I lived about 8 miles from Musser (which is AT Clemson - about 25 miles from the NC border - but not in the mountains)... (BTW, I Still own the house - it's rented out..) Now, I am on the other end of South Carolina... Cooley is "Down state" - closer to where I live now, and it looks like the rain just got the better of everything. Here's my comment on the evaluations.... Last year was a really weird year.. We got 10-15 inches of rain MORE than usual - which makes for soggy, bland fruit. The spring was almost flooding wet - there was significant worry about losing all the row crops because of standing water in the fields... Then - there was hardly any rain at all for over a month - and everybody was worrying about everything drying up and dying... THEN - it went back to almost flooding.... and as you might expect - this wreaks havoc on fruit.... If you want to consider anything from these ratings - they are a good indication of how the trees behave when they are massively over-watered.... If the varieties didn't have problems with rot this year - they probably don't have problems with rot.... As an aside - the figs were absolutely heavenly - literally like eating fragrant, fruity honey - for that ONE single short no-rain period... Then - they turned into sour, baggy, mush. Thanks

this is a very broad request and you will get really varied responses because everyone has their preferences. For example I much prefer HP over Dell I have owned many HP with very good experiences but will not own a Dell because they are so propritary and my husband changed his entire office computer away from Dell and to HP. Dell has really gone through some changes and not necessarily for the better.That being said every one will have pros and cons against various companies so you really just have to go with what you find that fits the bill for you. Walmart and Sams have very good prices. I would not go with anything other than windows 7 64bit if they specifically told you to go with a newer pc. I personally prefer AMD processors over Intel but have had both and either would work, the AMD will generally be cheaper. If this is strictly for work from home I would go with a desktop much more comfortable to work from on a day to day basis and the monitor will be easier to view. You want at least 2 GB of Ram Probably at least a 250 GB hard drive bigger is better for storage. Any new pc should be equipped with what you need for connections purposes. Not knowing your specific work needs I would suspect any good quality new pc will handle your other needs as far as video and audio components. You will need to install all of your security programs which you likely have not dealt with since you use MAC. A new pc usually comes bundled with a trail version of something like Norton or McAfee, I personally fully remove those and go with either the free AVAST or Microsoft Security Essentials. You can use the built in firewall just need to turn it on, and then you can get free malwarebytes scanner to do your weekly scans for malware. These all really need to be up and ready on the pc before you ever connect it to the internet. Do NOT get anything with a celeron processor they are just not the top of the line and are lacking especially for a work machine. I generally do not recommend emachine brand, they will be the cheaper priced ones but they use the lesser quality insides. Many do not come with a monitor so you may have to buy that separately. I really prefer a flat LCD monitor over the older CRT monitors. Prices are pretty good on them now. here are a couple of examples available at walmart.com Desktop PC no monitor with this one Acer Desktop Bundle you will see dual core and quad core mentioned dual means it has 2 processors quad means it has 4 so of course the 4 would be much faster, most work can easily be done on a dual core. So either would probably work for you, hard to say for sure with out knowing the type of work. an Acer with monitor in the bundle Acer those should give you some idea of what specs you will be looking for. I have never bought a computer at a pawn shop not sure what you would be getting, I have bought used ones from a computer repair shop that repairs and builds computers and had very good luck there. If you have any local places like that you might check with them, and they build you one for a decent price. here is a nice bundle from bestbuy that includes a printer also Compaq Presario CQ5814 Desktop, 20" LCD Monitor & Inkjet Printer Package

I'm glad to see this thread re-upped. I'm reposting my original problem, hoping for a solution: I tried to update to v9 and got the message that said my Update Manager was disabled. Next message said to go to Tools/ Manager; there I'm given two choices. 1. Delete temporary update files 2. Revert virus data base to previous version. No 1 is Are you sure you want to delete temp files?, and No 2 is Warning. Some of the newest threats may not be detected. I've never run into this before when updating. HP WINXP SP2 TIA Sue

I also just bought a Gateway laptop and it is filled with junk I don't want. Out of this list, I will want to remove MS Office Home and Student, Napster, AOL, NetZero, and probably Gateway Games since I already used up my "free time" (and I must admit, I had fun). Now -- how do I make sure these things and all references to them are removed? For instance, some of this junk does not appear under Uninstall Programs (such as Netzero) so, I start by deleting the shortcut, then go to the harddrive to Programs file and delete the directory. Is there anywhere I need to go? Does anyone know of anything else that should be deleted? What about "BigFix"? Some of this stuff -- I just don't know what it is yet. Thanks. Software bundle: Microsof Works 8.5 Microsoft Money 2006 Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 (60-day complimentary trial period) Adobe Reader 8 CyberLink Power 2 Go Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 Microsoft Digital Image Starter Edition 2006 (includes 60-day Digital Image Standard 2006 trial) Napster Music Service (30-day trial) Microsoft Internet Explorer AOL (90-day Complimentary Subscription) Google Toolbar search bar Google Desktop Search search tool Gateway Connect NetZero Internet Access McAfee Internet Security Suite (90-day complimentary subscription) BigFix - helps identify and solve problems LoJack for Laptops BIOS Persistence Agent Enabled Kensington Lock Slot (cable lock sold separately) Gateway Games Powered by WildTangent (pre-installed with 10 demo games with 60-minutes of game play)