Show us your workstation!

[bacteria]

Actually, I am silly that way too - I only tend to use goggles when cutting metal; or if some perspex hits me on the face to remind me to wear goggles. I also don't use my air filter when cutting motherboards, or dremelling or cutting MDF; or soldering (although I do use a fan to divert the fumes away). I should be more vigilant in these areas!

[Skyone]

Skyone - Not good advice. I have been using computers for 26 years; ie before you were even born; I am no novice. I used to program in assembly language and DOS for fun! During that time, I have had a few viruses and trojan attempts from innocent files - first one was called "Monkey" back in the early 90's when I let a friend borrow a floppy disk to copy files to his laptop, as soon as he copied the files, I took the diskette back and put it in my PC (286) and up popped the virus alert (turned out he visited dodgy sites, which I didn't): these days you can get attacked from malware redirecting the site you browse onto or from a variety of other innocent browsals like an infected picture (noscript helps solve this of course). I use Firefox, noscript, adblock plus, McAfee siteadvisor, WOT. That is ignoring the fact that my system has all ports closed (according to Shields-up!) and invisible, and I also use other antispyware and antivirus systems running, and firewall. Not using security measures these days is bad advice. I visited what I thought was a perfectly innocent site the other day and I got a red warning flash up from my software saying it was a phishing site and a few weeks back one flashed up saying the site was infected - gave me the chance to exit the sites in question, which I did.

BTW - in serious PC magazines, they have tried what you suggested, fresh install, left system on internet with no protections or firewall present - in less than 2 hours, of not even browsing on the system, it became infected with a range of malware and trojans; in fact, the system became unstable. So, Skyone, play Russian Roulette if you like, personally, I don't! As you see from this post, I know quite a lot on the subject and am not naive...

Uninstalling a program in full is not guaranteed (at least in Windows), I am surprised you seem to think so. Many programs share a DLL file or references, and sometimes a program being installed overwrites an existing DLL file, which can cause the DLL to run incorrectly with the original software which used it. This means three things happen when doing a complete program uninstall - 1) DLL and similar files only used by that program get deleted - fine. 2) DLL and similar files get deleted because they are attributed to a program, however also needed for others, the DLL is therefore missing and can cause issues. 3) DLL and similar files remain after uninstall as shared with other programs, you then have gunk in the library files with links and data to programs that no longer exist. This is why there are programs to unclutter the registry and other locations; crap builds up, links die, bugs cause errors, etc, etc - I use these programs too (freeware of course). I have had to reformat my computers many times over many years as things after a while become unstable and run slowly.

My advice is to act as a human antivirus. It's not too hard to stay up-to-date on definitions and check for such manually. In fact, it might even be more beneficial; you might find a newer spyware that hasn't even been reported to Norton, etc. You also seem to believe that exploits through images are not rare. An "infected" image only would work properly under a exploitable image viewer.

By the way, when I referred to a full uninstallation, I wasn't speaking of the uninstallation the program provides you. After running that, if I want to be anal, I scan registry and folders for traces left behind (MANUALLY). Though you bring up a good point, I am able to recognize such shared libraries on my own, doesn't take much care.

In response to the underlined, I wouldn't disagree necessarily, I would just say I know enough about file systems, viruses, and program structure in general to dodge the tedious use of antivirus and reformatting.

You'll do things your way, and I'll do things mine. I'd fight to say that my way is much more efficient, though. I know computers, and I know mine runs just as fast (and stable) as it did 2 years ago. If it means anything, about 75% of my computer's use is software development and graphic design.

[bacteria]

Fair enough. Going under the hood as you do will be more efficient and may well give better results, I prefer to let software save me time - gives more problems, but less effort! Having a dedicated PC for internet and a dedicated PC for gaming certainly has benefits, after all, once your internet PC is up and running, you don't need to uninstall anything; the gaming rig is the system you get rid of programs from, and just using it as a gaming rig makes it far faster to re-install if needed. Each to their own!

[Liuhuparta]

I must say I'm the one who gets off from all that crap with the most easiest way – I use mac. I just had to say that, sorry. :b

[bacteria]

Mac users seem to have the air of superiority - however (and I have spoken to some Mac users in the past) when something goes wrong with a Mac you invariably have to take it in for expensive repairs, however with a PC you can do the work yourself for cheap. PC's are more modular too and have considerably more software designed for them, out of the graphics art type applications. No thanks, you can keep your Mac - Windows or Linix!

