[www.flyertalk.com] is an amazingly intense forum site for those interested in maximizing miles, finding discount codes and the like. The folks who participate there seem to know more than most travel agents (or perhaps they *are* travel agents) about fare codes and the likes. The jargon can get confusing, but…

@andreasr2d2: awesome - thanks!

@greenhornetc13, notsosinister & felix26591: Malwarebytes, Avast and AVG are proggies you have to *install*, no? Anything I can just download and run once? Perhaps a portable version of something?

@emren: Do you need to type and compose things such as lesson plans and papers? I can't imagine typing on the ipad is going to be a joy. Not that doing it on a netbook is the bees knees either, but it's gotta be better than clacking away on a piece of glass.

Any suggestions for some good windows anti-virus apps that just run once? I have M$ Security Essentials, but an IBM tech managed to insert an infected USB stick in my computer while "repairing" it (!!!). So, I don't want another big app running on my system - just one or two that I can scan it with to find anything…

@vandiemen007: whoops! thanks...

LH had a post on almost the exact setup last year. Gizmodo just did a post on this exact one. Regardless, if y'all are interested, the place to go is diybookbookscanner.org.

@iPenguin: parallels!

I use [Mdownloader], a creation of Adma, the author of Google Book Downloader (RIP).

interesting. this test revealed that my isp has a vulnerability on their installed routers. all of them. uh, time to fire someone! they're lucky i don't destroy things for the hell of it.

@GamerOfFreedom: they give AutoPager credit on their homepage.

if you just want it for google, then you can use the GoogleMonkeyR ([userscripts.org]) greasemonkey script instead (and get some nice other features along with it). Previously reviewed on [lifehacker.com] .

@Mattloxfl: When I say "CCD's in mind", what I meant was "targeted at CCD's". The point is that there are many more levels available for "high light" pixels than "low light" pixels in a "correctly" exposed RAW photo. So as long as you're not pushing too many light pixels against the limit, you're better off…

@everyone: thanks for the tips! i'm now using switcher...

Scrybe seems like *way* too much for my tastes. I would be interested to hear if, after having it installed for a couple weeks, anyone found anything but the basic stuff (two-finger scrolling, etc.) useful.

@Mattloxfl: hmm - that seems unlikely! that article was not written with CCD's in mind, as far as i know. do you have a source for that?

thumbs down to vistaswitcher. i'll give this a try. but i'd really like to see something that has the mac-like interface where all the windows retreat to the corners, and then you pick one.

@Mattloxfl: thanks! didn't know...

Some folks advocate overexposing a bit when shooting raw due to the linear nature of CCD photon detection (versus the eye's logarithmic perception of brightness). There's a great article about it here: [www.digitalphotopro.com]

@Jumbleofletters: thanks for the tips. I've tried foxyproxy, along with others like multi-proxy, switchproxy, etc, but they all require working proxy IPs, which I've never been able to acquire (online lists never seem to work for me). And what a bummer about the invite-only thing. Alas.