Saying
The trouble with common sense is, it's rare.

MDM.exe
Did i say how I fixed MDM.exe constantly crashing? I deleted the file. So far, so good. No more crashes. I don't have a clue what kind of damage that did to the system. This program is the Debug Manager. It seemed to start when I installed Visual Studio 6. We have an archaic version of Studio. I'm sure there is some patch out there to cover this. I bet Studio 5 has a hard time overwriting the system files in XP because of the new security stuff.
There is this anti-virus program my day job runs called Symantec. That is onto itself no big deal, accept this part of the program called Real Time File Something that checks files as they are written, that bogs the machine to a halt. I mean, what is the point of running a virus program that renders the machine useless? The IT department wisely rebuilds the virus software every now and then. I don't want to set off any flags by removing anything. I think running virus software is a good idea. I'm limiting the types of files it scans to the bare essentials.

By By IE
I've been saying for a long time that people should Drop IE. Some of the security experts are finally catching up. I say get FireFox. Some "alternate" browsers are really just add-ons to IE. Be careful. But, I've said this ump-teen times and still, most of my hits are from IE on this blog. What is a geek to do? I must invent User 2.0. That will fix everything.

Phone
Finally! The cable came in. It took me half the night to get the software to work. The stuff I downloaded had crappy USB drivers. The stuff that came with the cable, had good drivers, but the software itself didn't really work. It didn't actually mention my phone on the package, only in the ad. Bastards. Right now I have the Itchy and Scratchy theme as my ringtone. It was worth the frustration and nineteen reboots. I only paid $13 for the cable and software. I'm glad I found that other kit on the net. I still can't get the infrared to work. That will have to come later I suppose.