It's the year 2002 and my, how much has changed. The world is more computerized and networked-no surprises there. I am surprised, however, that Microsoft is still standing. I didn't think they'd make it through all those lawsuits and investigations. Half of MS's revenue went to lawyers-the shareholders weren't too happy about that one. After the Dept. of Justice's investigation and a joint suit by 48 states (Hawaii and Washington didn't seem to care) I didn't think they were going to make it. More lawsuits followed; almost everyone and their dog had a bone to pick with MS. Even some charities were going at it, protesting that they weren't receiving as much donations as other charities-unfair competition in the philanthropic market, they say.

Microsoft's doings are everywhere now; it's hard to imagine what it would be like if they lost. Nowadays you'd be hard-pressed to find *any* computer that *wasn't* a Windows machine. Even Apple ships their computers with a version of Windows now. But the OS is the most pervasive in the form of Windows CE, which is embedded in everything from toasters to parking meters. I have to make sure that the system clock in my digital versatile shoes (DVS) is running properly, otherwise it's out of synch with the rest of my clothes. I tried to overclock my shoes once and I kept tripping all day.

What's more superfluous than that is the fact that every peripheral for my computer has it's own operating system! I'm not sure why exactly; it seems to do more harm than any good. I hate it when my mouse crashes whenever I'm working on something. I have to press the little restart button on the side and wait a whole 5 seconds. That might not seem like a lot but you see my mouse is still in beta. When the system becomes unstable sometimes it freezes the keyboard so I can't even save my work before I reboot! The little screen on the keyboard says, "Your keyboard is shutting down, please wait." Either that or I get the dreaded blue LED of death.

There isn't much I can do about all that. Sure, there are alternatives but none of them are Windows-compatible so it's pointless. And I can't even use good old-fashion peripherals that don't have their own OS's because Windows tells me I have to reboot them when I plug them in. However, I do use Walix, which is a version of Linux used for wallets, because Windows for Walletsr wastes too many resources, which is especially bad for a wallet, and it's inefficient when using more than one type of currency. Other than that I must conform to this Windows world. There's no escaping Microsoft; it's too late.