That said – Going without internet for more than 24 hours helped me realise the extent of my internet addiction. I do not know what is the more desperate sign – going to my parents to bludge their connection, or connecting up my mobile phone to my laptop to use as a Modem.

Either way, I have to face facts that I am hooked and live my life online. A sign of the times perhaps? Maybe not these times. Seems like only yesterday I was in IRC channels talking to people in Mississippi. And thanks to them, I can spell the name of that state.

Without internet, I wouldn’t have ordered the organic parrot food, the HP printer cartridge, shopped around for the best deal, so that I got a free 100 pack of 6×4 photo paper. I wouldn’t have purchased two SD cards an a camera battery from the online retailer who makes some bricks and mortar stores look like rip off merchants.

Given that I have grown up on PCs and can chart my childhood, teenage years and the first decade of adult life through the generations of dial up, x86 series intel chips, I can remember when there were three chip manufacturers – AMD, Intel and Cyrix. When RAM cost more than a tyre for a car and still does, depending on the tyre.

Because this generation is wired and going wireless. Ask me two years ago if I would have had a laptop and a wireless router in my house and I would have said no. Today, I have a laptop, wireless router and other devices that all access the wireless access point. Somethings that never crossed my mind two years ago.

So maybe I shouldn’t turn a blind eye to this new technology. I am reading computer magazines and forums again, because when it comes time to embrase the next big thing in IT, I want to know what it is and how to get the most value from it.

Athlon XP 2500+ (1.83ghz), 1gb ram, 40GB HDD (5400RPM) and CD-RW. Nothing fantastic, but Linux seems to enjoy it.

The main desktop is:-

Athlon 64 X2 2.4ghz , Asus M2N-VA HDMI Mobo, Asus GeForce 9400GT 512mb DDR2 Video Card, 4GB DDR2-800mhz RAM with 1x80GB 7200RPM Sata Drive, 1x 250GB 7200RPM IDE Drive and 1x Lightscribe DVD-RW.

Right now I am researching how to do a dual boot of Windows 7 and Windows XP Pro SP3 from seperate hard drives. Just from what I have been hearing, I think I will upgrade the main desktop and two laptops to W7 upon final release and add a dual boot for linux as well.

If anyone has any suggestions for a good dual-boot setup for XP Pro SP3 and W7 using two seperate HDD’s – please comment and let me know!