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Starting New With Computer Problems

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By Raleigh Whiteman | Highlands Today

Published: January 3, 2008

Already three days into 2008 and as I write this on the evening of Jan. 1, I have succeeded in my resolution of drastically lowering the amount of money I spend on my refreshments and doing some exercise to lose some of my excess inches around my waistline.

New Year's was celebrated with my friends at the Elks where the cost for the drinks was included in the price of entry. The total consumption of my choice of adult refreshments so far this year was two glasses of champagne after the countdown to midnight this morning.

I need not spend too much time on the amount of exercise I accomplished today only to say it was not as much as is needed to succeed in any benefits. Most of the day was spent recuperating from what was done before midnight last evening.

New Computer Problems

The day has not been a complete loss even though Florida lost to Michigan in what I call an almost win. I did manage to get one of my eight old programs loaded successfully into my Christmas present from the Pretty Wife, (PW), a Gateway Laptop, which I am using right now.

It has the new Windows Vista operating system, which is not at all easy to conquer having lived with XP for so many years with much success.

Old Computer Programs

I have no doubt whatsoever that the gurus of computers' only objective in creating these new operating systems is to get every cent they can from the users by requiring them to purchase new programs that cost a fortune to put into the new computers in order to get them to work.

It has taken me three days to get this word processing program that I paid a few hundred dollars for eight years ago into this laptop then send it out to the paper before my deadline.

Of course I could use my full-size computer to get this all done without any problem, but then I could not watch TV at the same time.

A Learning Experience

Plus I am determined to learn Vista and use the programs that I have already purchased. My advice to those who have little computer savvy or know some of the shortcuts and have the ability to understand and communicate with the geeks over the phone is to take advantage of the offer of the store geeks to set up your system at costs ranging from $40 to a couple of hundred bucks.

I'm just dumb enough to think that I'm smart enough to outsmart them. You may be smart enough to know better.

Only time will tell whether I have to restore my new toy with the disk that puts everything back to where it was before I opened the box and I will either have to reinstall everything or take it to a geek who will fix it right.

The PW is still angry for having lost more than four months of her bookkeeping in her new Vista home computer after we tried to install a 2000 bookkeeping program and the computer failed to the point of having to reinstall Vista.

Or maybe she has forgiven me because she has just fed me a most delicious New Year's dinner of cornbread and black-eyed peas that is a carry over tradition from my early days in Tennessee when my grandmother told us that it was a way of appreciating God's blessings.

Raleigh Whiteman, of Lake Placid, is a contributing writer to Highlands Today. You can reach him on the Internet at rwwhiteman@comcast.net

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