Can't Live With 'Em...

Computers.

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with them, really. A lot of my work is heavily connected with them. I use them for the vast majority of my working day. When all is going well, they are incredibly useful tools that enable us to do many things we might not otherwise be able to do. When they go wrong, they make you want to set fire to your desk, and everything on it.

The problem is that we're so entirely reliant on them these days. A few weeks ago, for a long, boring fuse-related reason, I had no power to my desk and so my computer couldn't be switched on. I couldn't do anything (let me repeat that - anything) until the power had been restored. There was no aspect of my job that I could occupy myself with in the meantime. I was utterly helpless. I may as well have lost the use of my arms.

Over the last few days, I've been wrangling with a problem involving our radio playout system. It's my current (slightly cursed) responsibility to maintain it, and I've been having problems getting it to do one particular thing it needs to do. I shan't mention the name of the company we use, but they are a large one. They have, as all such companies do, a "help"line that hapless people like myself should call when one comes across a problem.

I rang first thing this morning. It's now late afternoon. They haven't called me back. What a great "help".

I daresay it will all sort itself out in the end, and without the computer, what I need to do would take a lot longer. But that doesn't stop me wanting to throw it out of the window.

But I can't even do that because the windows don't open. Why? Air conditioning. Controlled by a computer.

Is it me, or is it hot in here?