I use Google Chrome for most things, but there are a few things that not even Chrome will handle (like the HTML editor for my webmail service). I usually recommend having a second browser such as FireFox available for those few things that one browser just will not do.
As a general rule, the use of a VPN may slow down your connection, especially if you're running a really super fast connection. There are 2 main reasons for this symptom…
When using a VPN, there is a certain amount of overhead traffic that is required in order to be able to encrypt and decrypt the information through the virtual tunnel that you're using. This leaves a little less bandwidth on your connection available for the actual data stream itself. Also, the increased time that it takes to encrypt and decrypt the data stream being transmitted will also result in a slightly increased latency (or ping time).
Most VPN services can only offer a limited throughput speed as compared to a higher end connection, such as a fiber connection. If you have a higher speed connection (as it appears that you do), your speeds will definitely take a hit when using most VPN services. That being said however, the decrease in speed in my opinion would be well worth the added privacy of not having your IP directly exposed to the internet.
Now, all of this being said, there are several reasonable options for a VPN service. Recently, I switched to PureVPN because my previous supplier (Hola) just wasn't able to meet my needs. I have personally found them to be quite reliable and consistent in offering service. They also seem to have a wider selection of servers in any given country than most VPN providers do. I would suggest checking them out at http://www.purevpn.net/ as they should be able to offer you a better speed solution compared to what you're currently getting with your current provider.
I know that this is a little late, however I'll reply anyway. As far as I know from German law, just like any other country, they can request a content search of any electronic device that can store data. That being said though, if you give them absolutely no indication that you have any illicit content on your device, they generally do not make a habit of checking electronic devices. In short, you should be able to get away with just turning off your torrent client and not using it while going through German customs. Once you're in Germany, if you're afraid of legal repercussions for illegally downloading content, I would strongly recommend that you make use of a VPN in order to avoid any content being traced back directly to you.
Oh yes…. And did I mention that things like the command prompt and system services are almost impossible to find unless you know how to call them by their respective cmd.exe or services.msc names manually? This can make for removing certain viruses and other malware very difficult if not impossible for some users unless you happen to know the exact process name for some of the options that you need to use to rid a computer of such things?
I strongly discourage the use of Edge or any other Microsoft product for that matter. Not only does it use the same base technology as Internet Explorer is based on, but like all things Microsoft, it also comes with some potentially serious security hole potentials, depending on how you use it.
If you're using the free Hola, don't be too confident in your computing. If you're using the free Hola browser button, you're actually opening your computer to act as an exit node for other Hola members. This means that you potentially open yourself to the security hole of having other users tunnelling through your internet connection to download illegal content.
All I'm saying here is that you need to be careful when using the free Hola. Also, Hola will only act as a method of proxy for certain websites only. Unlike a regular full VPN, Hola does not tunnel all your internet traffic through the VPN by default. This can only be done if you pay the $5 USD per month for the paid version of Hola and use their full PPTP or L2TP VPN services, which are not part of the free browser button.
From my little experience with Windows 10 as an IT professional, I can say with confidence that I hate it even more than I hated Windows 8.1…. In my opinion, Microsoft has kept a lot of the more advanced settings such as manually setting your IP address on a network card incredibly difficult to get to by comparison to even Windows 8. In short, Windows 10 from my experience is Windows Vista all over again. I have actually had to roll a number of customers back manually from Windows 10 back to Windows 7 because the change was just too much for them and trying to find the options for what they need is not exactly easy.
Sure, Microsoft has brought back the start menu, but it's nothing like it used to be, and the options in which you can select are far fewer and way more limited. Wireless networking is one big thing that has changed. I'm sure it is something that I could get used to, however the way that Windows 10 handles wireless connections in my opinion is pathetic to say the least. Unless you go in through a back-door option to manually configure all of your options, the standard interface with Windows 10 assumes a lot of things for you that aren't necessarily what they should be. Furthermore, on the topic of networking, Microsoft has done away with the 3 network location settings (Home, Business, & Public) and instead attempts to arrange firewall restrictions for you automatically. Trying to adjust any of these settings however is not an easy task. This is part of why I am a die hard Linux user.
