A New Car

Yesterday we took the plunge and got a new car - a Hyundai Sonata. It's silver with gray interior. Pretty much your basic model with a few extras, a sunroof and alloy wheels. We now have our Saturdays back.

HTML copied and pasted from Yahoo 360

I Hate Computers

I've been having fun installing new software for the last couple of days. Turn down the lights and read this tale of horror.

Paint Shop Pro X

Stuck the disk in, and installed the program. Internet Explorer started and I registered the program with Corel (I think). Then a page came up saying I was entitled to some freebies - frames, picture tubes, blah, blah, blah. I downloaded that. So far, so good. Then a page came up saying there was a critical update/patch for Paint Shop Pro X. Like a dummy I clicked "install" instead of "download" , figuring there was no point in saving a patch on my computer. Big Mistake. I "installed the patch" and tried to run Paint Shop Pro X - it never made it past the startup screen. I had to physically turn off the computer with the power switch it was so locked up. And I actually paid money for this.

To make a long story short, after about 2 1/2 hours I had this crappy software installed. And of course it worked perfectly - Not.

Magix MP3 Maker 10 Deluxe - Not just plain old Magix MP3 Maker 10 but the "Deluxe" version.

Stuck the disk in and it spun and spun and spun - for a couple of minutes. I'm not sure how long it was doing it's thing, I went and cleaned up the kitchen, figuring I would just have to re-boot the computer when I came back. But lo and behold, up popped an install screen. It wanted to install itself at C:/Magix not at C:/Program Files/Magix like it should have. So I "browsed" to C:/Program Files for the install location figuring the program would be smart enough to create it's own Directory - no such luck. It started installing itself right at C:/Program Files. I had to open up the install log it created and then individually deleted the files it had already installed before I aborted the install. So, I created C:/Program Files/Magix for it and restarted the install. And of course, when all was said and done the program worked perfectly - Not. First, I got an error window "File Info Not Found" or something and then the program connected to the internet for me to register it. Got another error window "Program too big for Screen, Continue anyway?" I bravely soldiered on and when I finally got to the program itself after registering it - it was too big for my screen. I can only see about 3/4 of the program. Seems it was written for 1024 x 768 resolution and not the 800 x 600 I have my monitor set to. So to see all of this stupid little program, I have to change how we have used this computer for years. And I haven't got my $20 rebate back to boot.

HTML copied and pasted from Yahoo 360