Get a dog if you have Vista

Barack Obama, president elect of the US, began his acceptance speech by saying that he was going to get a puppy for his two girls to have as they moved to the White House. He, I guess, meant it as a reward for his children on his success. I think he also meant that he would have more help in the White House so he could afford to have a dog.

Dogs are high maintenance pets. You need the time to re-arrange your life if you have a dog. There is a new product available on the market that can help you to rearrange your life and generate those extra minutes that you never knew you had. The advantage is that if you had this product, if will also raise your stress levels and having a dog will not only use that spare time but help you reduce those stress levels.

Thus, I think the other reason why Obama is getting a dog, that not many people know, is that he will also be getting a new pc when he moves into the White House. And that pc is going to come, loaded, with the new operating system from Microsoft, Windows Vista.

The reason I am able to make these perceptive connections is that I have a new Notebook that came loaded with Windows Vista operating system. And having a dog has been a lot on my mind. You see, if you had a dog, you would need to play with it and take it out for walks, etc. That requires finding some minutes to spare in between various daily activities. Now if you have Vista, you would find several such minutes in between your activities, since the amount of time it takes for the system to load, the amount of time it takes to ‘Switch Users’, the amount of time it takes to put it to ‘Sleep’ and the time it provides you to wonder if the system has shut down or just some program is loading, etc., gives you those minutes you need to take the dog for a walk, to give it a bath, to give its food, and so on. Of course, if you did not have a dog, you could use the time to make a cup of coffee (or tea, if that is your pleasure), to polish those shoes that you have been putting off for a long time, to dust those (real) windows, etc.

I was skeptical of this Vista business even when I purchased this machine. Various news reports warned me about it. Even this Fujitsu Notebook machine was sold with the older Windows XP till June this year, but I procrastinated and bought it in August. So it came loaded with Vista. Too bad.

But wait a minute! What do I find in the box that the machine came in? A disk that will allow me to downgrade to an XP! Microsoft, collaborating with Fujitsu, have thoughtfully provided me with a way to switch to the older system. (Bharadwaj wants me to perform the switch sooner than later so it does not mess with other files that I may be storing. But I worry if I am going to mess up anyway and have been procrastinating.) But let us reflect on the market power of a company that knows that it has put out a dud product, and gives people a way to switch to a product that it thinks it has improved upon! Wow! And this company makes profits, and has not collapsed like all those dud banks have been in the recent past.

Now Dasharath, who wanted a dog when he was young (and was refused by me since I did not want to do all the work that it takes to keep a dog), still cannot use my reasoning above as an opportunity to get a dog, because he has a Mac, whose operating system responds much faster to his needs and therefore does not provide him with those precious minutes to perform various dog related tasks.

Let's shift to a simpler life

Paul Theroux, the US-based travel writer, was on television the other day talking about his new book, the ‘Ghost Train to the Eastern Star.’ This recounts his travels through Eastern Europe, Central Asia, India, China and so on. I look forward to reading the book. But his response to the interviewer intrigued me.

He was asked why and how he chose the countries he visited. Theroux answered that he was attracted to a simpler life that he saw in these countries. Perhaps some of the residents of these countries would strongly object to that characterization, but his comment does strike a chord in me. I mean the simpler life and not necessarily those countries.

Take a look at Bharadwaj’s travels that are recounted in his blog (see link 'Blogabout' in My Blog List alongside). He describes how he walks about most places that he visits. He stays in hostels that have very basic accommodation. He buys provisions in most places and makes a meal in their kitchen. He does not stay in one place long enough to brew the alcohol that he consumes in the local bars, but I suspect he would if he got the chance. He lives off a huge backpack that I saw him pack. It has a few basic necessities, including modern ones that go beyond not just bark and twigs, and include an iPod, a lap top, a cellphone, and a high end camera, and all the accompanying chargers and wires.

Let’s switch channels. The media is full of reports about the current financial crisis. Banks are failing. The stock market does not know whether to fall or rise. I don’t need to read the media reports to get depressed. I only need to open the statement of my retirement funds to know that they have lost over 35% of their value just over the last six months. So leading a simpler life is not going to be one of choice but something that may just as well be forced on me. After all, if one wants the savings to last a long time, one has to live simply. Perhaps I should ask Bharadwaj to leave his backpack to me.

I just turned on the TV as I was writing this. There is a program on titled ‘I want that!’ and the information about the program describes it as the ‘latest, greatest, and most-modern must haves for living and home restoration..’

Clearly, my desire to shift to a simpler life style is not going to be easy.