On top of the other obvious problems that have been discussed, there's also a lot that Microsoft needs to step up to make Windows 10 fully functional for more than just what they assume to be the "common folk" needs. Microsoft has spent too much time catering towards the common folk that they actually have taken a lot of the privacy control options that were once available right out of the equation. Instead, Microsoft assumes what you want to do and how you want to do it, then sets out a proprietary method in which to do it, which leaves absolutely no wiggle room for users who may want to secure things a little more tightly than the average person would. It's just another nightmare waiting to happen.
Now as for the "free" part, don't kid yourself... This is nothing more than Microsoft's way of trying to make users feel like they are not being forced to switch to Windows 10, even though that is eventually going to come down the pipes in time, just like Windows XP no-longer being supported to try and force you to upgrade. What's the real reason why this upgrade is "free" you ask? This is quite simple... It gives Microsoft a way in which to force their users to have to use Windows Update, which is known for periodically including alleged "updates" that are really nothing more than a malicious script that collects information from where you have gone on the internet with Internet Explorer, and at the same time, clearing off software from your computer that Microsoft deems to be "unwanted" software. In most cases, the things that these updates go for are things like keygens, activation cracks, etc. This is part of the whole you will take the update, even if it breaks another program bullshit. Currently, Microsoft cannot force this upon their users because they would have to change the EULA post-installation, which under US law is totally NOT legal. So don't kid yourself.... Microsoft is only offering Windows 10 for free to users running Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 with the sole intention of trying to be able to force their proprietary bullshit down your throats, including the removal of anything from your computer that Microsoft doesn't think should be there, regardless of whether or not it is legitimate. If you do not already own a copy of a previous version of Windows, you are given the upgrade for free so that Microsoft can fish you into their trap to literally control your life and snoop around into where you've been and what you've done on the internet. This is largely in part because Steve Ballmer does NOT in any way, shape or form seem to have the same kind of business practices that Bill Gates did when he founded the company.
Now.... The other reason why I say don't kid yourself about it being free is that if you're installing from scratch or you're converting back to Windows, you're screwed into paying the $149.95 USD just for the ability to have Windows 10, but only if you can be satisfied with the home version. If you're looking for the professional version, you're looking at a whopping $219.95. Also, there were at least 4 variations of previous Windows versions that I know of, however now there only seems to be 2 versions.... This brings into question a number of questions with respect to upgrade paths and whether or not you're actually able to upgrade from one version to another. These are all things that Microsoft does not explain, and trying to find such information on their website has only managed to infuriate me because their website seems to be just as complicated as their fucking OS itself.
In short, whatever you do, DO NOT UPGRADE!!! These are only some of the reasons why I strongly recommend NOT using Windows 10. There are more reasons why you shouldn't, which are actually even scarier, however I am not at liberty to divulge the scarier reasons, which have not yet been made public knowledge..... All that I will say is I can promise you that you will be both disappointed by and infuriated by these reasons once they start to become public knowledge. Simply put, Windows 8 is a large part of the reason why I switched to Linux and refuse to ever look back.
If I'm not mistaken, the values that you set in your profile are for the browse option. Using the search option IIRC will still give you results from all categories unless otherwise checked for that search. The only exception to this of course is the straight and bisexual categories. If you turn those off in your profile (in a different setting area IIRC), it will disable them completely for you system wide.
Perhaps the article may have been taken down, but all I get from that link is HTTP 404 (File Not Found)
Allow me to explain one key thing about when it comes to the risk to the top as compared to the risk of the bottom…. When you're the bottom, you run the risk of the top's cock causing small tears in the lining of your insides from being stretched out and/or too much friction without a sufficient amount of lubrication. Given that the actual wounds in which the infection would enter are on the insides of the bottom and not on the dick of the top, simple physics would dictate that it becomes easier for the bottom to contract than it is from the top..... That being said however, don't kid yourself. If is still possible to contract HIV as a top, especially if more major damage has been done to the insides of the bottom. Also, there is also the fact that when the top cums and pulls out, the exposure to the body parts is removed. For the top, this pretty well severs the connection, however for the bottom who may still have cum inside of them, this increases the risk due to the fact that the residual residue of the sex itself still remains inside the bottom, long after the sex has stopped.
