Geeks and techies – grab a cup of coffee and enjoy 10 minutes of nostalgia and blue installation screens:

The surprising fact, however, is that according to Chitika Research, about 50% of iPad owners have a Windows computer in their home.

Chitika checked the IP addresses of iPads that used the Chitika network and searched out what other devices came from the same addresses. They limited the results to IP addresses with 5 or less devices seen. The results are based on a sample of over 74 thousand iPads.

Does this mean more Windows users are willing to give Apple a chance, or is this true just when it comes to sexy products like the iPad? And what will happen when Windows-based tablets start appearing in the market?

In the mean time, Apple’s stocks continue to rise, after an impressive quarterly report, and the story about the “lost” iPhone prototype continues to attract interest. The headlines are all Apple these days – and I guess they’ll continue to be this way for a while.

It seems that Windows 7 is a bit too new to gamble on, when it comes to huge systems and networks. Vista is, of course, out of the question – which leaves us with the good old, steady XP.

Only a few of the computers had glitches and problems. The most dramatic incident was when one of the workers in the Olympics jumped up to cheer, and spilled soup on her laptop, which miraculously survived. Acer, the computer company that delivered all those machines to the Winter Olympics, said they offered to replace the laptop, but the worker decided to stick with it.

It looks like XP is going to survive just a little bit longer, even though Microsoft is doing everything they can to kill it. XP is a very compelling operating system -  it’s stable, easy to configure and a lot of people are refusing to part with it until Windows 7 proves itself.

Not a word about Vista. It never really happened, you know. Just a bad dream.

According to a report by NPD group, U.S. retail operating systems boxed software revenue increased 35% in 2009. Other software creators weren’t so successful: overall non-games software revenue has dropped by 7% in 2009 to $2.4 billion.

Operating systems (such as Windows 7 and Snow Leopard) was the only category to post both a revenue and unit increase over 2008.  With new operating system releases from both Microsoft and Apple in the back half of the year sales traffic, volume, and interest in boxed software were at very high levels.  Both OS releases showed record sales.

MS Office Home and Student delivered strong sales volumes during both the back-to-school and holiday periods because of an aggressive price promotion. Apple’s iWork 2009 also saw strong unit volume growth as average prices declined more than 15% on the single-user version.

Just a reminder: if you don’t want to pay for your operating system, there are plenty of free alternatives out there, especially Linux-based.

Do you miss Windows 3.1? Probably not. To put it mildly, it wasn’t the best OS around in its time, and we were all happy to move along to Windows 95 when it came out.

Still, if you are having a strange fit of nostalgia, you can enjoy (???) Windows 3.1 again – free of charge and online.You can even play Minesweeper if you are really bored. Try the Internet Browser – it’s a real hoot

One thing bothers me, though – this online version of Windows 3.1 works very fast and doesn’t crash! A bit too much artistic freedom, if you ask me.

Have fun.