Pet Peeve #427 (work related): If I email a single person a small question, I generally expect the answer to come back just to me. I don't like it when the reponse is cc'd to a bunch of other people who aren't in the loop. Especially if your original email contains information that you don't necessarily want shared around (which was NOT the case in my instance, thankfully). (Not sure if the above makes sense to you, but it does to me).

Thing I Like #835: I like when I'm driving, and the road is curving in one direction, and I want to make a lane change in the opposite direction. Say, the road is curving to the right, you're in the right lane, and want to be in the left lane. To do this, you still turn right, just not as much, and you drift over to the left. Not as much turning. I love that.

Our cablemodem is down. Has been for the last two days. I actually called Adelphia, and was just about to go into it when I noticed that, because of the painting, I'd actually unplugged the cable from the wall. Oops. I plugged it back in, but we still aren't getting service. I've tried different cables, different outlets, etc, but no signal. Diana and I are both pretty addicted to checking our stuff, and we're getting pretty ansy. Someone is coming by today to take a look.

I was at Diana's parents house last night briefly, and was asked to take a look at their computer. I'll say it again: the average person simply isn't equipped to maintain a computer without outside help.

From Wired website

For instance, a recent survey by the National Cyber Security Alliance found that nearly 90 percent of all personal computers could be infected with at least one form of spyware. A separate study by Internet service provider EarthLink found more than 29 million spyware-related files on the 1 million computers the company tested.

I'm not saying the average person is dumb or incapable, but merely lacks the time to invest in really learning the insides of their system to protect it from viruses, spyware, or generally keep it clean and running in good shape. This shouldn't be a surprise. A person can't know everything about everything. We all specialize in our knowledge, and not everyone specializes in computers.

The same could be said about me and cars. I don't know anything about the insides of my car, because I haven't invested the time or energy to learn. The difference, though, is there aren't a hoarde of bad guys actively trying to screw my car up.

I find this whole concept unfortunate. Have computers gotten easier to use over the years? I really wonder sometimes.

I have a really good game of Nethack going, this time with a Wizard. Got an early wish, and wished for "blessed fixed +5 silver dragon scale mail", and lo, I actually got it +5 (there is a 1/5th chance of this). Sokoban gave me a bag of holding, thankfully. By the time I reach Sokoban, I'm usually REALLY stuffed with stuff. I have a bunch of spellbooks, and the identify spell at 0%, which is great. I haven't found ANY altars, though, aside from co-aligned in Minetown. I have a pet orange dragon and pet grey dragon. I'm on the Big Room level now, and just found a wand. ID'd it:

j - a wand of wishing (0:3)

Boo ya.

The only problem is that my god is angry with me. I'm not sure why. My pet dragons killing his priest might have something to do with it. If I could just find an altar in the dungeon, I could do some sacrificing and get back in good standing.