If I had read your claim about most 'slow' computers being crippled by spyware half a year ago, I'd have thought you were overly cynical or exaggerating. This is, however, exactly what happened to my wife's computer. While we're a Mac household, her employer lent her a computer a few months ago, to be able to use a web app that only works using IE6. Being vaguely aware of all the malware on Windows, I told her not to use the Windows machine for email, assuming web browsing was relatively safe. However, after two months of use, IE was getting so slow it was almost unusable. So I installed AdAware, which removed over assorted 90 thingies (registry keys, processes, DLL's, whatever - I didn't bother to check). The perfomance improvement was quite shocking.
AOL on the reading order you suggested. As an addition, to get a feeling for his style, reading one or two of the short stories in 'The State of the Art' is an option too.
Good luck with 'Against a Dark Background', it was the only one of his books I didn't really like.
Slashdot Mirror
If I had read your claim about most 'slow' computers being crippled by spyware half a year ago, I'd have thought you were overly cynical or exaggerating.
This is, however, exactly what happened to my wife's computer. While we're a Mac household, her employer lent her a computer a few months ago, to be able to use a web app that only works using IE6. Being vaguely aware of all the malware on Windows, I told her not to use the Windows machine for email, assuming web browsing was relatively safe. However, after two months of use, IE was getting so slow it was almost unusable. So I installed AdAware, which removed over assorted 90 thingies (registry keys, processes, DLL's, whatever - I didn't bother to check). The perfomance improvement was quite shocking.
Faxing those ransom letters should still be safe.
And since they won't fire them anyhow, it's fun taking a guess at the future names. My bet:
Java2005
Java XP
AOL on the reading order you suggested. As an addition, to get a feeling for his style, reading one or two of the short stories in 'The State of the Art' is an option too.
Good luck with 'Against a Dark Background', it was the only one of his books I didn't really like.