A while back I posted a story that said Microsoft was giving away free flash drives. There were just a couple of catches, of course -- you had to have a Microsoft Passport account to get one, and they came packed with information on Microsoft licensing. That was two months ago. Has anybody seen their freebie yet? I haven't.I was probably the last person in America who didn't have a Passport account (I must have refused to sign up for a Passport login about 3.5 million times over the years), but "free" finally suckered me in. I actually created a Passport ID just so I could get a free thumb drive.

But I haven't seen it yet. The original story said, "Microsoft said that the drive -- capacity unspecified -- should arrive in 6 to 8 weeks." So it's been almost eight weeks.

When I go to the Mystery Solved Web site named in the story I see this:

Snazzy, huh? Blue and silver. Microsoft logo. So where's mine?

My application looked kosher. I answered the three questions correctly. (It was tough -- you had to crib from the previous page on the site.) But to date, nada.

Has anybody actually received one of these? If you have, let me know what I'm missing.

You Know You're Old When . . . LaserJet Edition
HP released new models in its single most revered product line last week: five new LaserJets. There was a day, kid, when the LaserJet was it -- simply the best, most desirable printer out there. They were blindingly fast, six or eight pages a minute, even if they were horrifically expensive -- I seem to recall a figure of $2,400 or so.

But here's how much times have changed: the new price point for a LaserJet is $129. And the LaserJet 1018 puts out 50 percent more paper -- 12 pages a minute.

(I'm getting so old I don't know which is worse -- I could be wrong about the $2,400 price, which would mean my memory is shot, or I could be right, which would mean I was fililng P.O.s for laser printers before most of you pups were born.)

If I've brought a tear to your tired eye with my memories of LaserJets past, then I've got a treat for you -- you can still buy a completely refurbished LaserJet II (not the kinda swoopy original model, but the boxy next generation) for, get this, a mere $179. Everything old is new again! Even us.