Riv...I'm envious. Would I love to play Oblivion. Gaming is a great escape...and we all need that. Life just gets to be too much. Some need to escape more than others...what's new? Back to Starforce. Watch out for those bargin jewel-cased games. Alot of them are Starforced. Two companies that are heavy users are DreamCatcher Interactive and UBI-Soft. UBI held a press conference saying that they are no longer using Starforce...but their Starforced games are still for sale, and some of the games are great games ... don't play em'. DreamCatcher Interactive which is also known as The Adventure Company, uses the junk sporadically on their often stale point and click "Adventure Games". If there ever were a bunch of games that didn't need copy protection, they are in that category, and yet they use the harshest and most punishing copy protection available. I don't know how point and click QVR puzzle and brain teaser games became known as 'Adventure Games' but they are ... even though the majority of them aren't very adventuresome. My review of the game based on the Agatha Christie novel (by DreamCatcher's The Adventure Company) "And Then There Were None" was that no one was left because every one was bored to death. It was just awful. Just because a game can be downloaded from the internet doesn't mean it is Starforce free. Several games available from internet download are Starforced...always check the list. Yeah...gaming is worth the hassle. marf

I have a stereo in the kitchen, but it's mostly for listening to Christmas music while I'm doing the Christmas baking. Kat, I bought that Andrea Bocelli CD for the boss for Christmas, she loves it. You might find me listening to darned near anything, depending on my mood. Right now I have five CDs in the stereo: The Beach Boys Charo (thanks, beanthere, I still like that CD!) Norah Jones "The Fall" Ravel's "Four Seasons" The London Symphony Orchesta and Beverly Sills "the Barber of Seville" OK, so the last one is Elery's, he grew up listening to opera in the Italian grocery where he worked as a kid and he loves it. Tomorrow it might be The Everly Brothers, Kenny G, Willie Nelson, Journey and Beethoven, you never know. Neither do I.... I listen to nearly anything except rap or really loud "headbanging" stuff, that gives me a headache. Oh, and Lady Gaga's latest thing, Ashley loves it, I can't stand it. Annie

I think we have been jumping back and forth between specifics of my particular post and questions posted in general. I don't have enough experience in this computer forum to really add anything to any general discussion beyond my own personal, very minor experiences, so I will go back to the specifics of my post and my own situation. In the past, when I was a Windows PC user, I was an intermittent visitor to a number of computer forums, not this one very often, because of low traffic here, but all the forums had very friendly people who were generous with their time and expertise and seemed happy to help. Since switching to an Apple computer, I have barely stepped foot in a computer forum. I have not needed to. My laptop just works 90% of the time and when it doesn't, I have a 3 yr tech support policy in place. Something I've had with every computer I've ever had since I first started getting on the computer in 1995. It has been a big relief, because maintaining a computer and straightening out technical problems even with help was a very frustrating task that I never enjoyed. It always felt like a 'big black hole' of wasted time when some issue would present itself. Even with an 'expert' to help figure it out, you'd never know how many hours you'd have to take away from whatever task you were trying to do, to stop and figure out why the computer wasn't responding right, 'again'. Or how many days your computer would not be working. Even with a tech support policy, I might call and get the wrong information and no fix with two techs, and have to call back again and then a third tech might know just what the problem was and fixed it in about 10 minutes. So, even though I was less technically literate, it seemed like even among the technically literate, there were a lot of people who seemed as confused as I was. I always tried to understand what I needed to know. Always tried to find out what I could do using the computer that would be preventative and avoid problems. It didn’t seem to matter, tech problems always seemed to present themselves regardless. So again, I can’t even express how relieved I’ve been not to have that experience with my computer any more. My husband has a windows based computer with Vista on it and I don’t even want to touch it. Which brings me to my thread that seems to have triggered this discussion. I wasn’t even asking for help with a problem with my computer. I had already been working with my own situation for 3 days and taken steps to resolve it not only with GW but with my own Apple tech support. I was not satisfied with the responses or information that I was getting from either about whether this ‘downloaded file’ was a problem or not. That was why I posted here. And from the information that ravencajun offered, it would seem that I had reason to remain concerned about the ‘possibility’ that it could be a problem and one I wanted to take steps to avoid in the future. Even if the file that was downloaded onto my computer was not a problem, it might have been. So, what was it about my thread that has caused a negative response? What did I do or say that was wrong? I’m still here defending my thread, why? Have I even done any of the things that some of you are expressing you have a problem with? I was very appreciative for the help ravencajun gave me and I even tried to smooth over my initial response to Mike, even though I still think he was wrong in both content and attitude in his response to me, I was more than willing to give him a break and overlook it. At this point, I am at a loss to understand how what seemed like a simple question has resulted in my feeling like I have to defend myself for asking it and now defending all people who come to forums and ask questions. That doesn't seem right to me.

Beautiful sentiments New Dawn! Thank you so much. Rose, thanks for sharing the story & for your continued positive thoughts. Peggy is home! She was discharged yesterday afternoon, got home around 4:00. She is very, very happy to be in her own house again. We visited Saturday, Sunday, & Monday. Monday's visit was at her house. When we arrived, a guy was just finishing setting up an oxygen tank for her, making sure she had plenty of length to her tube so she could walk the distance of most of the first floor. Shortly after the guy left, her dh & my dh went out to get a prescription filled and picked up a few groceries. I was glad that we were there so Peggy wasn't alone right away when her dh went out to the store. Don't know how long she'll be on oxygen, but the doc is saying a week or two right now. I'm sure they'll be playing it by ear. I think she is most concerned about her lung. With time I truly believe she will adapt to this though. Our niece & her dh will be over to bring Peggy dinner tonight. They both cook very well, and my nephew loves to cook. He was thinking days ago about all the things he wants to fix for them. Tonight will be enchiladas. I told him he must bake some of his famous lemon squares for them at some point. They are out of this world! The home care nurse, Nan, will be over today too, & Peggy's dh be home, so she will be well-attended to today. Recovery is off to a good start.