That being said however, calculating the risk factors is not exactly all that easy or straight forward either. One of the biggest factors to take into account when it comes to HIV transmission is the viral load of the HIV+ person. Simply put, the viral load is a laboratory marker of just how much, how strong, or how concentrated you will that the actual presence of HIV is within the person's blood stream. As a general rule, the higher the number equates to the higher the risk, however again, this is not an exact science because it also does not take into account the fact that there are people out there who are either a progressive developer or an elite controller. In these cases, the risk is reduced by that factor all unto itself. For those who do not know, a "progressive developer" is somewhat like it sounds. Due to the nature of their particular immune system, it takes substantially longer for the virus to develop within the system, thus triggering the point of seroconversion to appear on a test, and then later on, slows the progression process of the virus down. In most of these cases, medications are not generally needed until long after they would have been for an otherwise "normal" person. An elite controller on the other hand is much more rare of a concept. Simply put, it is someone whose immune system is capable of suppressing the virus of its own accord, thus maintaining an undetectable viral load, without the need for the meds.
Now as for yababioi's point about being undetectable, I will make something very clear. In the last 8 years, several studies have been done to try to quantify a risk factor that you can measure when it comes to sex among gay men. The only problem that all of these studies have had in common is that since the release of some of the newer medications around 1996, there hasn't been so much as a single case of HIV transmission noted from an HIV+ partner with an undetectable viral load. This is not to say that it is impossible to occur, because there is no evidence that proves that concretely, however it is very promising. Just think.... In the 8 year period that these studies have been happening, they have not been able to find so much as 1 case where the HIV+ partner is undetectable, even with frequent unprotected sex with ejaculation inside. That alone should speak for itself, especially since the pattern has held true for 8, almost 9 years now.
If risk is what you're concerned about, it's important to take all the factors into account. While it is true that generally speaking, there are factors that potentially elevate the risk of transmission from the top to the bottom, but this certainly does not preclude that there is still a risk of transmission from the bottom to the top. Generally speaking, it is not as likely due to the sheer physics of it, but again as I said, establishing potential risk is not necessarily so cut and dry. In some more extreme cases (such as my last ex), when the bottom was playing with an oversized novelty dildo, hurt themselves with it, and were bleeding internally on their insides enough to warrant medical attention prior to getting fucked, the impending risk for the top is substantially elevated as compared to had the internal damage not been done first. This is a big part of why health care professionals will generally not advise that the risk of transmission is not necessarily lower for the top. In other words, it's not an exact science, and potentially, the role you play (top or bottom) can sometimes make absolutely no difference in the risk.
All this being said however, in my opinion, if you're worried about the risk of transmission to begin with, you'd actually be better off to find yourself a sexual partner who identifies as being "undetectable", rather than "negative" or "clean". When they're "negative" (or so they claim), the test is only as accurate as up to 3 months before the time that the blood was drawn. If the day after that blood sample was drawn if that person engages in sexual activity, it is very well possible that they may have already seroconverted and become HIV+ by the time the negative test result came in and not even known it. That being said however, if you're playing around with someone who identifies as being "undetectable", sure, they may be HIV+, however you at least know that credible studies have been done that actually scientifically prove that the odds of contracting HIV from an HIV+ partner who has a high viral load (which is often the case when you reach the point of seroconversion) and uses a condom than it is to have unprotected sex to completion without pulling out with someone with an undetectable viral load. Statistically speaking, it is a reasonable claim to say that having unprotected sex with an HIV+ partner who is undetectable is proven to be safer than having sex with a condom with a partner who is HIV+ and has a high viral load.
So, yes... I do agree with yababyioi on the point that you Opiam should properly educate and inform yourself of all the facts before making statements that clearly are an embarrassment to yourself. I may not have the fancy paperwork to say that I'm a doctor and I know my shit, but I'll be very clear about 1 thing............ Having been diagnosed with HIV on March 14, 2009 and living with it ever since (6 years and counting now), I can assure you that I know WAY more about HIV and the way that medical care works for people who are HIV+ than far too many doctors in the medical field. In fact, in some cases, I have even been the one to have to explain to the doctor who was taking care of me at the time how to read the test results, what they mean, and what the next most logical step to provide proper care would be. If you're at all unsure of something, I would be more than happy to fill you in. Again, in the 6 years now that I have been living with HIV, I can assure you when I say that education is the only prevention for a lot of the common misconceptions that can lead to stigma, and in my case, criminal persecution of a person, solely because they are HIV+ and far too many people still at this day and age are still afraid of it.
