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I recently built a Sandy Bridge computer, but I'm running the integrated HD3000 graphics. I decided to hold off on a graphics card until AMD's new generation arrived. Well, it arrived, it's the fastest, so I'm buying one. Now it's just a matter of how fast I can hit the refresh key while on Newegg tomorrow.
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Finally got some dedicated PC speakers. After reading tons of reviews, I pulled the trigger on the Klipsch Promedia 2.1 THX-certified speakers. I got it on sale at Best Buy for $120 sans tax. They most certainly sound much better than any other set of PC speakers I've ever heard. However, I'm not really listening to them at their full potential since I finished setting them up during quiet hours. So I'm just listening softly as I type this up.
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So my employer Ply Interactive paid for my ticket to SIC. After the first day of talks, I must say that I am very disappointed. Almost all of the speakers were not engaging enough and the slides were terribly designed. Maybe I'm just so spoiled by the quality of Apple's keynotes or by some of the talks I've seen on TED, but even without those two benchmarks, the SIC talks were still boring. I ultimately felt that I could simply Google search and find the same content online for free.
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I stumbled across some details about this trade agreement, ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), and definitely do not like what I see. So I'm posting this here to do my little part of preventing it from getting passed.

STOP ACTA

From the site:
The main problem with this treaty is that all the negociations are done secretely. Leaked documents show that one of the major goal of the treaty is to force signatory countries into implementing anti file-sharing policies under the form of three-strikes schemes and net filtering practices.
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Today as I was working from home and trying to multitask, my Macbook Pro froze shortly after opening a mere 10MB file in Photoshop CS5. My computer is over 5 years old now (image above is a screenshot of my computer specs), and I'm not sure how much longer it can go on. The GPU artifacts from time to time, I cannot run any 3D apps, and the lag and unresponsiveness is riding on my patience. When Intel's new Ivy Bridge and AMD/Nvidia's 28nm GPUs arrive, I'll be building a powerhouse desktop to make my computing experience fly!
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So this beetle site is pretty cool. It implements cutting edge HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript techniques. Very demanding; slow computers will find the site unusable.
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The biggest wow-factor I ever received from Steve Jobs wasn't within any of his keynote presentations or any of his interviews. But rather it was within his 2005 Stanfard commencement speech that I viewed on Youtube in 2007. It's not just the single best commencement speech, but one of the greatest speeches ever given as far as the effect it had on me. Of particular importance (and I realize this has been quoted many times since his death), this excerpt:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

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I've been a long-time Firefox user but lately it seems more and more sensible to move over to Chrome. For one, all my co-workers now use it as their primary browser for web development. And second, it is without a doubt the fastest when it comes to page loading. Now if I can find good substitute extensions for Google, then really there's no reason not to make the switch. Though I still wish that Chrome supported Windows Classic. It always has to apply its own bluish default theme.
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I'm at the point where it might be time for a computer upgrade soon. I'm currently working on a 2006 Macbook Pro with a CoreDuo and 1.5GB RAM. It still does the job, but just sluggishly at times.

So...as I'm researching the latest and greatest in tech, I came across a forum thread that asked users what the best computer upgrade is. After 100+ replies, it seems that more people voted that the SSD is the best upgrade they've ever experienced. That it drastically reduces loading time and greatly improves the responsiveness of a computer. Considering that a 120GB model can be had for around $200 now, this seems like an absolute must for anyone looking for a new computer.
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