Flowers For Socrates

The Coffee Shop is an open thread-style discussion forum for human interest news of the day.

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There are several hosts, each host being responsible for picking a “theme of the day” and starting the discussion. But in an open thread, there’s no hard and fast rule about staying on topic, especially if you have a personal story burning a hole in your pocket trying to escape.

Pictures and videos are welcome in the comments.  If photos are used, please be sure you own the copyright.  If you do use pictures or videos, take pity on those who don’t have broadband, and don’t post more than two or three in a single comment.

This is an Open Thread. Grab your cup, pull up a chair, sit a spell and share what’s on your mind today.

Recently, my computer problems have really begun to wear on me:

• The freeze-ups with that endless blue circle chasing itself, then being knocked off a site entirely.
• The slow-downs that come and go for no apparent reason.
• The multiple log-offs and re-boots.
• The error messages in Tech-Urdu.
• The trouble-shooting that might get me 10 minutes of uninterrupted work before the next seizure.

In Ancient Greece, the Furies, AKA Erinyes, endlessly pursued wrong-doers. Because the Greeks feared to utter the dreaded name Erinyes, the goddesses were often addressed by euphemistic names, such as Eumenides (“Kindly”) or Semnai (“August”).

“Microsoft” and “AT&T U-Verse” are the current-day euphemisms.

This is an old joke — I first saw it around 2005, and it wasn’t new then.

At a recent computer expo, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, “If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.”

In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the road lines, you’d have to buy a
new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was more reliable, and faster — but would run on only five
percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single “This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation” warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask “Are you sure?” before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again, because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You’d have to press the “Start” button to turn the engine off.

— from a 2009 post at: www.techspot.com/…

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