I read chapter 1 in Hermanns, Holger. Interactive Markov Chains: And the Quest for Quantified Quality (Berlin: Springer, 2002). This statistics book describes a method for modeling the performance of complex systems in particular this could apply to computer systems.

I was able to download a copy of Windows XP professional with SP1 because the mathematics and statistics department has an agreement with the MSDN Academic Alliance. I needed this because the WinXP laptop I have did not come with a WinXP CD. I can now maybe try to make this laptop dual boot. The WinXP CD will be for a system recovery if the installation fails. I am now going to burn the ISO image.