As long as we're on that topic...

As long as we're chatting about Computers, I have a funny story to relate, courtesy of Mr. Jamie Barron.

You see, Jamie has been having problems with his computer. It is blue-screening. A lot. This is bad. So I did the whole nerd thing, trying to discover what the problem is.

During my detective work, I decided that perhaps the cooling system was inadequate. I'll try to explain this in a simple fashion for those who aren't as computing-inclined. Every computer has a processor -- the workhouse of the computer -- it does all the computation. There are two major manufacturers of processors -- Intel and AMD. While Intel chips are more commonly found in "off-the-shelf" computers you'd find at Best Buy, AMD chips are much more common in self-built computers, such as Jamie has.

AMD's processors sit on a ceramic wafer that is probably 1.5 by 1.5 inches. The actual processor, or "core" as it is called is less than the size of a stamp! It's probably 1/4 the size of a stamp, in fact. It is very tiny. This tiny little SOB puts out a ton of heat. Now, as you may or more not remember, heat is very difficult to dissipate from a small surface area. So we use what is called a "heatsink" to draw the heat away from the tiny little core and increase the surface area. I was guessing that something was awry with the heatsink.

Upon removing the heatsink, I noticed that Jamie's processor's core was CHIPPED. An entire corner of the processor was missing. Now, when a company makes something 1/4 the size of a postage stamp, you can damn well bet that the entire thing is important, and losing even a milimeter of material is NOT GOOD.

So we had discovered where the problem was. I tried reinstalling the heatsink and starting up the computer, but had no luck. It wouldn't even boot.

Goddamnit. Oh well, Jamie has a new CPU on the way anyways (he ordered a new one).

I'm playing a game with Zakk, and Jamie is screwing around with his comp. All of a sudden, I hear the familiar beep of a PC. His computer was running. This defies all logic.

I asked Jamie what he had done, and he replied, "I resurrected it." I asked him how he resurrected it, and he replied...

wait for it...

wait for it...

"I got that Tupac chip."