I'm going to stick my neck out a little more than I usually do here and say that I think something new is good. I think the Paypal thing is a slick deal and an uncommon good idea. I use it and have been pleased with it every time and am accepting it for purchase of my work on both eBay and here. The link above will get you to the Paypal site either for an auction item or for an item on my site. For purchases of items which are priced on the site, please get with me first so as to determine availability, shipping considerations, etc.
Before you go there though, check out Gibson's site- also in my links. Pay attention to what he says there and use the advice to make a more secure enviroment for yourself. I was looking at an eBay bulletin board, saw two posts from different people, claiming that "Paypal has been hacked" because their Paypal accounts had been altered with a new password and then emptied over the weekend. I added my own post, asking if these people had done anything to keep people out of their own computers and offered to tell them where to get the information- neither wrote to me and didn't post after that so I don't know.. But, if you think about it, if you ever hear this story it's going to be because these people either didn't do the right things or they did the wrong things and not because a multi-bazillion dollar money handling business was tipped over by some little kid with a tricky program he got somewhere. I know, it's a lot easier to blame the other person, plus these people might have never known that their computers were not yet secure and that they could be changed.
The bizarre truth of it appears to be that these computers are dealt to us all ready to be picked open and nobody tells us that. Then we get looking around a little and there's a few people who seem to have a clue that they are willing to share. According to everything I've found and heard so far, if you do what Steve Gibson recommends (assuming you don't already have someone else in your computer) you shouldn't have to worry about anyone getting your money or information on here. Gotta remember- this is a frontier, and it's going to be a little wild and wooly for the forseeable future and the best thing you can do is to look out for yourself. Use some imagination and set things up so that your worries are minimal- do what Gibson recommends, start a new bank account to use with the Paypal and keep only enough money there to do what you need just to be safe and don't be one of the foolish, all whimpering because you didn't look out for yourself and now some kid's got him a new laptop (or two) at your expense. After you get done reading Gibson's site you might write to whoever you got your computer from and ask them a few questions.. Such as "What are you thinking? ARE you thinking?"
If you're thinking about the new Windows, I think it's XP, according to Gibson and another intelligent individual I've spoken to recently, that will be, the way it comes from the factory, a hack-o-matic program. Useful from both ends to the crummy kid who wants to get into your stuff- apparently it's a good base to work from and it's an ideal target.
Nuff said on this subject today. Get things the way they should be, try the Paypal out and you'll like it. If you can't figure out what Steve Gibson is saying he's got newsgroups where you can ask questions or you can give me a write on it. There's people on his site that know a lot more than me, but at least I have the advantage in that I can tell you everything I know about it in a short time:-)