In the course of reviewing old work, I came across comments about protecting your computer.

To our computer mavens: could you please update the recommendations there? Doubtless there are now new generations of browsers and protective freeware.

I can't see anything to update, really.

AVG Anti-Virus
ZoneAlarm firewalls
Lavasoft Ad-aware

These three are all good programs and are free. The individual programs have been updated since 2003 but I haven't come across better ones. For most people running Windows XP, SP2 installs a version of Internet Explorer that contains a pop-up stopper. If you are running an earlier version of Windows Google Toolbar does a good job; it also includes extra functions.

Another good (free) program is Spybot Search & Destroy which, like Ad-Aware, looks for malware on your computer. It can find things that Ad-Aware misses, and vice versa, so it can be worth having both installed.

Windows Internet Explorer has quite a few security problems, and many people switch to other browsers. Two of the best are Firefox and Opera.