XPS 400

Out of the blue, my parents gave me the go ahead to order a new family computer (our old one was getting pretty decrepit), so I had to quickly scrounge up a decent system for a decent price, and decided on the Dell XPS 400 media box which I had been looking at for a while. Thanks to slickdeals I was able to finagle a pretty sweet gig though Dell EPP (employee purchase program). So basically I bought a temporary "employment" (or just the discount code) off ebay to get the 30% employee discount. If anybody else is interested, you can get a nice deal this way. Just buy the code on ebay, customize your system here, and you're good to go. I'll update when we get the box and I've had a chance to play with it a bit.

Just FYI to all those band people out there:
There is a full band rehearsal on Friday July 7th from 3:30 to 4:30 in the band room. Of course if you're reading this, you've probably already been contacted so that last sentence was pointless. Oh well....consider it a reminder. As of this time, I'm 2 for 14 on returned calls. I've left 14 messages yet only 2 people have gone to the trouble to call me back. [EDIT: Make that 3 call backs as of about 5 mintues ago] Not that I'm complaining...I really hate phones.

While I might be a phone phobic, at least I'm not afraid of pickles. I don't know how many of you have seen this clip, but I can't watch it without laughing, as bad as I feel laughing. Pickle Phobia...that's a new one.

After a surge of controversy, Microsoft finally dropped its "Windows Genuine Advantage" checks. "Genuine Advantage" meaning "we know that you pirated this copy of XP and we're trying to prove it so we can sue you." It got to the point where you couldn't download Windows Update or any other Microsoft downloads without an annoying "WGA" check. So a class action lawsuit later, there's no more WGA.

Here's a neat little hack to boost hard disk performance. Apparently it's supposed to boost performance up to 6x. I haven't noticed anything too significant yet, but I'll keep you posted. Just a warning, it takes a little tweaking so just don't go around trashing the registry.

That's it for now...have a happy 4th.