Using common sense on the Internet is the best defense indeed. Coupled with a firewall. And hiding behind a NAT router is definitely a good idea. About partitioning: also a good idea. Even better to use separate harddisks; if you can afford it I'd advise two WD Raptors 10,000 RPM disks (37 GB each) and a BIG 7200 RPM disk (160 GB or more). Install your OS on one of the Raptors, put the swapfile on the second Raptor, install your programs on the OS disk (in a separate partition), put your working directories on the second Raptor (separate partition) and use the big 7200 RPM disk for disk images, big data storage (Poser libraries!) and for archiving your works. I run a similar setup on my Athlon64 system and it works very well.

The pen is mightier than the sword. But if you literally want to have some impact, use a typewriter

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