How to empty a stubborn trash can on your Mac

I know this is a bit off-topic, but I found it extremely helpful and wanted to share it.

I use several Macs, all are running Snow Leopard Version 10.6.x.  At some point, I noticed that the "Empty Trash" became "Secure Empty Trash".  I'm familiar with the concept and think it's all good.  There's one problem.

IT TAKES FOREVER!  (....and in many cases doesn't actually do what it is supposed to do).

I've been getting "....locked" errors that I have no ideas what they mean.  I need to free up desktop and I literally let the secure empty trash run over night and the next morning......it was still running!

I found this tip which works wonders.  In particular, the command-line version seemed to work quickly and flawlessly.  Here it is:

From Terminal, type the following and press return:

rm -rf ~/.Trash/*

It is my new best friend until Apple fixes the "feature".

Thanks for reading!

-Jbob