Bad Memories

Or, to be more precise, bad memory. Regular readers will recall the excitement a few months back surrounding my inestimable computing device, and a stick of faulty memory, which led to monotonously regular encounters with the fabled BSOD. (I wonder if you can get a BSOD on BSD?). Well, I still have the dodgy stick, although it currently resides on a table rather than in the computer, and consequently leads to gar fewer crashes.

I really ought to get around to complaining to someone that this memory broke -- after all, it did set me back a fair amount (about $80, I think). But the process is just so long and ill-defined that I'm not sure I can be bothered to initiate it. And then after a while, it becomes to late to do anything. I have a similar problem with one of my credit cards, who ripped me off for 25 GBQ (Great British Quid) when I failed to pay the minimum balance one month -- as best as I can reconstruct events, I had set the payment up in a web browser, but must have failed to click through the half-dozen or so "confirm" screens that seem tobe required, and instead got distracted with something else. Such is the danger of today's multi-tasking world. I meant to get around to calling them up and demanding that the fee be reimbursed, lest I take my custom elsewhere. But, I never did, and it's now been too many weeks to reasonably get away with this trick.

This is how businesses make money: the rely on the laziness and ineptness of their customers. The old couple who still pay $20 / month to rent a phone because they never check their bill. The credit card fraudsters who post spurious charges. Unscrupulous service providers who move you onto a higher service tier that you don't really need.

Someone messed around with time today (they did it last week in Europe), and my body is thoroughly confused as a result. I think I'll take a nap. See you later or, as I must now perforce say, au revoir.