May 5, 2008 - After work today I drove to Best Buy to look at their computers. I need to replace my broken recording PC with a new one that works. The Sony Vaio I bought back around 2000-2002 (so it is 6-8 years old at this point) died and is not worth resuscitating for the demands I need to put on it recording music with low latency. My only real criteria for a new PC is to have an IEEE 1394 port (firewire), which Dell does not have on their computers. There were two PC's at the store with the port I need at a reasonable price. They had an HP and a Gateway. I ended up going for the less expensive HP because it had more than enough specs to meet my needs. I got Windows Vista, 640 GB HD (lots of storage capacity for recording songs), 3 GB RAM (this will keep the latency down), AMD Athlon 3 processor technology. When I got home, Ellie and I went to the gym, and while we were there Brenda came over for dinner. I cooked up a simple soft taco bake kit, and then went out to the studio to play with my new purchase. I got everything set up pretty easily, installed my old wireless card in the new computer, got on the internet, downloaded the drivers for my Firepod recording device, and then it got difficult. I couldn't find the CD for Cubase LE, the recording program I use. I looked and looked through the house, and after a long search finally found it in a box in the garage. I started up the installation file, and the first thing it wanted was the REGISTRATION KEY ON THE SLEEVE THE DISC ORIGINALLY CAME IN! No, I didn't have that anymore! So I was SOL. I called it a night, and will hope to get the key tomorrow from someone who works at either Presonus (maker of the firepod) or Cubase.