My memory is shaky on this, but I believe quite a large number of machines with OEM Vista licenses shipped with XP installed, via downgrade rights. I know the organizations I was working with at the time bought quite a few HP machines configured this way. MS kept extending XP's availability in this way, somewhat masking the almost complete lack of interest in Vista for corporate clients.

What failed to happen was a mass migration to Vista by corporations. They mostly just waited for Win 7.

Best of luck, Rob.

Any more red meat like this in the submission queue?

If this works well, I have a bunch of use for this. Thank you for the heads-up.

I believe the concept of "pre-existing condition" only comes into play when changing providers. Since her diagnosis occurred with our current provider, she's covered for that diagnosis (she still gets regular (and expensive) screenings) as well as future health issues. Also, disability insurance should be considered in addition to health insurance. It isn't horribly expensive and the younger you start the policy, the less expensive it will be.

I got an individual plan from the same provider that my company had been with. It was really pretty simple. Not cheap, but simple.

I'm damned glad that I did, too. My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple of years later (she's fine now). We would have been wiped out if not for insurance.

I'm still running a Pentium Pro 200 as my firewall. It just keeps chugging along.

It's sitting next to an IBM 5150 that I just can't bear to throw out. It still runs. I have Minix on it.

Green laser pointer day at the ballpark will be a huge success.

And I'm saying reinforcing the false concept that success requires "hard" work will only net you a kid who works on a construction crew.

Because you need to keep your children away from the trades at all costs. That could never be a good outcome.