The Undiscovered Country

Eye Candy

First off, did ya see it? Hmm? Well? Did ya? zwisis gifted me the eye-popping green ribbon adorning my new journal yesterday. I’m so touched and pleased, if I were a puppy, I would have wiggled my bottom right off!

I can’t thank you enough! & (((((((hugs)))))))

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Now back to our regularly scheduled program:

If there is one obvious change to Microsoft’s new operating system, Vista, it’s eye candy. They’ve simply made it fun to look at. I’m not surprised then, for those who chose to upgrade to Vista on an older machine, they have graphics card compatibility problems. The graphics are intense. AND they have a brand new selection of screen savers! Sheesh I was tired of the old ones. They were so – old!

A few months ago, I had to format my hard drive and reload all of my software on my 2-year-old laptop.

Everything went hunky-dory for about a month when a vertical line appeared along the left side of my screen. I figured I could live with it, because it was far enough out of the way it didn’t distract me. A second line appeared two inches to the right of that one a few days later. Okay, now I’m annoyed.

Then icons started disappearing from my programs.

Lovely. So, I took a deep breath, checked into my finances to see what I could afford, and purchased a new laptop yesterday. My old laptop was not only a year out of warranty, but replacing the monitor would have cost as much as a new machine.

I bought my new guy at Best Buy (hey, that rhymes!). The kid who helped me was friendly, very helpful, and didn’t treat me – old woman that I am – like I didn’t know anything about computers. He asked me questions about what I wanted to use it for, etc, and from my answers knew what knowledge I had and went from there. I love it when sales people listen, and take no for an answer when they offer all the extended warranty and protection plans available.

My biggest concern was moving all my software over. Not only did I not know for certain if they would work on Vista, but the way companies are paranoid over license violations these days, I wondered if I could even authorize them without having to make a slew of phone calls getting them transferred over.

Remember I mentioned yesterday how my worries are not always justified? Well, they weren’t justified here either. The programs all loaded without a single hiccup. It was a little annoying, however, when each time I tried to load one Vista kept asking me “This is a strange program from an unknown source. Are you sure you want to load it?”

“Yes, already!” I wanted to scream. “I put in the CD didn’t I?! Sheesh!”

This laptop is also smaller than my old one. It’s a 15.4" widescreen instead of a 17" widescreen, and weights a mere 6 pounds instead of 9. If I want to sit on the couch with it, I won’t have to worry about cutting the circulation off in my legs, or stretch my shoulder halfway down my side when taking it on a trip.

Though I could have had it on my old computer, this one came pre-installed with Google’s Desktop. Is that a handy little program! It sits on the right side of my screen and updates the latest news, the current weather, a to-do list, thumbnail views of all my photos; I can add stocks, maps, a performance monitor, email, do you really need me to go on?

Didn’t think so.

My favorite feature right now is the Scratch Pad. There I can type in little reminders, thoughts I don’t want to forget, anything really.

I decided to use it to write my daily prayers. How’s that for an idea, eh? That way, every time I go back to my desktop, there’s a reminder of what I want to talk to God about for the day, week, or whatever. I can then save the scratch pad as text a document if I want to keep it. It also holds the current text in there – even after I reboot (yes I rebooted on purpose to test it) – until I clear it. I’m thinking now since I’m on the computer so much at work, I’ll have to install Google Desktop on that one as well.

Though I had no idea it could do this, nor do I think I will use it, but I can even burn my own CD/DVD labels right onto the disc. How’s that for cool?!

Oh, and another thing I didn’t know it had, and don’t anticipate using, is a webcam on top of the monitor. The camera is about the same size as the one on my phone. I wouldn’t have even known it was there except there was this big sticker with a thick arrow pointing to it and saying “Built-in WebCam & Mic!!!” (Okay, I admit I added the exclamation points).

Tell me honest. Is my geekiness showing again?