Proving once again that for some of us multitasking is about as safe as driving with your eyes closed, Windows XP asked me if I wanted to download new updates and I clicked Okay. Unwittingly, I had just signed up for the agony of Service Pack 2. My computer has been acting weirdly ever since.

"The Connection was refused."
"The document contains no data."

I am bursting with ideas and observations from the Workflow Learning Symposium, yet I can't post them. Downloads spontaneously abort. Uploads run out of gas. I get warnings to protect myself, the cyber equivalent of "Don't stick peas up your nose" or "Don't point skyrocket at others." Little shields pop up to warn me about things I've already taken care of, but my online existence is terrible.

This is somewhat familiar territory. I bought Windows 1.0 and could never get it to boot up. For several years, Windows ME would shut me down every now and then just for the hell of it.

It's illogical that a firm would punish its customers like this unless it has a death wish.