Thank you, both, Chris and goldie, for those suggestions. To enhance my experience, my optical drive has given up the ghost, so I had to order an external one that should be delivered tomorrow. The cd goes in and just pretty much sits there, won't load. There isn't anything wrong with it, unless it's the shiny surface of the labeled side that prevents the drive from grasping it in order to spin up and read it.
So, this afternoon, I went to the computer lab in the library and they wouldn't let me open the software on the school computer. Go figure. It's the textbook and required software for a computer course and they won't let me use the computer lab to do my work. The IT people have to approve this. They're worried about viruses.
The textbook has been used for the last 3 years, but they looked at me like I'd just beamed down from a star cruiser when I explained that I just wanted to use the school's computer to do coursework.
So after all these computer olympics, tonight I just feel vanquished. Think I'll read some old science fiction. I was reading Ringworld by Larry Niven but I got bored after about 50 pages. Think I'll take it to the free neighborhood library and let someone else have at it.