Margaret is correct. This is scarey, bad stuff. The possiblities of how you can get this are mind boggleing. I have an unofficial 'fix' here... I will copy ALL the info, and where it was obtained into this post. There's no official patch from Microsoft. There is an unofficial patch, which has been very carefully examined by the SANS team, and they say the patch is safe. They also say it is reversible \-\- that is, you can run the unauthorized patch now to temporarily protect your system, and it won't change anything that can't be changed back later. The SANS people are well\-respected security pros, to the best of my knowledge. This is what they say \-\- and the bold italics are in their original: This is a bad situation that will only get worse. The very best response that our collective wisdom can create is contained in this advice \- unregister shimgvw.dll and use the unofficial patch. You need to trust us. (for the full SANS warning, see http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?rss&storyid=996 ) The most basic form of protection is to run the following command line on any Windows machine, at a command prompt. This should be done as Administrator, on Windows systems which have admin functionality: regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll This command disables thumbnail previews of graphics in Internet Explorer. It can be reversed later, if the hurricane passes by. Turning off thumbnail previews in MS email clients and MS Messenger would also be a good idea, if you use them. Don't click to view graphics from unknown or untrusted sources. For more information, see the SANS site above, and the CERT\-USA warning: http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/181038#solution MS also has their own page on this exploit: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...ory/912840.mspx This being said, I'm off to move my pix, and I wouldn't look at any here, for awhile either. Makes sense to close down your preview pane in your email, too, just incase. I don't know enough about what's going on to know if I just said the stupidest thing in the world, or not. But lots of folks are worried... My friend who posted the above is comparing this Virus Alert to Hurricane Katrina. It might hit and devestate, or it might just sail on by, leaving little damage in its wake, right now we can't know. Another friend inserted the following info. Turn off your Fax Viewer too, from what I read. I sure hope no one is still allowing HTML in their emails. This thing (and I may have some terminology wrong) can come at you in an email as a microscopic 1x1 pixel transparent graphic, that is you can't even see it. So set your email client to accept text only, turn your spam filters up high and watch the news. This has been compared to going nuclear from standard warfare. Good luck everyone.

"When you must have a degree, are required to be state licensed, accept payment, are validated by the health insurance community, and most of all can remedy my back and neck concerns you are without question a professional. " Always happy to have a discussion. Conventional medicine practiced by physicians is science applied with art. The key word is science, that's why the NIH and med schools spend billions each year for research to understand and treat diseases and conditions. Chiropractic practices fail scientific scrutiny, and no research is done. Reach your own conclusion. Benefits are explained by the placebo effect - which is can be real. It's otherwise hocus-pocus, quackery, use whatever words you like . Schools - while most people that apply to med schools aren't accepted, almost all people going to chiropractic schools are. It's about as hard to get in to them as the trade schools that teach auto mechanics. Insurance companies are happy to cover chiropractors because the charges are lower than from physicians. The danger with chiropractors is when they try to treat conditions they don't understand and make the patient think it's unnecessary to see a physician. Most stay away from that because they realize that a backrub does nothing for diabetes, for instance. Backs don't have alignment, and can't be adjusted. If it helps your pain and you feel better, so be it. A native American shaman has about as much to offer you (or more) in medical treatment than a chiropractor.

Thanks for posting this, Raven. There's something I've been wondering about. I just got an email from a company 2 days ago (unfortunately, I'm forgetting which company) that alerted me to this Epsilon breach. I don't understand why it took the company that long to contact me. Is it bc. Epsilon took that long to tell them? or are different companies just making individual decisions about whether and when to contact their customers whose information was compromised? It's very upsetting to think any of these companies - Epsilon or the individual companies who have my name and email address - are taking the liberty to make their own decision about whether to inform me - and how much to disclose. Shouldn't some official regulatory office (not sure if this would be the FCC or what) be stepping in here and telling Epsilon and the effected companies what they must disclose to people and how they have to handle it. It just seems as if every company has had it's own discretion in how to handle this. Not a single company that contacted me told me anything substantial or helpful. All communications have had the feeling of "we're covering our a** by telling you that there's been a breach" - but we don't really want to tell you the details of how you might be effected - and we're really not going to give you meaningful advice about how you might need to handle this. Lynn.

So many good responses. I agree with so much already said. Vampiressrn comment that "I think there is a lot of gray area here" is very much to the point. If I tell a poster that I also have a bed in the corner, and I link to my blog photo, and the blog has an advertisement for smelling salts, one person might feel that it's a ploy for smelling salts sales, and one might just see it as a helpful link. Given that, I don't think most of us are patrolling for spam, or getting all up in it over posts with links or blog links. When other posters start labeling something as "spam" it usually is. And if I have a website called Redbazel and you click on it, that's on you. Doesn't mean my posting with the same screen name I've used for 10 years is spam. If I post that I HAVE a website, and you email me to ask about it, that is also on you. Doesn't mean I tried to dredge up hits to my website. Now, I'm glad that the votes thing got brought up. While I don't think anyone here had any bad motives when they asked for ugliest kitty votes, or pinkest cheek votes or dancing with penguin votes, I don't really think the decorating forum is the place for this. If you want to call your friends and solicit votes, I guess that's ok. But I really think that votes should also be based on real feelings. So if I click on the "Vote for MY recliner!!" thread and I find that Magnaverde's recliner is in a Glen plaid and I truly love some anonymous recliner in gray velvet, it's annoying to see all the votes go to MV just because he happens to be an outstanding GW poster instead of to the anon. owner of the very pretty gray velvet. It skews the voting process. If it's popularity votes you want, My vote is for MV. If we are Really voting for nice recliners, I'm going to check the box next to the velvet with the feather headrest and the built-in remote. Red **No blogs, so don't hunt for them!!