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Good. I finally found a thread where funny solutions are presented.

Here's mine:

Wait till the Sun comes up, and someone step outside and throw a towel over it.
Don't take the towel off for a while, till the Earth cools off, and everyone forgets about global warming.

"For me, Forecastfox and IE View"

When it comes to weather, I have never had a problem with this nifty little program. I don't know who installed it, but I have been pretty happy with it. Another Firefox extension that I found most useful was this. ::thumbsup:: (y)(y)

I am a programmer for WeatherBug. You can use a recently developed tool from us called WeatherBug Stickers. http://stickers.weatherbug.com/. It alows you to integrate our weather station data directly to your web site very easily. You can also use our API to integrate our data directly to your application http://api.weatherbug.com/ We are owners of largest weather station network in U.S. and I would say the world. We own 8,000 Weather Stations and 1500 Weather Cameras. We provide data to US homeland security, energy, transportation and much more. Weatherbug is not Spyware, or in any way harm your computer. With such assets we will be nuts to do such a thing. Ben

I am a programmer for WeatherBug. You can use a recently developed tool from us called WeatherBug Stickers. http://stickers.weatherbug.com/. It alows you to integrate our weather station data directly to your web site very easily. You can also use our API to integrate our data directly to your application http://api.weatherbug.com/ We are owners of largest weather station network in U.S. and I would say the world. We own 8,000 Weather Stations and 1500 Weather Cameras. We provide data to US homeland security, energy, transportation and much more. Weatherbug is not Spyware, or in any way harm your computer. With such assets we will be nuts to do such a thing. Ben

The company behind Weatherbug is AWS.

A while ago, I authored an article on Spyware on our university website, and got a response from Weatherbug in the form of a "cease and desist" because I dared mention Weatherbug as a spyware offender.

This is the voice mail I received:
"On your page, you're calling our company spyware, which is 100% incorrect. I'd like to get a callback from ... somebody who is the webmaster of that webpage when that reference has been taken down. In addition, you can go to www.weatherbug.com/notspyware which is our Spyware FAQ page where you can download the very same anti-spyware programs you guys recommend on your page to download. So that would be rather masichistic of us to list the very same spyware programs that would potentially remove us. They do not remove us because we are not spyware. I'd like to get a callback as soon as possible at ... once that removal has taken place."

According to this website, Weatherbug has previously been legitimately labeled spyware, because it has bundled the Gator program (this program is probably the most well-known piece of spyware around) and a search bar. However, the more current versions of Weatherbug do not seem to incorporate the elements of spyware that previous versions did. So I wouldn't label the MOST current version of Weatherbug as spyware, but previous versions I would.

However, I'm concerned still with Weatherbug from a technical standpoint. Look through the pages and you'll find that Weatherbug is notoriously difficult to uninstall or disable once it's been installed. It increases Windows startup time and can cause other system issues. This echoes my personal experience with the program.

I also still think Weatherbug is slimy. Here is an excerpt from a publication from AWS (the company behind Weatherbug) presented to the FTC:
"AWS believes that there is nothing inherently objectionable about Adware provided that the software installation and operation is preceded by meaningful notice and consent."

(Meaningful notice and consent, in this case, refers to the bunch of legalese that comes up with every software install, which just about every user in the world clicks "I agree" on without reading.)

What they have to say:
http://www.weatherbug.com/aws/NotSpyware.html

While WeatherBug is not *technically* spyware, it does serve advertisements. But so do a lot of functional websites. Big deal.

The problem *I* have with WeatherBug is the following:
1) It is set to automatically come up on boot. And when it does so, it serves an advertisement. Any program that pops up an advertisement is INDEED "adware" by any definition of the term.

2) The "Typical" installation adds MySearch Toolbar, which is known to cache search terms. Why exactly do they need to store my Internet searches? Why is this installed by default?

3) A Desktop Icon ad for Netscape. This is pointless and worse, IMHO, than popup ads. I now have to MANUALLY DELETE the advertisement automatically placed on my Desktop

4) Ironically, when you go to "Add/Remove Programs" they beg you to reconsider uninstalling, then beg you to keep it, they'll just remove the fullscreen pop-up on boot. Why they don't offer a choice in the first place is beyond me. This is really just a rehash of point #1.

Maybe those of us technical support geeks that loathe the software wouldn't be so offended by it if it somehow knew we were troubleshooting the owner's PC and didn't want to hear about the latest tsumani threat to the state of Iowa, or potential blizzard in San Diego while we're clearing off all the *real* spyware.

As I know there are WeatherBug employees who are actually paid to refute online comments on forums stating that their product is adware, I openly challenge those employee to please post their definition of "adware" in a reply.

By the way, does anyone know how to get rid of all these popup windows I keep getting?

file sharing

game, specifically the only one your girlfriend/mother/mother in law probably cares about.
more games
games

Of course, this is kind of silly, because if you're worried about saving money you're not playing games on a PC or a Mac. "Let's see, I can buy a whole Playstation 2 with a couple of nice games for $200, or I can buy a new video card for for $200 so I can play Doom 3". PC's are excellent gaming platforms, but they are nowhere near as cost effective as any of the console systems. The games, especially when new, cost about the same (if the PC version isn't a little more expensive). It's almost cheaper to have one each of the "big three" consoles than try to keep PC hardware up to spec for playing the newest video games over any given 5 year span. PC's are also nice, open systems, so for online gaming you get access to the wide world of cheaters, where console games at least have some semblance of sofware control. PC games will look nicer, and probably be a little more of a rich experience, but as far as cost-effective, a PC is really far down.

The Windows PC can't do this, at least without buying expensive software. GarageBand comes with a new Mac, and this is also bundled into a new Mac. The ability to painlessly sync my phone and my computer's contact list is pretty valuable. And I can run most other software too, because I've got X11.

Now, admittedly there are lots of things you can't get to work on a Mac. this isn't available, neither is this, or this, or this. As a side effect, neither this nor this is available on the Mac. So, ya know, you're right, there's a lot of stuff that is much harder to do on my Mac than on my Windows PC, like being a Spambot and reporting my personal information to advertisers.

winzip
realvnc
ad-aware
html-kit
irfanview
zonealarm
kazaalite
subspace/continuum
prime95
weatherbug
google toolbar

WeatherBug is proud to be a part of the AWS Homeland Security Initiative.

AOL allows you to get "content" that you wouldn't be able to get anywhere else.
Gator allows all sorts of useful searching and ads on your computer.
MSN explorer A very nice web browser that takes over your whole web experience.
Webshots is a very nice background rotator that hogs bandwidth and proccesor time and whaterver else it does.
Weatherbug is a handy little sys-tray app that shows the weather, and watches your every move.


So if you are willing to listen to all the "help" given here on /. You will have the buggiest bulkiest computer there is.

Although some essential programs include...
xmms,Mozilla (most incarnations are great), Gimp (The best FREE image editor)
Also check out Easy URPMI for obtaining linux software.