First off, I've been doing this for a long time now. I still listen to a lot of the bands I've found by doing this. It's really simple, but it works like a charm. I ALWAYS find cool new stuff -- sometimes even bands that have been around 10 years that I never heard of.

The things you need:

- (Optional) A file sharing program (I use limewire)

- A browser. :]

1.) Pick one of your favorite bands.

2.) Go to amazon.com or cdnow.com (same thing)

3.) Look up that band's name

4.) Scroll down until you see "Customers who bought this title also bought:"

5.) Browse through the artists you've never heard of in that list.

6.) Check out one of their albums, preferably the one with highest rating (in stars)

7.) Either listen to the samples on amazon or download a song by them with your filesharing app.

If you like what you hear, repeat steps 3-7 using the new band's name.

You'll find TONS of new music you never thought existed.

It's a really simple way to find stuff, and I'm sure lots of you probably already do this. But for those who don't -- you'll thank me later. It works wonders. :)

My problem was a 1 min login delay due the aktiveds.dll that loads at startup (thanks to NicTech Networks Inc.). The following advice worked for me so I guess it works for any .dll made by NicTech since they all use the same registry folder....

Open up regedit.exe and find THIS folder. Navigate to it by clicking the +'s to expand

things like you would in Windows explorer:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\Guardian

Right click over "Guardian" in the left pane.

Left click on "Permissions"

Left click "SYSTEM" once to highlight it.

Check "deny" in all boxes that you can at the bottom (Probably only 2)

Left click Apply

Left Click OK

Say "OK" to any warnings about permissions

**Reboot** the system

then problems solved

I got this information from another forum. I had this problem for about six weeks and was just about ready to reformat my hard drive. Worked great for me, hope this helps out somebody else.

If ure searching for something to download in google u can use this little trick. Mostly it works. Try typing this:

parent + directory + anything u wanna download

but if u wanna download anything special u can specify.

IE:

parent + directory + games + whatever

dunno if it will work for you all but for me it works quite good sometimes