Well, looks like I won't have to kick myself in the butt after all
Warning, technology conspiracy update coming!
When we bought this new computer, we knew it had Vista loaded on it, but we didn't recognize it is Vista 64-bit, on which my sewing machine software (Palette) does NOT work. So, we've been struggling with our options to get our software updated or some older version of XP or Vista 32-bit back. I believe our latest publicized option was going to be me borrowing Dick's computer when I needed to work up a design.....as you can imagine, that is not our preferred methodology, and it's not really convenient. We've gone round & round with Babylock (sewing machine & software company) and been told only: upgrade to version 8, and it's gonna cost $500 for the upgrade only or $999 for the full-blown new version. HA. We looked at netbooks, but they don't read CD's, so, even tho they have XP loaded on 'em, they cannot accept new software from a CD, without purchasing an external CD reader. Total cost: about $350. We even considered dumping my old computer into an external hard drive, and formatting my boot process to read there first, and if it's not found, boot to Vista. Geek squad said that won't work, as you cannot put the Operating System on the external hard drive. Bummer. Well, to complicate matters, part of the cost of this PC was a 15-month load of Trend Micro Internet Security software. The all-important Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam stuff. Ok, so now, we've already replaced the hardware, due to the panel not registering commands properly, and we simply swapped out the hard drive of the new piece with the hard drive from my original purchase, in order to keep all my newly loaded data.
Ok, back to Trend...all of a sudden, I started getting warnings that my 3-month TRIAL period was close to its expiration date. WTH?? WHAT *trial* could they mean — I have a receipt and a BOX that indicated this PC has 15 months of service included!!! UGH. More conspiracy, apparently. Back to Best Buy we trudge. Stand in line to see a Geek. I sure do miss having all personal geeks around!!!!!!! You know who you all are, too, dontcha SARAH, HAL , JASON, CRAIG, GREG, BRUCE & STEVE!! Well, the geeks at Best Buy showed us where we were supposed to "change the serial number" of our installed version.. WHO KNEW!!!! Ok, well we take it home & give it a go. A NO-go, is more like it. No matter what we entered, it wouldn't accept what we typed. And the more we typed, the LESS characters it would accept in the boxes!! ARRRRRRRRRRRGH.
So, we make the one-hour trip back into Corpus to go stand in line once more. THIS time, chief geek tells us, well, HE can't force the numbers in either, so we should go pick out another computer, and he'll credit us the money we paid for THIS one, towards the next one. I guess he's pretty confident that we'll be spending more. He's right...we cannot find a comparable pc for the same money we had already spent. The closest one they had was simply a bigger screen (by one inch) for a whoppin' $50!! Oh, but that doesn't include whatever it's gonna cost to buy hardware to backup our data before we leave the shop. UGH, that is NOT what I expected to hear. So, we go back to the geek and ask him if maybe there's some other way we can install a new copy of Trend or something???
Well, eventually, he pulls in a big favor from his boss, and 30 minutes later, he took a copy off the shelf, installed it, updated it and we were ready to roll. HOWEVER, and here's the kick in the butt part....he mentions that Windows 7 is coming out in Sept, and all the pc's we looked at came with a free upgrade, and he was of the opinion that 7 is supposed to fix all the things that Vista broke. Ah, but we DECLINED a new pc...so, we go off with my new (second) pc, WITH 12 more months of Trend, and still Vista 64-bit, and my sewing software still won't work without a significant additional outlay of moolah, and the sinking feeling that maybe I just screwed myself royally. I was so upset, that I spent most of the night (quite literally - I slept about 2 hours that night, and even they were fitful) researching the forums for Vista & Windows 7. And, eventually, I found the answer I needed. Even Windows 7 wasn't gonna help me get back to 32-bit. So, what a relief - I don't have to kick myself in the butt after all!! But, I still don't have a viable (read: inexpensive & convenient) solution...hehe —- SEWlution. Oh, that's bad.
But, on to better stuff — I got a new pain management dr a couple weeks ago, and first thing he did was order a HIP x-ray just to see what was going on there, since no one else had taken the initiative....as a result, yesterday I got an injection in the HIP, instead of the back. And today, I actually got up the steps more easily than I have in quite some time....not bad for one day out. Tomorrow will be day 3, and it's usually the worst one, so we'll see. Hope it's not too awful. Of course, if it gets real bad, I guess we can go practice being "pool prunes" — and so far, that's been real fun. We have adapted to our new lifestyle quite nicely (& easily)! I only hope that we aren't TOTALLY spoiled by the time we get to the next gig. In the meantime tho, I am trying to sew up a stash of stuff so I'll be ready for their craft sale in November...so, I've got my "work" cut out for me! We've been here about a week and a half, and I've already made 3 cozies & a tote bag. My next project will be a kite bag for our new dragon kite, so that it'll stay safe(r) while we haul it around town. I've got some sky-lookin' fabric & I bought a "Go fly a Kite" design, so it should be pretty cool when I get it done.
Well, it's gettin' late, not that I have to get up at 5:30 anymore, but I would like to rise sometime before noon...oh, don't hate me for that! We're still getting up around 7 am, old habits die hard...I *am* glad, however, that Dick is not having to work like a dog outside in all this heat. Of course, he did wash the whole trailer today, but he didn't feel bad about taking a break every now & then, and there was *some* shade, and NO wind to speak of. AND, he was really washing off the salt & dirt we'd brought with us from the beach, and hopefully, it'll be the last time for quite some time!! Not like on the beach, where he started at one end, and by the time he got all the way around and back to the starting point, it needed it all over again.
Hope you all had a great Fourth and remembered that freedom is not free, and we owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have paid for our freedoms and independence over time. And since we are reading and writing this in English, we need to thank the soldiers who keep us safe and American!!
