Because of a perceived lack of wires, black boxes and glowing LED lights at home I have decided to buy an Xbox. Actually it wasn't just the paucity of things to trip over that inspired me, but the new and already-legendary shoot-em-up, Halo 2.

I was introduced to Halo 2 at a friend's house, where after playing through the levels a bit we took it online. Here, with the aid of my limited grasp of the controls and a headset to communicate with my fellow players, I started to make people's lives a misery.

Of course, said people were limited to those less skilled than me - both of them - and those who don't appreciate listening to me say, "Hey, I'm walking here" or "Is this the way to the toilet?" while playing. For me it was a revelation. Imagine being able to cause pain and misery online without being a web content management solution.

Talking of vendors, it looks like Microsoft may have found a way to discourage "chipped and modded" Xboxes - where users make modifications and replace chips.

According to some reports there are some 15 million Xbox owners in the world, and although to date no one has broken out the figures for how many Xboxes are chipped or modded, we can probably assume that it's a small percentage - I personally know one in two, but then I know some people, who know some people, if you know what I mean.

Despite this, you can be sure that everyone using Halo 2 online is doing so legitimately, with an apparently non-modded Xbox and a paid-for copy of the game. This is because when you connect to the online services you are opening up your hard-drive to the beady eye of Bill Gates, or at least one of his minions.

Rumours abound about what Microsoft is looking at, but according to the forums you cannot log on to Xbox Live with a modded Bios. And you can't register with a standard machine and then chip it, as Microsoft logs your serial number so that if you log on again and it has changed you'll be booted out faster than a municipal swimming pool user who is surrounded by green tinted water. Whatever happens, no one wants to be the whipping boy. So it's good behaviour all round - if you believe the forums.

It's rare to see people pleased and proud to report that they are using non-hacked and non-modded items and it appears that Microsoft has finally found the killer app that can give it access to Xbox users' machines - a game that simply must be played online. The challenge now will be for it to extend this to its other offerings.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has just started an XP amnesty whereby

people that think that their copy of "Mircosfot Windows PX" might be pirated can exchange it for a legit version, and it also offers bounties for pirates, but so far these actions have got few people wearing honesty hats. So something else is needed.

That something else may be Next Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB), one of the legions of features in the forthcoming Windows Longhorn releases. NGSCB is built around a number of ideals - most of which are related to the security of the user. But features such as the ability to link your identity to your PC, limit what runs on your computer, and block unauthorised programs may sound a bit too pres- criptive to many users.

Windows Longhorn is not likely to hit desktops until 2006, so we will have to wait to find out whether such features do reduce piracy. But in the meantime Microsoft must be pleased that it can encourage good behaviour without heavy-handed techniques.

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