I can assure you that it's not 1985 anymore and we've made some advancements in the medical community, some of which I am about to get involved with the further development of, such as the first round of trials in Canadian history of a proposed cure to determine whether or not it is effective. We're actually that close to the point of being able to say we found the cure.... Mark my words when I say within the next 5 - 10 years, it will be available to the masses.
I can assure you that having to remove the torrent and re-add it with the torrent file from the site is not a bug… This is because when you first create the torrent, in reality, you can use any tracker that you want to create the .torrent file. That being said however, when it is uploaded to the site, the system changes all the trackers on the .torrent file to match the tracker for GT.ru. Our system uses a passkey to identify which specific user that you are. As this value is different for each individual user, the system will automatically adapt the .torrent file to adjust the passkey to your own, which will NOT be contained in the original .torrent file, but can be found in the one downloaded from the site.
Simply put, you need to re-download the .torrent file to seed the torrent after upload so that the system can properly track the torrent and attach the data values from upload and/or download to your correct profile. This is not something that can be done using the .torrent file that you create to upload the torrent itself.
This too would be news to me to see that the tracker has removed from your totals. I have never before heard of this. There is another thing to take into account as well….
Torrent clients will only update the tracker usually once every 30 minutes, so the amount of data reflected on the tracker may not necessarily be the same number that's reflected in your torrent client for two reasons. The first is that most torrent clients include overhead traffic in the calculation of their totals, however the tracker will only account for the actual data transferred, ignoring the extra little bit for the network overhead to do things like send the statistics to the tracker, update the list of peers, etc. The other reason is that say for example you're uploading or downloading something at some 500KB/s and the tracker updates.... Your torrent client will only report the data that has been transmitted up to the point of the new transmission of information. This process only takes a matter of seconds, so despite that you're still transferring, the total numbers may appear to be different. That being said however, it's not a matter of the torrent client won't report it, but rather is a matter of when the torrent client will update the tracker.
I see on your profile that you have indeed seeded a fair bit more than is stated in the original post. Am I to assume correctly that this means that you've continued to seed as to increase this total?
I know that this may come as a rather late reply, but there is another factor to consider that most people are completely unaware of…. The ever so dreaded issue of the port forwarding in the NAT not being setup sufficiently.
See... On most internet connections, you will have a single IP address (usually a /32 subnet), which establishes your link to the internet, and then you have your private local /24 subnet (usually 192.168.1.0/24). What happens in your modem is that your computer gets the IP address of (for example) 192.168.1.100, but your internet IP is something like 10.206.173.2. When the request for an internet link is sent to your router (usually built into the modem), your router converts the IP address of the source machine from 192.168.1.100 to 10.206.173.2 before passing it out to the internet. This is most common and is the basis under which most internet connections work.
That being said however, when users attempt to connect to you on 10.206.173.2, unless your modem knows specifically that the port that the user is attempting to connect on (both TCP and UDP) need to be forwarded to 192.168.1.100, your modem/router doesn't know what to do with it and thus drops the connection. When this happens, it makes it extremely difficult to use the more passive approach of your torrent client announcing your presence to the tracker to announce to other peers, then having your computer send the initial signal to the other user's computer in which to use the follow-back path to be able to connect to your computer, despite the router not knowing specifically to forward that port. This can cause some serious communication issues with our tracker, which may result in seemingly being unable to seed at all.
I'm not sure if this particular case applies to you or not, but it's worth a look to see. In general, you can find the port number that your torrent client uses in your torrent client's settings. This number will vary from one computer to the next, so it's important to know which specific port that your torrent client uses to make sure that said port number (both TCP and UDP) are correctly forwarded to your computer. This will allow other torrent users to be able to connect directly to your machine, without running into the issues with having to pass through the NAT to accept the connection. In general, you can find information on how to setup the proper port forwarding on your computer at http://www.portforward.com/ however some of our staff may be able to assist you with getting this looked at if you are not able to do so yourself. 
