I got a new laptop last week. I have two working laptops at any one time. Laptop #1 for daily use and Laptop #2 to use as an immediate back-up when Laptop #1 dies. Since I work so many hours each day, and since I work with such large files, I need a new laptop about every year and a half to two years.

I back-up my data daily, just in case. I learned that the hard way many years ago.

I have lots of software programs, which are required for what I do (publishing). I don’t buy software updates every time an upgrade comes out because, if it’s working just fine for me, why pay hundreds to thousands more per year for something I don’t need? I think it’s a huge conspiracy anyway. And, whenever I do get an upgrade, seems something always go awry anyway.

So, on Saturday night, I started the hours-long process of loading my software onto my new laptop. Adobe Acrobat 8.0, which I bought just a year or so ago, won’t work on a new computer until after you’ve deactivated it on your old computer.

But, when I attempted to deactivate it on Laptop #2, it wouldn’t work. When I clicked to deactivate, the word “deactivate” was gray, not black, and I couldn’t click on it. Without being able to do that, I couldn’t use Acrobat on my new computer. I researched it online and, without getting into all the technical, boring details, I had to buy another entirely new version of Adobe Acrobat (version 9.0 – $450!!) even though my old version was perfectly fine for my needs. I was FURIOUS, to say the least.

Then, I popped in my Adobe Photoshop disk. It has no scratches at all but no computer can read the disk any longer. Can software companies put a self-destruct timer in software? Can a CD just stop working after a specific period of time? My Photoshop was pretty old but, again, it did everything I needed it to do so why should I have to pay for another copy? Guess how much a new version of Photoshop costs? $700!!

We got smart with this one. You can find never-used, older versions of software on ebay.com. So, we ordered a copy of an older version there for $149.00.

Now, I’m dealing with a new keyboard, which is perhaps the most painful part of a new laptop transition. When I want to page up, I turn on the number locks instead. When I want to delete something, I page up instead. When I want to go “home” on a document, I move to the left. Aaarghh!!! I’ll get used to it over the next few weeks but I truly feel like I’m typing with two left hands right now…

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