhere near its' capabilities yet as a desktop.

Cheers!

Strat

Actually, there is a Windows version of Pine. But you're right, Pine people are mostly Unix people. I stand corrected.

HFS+: OS X uses it; XP doesn't recognize it

FAT32: Both OS X and XP can read and write to it, but it has limits in partition size and doesn't allow for files larger than 4GB (no DVD backup for you!)

NTFS: Both OS X and XP can read it, but OS X can't write to it

One solution is MacDrive, which allows Windows to read and write to HFS+. But I'd rather that OS X be able to write to NTFS.

Virtual PC lets you move stuff back and forth, but it has inferior performance and some software doesn't work with it (Thayer's guide to birds of North America doesn't run under VPC, for example). And of course VPC doesn't work on the Intel Macs at all.

Still, being able to run Windows is *excellent* news for Apple and for OS X. It means more people will buy Macs because many need to run Windows for specific applications but would rather use OS X for everything else. If they can address the filesystem incompatibility and get the OSs to run concurrently without any performance hit, Apple's market share will skyrocket.

"The most powerful greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is water vapour"

"A rise of just 1% of water vapor could raise the global average temperature of Earth's surface more then 4 degrees Celsius"

http://www.softpedia.com/
http://www.macosxhints.com/ and
http://insidemacgames.com/
are all sites I've found to be helpful...

As far as must have OSX software, I would recommend:
Adium, Comic Life, Flip4Mac, Inquisitor (awesome extension of safaris search box), RockNES, SNES9x, and SCUMMVM.

You mean like the Sharp 904SH? Doubt you'll see anything like this if you don't live in Japan though... for a while at least. Also features face recognition technology for security and a 3.2 megapixel camera with 2x optical zoom. Patience...

As long as the executives at Microsoft are capable of maintaining their OEM agreements with the popular brand name manufacturers, Windows will always be relevant.

And this may be on the decline.
http://www.silicon.com/software/os/0,39024651,3911 7247,00.htm
http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2004/10/will _att_ditch_windows.html
http://news.softpedia.com/news/South-Korea-Could-D itch-Windows-11302.shtml
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,184234,00.html

The main site is down for some reason (slashdot does that). The torrent is mirrored at: http://mirrors.atarack.com/Kororaa-Xgl-Live-CD-0.1 .torrent We have ISO mirrors here for the impatient: (thanks to softpedia)
here (thanks to rdt1.org)
here (thanks to Mudrii)
here (thanks to Hotel Peter)
here (thanks to Over Confident)
here (thanks to sefcom)
here (thanks to Digital Extortion), and
here (thanks to Chris Peters from Canada)
here (Atarack VDS/VPSes who are our proud sponsors)
(To buy an atarack VPS e-mail us at sdhillon@atarack.com or at ndevito@atarack.com)

The main site is down for some reason (slashdot does that). The torrent is mirrored at: http://mirrors.atarack.com/Kororaa-Xgl-Live-CD-0.1 .torrent We have ISO mirrors here for the impatient: (thanks to softpedia)
here (thanks to rdt1.org)
here (thanks to Mudrii)
here (thanks to Hotel Peter)
here (thanks to Over Confident)
here (thanks to sefcom)
here (thanks to Digital Extortion), and
here (thanks to Chris Peters from Canada)
here (Atarack VDS/VPSes who are our proud sponsors)
(To buy an atarack VPS e-mail us at sdhillon@atarack.com or at ndevito@atarack.com)

Novell seems to be making deals with SuSE.

Swiss Government
Novell is leading linux in china

I mean come on I don't think the Swiss Gov't is going to pick a company that doesn't know what they are doing.

Redhat is a great example of how a linux company can be successful. Novell is backed by IBM, and has partnerships all over the place like Redhat. I think Novell is going to surprise a lot of people.

Hey even their old CEO is now the CEO of Google. They have too many ties to too many power players for them not to be a success.

If they build up anticipation, and try to make it a big event, some people will begin to anticipate it.

If you use DVD-Shrink at maximum compression, reauthor to remove most of the alternate languages, menu chrome, and other bonus features, you can sometimes squeeze a regular release DVD down to a single 1.4GB 80mm DVD-R. Sometimes not, if the movie runs a little long, but OTOH it's usually quite practical if you're only taking a single TV episode from a collection that puts several on each retail disk.

Of course, one could use a different codec besides VOB/MPEG2... but that loses compatibility with many non-computer DVD players. And, of course, many codecs are covered by patents, which adds to the costs if you want to make a retail product, and there are definite trade offs with the video quality. But if the whole problem was easy, someone would have solved it by now.

You know, it can download TV shows, runs on OSX?!

Now this: "Seriously, who cares about these "my penis [Linux software] is bigger than your penis" posts? Who gives a shit? iTunes is virtually the only music player software I've found that doesn't look like crap and has enough features to keep me happy. If you like Amarok better, fine! But don't make it sound like I'm some kind of idiot for liking iTunes." Ohboy.

