I guess some people still don't get it that analog TV is gone

[Jeffhs]

I can notice the difference between analog and digital even on my 10-year-old RCA XL-100 CTC-185 19" TV, and without a box (I have Time-Warner's lowest-priced tier of cable service, broadcast channels only converted from ATSC to NTSC at the headend; for other programming, such as my favorite '70s shows that they don't even show on TV Land anymore, I have DVDs and VHS tapes). The picture is much sharper and clearer, I swear, than it was with analog, and there is no ghosting, snow or other interference most of the time. Certainly, there are the occasional system outages and glitches, but for the most part the reception is as good as or better than analog ever was.

As to computers and changing operating systems, I am still running Windows 98SE on a ten-year-old IBM Aptiva 595, 600 MHz processor, 128mb RAM. This system still does everything I need a computer to do, no more and no less; at this point I am in no hurry to upgrade, even to open-source Linux Ubuntu or to Windows XP, although I have a system disk with the latter already on it (downloaded it from a P2P site several years ago). I am not really crazy anyway about migrating all my application programs (word processor, Winamp, etc.) to another OS; for one thing, I am presently writing a story, with some 700 pages currently backed up on CD-R (in *.lwp format), using Lotus word-processing software (the word processor that was bundled with my computer when I bought it ten years ago); I don't know if I could find another word processor capable of reading files made on such an ancient one as mine. I do not relish the idea of having to rewrite the entire story from scratch so that a new system could read it. If Linux Ubuntu or Win XP were capable of running Lotus version 9.0 (the version I have), I'd consider upgrading to one or the other (I'd probably opt for Linux Ubuntu since it is open-source software under the General Public License, or GPL), but if not....well, then I'll stick with my Lotus word processor and this ancient IBM Aptiva 595. If the day ever comes when I need Windows 7, Linux, or Ubuntu to use my Winamp media player or even to go online (including email), then I will upgrade, but not one second before. I am not against new technology, but I do believe in the adage "if it (isn't broken), don't fix it." As another poster mentioned earlier in the thread, today's cell phones (for example) probably do take a very long time just to set up before you can make your first call, let alone use the thing on the Internet or anywhere in cyberspace. Even smaller cell phones, such as my LG C-1500 I purchased from Cingular Wireless (now AT&T) about five years ago, have features on them that probably go unused by most people. I have never once used the Internet capability of my C-1500, which has a built-in WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) browser to allow the use of the Internet, have used text messaging only once, about three years ago (in an attempt to stop an unwanted subscription to a ringtone service that was supposed to be free, but for which I kept getting charged $10 a month until I finally called AT&T Wireless and informed them of the problem), and generally have ignored most of the other features of the phone related to online activity. My telephone bill is high enough as it is with home phone, cell phone and DSL charges, without adding data usage charges besides. I almost never use my cell phone anyway, except for emergencies, and I certainly do not need 24/7, anywhere access to the Internet or to my e-mail.