I would be inclined to say that it definitely is possible, for the right person in reality could be lurking just about anywhere. That being said though, I would be willing to say that the chances of actually making a working relationship happen from an app that is primarily targeted at being a hook-up site while possible, aren't really all that likely.
I have run into that from time to time… Even in Linux you have the same issue... Most files will play flawlessly in VLC, but there's the odd one here and there that I run into that just will NOT play properly in VLC. Sure enough, if I open those particular files in Totem instead, they work just fine.
My guess would be that it's something in the encoding of the video itself that WMP just cannot work with properly.
There are also some retailers here in Toronto who accept BitCoin through their debit machines just the same way as they do for debit or credit cards… It's becoming more popular around here.
From the looks of things, it does not appear that you are seeding anything at the current moment. By seeding at least one torrent all the time, you will slowly earn SBP, which add up to be able to increase your ratio when exchanged. The other thing that I'm not sure about is whether or not you've got the correct ports opened in your router. Most people are not even aware that they have a Router/NAT in the mix in their internet connection, as it is often built into the modem that your ISP supplies you with.
If you start seeding something, I'd be able to give you a better idea as to whether or not this is the case. In a nut shell, when the correct ports are not opened, it makes it extremely difficult with our tracker to be able to get any incoming connections from other peers to be able to download from you. Fear not though, for there are any number of ways that I can help you resolve this if this should turn out to be the case. It is a lot more critical than most people realize to have the correct ports for your torrent client open within your network as not all trackers will work the same.
Well… It hadn't quite come to that, but we certainly weren't about to wait around until it did. 
Actually, let me set the record straight…. AIDS is not the root issue, HIV the root issue. That being said, there are actually two main types (referred to as Type 1 and Type 2).
The interesting thing about this is that the roots of HIV-1 are more commonly found within North America which roughly traces back to Europe of all places, but didn't become catastrophic until it reached the US population, starting in California. HIV-2 on the other hand is more common to Africa, and has a distinctly different makeup than the HIV-1 virus that is more prevalent within North America.
Now that all being said, it is important to understand the key difference between HIV and AIDS.... HIV is merely the presence of the virus, however AIDS is technically classified as a CD4 count below 200, which is where other illnesses can begin to set in and create real problems. For those that do not know, the CD4 cells are the particular cells found within your white blood supply that your immune system uses to fight off any foreign substance/matter within your body. In short, the lower the number equates to the more danger you are in, and the higher the number equates to the stronger your system is.
After posting this, I noticed another interesting comment with regards to the lack of protection in Africa
Viral Load is another key thing to take into account when assessing the risks. The only known way in which to suppress the viral load to keep the virus at bay is with proper medications. The problem comes in here where the big pharma companies are all greedy and charge outrageous amounts for their medications, even though the R&D is already long ago paid for. I'll bet that you didn't know that in North America alone (where the companies are the greediest), the average cost of medications to keep someone with HIV alive are approximately $2000 - $4000 for a 30 day supply, depending on the particular pharmacy that you go to. The bigger the pharmacy chain, the more they'll charge. These kinds of prices are just not affordable to the masses, particularly in places like Africa. Granted, the medications you'll find in Africa are much different than the ones that you will find within North America for two different reasons, the biggest of which being the US pharma companies are too greedy to make their drugs affordable to the masses.
There is another factor that many people who do bareback porn take into account. Well… It's split up into two different parts. The first is the viral load.... Simply put, a number of studies have been done in the last few years to attempt to quantify the risk of HIV transmission particular to unprotected gay sex. The interesting thing is that in every study, they all noted that there has not been so much as one case of HIV transmission from an HIV+ person with an undetectable viral load. This is one factor they often look at. If the person is undetectable, a lot of people will decide to participate anyway.
The second factor to take into account is whether or not the person who is not HIV+ is on PrEP. The down side to PrEP is that it too is not exactly a guarantee. It was only noted to substantially reduce the risk. A lot of people who are not and do not want to become HIV+ but do bareback porn will also use PrEP..... So the single answer to the question would be no... It's not a culprit for AIDS.