Something is bugging me for a couple of weeks now, and it is very important everybody understands why, so I’ll try and explain. (a dutch explanation)
Name the companies making the most out of internet and personal computers. They are Microsoft, Intel, HP, AMD and so on, right? The ones with the largest financial gain in hardware and software sales. Now, take Intel for example, they used to make microprocessors that were built to last. The intention was to get their chips to be fast, reliable, and have them operate at 100% for as long as possible. I own and know many 486 chips and Pentium-1 CPU’s that are over 8 years old, which still function just fine today. The last couple of years however, I can’t help but notice that newer CPU’s and mainboards have a much shorter lifespan! Recently an Intel P4 just stopped doing anything right in front of my eyes. This change seems to have started with the Pentium 3. And don’t forget; An Intel-chip can be in your harddrive, your mainboard, your modem, everywhere! You name it and it has at least some piece of Intel inside. Combine this thought with the fact that Intel is rich, just like Microsoft, and I mean filthy rich (we’ve seen how losing 500 million euro to some alleged violation doesn’t mean shit to Microsoft). Then, just think: You are Intel, you sell the entire world these chips, you notice that everybody will be upgrading their hardware faster when the need arises. We buy a brand new Intel-chip every 3 years, since Microsoft sells a new operating system every 3 years, and your PC needs to be faster because the new software is made for use with new Intel chips only, otherwise it will all be slow or the software doesn’t even understand the hardware anymore. So what do you do, being Intel, if you want to gain even more money? You build them in such a way that they’ll seize to function after a set time of usage. The PentiumIV you have in your PC now, believe me when I tell you: It might already be pre-programmed to self-destruct sometime soon…
We all agree with the obvious; Having to buy new hardware to replace the ‘broken’ parts sucks, is making these companies even richer than they already are, and this should never be a motive behind building computer-hardware: Things should be built to last. They aren’t anymore. And I think I know why. There’s an important hidden agenda. It’s getting scary when you realize how deeply involved Intel is with the so-called Trusted Platform Module, TCG, and the Next Generation Secure Computing Base. Most of these concepts were founded in 1999 by Compaq, IBM, Intel and Microsoft. Over 200 companies joined them; Adobe, AMD, Fujitsu-Siemens, Gateway, Motorola, Samsung, Toshiba are among them (and in it for the money and the power, no doubt).

So, knowing all this, what do you do when you’re Intel? You make sure everybody has to buy new hardware and deliberately manufacture shitty chips that crash within a few years. Why? Because they get paid a lot to do it. It’s the only way the entire world is forced to have Fritz-Chips in their machines by 2010, so that each and every user’s Personal Computer can be controlled and identified by people other than the user/owner. Ask them now and they’ll claim it’s all for our own good, that it ensures our ‘security’. But please, be aware of the powers involved in this. With this kind of money behind it, we should be extremely worried. My advice:
Don’t throw away (or sell) your old hardware, keep it handy for future use, soon enough anything older than your Pentium 4 represents freedom…