After reading the first link, I might actually agree to what bitman said about entries in the HOSTS file being a "ancient" way to prevent Spyware...
you can say what you want but others may have another opinion than you. i dont listen to such sites like that one in the link and i dont agree with bitman. i use hostsfiles because i hate ads and also for other reasons. i also like the hostsfiles because we can submit malicious sites and ad/tracking servers to some of them and help protect other people and not only ourself. but i will avoid hostsfiles that is rarely updated. i have not seen so many ads the last three years because i have been using this hostsfiles. some people also get seizures when seeing some flashing ads, belive it or not.

but what is better than using hostsfiles if you want protection from malware is to turn off javascript, activex and java or maybe use noscript in firefox and set the "internet explorer" internet security zone to high. then you can forget about using spywareblaster when activex is turned off because then you dont need spywareblaster anymore. and if someone is sick of tracking cookies then they can also turn off cookies. some sites may not work anymore when doing all this but you can just place sites you trust in the trusted zone in "internet explorer" i dont know about all the ways noscript works but i now it gives good protection against exploits and malware. spywareblaster is just as ancient as hostsfiles when it comes to the "restricted sites" protection. the activex protection in spywareblaster blocks malicious activex controls even on unknown sites so that is usefull.

i also use registry cleaners sometimes