A link to this blog post, a post about a thousand tweets, will become the thousandth tweet on my twitter account. So I thought I’d take a moment and reminisce.

It has been many long – and less than six – months now since I have committed to investing time to share my deep insight and wisdom with the rest of the world. It all started with a set of light-hearted jokes about vaginas, as seen below, but my contributions on twitter soon took on a more serious flavour.

My first tweets

The contributions on twitter are nothing less than of Biblical proportions. Not only are they a modern gospel, a gospel of the current times, but they are vital to the future of humanity. At the moment, mankind is lost in a whirlpool of information overload and a lack of direction for the future. My vision, as professed on twitter, is humanity’s last and best hope for a bright future. Being always right and knowing everything best is difficult. It is a gift and a burden. But we all have our own golden cross to carry on a necklace, and mine is to tweet my insight to the world. If all of the thousand tweets were published in print, they would take up many volumes of A6 size books that could proudly take their place next to works of similar gravitas by other luminaries like Plato, Hemingway and Churchill.

I would also like to take an opportunity to congratulate the makers of twitter for creating this platform for me. Though, one must acknowledge the secondary importance of twitter. In the same time as I have worked hard to educate the population of an entire planet, other important events have also happened on twitter. These events, though not as important as my teachings, have still taught us valuable lessons. The elections in Iran have shown us the insignificance of individuals and how little they can influence the world around them. The passing of Michael Jackson, may the concrete be light upon his soul, has clearly illustrated that nothing ensures record popularity better than dying – a lesson many a celebrity should take to heart. Finally, twitter is one of the most important advancements in the fight for freedom of speech. Freedom to say true things, false things, stupid things, irrelevant things, boring things, offensive things and of course the freedom to create more spam.

So, at this momentous occasion, let us not just think about the past successes, but the great achievements yet to come. Let us raise our glasses to the past 1000 tweets. Then let us smash the glasses and apply the shards in a quick motion to the jugular vein, and toast the next thousand to come.

Everything it seems is born, grows old and then it dies. Interesting then to compare humanity to a human lifetime.

When humanity was wee it learnt a lot of basic stuff. How to walk, how to talk and how to throw a temper tantrum. In its early days humanity must have found the world a pretty big scary place. Not only that, but humanity was quite unique among the animals. It was special. In other words it was a loner who wouldn’t play with any of the other animals. So like many children today humanity invented imaginary friends to cope with life. But humanity was curious and wanted to learn. It wanted to understand the world around it. So, with its childlike mind it started to postulate. And just as kids still do today it filled the world with simple rules and scary monsters.

The teenage years were quite turbulent. Let’s face it. Humanity became a bully. Strong, arrogant and ever so ignorant. And then there is the issue with the imaginary friends. Those were still hanging around in the teenage years. This was already starting to become a big concern. Kids have imaginary friends, but as they start to mature they get real friends. However, humanity was still very much alone.

As humanity finally started to mature and get into early adulthood things looked up. Humanity started to appreciate science and it started to get a real appreciation of the world around it. It discovered its real place in the universe. It discovered that it wasn’t alone at all. The planet is filled with life and some species are far more intelligent than the bully was willing to admit to. Humanity finally could make friends. Canine for example become such a good and devout friend. Avian grew strong links as well. Things were looking up. But then disaster struck. An old concern, that never went away came back with a vengeance.

The persistent collection of imaginary friends led to a serious psychological problem. Humanity was struck down with a split personality disorder. One personality, still filled with curiosity and the need to learn and grow, continues to make advances. But the other personality, scared weak and fragile, is obsessed with countering growth and constantly undermines humanity’s future. This infirm personality exposes humanity to disease by refusing to use a condom. This feeble personality shields abusive tendencies. This idiotic personality eats dirt in a Mexican church because it believes that it has magical healing powers. This timid personality believes that free will is the choice between a belief in imaginary friends or a disbelief that leads to a bad place with a broken thermostat.

