Still crying so much I can hardly type, WW! Second good laugh Ive gotten here tonite, and so far, yours is the definite winner! My first computer was a HP! Thats the one what went to binary-land when it died! I wont say it went to heaven, because it didnt deserve to go to heaven! Just before it died I tried to get hold of HP help on the phone. I spent a half an hour looking online for some way to contact them. I went from screen to screen to screen to........... I finally found a real phone number that said I could call for help with problems. It was NOT a toll free number! I kept looking, but never did find a toll free number, so, in desperation, I decided to use the pay number! At least I figured Id get help! I called! I listened to a long menu, trying to figure out which option to pick! I picked an option and got another long list of options! I picked another one and got another long list of options! TWENTY MINUTES LATER I got to a recording that said it had a phone number I could call for help! I carefully wrote the number downand then I looked at the original number I had written down and called! IT WAS THE SAME NUMBER! I think HP is in cahoots with the phone company, and just keeps people on their non-free number as long as they can so they can get good kickbacks from the phone company! At that point I decided I would NEVER buy another HP productand I havent! At least I didn't have to TRY to talk to somebody in India! I try my darndest to find companies that have English speaking help when you need ittho in this day and age, any help at all is somewhat of a miracle! I read recently that Dell has now outsourced their phone help to India! I sure hope theyre not making you pay to send your problema back to them! I still have, and love, my land line too, WW. When a friend (accidentally) calls me on my cell, I ask them to call back on the land line! Cell phone conversation is just too choppy and unnatural sounding as far as Im concernedespecially if both people are on a celland most of the people I know only use cells! And I do have a wireless phone around here somewhere, but I never got around to hooking it up and "programming" it! Its still in the box! I need to have the cell when Im working, and, I have to admit, Im glad to have it in the car with me when Im out somewhere! It really has become a nice "safety" thing to carry around with me. But a funny story! Almost eight years ago now, when I was still commuting to SFO, I got back to DEN, dead tired and freezing because it was winter here and it wasnt winter in SFO, and I didnt have a coat with me, and when I finally got to my car at the park-and-ride lot, my battery was dead! I tried and tried, and finally gave up and decided Id have to call AAA and wait for themthis was close to midnite! I got out of the car with my purse and headed toward the bus shelter, where I assumed there would be a pay phone when I suddenly realized I had a phone in the purse I was carrying with me! I turned around, got back in my car, locked the door, and called AAA! But you can tell how used to using it I was! I wont ever make that mistake again, but I really dont use the phone much more now than I did back then! I only pay about $20 a month with the corporate discount I get, but I have texting DISABLED! Right after I got a new phone a couple years ago I got a spam text message, and I discovered I had been charged for it! Paying for people to send me junk? I dont think so! Good luck with getting your problema fixed, Skybird

Emma the kind of games you play are not "gamer" games they use very little resources so should not make much of a drain on your system at all so that should not make it run hot. Real gamer games are very intense games with major graphics that stress the video card and the audio is also intense these kinds of games put a very heavy load on various parts of a system which is why you see some computers labeled as gamer computers. These games are games that are often multi player games. War games, like World of Warcraft WOW. the little online games like jewel quest and the word games and stuff like that are not in that type of game level, totally different. AS to the ability to play some of those type games on a Mac if you are playing them as online games in your browser then you likely can, if you have them as installed games on the computer they may or may not make a version for Mac just look it up on the game site.

