Having trouble with a 16GB C4 SD card. Does anyone know if it's compatible with XP? Can't seem to be able to read it?

I have been using computers since 1975; my first micro was the Commodore 64, which was also the last computer I really understood completely in the sense of having practically memorized the entire kernel. I’ve owned three Amigas, four Macs, and five PCs (several of which I installed Linux on) since then, and I have had programming environments set up for most of those, writing in Pascal, C, C++, Forth, and several other languages. More recently, I have not needed to do programming, especially as the ever-changing Windows API is quite a chore to keep up with as a casual programmer.

The point is, I’ve had lots of experience with quite a few operating systems. My current computer, a Dell Inspiron 1525 running Vista, has worked well for four and a half years, but started to make some faint skritchy noises that in my experience presage hard drive failure. So I quickly made sure my backups were complete, and started to shop for a new laptop.

I looked longingly at the current Macs, but decided I really didn’t want to spend that much, as well as having some legacy software that doesn’t come in Mac versions. So my choice, in mid November, was between a Win7 and a Win8 laptop. I am sorry to say I did not do much research.

My habit has been to upgrade pretty frequently, having owned (after switching from Mac) Win 98, ME, XP, and Vista machines. I’ve been happy with Vista in spite of lots of negative opinions out there. But now I thought I would skip one generation, so my Win8 machine would seem fresher longer.

I looked at the funny tiles of the Win8 Start screen, thought they looked interesting, and with my background was sure that upgrading would present minimal problems and little time. Bought a Win8 HP from Office Depot. Took it home and before installing all my existing software, started to play around with the so-called Metro apps on the tiles.

Right away, I found myself disappointed. OK, here is an app called Travel, it is showing me an article on Tuscany, but I do not know why it shows up first, or who selected it. There is no table of contents.

There is no identification of who wrote this or what their qualifications to do so are. Is this from a magazine? Am I supposed to trust this unsourced information?

OK, I see you can delete apps, so away it goes. Same objection, only much stronger. Where is this news coming from?

I know what news sources I trust, and which I do not. I can use a web browser to go right where I want and see a list of current stories I can select from. Here, clicking on this tile takes me to a story (selected how?

And by whom?) with no byline, and no indication of where it comes from. I can click and drag to the next story, but it too is randomly selected, no table of contents, no sections… is this a way anyone on Earth reads the news? At this point, the pattern is already clear, so I know I can safely delete Sports as well.

I did not buy this computer to play games on, but by now I’d like to at least do something familiar and pleasant on this new machine, so let’s see if we can find a solitaire game. Here’s a tile called Xbox Games. I find that confusing, because I thought Xbox referred to a toy (although I’ve had no occasion to use or even see one).

But I guess Microsoft is now using the word to refer to a service as well as a piece of hardware, which is their prerogative, I suppose. I launch this, and immediately am admonished that I am not signed in to my account. I need an account to play a game of solitaire?

Well, my anger is rising, but I have bought this computer, and want to get the most out of it. So, I click ‘create account’ and start to fill in fields – my date of birth? I only give that to financial institutions, where I have financial accounts.

Date of birth is a prime piece of information for identity theft, there is no way I am entering that here. So, I leave this for the time being. Over the next several days, in exploring other Metro apps on the Start screen, it becomes apparent that to do much of anything, I need to be signed into my ‘account’.

(It never says what this account is; it’s just my ‘account’) A pattern is becoming clear, this seems to be Microsoft’s attempt to rope me into an ongoing relationship with them aside from my having bought yet another version of their flagship product. It finally occurs to me that I can go ahead with exploring these services by providing a false birth date. So I go back and finish creating an account, For the last time?