Good morning! As of this morning, I am eligible for the senior citizen's menu at Denny's *grin*. I'm grinning because the alternative is to cry.... just kidding. I realized years ago there's no sense in worrying about the things you can do nothing about, like thinning hair or advancing years. More importantly, I am able to do just about anything I want, have no aches or pains, and am happy. In other words, not too different than when I was 30. Except, my life is so much richer and more fulfilling than when I was 30. That actually was a bad year for me, my first marriage was on the rocks. See? 55 is much better!
I got a special "birthday greetings" from Microsoft yesterday; a check (or, a "chit") worth $138.01 towards computer software or hardware, part of an antitrust class action lawsuit I jumped in on years ago. I'll use it to defray part of the cost of my new computer. The 2nd item, at first blush, was even more interesting; my order of Vista Home Premium arrived! It was part of a package when I bought my new computer. However, it's the 32-bit version. I wanted the 64-bit version. No joy apparently. After attempting to exchange online, and failing with the usual cryptic message from Microsoft, I called them today, and was told that the 64-bit exchange was only possible if the OEM had included that in their package. Mine didn't. Waa waa, I don't wanna spend my $138.01 check on a 64-bit version of Vista (plus more out of my pocket). Now I'm contemplating my choices. I had been considering running Vista on my laptop, and the 32-bit version would be a good choice for that. However, there are some unanswered questions I have about certain software I consider indispensable, and whether that software will continue to operate under Vista. The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor simply says "No data available", which makes me concerned. Running the 64-bit version on the laptop would definitely not work, since I already know there are no 64-bit hardware drivers for this particular device. Soooo, maybe I could use this copy I have in my greasy little hands to upgrade the laptop, and go buy the 64-bit version for the desktop. Hmmm, I'll ponder that one....
The other possibility is to do with the "main" desktop what I've done with this (#2) desktop; dual-boot Windows XP and Kubuntu Linux. It's available in 64-bit, and it's free! Pretty hard to argue with that. After a whole lot of time and configuring, I've gotten most everything to work correctly, and it handles all multimedia formats. But, it doesn't have that capability by default. And configuring can be a real pain. Microsoft eliminates a lot of that, but at a cost. Oh well, no need to do anything today, after all, it's my birthday! Why would I want to induce a headache today? *grin*
