So last night I installed the latest patch for “Sleazy CD Creator” in hopes of fixing some of the problems I’ve been having with it on my WinXP system (disc burning failures, crashing/hanging the system, etc.). But when I ran the program after applying said patch (and dutifully rebooting), it instantly caused a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death).

Well, that was the last straw.

Per a friend’s earlier recommendation, I installed Nero. And after trying it out and running different test scenarios on it for an hour, I was really, really sorry. Sorry, that is, that I had ever wasted time with CD Creator. Nero just worked perfectly with my FireWire-connected burner, copying files and music from my SCSI DVD-ROM drives, from MP3 files over my network, etc.

It’s hugely distressing to me when technology that should “just work” doesn’t. Major kudos to the folks at Ahead Software for allowing me to finally scratch that itch.

Speaking of itches, I also replaced my Sound Blaster “Oddity” board with a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz board. And, lo and behold, my MP3 playback no longer skips, my system no longer intermittently freezes when I click on a web link… (I clued in to the fact that it might be the sound card that was responsible, when I noticed that turning off the “clicking sound” for opening web pages made the problem go away.)

Creative’s drivers are the worst. Get rid of your Sound Blaster board—food will taste better, the air will smell cleaner, and you will awaken with a brighter outlook on life…