Computers are incredibly dull - official

GOD, ALL THIS IT STUFF IS BORING.
About a year ago, I think it was, I suddenly realised I simply didn't care about graphics cards any more. Once I would eagerly download new Nvidia drivers (and a new set seemed to appear every six hours) just to get another frame a second on my 3DMark score.

A couple of weeks back, my Geforce whatever it is with 64Mb (I think) of DDR on board started making a grinding noise. The fan bearings were knackered. I could have changed the fan, but I couldn't be bothered. Instead I slapped in an ancient Rage 128 in its place.

And you know what? I can't see any difference. I don't play games, I just do the usual officey kind of stuff, download pictures of attractive and pliant young donkeys and read 400 offers of cheap Viagra each day [Which you need, right? Ed.]. I don't care what the graphics card is - I even had to look at Device Manager to see what card it was because I'd forgotten.

The performance of any graphics card produced in the last three or four years is more than adequate for most people - even the onboard i815 graphics of the Compaq box I use in the office is OK.

Last week, someone on the Inquirer forum posted a query about an upcoming Intel chip and whether it would be pin-compatible with the old stuff (usually, posts are much less dull than that, I hasten to add). I was about to reply when another of those Road to Damascus moments occurred and I realised I simply didn't give a rat's ass one way or the other and said so.

Expecting a tirade of "Silly old fart" and "Daft old sod" replies - which I get a lot of anyway - I was surprised to see that people said things like: "Join the club. It's all become mindless, meaningless blather. Buckets and buckets of vanilla crying for special attention."

Our esteemed proprietor [Eh? - Ed.] and myself have often banged on about Megahurts™ Madness and how it doesn't really mean much to 99% of the population. Now I realise I hadn't gone far enough. The machine I'm writing this on is a 2.4GHz P4 (hey! I remembered!). I defy even Microsoft to come out with a killer app that demands more power than that.

He was interested once, honest
I worked for Intel for a time and it was a very interesting place to be. It was impossible not to be caught up in the enthusiasm for the new technology coming down the track. But now the only aspect of the IT industry that really interests me is when someone shoots themselves in the foot or stabs someone else in the back. The technology itself is dull, dull, dull.

Almost everyone who owns a PC has one that does exactly what they want. They don't care about future Intel Prescott New Instructions, 64bit AMD watchamacallits and 200fps graphics. The PC has become a tool to do a job. It isn't cool and exciting any more. People who tell you otherwise should get out more.

Call it growing old; call it growing up. Whichever, I now use computers rather than worrying about keeping up with the latest technology. A lot of other people seem to feel the same way, which is why the industry is in the doldrums. As long as they have adequate power, it's what computers do, rather than how they do it, that's important.

Mind you, I did write an editorial many years ago about how hardly anyone could harness the power of a 486, so what do I know? [Dear readers, please don't answer, Ed.] µ