Maybe they're undercover cops

I was standing in line for a screening of Narc tonight with Peter, and I couldn't help but be reminded that people who attend movie screenings are frightening. Who are these people? Do they have jobs? Why have they not showered in several days? Do they have any friends? Movie geeks are a frightening lot. The Stranger, or maybe it was the Seattle Weekly, had a term for these movie buffs: passholes (because they always buy the full-series passes for the Seattle Film Festival).
Of course, my snobbery doesn't hide the fact that I'm often among them. I like to think I raise the curve with my sharp dress, razor wit, and roguish charm.

XP = Xtremely Painful

I recently upgraded my desktop PC to Windows XP from Windows 2000 Pro so that I could use remote desktop access with my Mac laptop. I downloaded Dell's upgrade advisor to analyze whether or not my PC and its software were XP upgradeable. After making a few corrections, it seemed I was ready for a step up in the world.
Wrong.
I've got serious problems. First, turns out my soundcard drivers are not XP compatible, and it doesn't look like Cirrus Semiconductor plans to release any such drivers. All I hear out of my computer's speakers are high-pitched screeches. Second, my CD-RW drive? Not Easy CD Creator 5 compatible, but unfortunately Easy CD Creator 4 is not Windows XP compatible. Greeeeaaat. Thanks Dell. Thanks Microsoft. Thanks Roxio. Looks like I may have to buy a new CD-RW drive and a new soundcard, and even then I'm not sure it will help.
Furthermore, it turns out you can't roll back Windows XP upgrades from Windows 2000 Pro. I'm really peeved. There's nothing more lacking in the world than PC support. Software is so damn complicated--if you have a computer problem and no computer genius for a friend, you're really SOL. I am none too pleased with my tech brethren across Lake Washington.
It's not just the problems I have with their software. For all the money they spend on research, and for all their market share and brilliant employees, they are amazingly uninventive.
In hindsight, I should have let the sleeping dog lie. If you can get a Windows PC to a point where it doesn't crash every other day, don't mess with it. The grass on the other side is yellow, wilted, and plagued with weeds.