You took me so wrong: I was being serious, not sarcastic, and I apologize if I made you feel like a fool for iTunes. I read a lot about iTunes, but I don't have access to it: none of my closest friends use it (not even the iPod owners), iTMS does not work in Brasil AFAIK. And, from the screenshots, I could only define iTunes as a "crippled amaroK that can play Fair". I am of the opinion that iTunes and amaroK look remarkably similar (compare the screenshots pointed to, and take in consideration that the amaroK screenshot is in the "full glory" mode -- it can me far more discreet [and is by default]) and that my (Free, not linux) personal choice of software is quite good.

Now, I asked, and noone answered: what's so special about iTunes? it's a fair and honest question -- and I doubt the answer would take me away from amaroK anyway (you know, KDE machines and stuff).

The problem with this is and always has been that there is a sizable group of people who are neither drooling simpletons nor "arch-tweakers." I don't want to "know about the GConf schemas," whatever the hell those are, or screw around in your version of RegEdit. When I go into a preferences dialog, I'm not always just trying to flip a particular bit or turn something off. One of the things I like about GUIs, as opposed to doing everything from the command line, is that it is possible to (visually) explore the application and learn what it is capable of doing. When I run a new application I evaluate/learn it by opening windows and dialogs and looking to see what's inside them.

Most GNOME applications at this point in time are excellent, well-constructed and powerful pieces of software. But if you just poke around in them trying to figure them out, they seem like cheap mockups. It doesn't feel like good software. A preferences panel that doesn't let me explore feels incomplete and flimsy. The bottom line is that in a GNOME app I usually do not come away having learned something new just by using it. I don't want to read the manual just to learn that a feature exists (although I will if I'm having trouble using it) or scroll through "keys" in GConf. It's the same nonsense that stuck me with flashing GIFS in Firefox for months after I started using it, until someone told me I could type in "about:config", scroll down to they key "image.animation_mode", and edit the value to "once". Or you can download an extension. Or you can edit ".mozilla/config/crazypeople/netscape_foobar32.js" or some other crazy file somewhere on my hard drive. It doesn't make any sense. I should be able to explore the majority of the useful functionality just by opening the application and clicking through it.

Vienna. Its great, simple, and a nice interface.

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Internet-Utilities/Vi enna.shtml

Two things:

1. You forgot to put "Oblig." in the subject. It seems like every time there's an Ask Slashdot, someone says this.

2. While Google can provide you with the product names, there is some benefit to the personal opinions and experiences you find on Slashdot. People can say, "I used this, and this works great" or "stay away from this if you need it to do this". You have to really dig to find information like that, elsewhere.

Apparently, none of you ever considered the benefit to shared knowledge. This is another thing people with common interests do; they talk about things that interest and concern then, typically with the goal of informing each other. I don't need a Mac OS X groupware application right now, but I learned about CalTalk, which I can use.

In conclusion, if you don't think there's benefit in asking questions of your peers, then skip the article and let the rest of us learn.

1. Security, security, security
This has never be a paramount feature of Windows V.anything. In fact, it's been anything but the 3 s's. We are still waiting for the IE fix as well as the grandiose top priority on security.

2. Internet Explorer 7: IE gets a much-needed, Firefox-inspired makeover
See #1 .. we are still waiting. Can we cut the shit and focus on a more secure browser instead of glitz and tabs?

3. Righteous eye candy:
See #2.. Could we get something to nip that little spyware problem please? Enough with the froof.

4. Desktop search:
hot tip: [START] -> right click -> explore -> F3 (above the #4 key). if your 1eet, dir /s

5. Better updates:
Can we get that XP patch first? Maybe if you weren't dicking with the eye-candy, we could have this before 2007.

6. More media:
Ok, this looks like a good fix. Oh, wait.. no mention of fixing it I guess. How long has this been a problem?

7-10.. add your own

While this doesn't solve your problem it may interest /. macheads out there....

CalTalk is a 'Bonjour' enabling app for iCal that lets you automatically share and find shared iCal calendars on the network. It only works on the local subnet because that's all Bonjour supports but that's just right for at home or at work use... ...though it does allow you to share iCal shares you've subscribed to from the internet ;-p which is nice, cause you can basically set up one Mac as a calendar server and have it subscribe to all the various published iCal files from external urls and share them out to the subnet for everyone else.

And of course it's a Free as in Beer app you can download now.

p.s. I'm not affiliated w/ the developer in any way

Camino puts an end to annoying pop-up windows and advertisements, which makes surfing the internet a much more enjoyable experience. The built-in annoyance blocking technology stops distractions that get in between you and the information you're looking for.

Most pop-ups are unwanted, but some sites make legitimate use of them. Camino displays an icon in the status bar whenever a pop-up is blocked, allowing users to unblock legitimate pop-ups with ease.

Besides Spybot and Adaware, I use the following programs:
SpywareBlaster - Prevents Spyware from being installed
Microsoft AntiSpyware - Completly free, and has nice active protection. Have a 'special' versions of Windows, use an alternate download source.

With respect to Viruses, please read the following article: Mega Antivirus Test.
Summed up: AVG sucks, Anti-Vir finds the most virus, Kaspersky 5 finds most unique stuff, and Kaspersky's online scan owns everything.

Also I'd recommend using a NAT. All of this is prevention/reactive stuff, though I think the Hijack This + Google is the best for nasty stuff, as mentioned.