A floppy. What's a floppy? I never bothered with floppy disks, as they have always been too unstable. Went from Zips to CD's. With CD's just costing pennies, there is no point in using anything else. Since my mom is basically starting out fresh, I was just going to find a computer with USB and ethernet ports. Do you know that the wire they now use to wire your house and phone jacks is the same cable as ethernet cat5 wire? That just tells me go with ethernet as much as possible. You can buy serial/parallel to USB or ethernet adapters. Hey Ki, if your printer is relatively new it should have both serial and ethernet or USB ports. Mine does anyway and it's at least 2 years old. Dottie, have you tried updating your drivers? It's insane you've had to replace everything. Laura

What a nerve he had to give away something that didn't belong to him--but maybe he had forgotten that it didn't. Do it, Red, get that new player! Although this thread is about a kind of frustration a lot of us feel, how funny it has turned out to be! Glass: I think maybe most men don't move things or look behind them when searching. If only I could get paid for every time DH called me away from what I was doing because he couldn't find something! Of course, I call out to him where to look for it, but then I hear nothing more, so I call again, and he replies that it isn't there. Then I have to get up and find it for him. Sometimes (I love these times!) it is right there in plain sight, so I can take one look and say, "It's going to bite you!" However, I also get a degree of satisfaction when I can "find" it by just moving one or two things. Since DH is Japanese, I used to think that he was just a "mendoksagari-ya," a person who hates bother, and that maybe it was a Japanese men's trait, but many conversations with American friends have taught me otherwise. LOL Not going to trade DH in, though. He's too understanding about my quilting, and really a great hubby in most ways.

ok you guys - i'm techno challenged these days too. so sad since I was in the early wave of those having a computer (early 80s) and took computer programming and worked on computers. I have no idea what WIFI is - or how to get it - or why. about the same with blueray - I figure that is the new wave of DVD players. what the dif is I have no idea. I still use a vcr. It isn't working anymore I think (still at old place). It has a dvd player also. need to bring that over. when one of my old tvs goes I'll be getting a new flat screen and look forward to it except for the cost. I hate that I can't move these old monsters to even clean under/around them. I think a 27" will be big enough for me. I do watch tv a lot - when I'm down - which is often thruout the day. a lot of old westerns, hgtv, church channels and news. seldom watch the network type shows. have no idea what is even on those anymore. Last I watched was Monk. Glad to know VIZIO is a good TV. I've seen those in ads. so, what is WIFI and blueray and why would I want them? shades - you can 'frame' it by making a 3 sided 'box' for it. Just a shallow box since they aren't 'deep' anymore. Then just slip the 'box' over it. Make the opening in front to the size of the screen. You might put a strip of wood across the front bottom so you have 4 sides to glue some decorative trimwork to. The backside can be wide open, no 'frame' part to it. Think of a shoe box with part of the bottom cut out leaving an 'edge' all around it. It has sides and an open 'back' (where the lid goes on one). Like a shadow box. You don't need the bottom part to the box if you're setting the tv on a cabinet, chest or table. you could also mosaic the front edges! you could maybe even velcro the trimwork on so you could change it easily if you want to.

Teresse, my kitchen TV was a gift. It's a Samsung 22", which, according to the giver's A/V specialist, is the most reliable. And it's black. Black as coal, black as night, paint it black black. The frame is actually dark red, but for all intents and purposes it's sun blotted out from the sky black. Sigh. It makes the little black induction top look positively cheery with its light circles. I've gotten used to the black hole in the center of the room. There's a cure!! Get a skin! Skinit.com has lots of cook laptop skins you could cut out and adapt, plus you can make custom ones, including wall sized. Or you might find some of the same vinyl in white at a craft supply. Use a craft knife to cut it to size. Make a paper template for the base so that you can get the curves right and cut one for that too. Most of the uprights are clear. My mother wallpapered a TV in the early '80's. They didn't have almond, and she wasn't having black. I still have it. The wallpaper still looks good. :) A skin will stick well on the new kind of flat TV, and it won't wreck the surface of the plastic.