[Skyone]

Haha, I use a Mac for iPhone development, so I tend to get the best (or worst) of both worlds. The only thing I don't understand about the Mac userbase is the nose-lifted arrogance about the lack of viruses. I forget how small the percentage of Mac owners is, but it's small. Besides that, there are viruses for OS X! They're just harder to detect.

EDIT: Oh yikes, just noticed how off-topic I'm getting.

Relevant - I'm picking up an extra graphics card to get a third flat screen hooked up to my workstation computer. Some may ask why, but I see it necessary for my efficiency. I know I'm probably "wasting the energy of the Earth blah blah" but this one only consumes about 20Wh due to it's small size. It'll be nice to have my IMs and such on this smaller monitor while one or two IDE windows are open on the other monitors, or perhaps one IDE, and one research (Firefox) window.

OHHH THE POSSIBILITIES.

[eurddrue]

just use avg free edition it works wonderfully! It, by far, beats out the virus protection we were paying for.

[bacteria]

Finished re-making my project room. Just a few things to sort out.

Games stored (not my whole collection but vast majority):

SNES, N64, GX4000, MegaDrive, Jaguar



PS1, Saturn, Gamecube, NES, SMS, PC (in side unit)



Custom made cutting area for plastic cutting, to keep most of the shavings off the floor! A dremel, a generic dremel with extension cutter, small low powered cutter (traces); tools, goggles, breathing filter, and light.



Soldering and hot glue area, and general construction. On the wall I have 4 reels of wire so they are easy to get to. In pic, got my portable PSone system on charge as just played it for an hour, figured it has been on and off for a couple of hours in total since being make, so may as well recharge it.





Shelf to house project bits and bobs. General work area and storage boxes.



More worktop areas, controllers, etc in boxes under desk. The case on the desk takes my PSone portable (IntoPlay) system nicely.



My three computers, (computing area). At the moment, I am using cables to interchange between two of them, will make a box to house the wire connectors better. Printer and scanner pull out when I need them - no point wasting desk space for them!

[Skyone]

Very neat! I wish I had the motivation to have such a tidy area. Well; I can see about 3 sq. ft. of my floor, that's enough for now .

[gamecube6]

Finished re-making my project room. Just a few things to sort out.

Games stored (not my whole collection but vast majority):

SNES, N64, GX4000, MegaDrive, Jaguar



PS1, Saturn, Gamecube, NES, SMS, PC (in side unit)



Custom made cutting area for plastic cutting, to keep most of the shavings off the floor! A dremel, a generic dremel with extension cutter, small low powered cutter (traces); tools, goggles, breathing filter, and light.



Soldering and hot glue area, and general construction. On the wall I have 4 reels of wire so they are easy to get to. In pic, got my portable PSone system on charge as just played it for an hour, figured it has been on and off for a couple of hours in total since being make, so may as well recharge it.





Shelf to house project bits and bobs. General work area and storage boxes.



More worktop areas, controllers, etc in boxes under desk. The case on the desk takes my PSone portable (IntoPlay) system nicely.



My three computers, (computing area). At the moment, I am using cables to interchange between two of them, will make a box to house the wire connectors better. Printer and scanner pull out when I need them - no point wasting desk space for them!

Wow, your game collection kicks mine's ass.

[XCVG]

First off: Bacteria, nice pose with the picture and the fan, and I think my dad has the exact same printer. Also, those EuroSNES games look so much like N64 games from the side that I was like "DOOD! DATZ A LOTZ OV 64 GAMEZ" until I looked a bit closer. Also, nice plastic cutting station. The messiest stuff I've ever cut was foam. Bits everywhere.

I used to work almost completely in the garage but I'm migrating more and more to the table beside my computer. I'll post pics sometime. Actually I'll probably forget completely about it, but you guys have a slight chance.

I also do a lot of stuff at the school robotics lab. I'm in the robotics club too but I pretty much just salvage parts from old VCRs and junk, which the teacher has a lot of. Right now I'm building a mini-battlebot. Supposed to build a sumobot but they never said anything about nondescript holes or mysterious connectors (whoever guesses gets a virtual cookie).

[nevermind1534]

I probably have more NES games than most of you guys here have.



That's about half of my NES games.

[mmoshkowich]

Points for having your own forum on the screen.

[SonyPortableizer]

I probably have more NES games than most of you guys here have.



That's about half of my NES games.

You may have more NES games, but I have the most Unlicensed NES games here.

[Twilight Wolf]

Wow, your game collection kicks mine's ass.

Same here, but I bet you I've got more Saturn games than he does.