In February 2007 I prepared two Vaio laptops for an overseas trip, one brand new and the other almost 5 years old. I was installing a C-Pen that looks like an electric toothbrush but scans text in several languages. It came originally, a couple of years ago, with a serial cable and I had to buy a cheap USB-to-RS-232 converter.

Following the instructions from the so called user manual led nowhere, neither did the later version of the driver found from the net. When I finally checked the contents of the CD, there it was - the Windows XP driver tucked away in its own directory. A couple of restarts later the C-Pen was connecting and able to transfer its payload to the new laptop. The moral of the story: Do not trust cheap USB instruction manuals.

Then I installed a Belkin Wireless 802.11g USB Network Adapter to the little old Vaio. After numerous attempts to get WPA working between the Belkin antenna and my el-cheapo wireless router, I had to downgrade our home WLAN security to WEP. When my 9 year old son saw the receiver antenna dangling at the end of a 1 meter USB cable, he said: "Doh, I thought I was going to get a wireless..." Hmm. I ended up installing a plain old 802.11g card bus adapter, with the added bonus that when he is on the net, he cannot play Age Of Mythology online with his mates because the wireless now occupies the only PC card slot in the tiny Vaio, he he.