And so what does the future hold? There are few signs that humanity will cure its split personality issues any time soon. Therefore, without having matured yet the technological advancements humanity is continuing to make are themselves cause for concern. Yes, there is the nuclear issue, but that’s not really modern technology any more. I would be more concerned about modern electronics and how humanity is starting to use them. It is becoming a common sight to see humanity walking around with small hand-held devices tethered to the head with a thin cable. These devices contain information about many aspects of human life. And humanity is relying more on such devices to interact with the environment around it and process new information. These devices are evolving into external secondary brains. So I fear that humanity just might be evolving into the Ood (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ood). Just as the Ood, humanity is using these ’secondary brains’ to tune into the melodies of life shared by millions. For the Ood the music was provided by a third, shared central brain. For humanity that is called iTunes. But will it end there?

Humanity already implants devices to alleviate disabilities. Surely it is not a big leap to start implanting devices to augment humanity’s abilities. After all the ability to see light can also be seen as the inability to see the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum. The ability to speak could be seen as the inability to directly interface with electronic networks. So I wonder if humanity’s ultimate destination is nothing like the Ood but more like the Borg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_(Star_Trek)). Creatures that assimilate the knowledge of other cultures but then force those cultures to adopt their lifestyle. Creatures that are using technology and their military power to conquer territories of value and assert their views on others, usually by force. Creatures that have not resolved their place in the Universe or their idea of a creator. Creatures with a misguided drive for perfection at the cost of existence itself. In other words, is the ultimate goal of humanity to become American?

I’ve been looking for a way to manage my tasks for a few years now. I’ve tried web based approaches as well as desktop apps. After years of misery here is the current state of affairs.
I use iCal which comes with simple to-do list functionality. Unfortunately, it is too simple. It ends up being a long list on the side of the window and there really is little one can do to ‘manage’ the items. Having said that, most todo applications sort items in some reasonable fashion. What really bugs me with most though is the time tracking ability. I would like to be able to actually track the time for some of the tasks that I do, and derive meaningful information from the data. The additional requirement is being able to share some todo lists with others.

Given the collaboration requirement, I immediately narrowed my search to web-based solutions. There one can find Ta-da List, by the 37 Signals crowd. It has a simple user interface and it is very easy to use. It also doesn’t do much more than what one could do with a text file. So that one was clearly out.

I looked at “Remember the Milk”. The user interface here is far from intuitive or pleasant to look at. Each todo list is a separate tab and if you add too many, the layout gets quite ridiculous. Not to mention that new lists must be added through the settings page. In order to make changes to each todo item one must tick a check box next to it and then choose an action from a drop-down box. The catch is that the check boxes look more like something one would click to complete the task. Hence the confusion. In order to actually complete the task one needs to check the box and then click complete. There were other UI issues, but the most puzzling thing was the ability to add a time estimate for a task, yet no place to enter the actual time it took to do the task.

Then I tried “voo2do”. It does time tracking. That’s all the good I can say about it. The colours for the user interface seem to have been inspired by Windows 1.0. The user interface overall looks more like a draft mock-up of something with potential if one were to put more work into it. Finally, it doesn’t do collaboration, so it’s of no use to me.

Next: Toodledo. The user interface leaves a lot to be desired. It took me 5 minutes just to add the first task. The interface feels a little cluttered. It has the benefit of some customisation, though at the same time one really must customise it before using it, since the default look is quite useless.

I took a quick look at TODOIST. Probably the one I like the most, but unfortunately it doesn’t do time tracking. Otherwise it would have been as close to perfect as one of these things will get at this stage. I used TODOIST for some time and discovered that having a web based todo application isn’t necessarily that convenient. The main issue is the dependence on web access.

Recently I started using an iPod Touch and for now that has settled my todo dilemma. That is because I installed a Mac application called Things, which also comes with an iPhone application. I can enter and see todos on the go as well as on my laptop. Things is still evolving and is still missing the collaboration features, though once added it will be rather handy. Finally there is no time tracking incorporated.

So the main features I am looking for still elude me. Integration of Things with the iPod offsets some of the disappointment, but I guess my search for the perfect todo application continues. I better add that todo.

