RE: bad excuse but inquiry

[Bill Troop billtroop@xxxxxxxx]

Mimi and everyone else, re VPC 7 from MS. It will be available very soon if
it isn't already. I tried a late beta on an oldish dual G4-450Mhz machine
and found it too slow. However, it should work well on contemporary
machines and, in any case, even a late beta is likely to have all kinds of
debugging code which drags down performance.
VPC 7 runs XP. I imagine there's some way to get it to run just DOS, and
that would really speed things up. I will know more about this, but not
immediately.
Strangely, at just this moment, my primary Mac hard drive has failed to the
extent that the latest Norton Disk Doctor can't scan it.
TO ONE AND ALL, I recommend a scenario that has saved my sanity for years:
HAVE TWO WORKING, MORE OR LESS CONTEMPORARY COMPUTERS, and have all
important data on both.
This is really easy with Mac OS 10.3 and Win XP since they connect out of
the box.
I choose to implement the dual computer scenario by always having a Mac
desktop and a PC laptop. I always choose Dell laptops because, at the top
range, they seem to offer features that cost nearly twice as much from
other vendors.
I never get a new computer without getting a more or less unconditional
three year on-site warranty. That does not necessarily help you out of all
trouble, and won't necessarily work the way you expect it to, but it is
better than the alternatives, especially with a laptop. Re laptops, I have
noticed that they seem to last forever if you never take them anywhere, but
I take mine around quite a bit, and the stress of being hauled and mauled
always tells in the end.
I like to have Mac and Windows on separate computers because that gives me
access to nearly everything that's going on and because I really don't find
it difficult to switch. To most people, however, that is likely to be
confusing.
One other thing - if you happen to get liquid on your machine, don't try to
turn it on. Let it dry. You may be surprised how well it works after a day
or two. But if you try to run it while it is wet, you are likely to short
it out in an unfixable way. I once had someone who could fix a shorted-out
board, but that isn't generally possible anymore.