If mine I'd put the battery in, hook the ac adapter up. Turn it on. Explore things. I would maybe instantly make the Restore DVD's before I did anything else then next from Control Panels, Back Up and Restore.... on the left margin make a Image file to DVD's. So I could quickly put it back in 'out of the box' shape... should I need to some day. Maybe hold off starting lots of things.. look in Control Panel, Program & features. Kind of compare what is installed for programs to the Icons on the desktop. Some of the junk items will not be installed until you start them up the first time. Lots will be TrialWare programs that usually come with new computers that will Want money in the months to come. You can decide if you want the AntiVirus program that came with it... and some of the other programs probably too before running them.. Sure is lots cleaner to get rid of them if never installed to begin with.

I have no desire to carry a computer around with me, and so I'm content with desktop. I also have two desktops - one with XP and one with Vista. I've had the XP one since 2000, and it originally had Windows 98. It does everything I want except video editing, and so the second computer is dedicated to that, but I seldom use it. I have Google Earth and Sketchup on the new computer as well, but I cannot print from it because there is no driver for Vista for my laser printer, and the printer is not that old. I'm using an Okidata color laser printer that is on our home network. I've thought about getting a laptop so that I could put my Astrology software on it and rent myself out for parties, doing astro readings, but now that I'm working full time again, I don't have time for that. I've also thought about getting an iMac, but I really don't need it. For my birthday, I bought myself a new 22" flat screen monitor, which I found at a Circuit City going out of business sale for $200. I had to recycle my old CRT, which worked fine, but was way too bulky. I felt bad about getting rid of it because it worked fine and a 19" screen, which was big enough, I think. Last month DB and I upgraded our bedroom TVs to LCDs (32" Sharp), and so we ended up with two TVs to recycle that also worked fine. I kept my large old TV in the garage, and we took my old CRT and Kevin's old TV to the recycling center, where we learned that we could recycle only two CRTs per year, and we've met our quota for the year now. So I guess the other TV will stay in the garage for a while. I might hook a DVD player up to it. Lars

How about trying another site that offers the New York Times Crossword and see if it will print for you. The Seattle Times also offers the New York Times Crossword by Will Shortz, the same fellow who does them on your Arkansas paper. On the Seattle Times page, click on the printer icon. On the next "page" select "puzzle with blank diagram" (it may already be selected). Click "OK" The puzzle should appear. Click on the printer icon. If the puzzle doesn't appear, then you probably don't have a PDF viewer installed on your computer. It's worth a try, however, especially if it works for you. Let us know. Here is a link that might be useful: New York Times Crossword

Notebook used to refer to a laptop under 10 lbs. The term netbook is used for the small screen less powerful ones gaining popularity because of lighter portability. Mac is short for MacIntosh computers - both desktop and laptop. A year ago I bought my 1st laptop. I read the big box store ads every Sunday and googled the ones in my price range for specs, reviews and anything else I could learn. I decided I wanted a 15" screen, 2 GHz speed & Core 2 Duo processor, 3 Gb RAM (can upgrade to 4 Mb), B thru N WiFi (N wasn't available in my price range), ordinary graphics (don't game so didn't want to pay for a dedicated card), DVD read/write. Didn't care about a webcam but they all had them. Would have liked a SATA drive (over my price range). Today I could buy my laptop for 1/3 less. You have to start the comparison shopping task after you decide what is important for your needs. Spend some time at the stores and take notes. Unfortunately even salespeople can pass along faulty info. I had decided on a Toshiba and ended up with an Acer Aspire and it has good sound quality which I had neglected to consider. Got lucky. A friend got an Asus with a SATA drive and loves it. A little over $1000. Lucky you ~ you'll get Windows 7 instead of Vista unless you buy a Mac.