Nope, it never ends.

The replacement video card I got from Leadtek is much worse than my original. At first it was fine, if not quite as powerful as my original one. Then it started freezing my entire system at random for no apparent reason. And now it just crashes about two minutes into any 3D game.

I'm kicking myself for even sending the first one in. Once you're stuck in this refurbished computer part cycle, chances are you'll just keep getting sub par stuff. These video cards are just too complicated to realistically repair them. I probably should have just changed the fan on my first card with an aftermarket one.

On the other hand, I did learn that I have a massive 36 month warranty. That's pretty impressive for something that will most likely be obsolete within two years.

-Tim

Finally, an upside to the format war.

As far as I can tell, no one's actually noticed that HD-DVDs (high-definition dvds) and players are now officially for sale. Like most people who follow upcoming tech at all, I have no interest in purchasing either HD-DVDs or Blu-ray dvds until there's a clear winner, or some kind of compatibility agreement is worked out. But there is one upshot to having these stupid 'next-generation' technologies being pushed on consumers: the price of dvds seems to be falling.

Specifically, I was able to pick up Serenity and Apollo 13 (both of which are now out on HD-DVD) last week for about $4-5 less than I'd ever seen them!

-Tim

Mythbusters vs Brainiac

Brainiac is a new favorite show of ours from across the pond. The science isn't quite as thorough as Mythbusters, they tend to go for more simplistic/quick experiments and don't bother to stop for explanations as often. Tamara likes Brainiac's faster pace, but I still prefer Mythbusters overall.

Brainiac does, however, win hands down on soundtrack.
-Tim