Till next time.....k
When we bought this new computer, we knew it had Vista loaded on it, but we didn't recognize it is Vista 64-bit, on which my sewing machine software (Palette) does NOT work. So, we've been struggling with our options to get our software updated or some older version of XP or Vista 32-bit back. I believe our latest publicized option was going to be me borrowing Dick's computer when I needed to work up a design.....as you can imagine, that is not our preferred methodology, and it's not really convenient. We've gone round & round with Babylock (sewing machine & software company) and been told only: upgrade to version 8, and it's gonna cost $500 for the upgrade only or $999 for the full-blown new version. HA. We looked at netbooks, but they don't read CD's, so, even tho they have XP loaded on 'em, they cannot accept new software from a CD, without purchasing an external CD reader. Total cost: about $350. We even considered dumping my old computer into an external hard drive, and formatting my boot process to read there first, and if it's not found, boot to Vista. Geek squad said that won't work, as you cannot put the Operating System on the external hard drive. Bummer. Well, to complicate matters, part of the cost of this PC was a 15-month load of Trend Micro Internet Security software. The all-important Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam stuff. Ok, so now, we've already replaced the hardware, due to the panel not registering commands properly, and we simply swapped out the hard drive of the new piece with the hard drive from my original purchase, in order to keep all my newly loaded data.
Ok, back to Trend...all of a sudden, I started getting warnings that my 3-month TRIAL period was close to its expiration date. WTH?? WHAT *trial* could they mean — I have a receipt and a BOX that indicated this PC has 15 months of service included!!! UGH. More conspiracy, apparently. Back to Best Buy we trudge. Stand in line to see a Geek. I sure do miss having all personal geeks around!!!!!!! You know who you all are, too, dontcha SARAH, HAL , JASON, CRAIG, GREG, BRUCE & STEVE!! Well, the geeks at Best Buy showed us where we were supposed to "change the serial number" of our installed version.. WHO KNEW!!!! Ok, well we take it home & give it a go. A NO-go, is more like it. No matter what we entered, it wouldn't accept what we typed. And the more we typed, the LESS characters it would accept in the boxes!! ARRRRRRRRRRRGH.
So, we make the one-hour trip back into Corpus to go stand in line once more. THIS time, chief geek tells us, well, HE can't force the numbers in either, so we should go pick out another computer, and he'll credit us the money we paid for THIS one, towards the next one. I guess he's pretty confident that we'll be spending more. He's right...we cannot find a comparable pc for the same money we had already spent. The closest one they had was simply a bigger screen (by one inch) for a whoppin' $50!! Oh, but that doesn't include whatever it's gonna cost to buy hardware to backup our data before we leave the shop. UGH, that is NOT what I expected to hear. So, we go back to the geek and ask him if maybe there's some other way we can install a new copy of Trend or something???
Well, eventually, he pulls in a big favor from his boss, and 30 minutes later, he took a copy off the shelf, installed it, updated it and we were ready to roll. HOWEVER, and here's the kick in the butt part....he mentions that Windows 7 is coming out in Sept, and all the pc's we looked at came with a free upgrade, and he was of the opinion that 7 is supposed to fix all the things that Vista broke. Ah, but we DECLINED a new pc...so, we go off with my new (second) pc, WITH 12 more months of Trend, and still Vista 64-bit, and my sewing software still won't work without a significant additional outlay of moolah, and the sinking feeling that maybe I just screwed myself royally. I was so upset, that I spent most of the night (quite literally - I slept about 2 hours that night, and even they were fitful) researching the forums for Vista & Windows 7. And, eventually, I found the answer I needed. Even Windows 7 wasn't gonna help me get back to 32-bit. So, what a relief - I don't have to kick myself in the butt after all!! But, I still don't have a viable (read: inexpensive & convenient) solution...hehe —- SEWlution. Oh, that's bad.
But, on to better stuff — I got a new pain management dr a couple weeks ago, and first thing he did was order a HIP x-ray just to see what was going on there, since no one else had taken the initiative....as a result, yesterday I got an injection in the HIP, instead of the back. And today, I actually got up the steps more easily than I have in quite some time....not bad for one day out. Tomorrow will be day 3, and it's usually the worst one, so we'll see. Hope it's not too awful. Of course, if it gets real bad, I guess we can go practice being "pool prunes" — and so far, that's been real fun. We have adapted to our new lifestyle quite nicely (& easily)! I only hope that we aren't TOTALLY spoiled by the time we get to the next gig. In the meantime tho, I am trying to sew up a stash of stuff so I'll be ready for their craft sale in November...so, I've got my "work" cut out for me! We've been here about a week and a half, and I've already made 3 cozies & a tote bag. My next project will be a kite bag for our new dragon kite, so that it'll stay safe(r) while we haul it around town. I've got some sky-lookin' fabric & I bought a "Go fly a Kite" design, so it should be pretty cool when I get it done.
Well, it's gettin' late, not that I have to get up at 5:30 anymore, but I would like to rise sometime before noon...oh, don't hate me for that! We're still getting up around 7 am, old habits die hard...I *am* glad, however, that Dick is not having to work like a dog outside in all this heat. Of course, he did wash the whole trailer today, but he didn't feel bad about taking a break every now & then, and there was *some* shade, and NO wind to speak of. AND, he was really washing off the salt & dirt we'd brought with us from the beach, and hopefully, it'll be the last time for quite some time!! Not like on the beach, where he started at one end, and by the time he got all the way around and back to the starting point, it needed it all over again.
Hope you all had a great Fourth and remembered that freedom is not free, and we owe a debt of gratitude to all those who have paid for our freedoms and independence over time. And since we are reading and writing this in English, we need to thank the soldiers who keep us safe and American!!
Till next time.....k
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