1st: I would have to agree with what Asolo and Asylum said about the IMac..... for a "regular user" there is nothing better, "it" just works....Or maybe go to Sears Roebuck and get one of their brand new Linux PC's at less than $200(US) BUT......Right at $200(US) Go to: pricewatch(dot)com and click on "Computers PC no OS" since you: >>>> "I do not game, I do not download music, I do not want to watch movies or TV on my computer, I am the only user, only computer in house, I want a desk top." Pick out one of the systems that are less than $170 and increase the installed RAM to 2GB....I would at the least get one with a CDR/RW, but there are always USB CD/DVD drives if you want to stick with the lowest possible price. Now that you have the PC, get a copy of PCLinuxOS, LinuxMint, SimplyMepis7.0, ZenWalk, or VectorLinux or DreamLinux and do the install........If the CD doesn't have all the software you are looking for/want/need, LOL, check out the distro's repository...More than you'll ever know what to do with, and if that's still not enough, there is more than you could possibly imagine available on the WWW. A repository is where a distro maintains all of their compiled specifically to run with that distro software. (Yes geekers I know, but that's the simplest way I know to say it) Your new PC w/Linux will run extremely fast, much faster and with more stability and "robustness" than any MSWin version on the same hardware. Run the OS in RAM and all your MSWin-fan friends will be amazed and jealous of the lightening speed your "budget PC" will outperform their super whiz bang with all the high dollar bells and whistles, maybe even astounded when you offer them a FREE AND LEGAL copy to try on their own machine. Oh yeah, and you don't have to pay the MS or the Apple tax for your Operating System either...And, Linux requires much less high dollar hardware, and I can say this from personal experience.... There is never any need for "Security" software... no scanners, no "Anti-Virus", no registry mechanics, no de-frags, no nothing.....This thing has been running for just a few weeks now w/o being powered down or ever disconnected from the WWW. It is currently running 3 browsers/14windows/44 tabs (I just counted). I have gone as long as 10 months w/o ever shutting down or rebooting or disconnecting from the WWW, and other than an outgoing firewall, I run ABSOLUTELY ZERO "security" software The Linux "learning curve" is, quite honestly, a vastly overblown issue mainly bandied about by people who either: A) sell PC's and know that there is a lot more commission to be made on a $200 OS installed on a high hardware requirement PC than on a "naked" hard-drive PC w/o no need for unnecessary hardware "upgrades" B) that have no idea what they are talking about, or C) can only figure things out when somebody is there to step by step them through virtually every click... If you can figure out "Vista" you can figure out almost any Linux. SimplyMepis7.0 is a 4 click install that your Grandma could figure out how to install, run, modify, and download/install to. But some folks swear that the others mentioned above are just as easy an install, I just prefer SM7 Get a few LiveCD's and try them out, and install the one (or ones) that you like best.... But if you don't mind spending the money, for "Joe and Jane User", an IMac is pretty hard to beat. AMD Sempron 3000+ Computer System; SATA DDR2 PCI-e -MBoard; 2GB DDR-2 Dual Channel RAM; 40Gb Hard Drive; CDr/RW DRIVE; DeltaChrome 3D 256MB Shared Video; 6-Channel Audio; 10/100 Ethernet (LAN); MIDTOWER CASE Assembled & Tested! $210 (US) or, $230 to my door in 3 business days... But then again, there is that $0.1325 per CD for burning an ISO image of each Linux distro you might want to try.....Or you can order them from the vendors advertising on DistroWatch.com for real cheap...like you can get maybe almost 100 complete operating systems and all the included software for the price of JUST ONE COPY OF MSVista! Oh yeah....BTW.... with a Linux OS you are free to copy, modify, trade, sell, give away, install on 3256 separate machines. Ever actually read the MSXP/Vista EULA? You don't actually even own the contents of discs you just paid $200 for. And with Linux you can add/delete/change hardware devices at will and unlike with an MS OS, you won't have to buy a new OS whenever the MS decides that you have made too many changes and need to buy a new OS, as in MSWorld your clicking on "I agree" you agreed to give MS the right to determine the hardware changes make your old PC a new PC,and therefore to disable your system in in its entirety. And your new (or old) PC won't be "phoning home" everyday to report to MS what your software and hardware configuration was yesterday, is today, or what it is tomorrow. Go to your friendly local Barnes and Noble, or Borders bookstore and get a copy of one of the Linux mags, I would suggest "LinuxFormat" and get the multiple OS DVD with the mag and try whatever versions are on the DVD..or CD.... And while you're there, get a copy of "Knoppix Hacks" you get Knoppix5.1.1 with the book. Knioppix, never leave home without it...no kidding... Don't pay any attention to anyone telling you you need even more memory, a big video card or any such bull.....Unless you insist on getting a "MSVista" PC, in which case you need a minimum of 2GB RAM, and a pretty good video card would help too....And don't fall for all ANY talk about buying "Vista Home Basic", if you want a "Vista" that actually works at a speed you can tolerate (with enough hardware resources) you gotta "upgrade" for a whole lot more $$$. And for a whole less than what a free Linux distro will get you, except for a whole lot more money? HAGD! Here is a link that might be useful: OS 's for a new PC

We generally lounge in the living room with the laptop and iPad while watching tv. I take the iPad with me wherever, be it the kitchen for a recipe, up to the library (I know, sounds grand, but it's just a 9x13 bedroom I converted), or outside. They slide under the couch when not in use. We also have a desktop in the office (another converted bedroom, we only need 1 and have 3). DH mostly uses that for things like paying the bills, photo editing since he is really into that and it needs tons of processing capacity, and I use it when I need to print things. Someday I will updat my iPad software so I can print, but I've got other stuff to do. We also have assorted cords for things on every window sill downstairs. I am trying to find a place for a charging station thanks to GW. I would LOVE to get all that stuff organized and tucked away. I think the above suggestion to think about why you gravitate to the current location will help a lot with where to put a computer area in the new space. For me, since I do not currently have a job that requires me to tote a laptop around, it's not a big issue. Plus between residency and traveling to assorted professional meetings I have become pretty good at balancing a computer at just about any angle. Being tied to a set spot with an actual chair to sit upright in feels a bit boring now. I also like to multitasking my time wasting/procrastinating.