Computer Systems

Bob's 5 year old computer started to go bad about 3 weeks ago. Rather than risk it crashing we bought a replacement machine at Best Buy. Not sure we got the best buy but we were in urgent need. The Geeks worked for days to get the old hard drive backed up and moved to the new machine.

The one thing that has caused us the most trouble has been the new operating system. Vista. Everyone we knew that had updated to it from XP were thrilled with it. One person had gotten a new computer with Vista and loved it.

Maybe because we are old and our learning curve was steep, maybe because we use antique programs like Lotus (the Geek thought it was Locust), maybe because we don't care for change under pressure, but it's not been a good experience.

I think eventually we'll say it's a good system but now we are still struggling with it and the new Microsoft Office. Should have searched for an old version but we bought the 2007 version.

Bob consults and communicates with a large company in Michigan. If Bob uses their template it works fine but if the company sends him an Excel form to complete, the company claims they can't open or read it. Finally they had to update to Office 2007.

New technology. Good thing most of the time. Never under time pressure. Makes me think it's the cart leading the horses around. As long as things worked with the old, we would not have changed. Maybe I should consider more tech stocks.

The bad news. HP hasn't caught up with Vista. Our beloved laserjet does not work with the new fancy operating system yet. We keep checking the HP website waiting for the patch or fix or drive.

'til later