I have never experienced Black Friday although thru my Aunt who was a buyer for a big department store, i know how meaningful that day is! My kids grew up on military posts and the biggest "I want-need-want that!" years were overseas with little commercial influence. Now I am a grandparent (x5) and Oh, how different and fun this all is not being the Santa Claus! And this year I did lots of BF buying over the net....sales plus free shipping! I even have my new artificial tree up tho not decorated. Now, this artificial tree is almost a crime for me who delegated Hubby in charge of bringing in the fresh tree and to decorate it--on Christmas Eve! What a wonderful mad rush that all was! I think all my outdoor gardening has made this rather heartless transition to pretty but plastic easier and my bad-back guy just brought in a bottle of cedar spray to ease the tension of this less-mess "new". Guess we are getting delegated to the sidelines now, but still having great fun and have great memories.

Not in my opinion. Even after the upgrades those are really limiting specs. Further, none of the operating systems you mentioned are being supported by Microsoft anymore, and newer ones can't run on that machine. You're talking about approximately $150 in parts, plus the labor to install, and, after the upgrades, something else could fail. You could take that money, add about $130 to it, and get a brand new HP or Acer netbook that will be up-to-date, run well, and last you much longer than that Thinkpad. I hate to get rid of a device when it still works, and that was a great laptop 10 years ago, but with some stuff you finally have to pull the plug.

Unfortunately, lost the receipt and warranty work requires it. However, I did revive it by forcing the read head back to the outer edge of the disc. While it was off, I just moved the head back--it seemed stuck in the center. I wouldn't do this on something that I didn't think was a lost cause anyway, and it just happened to work (for now). I guess the stepper motor was frozen up. We'll see how long it lasts now.

Insignia is made in china, I wouldnt recommend it. They and several of the other chinese brands are hit/miss on the quality level. I would recommend Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, or Panasonic. I have linked a panasonic on ebay (I bought the same one from this seller) that is a pretty good deal, orignal MSRP was $599. The screen is 5" but very clear and bright, I use mine on travel all the time. Here is a link that might be useful: Panasonic LV65 DVD Player