I hope Paul can clarify what he meant on number 3... I didn't get that either. Before I respond to the other point, let me say that I agree with Ken's primary response to HVX in hostas and testing - it doesn't make much sense to test an inexpensive hosta with a strip that costs almost $6. If it looks virused, it probably is... toss it. But the latest info - that the virus can persist in the soil for 18 months and we don't know how much longer - that opens up a new possible reason for wanting to test. I think if I have to remove a plant, I'll probably replace it with something non-hosta and avoid the issue altogether - but I can see someone wanting to know for sure if they are dealing with HVX out of concern for the soil in that section of their garden. Many folks are dealing with limited space. I think the false positive question is important, because I think people are pretty OK with disposing of diseased plants, but the idea that the strips might tell them to throw away healthy plants might motivate people to not test - after all, if you can't trust the test, why bother? So as the false positives... like Ken, I'm more skeptical than most... but the science of the strips suggests false positive are almost impossible IF the testing strip is correctly used. Two facts support that. First, the results of the strips match extremely well with Elisa testing. (from wikipedia..."Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), also known as an enzyme immunoassay (EIA), is a biochemical technique used mainly in immunology to detect the presence of an antibody or an antigen in a sample.") The strips were designed to be the field equivalent of the typical Elisa test done in a laboratory - though in a lab, they are likely to do a whole panel of antibodies, not just a specific one. They use antibodies in a similar way to the Elisa testing. Short of an electron microscope, this is the standard set for testing for virus. In fact, it is the standard screening tool for human diseases like HIV and West Nile. In both kinds of testing, false NEGATIVES will occur (plant testing healthy even though it has the virus.) This is most likely due to the plant not having built up enough "viral load" to show up in testing. I don't know how long a period this can be... my impression is that the virus spreads throughout the plant fairly rapidly... but I believe Dr. Lockhart has had the experience of testing a plant negative and then having it test positive later... so not many false negatives, but there will apparently be some. Second, the antibodies on the test strip are quite specific to HVX. Agdia markets a line of strips, each designed to test for one specific virus. Once the chemicals mix with the plant juices and mark the virus, that is, for all practical purposes, the only thing that can make those antibodies react to give a positive reading. The "positive" band on the strip is designed to react ONLY with HVX. The rep says they've tried - and they can't get false positives unless they do something mechanically wrong. Certainly, nothing is perfect... and the science of HVX is changing as we acquire knowledge... and I wouldn't assume that a negative test guarantees my plant doesn't have HVX... but I think if I got a positive test, I would approach it as a sure thing and destroy the plant. This sales rep was a pretty interesting kid. He seemed to be more interested in the science than the sales. He didn't hand out any literature... I had to take it myself. He talked about his visits to the ports of entry where the European import plants are checked... and his work with the inspectors to get them away from just checking samples from each shipment to checking shipments by cultivar - the inspectors didn't realize that the way hostas are harvested and processes, the infection is more likely to be spread among the plants in one cultivar than being spread in the shipping container among the plants. Easy enough error to make - our usual model for virus spread is person-to-person... Anyway, all he wanted to talk about was the virus and what we know so far and the science of the strips - I had to ask him about the pricing...

I luv it when people put up a fight instead of hauling the confuser off to the repair shop. Great going. Google is or should be everybody's friend. So too is Youtube these days as it seems more and more tutorials are appearing on there. A couple of points you never mentioned but no doubt thought about. If your machine came with SP2 it might be safe to say it is 4 years old or better. If so you probably would be unhappy trying to run Win7 on it even with updates that possibly cannot be migrated to a new computer you will no doubt buy sometime down the road. Money. Not having to buy Win7 saved you plenty, keeping and updating XP never cost a dime, frustration yes but no cash. Had you bought Win7 you would have an excess copy once you buy a new computer - unless you self build of course. Nice work.

Hey Donaleen, Schoolhouse, AlexKitchen and all the rest -- are any of you still here? *I'm* not! I nipped back onto gardenweb to find the name of this series to give to the mother of a friend who was a terrific gardener in her day and had one of the first gardening or kitchen TV shows I think? She didn't have a TV... ;) Sadly, when I click on all these links ... gone. It says they're removed for copyright infringement by BBC. So I'm wondering: why do they not release the videos for sale and not permit them to be sold? I guess I probably know the reason, someone from the series, perhaps Ruth Mott or her family? ...likely has some copyright issues and BBC cannot release them. I know that happened with Alistair Cooke's stuff. But I can't find the series anywhere! The wartime kitchen series is on utube and the victorian kitchen and garden is, but not the victorian kitchen! I'm wondering whether anyone has any information or links to this series that still works. It really was such a wonderful series. The reason I even thought of it was because of that section about the mushrooms that were grown. A friend visited with a housegift of a block of fungus that you water and out of it grows mushrooms -- it's really, really wild. So fast and weird and strange and beautiful and slimy they are! I was reminded of the series. Thanks any for whatever functional links anyone might have....

Mini-review: I've just finished a "tour de force" memoir by renowned William Shirer: "Love & Hate: the Stormy Marriage of Leo and Sonya Tolstoy." For anyone with a deep interest in old Russia or Tolstoy, this is a must-read. Shirer is a brilliant author. Normally, I would not choose to read such a depressing story of a long but doomed marriage but there is so much here that touches on timeless topics: women's rights, the foreshadowing of the Russian Revolution in 1917, Tolstoy's influence upon Gandhi, his revolt against the Russian Orthodox Church, because he took the side of the peasants against the Tzar, etc. Tolstoy was excommunicated, although he constantly preached his version of the love of Christ to his serfs on his estate. To them, he was a hero. Tolstoy prefigured the ideas of Marx, that ultimately fomented the Revolution that overthrew the Tzar. He was prescient, loved by many,hated by his intelligent wife, who copied all his manuscripts by hand, as well as his diaries. Sonya also bore him 13 children and ran his estate. The couple were larger than life, in their strong personalities. Ultimately, matters became so bad between them that their grown children had to physically intervene. Tolstoy fled his home and died in the cottage of a stranger at a railroad station. How his death plays out is fascinating, in a bizarre way. Reading this, one gains perspective re a vast Empire on the cusp of great change. This was Shirer's last work, written in his late 80's. Frieda, I think you might like this....