As I sit here typing, I'm doing so on my brand new Microsoft® Comfort Curve 2000™ keyboard. (Trademark symbols added for the hell of it. ;-))

This is the least of my new changes, however. In reality, my keyboard is but one of a whole series of upgrades. There are, essentially, only four components of my former computer still in use:

• Realtek Ethernet Card
• Sound Blaster Live!
• Generic Floppy Disc Drive
• 80 GB Maxtor HDD

For those people not paying attention, that means that I purchased the following:

• AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.0GHz Venice Socket 939 CPU
• ASUS A8N-E Motherboard
• Antec Black Tower Case
• Antec True Power 2.0 480W ATX2.0/ATX12V PSU
• Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Fan
• EVGA GeForce 6800GS Video Card
• My very own copy of Windows XP Professional OEM.
• Samsung TSU-44somethingorother DVD+R/DVD-RW/CD-R/CD-RW/etc. Burner/Optical Drive
• aforementioned Microsoft® Comfort Curve 2000™ Human Interface Device

The setback? $1200. Canadian. And about 3 hours of work. That is very cheap for a system that can run circles around my old one. I feel a little wrong about having a 64-bit processor on a 32-bit operating system, but I can wait for Longhorn. I'm not about to fork over more money to Micro$oft (note my maliciously-implanted dollar symbol, thereby expressing my sharp wit!) for the 64-bit version of XP.

My former CPU used to run at a nice chilly 62°C. My new one, on the other hand, runs at a ridiculously hot 43°C. I'm worried that if I overclock it, it'll actually run somewhere close to a typical operating temperature. ;-)


The problem, however, is the problem that plagues me every single time I do a migration from one system to the next. I perform backups diligently, like any good computer user should (especially if he has over 6 and a half years of outstanding programming projects), and for the most part, everything was good. Unfortunately, certain things didn't happen:

• I didn't successfully backup my MP3s or my MODs. The archives got corrupted or lost. This terrible loss is making me contemplate suicide. Update 3/01/06: Actually, looks like this was a non-issue. I must've tried accessing the folder while the archive was still decompressing. They're nicely intact.
• I forgot to copy over all of my Firefox favourites. This is another positive argument towards suicide, as I've lost most of my source material for many of my games (as if I was really going to download all of those websites or bother to remember their full URLs...).
• My favourite URW character, Isto, got corrupted by a buffer overrun on my old computer, and didn't survive the journey to the new PC. This is yet another supporting argument for suicide.

Anyhoo, a castle needs besieging in Stronghold 2. I will see thee on the morrow. Unless that suicide option becomes a reality. ;-)

Update 3/01/06: Nope, no suicide yet. My BAS must be declining. (BAS = Blogger's Angstiness Syndrome)


P.S.: Who needs women when you have a machine as freakin' sexy as this? ;-)