Computer crap = $$$

Geek alert - skip this post if you're not geeky.

This has been coming for a while...

REDMOND, Wash. - Microsoft Corp. has kicked off a new program aimed at severely curtailing the ways people using pirated copies of its Windows operating system can get software updates.

When a computer user starts to download updates, the new program, called Windows Genuine Advantage, will scan the machine to see if it's running an authentic version of Windows.

If you have a less than legit copy, don't panic. It'll still work, and you'll still be able to get security updates. What you won't be able to get is new "product improvements and new features" or whatever that is.

Personally - if my 100% totally legit installation of XP decides that it's not kosher, I'm not going to loose any sleep over it.

I've had a few problems with my computer lately. I haven't been able to over clock it since I put in the extra gig of memory, because the two different types of memory don't play well together when pushed. I'm also having a problem with the 2nd hard drive that I use for storing MP3's and backups and such. It's on the edge of dying.

So, I bought another gig of matching memory (it'll overclock very well), and a new drive. Total cost about $280.

At some point (maybe a year) I'm just going to bite the bullet and build a completely new machine. My current machine runs nicely (P4 3.0 @ 3.6ghz), but it would be nice to have a screamer, and RAID 0 (10k/RPM Raptors), and SLI GPU's, and DDR2.

I suppose if I'm forced to use Longhorn (now Vista), that might be the time to do the switch. I'll just buy an external enclosure, and pop my current drives in it, and hook it right up to the new machine.