Switched Keys

Legacies are now becoming even more difficult to build and maintain these days. Maintaining my legacy was what I did most of yesterday. I'm talking computers here not a philosophy or memory being passed down to subsequent generations. Legacies in computer nomenclature refer to older PC technology such as hardware and software.

Yesterday I worked on this system and did two things; download and install all the XP Power Toys and get my sound working. In the process of getting the sound system to work I installed a card downloaded and installed new drivers for it updated DirectX and make some registry adjustments.

In the process I discovered that my next computer will have to be completely new. The memory chips I have won't fit the new motherboards and PCI has been replaced with PCI-Express slots. There's SATA PATA and the CPUs and sockets have passed mine up. VGA connectors are not on some systems and now there is the north bridge and south bridge thingees. I figure I'll have to upgrade in about 2 years and by then there may be east and west bridges.

Computer users find themselves in a forced upgrade every few years if they want to have or do the latest. Vista and Vista compatibility is our next step in the evolution of computers.

I'm not complaining you understand. There has been a lot of advancement although I have about all the computing power I need for some time. As business demands more and more processing resources however those advancements in both hardware and software are being incorporated into personal computing systems that only a few people really need or appreciate. For me that's a good thing.