Traveling is great fun. Flying is a step up from that. Or at least it used to be.

Flying, in its early days, was a very glamorous affair. Mainly due to the prohibitive costs which meant only the rich could fly. And the rich are always so very glamorous. A little thing called the Boeing 747 did a lot in democratising air travel. But with flying becoming more affordable we got the follow up issue of congestion. So we ended up with giant colosseums we like to call airports.

The Melbourne airport is expanding yet again, which incidentally caused some delay on my recent return flight from the US. With all the “Construction – Detour” signs the pilot got lost on the approach to the gate. We had to be towed back out towards the runway so that a local could get us a parking spot. But who could blame the poor pilot for getting lost. He is driving a sports field with wings and no reverse gear. Most people can’t parallel park a Mini.

The problem with airports getting bigger is that it is getting harder  to get around them. Before you can take that exciting trip on a machine that so convincingly and gracefully battles gravity to have you soar high above the clouds, you have to get to it. My flights usually leave from gate 54432. San Francisco airport for example has 4 terminals. To make getting around easier they have built a driverless “AirTrain” that connects the terminals and the car park. On the way to Phoenix I boarded the AirTrain – as a train enthusiast I did so with much excitement – to get to Terminal 3, the domestic terminal serving United. The doors closed. I was delirious with anticipation of the train ride. Five seconds later I was standing on the Terminal 3 platform. Turns out it’s not that far. Now I know what premature ejaculation must feel like. However, airport operators’ attempts to make things easier for travellers are regularly spoiled but other entities. I got to the domestic terminal with ease, but getting to the plane is a whole different can of beans. And yes it stinks.

The glamour of flying was finally and completely dulled by 9/11. There is very little glamour in having to strip every time you have to go through a security check point. And I am not sure what they are hoping to find. The 9/11 hijackers didn’t come with their terrorist IDs or their terrorist toolkits. I don’t see how current security searches would have caught those bastards. I am all for security, since I want to help as much as possible to make sure the plane wins the gravity battle, but as with everything one can go too far. We are almost at the point of being strip searched and our possessions are thoroughly irradiated. I fear that if there were any further terrorist activities we would have to take it to the the next level which might be something like this:

“Sir, the burger you ate is not FAA approved. You will have to leave the burger behind. No, the restroom is out of order.”

OR

“Madame, we have detected high levels of methane. According to Department of Homeland security rules you will have to evacuate the aforementioned gas. We appreciate that with the energy crisis your gases are important to you so you can store them in this handy zip lock bag and check it in with your luggage. You can only carry 1000cc, the rest will need to be disposed of. “

I certainly hope those 9/11 bastards are enjoying their 70 Klingon-speaking, forty-something, fat, male virgins since I highly doubt that good looking girls would get to heaven without ever getting laid.

The other unhelpful entity are the airlines. Once I had cleared the security checkpoint I started my long treck to the gate. I stopped for some food. I continued. I stopped by a restroom. I continued up escalators, down corridors. And then I saw it. My gate number. I thought I’d made it. But … no. To get to the actual gate there was one more set of stairs. Finally having made it to the gate I looked out the window and low and behold I was just down the corridor from where I started the AirTrain trip to begin with. Turns out the airline moved the plane from the domestic terminal to the international terminal, and the international terminal is right next to the airport entrance. So there I was, flying on an ‘international’ flight from SFO to Phoenix; a flight which lasted less than the time it took me to get to the flight to begin with.

This brings me to flying. The first time I flew on an airplane I noticed something you don’t usually see in the movies. Or I should say hear. Flying is noisy business. But that doesn’t really bother me much. Flying can also mean a bumpy ride, especially if you are landing in Phoenix. But that doesn’t bother me much either. Actually I find it a lot more comforting than a boring smooth flight. What does bother me is rampant discrimination against tall people. I understand that the airline needs to make money and hence needs to fit as many seats on a plane as possible. But let’s face it, if you leave no legroom at all you fit even more seats. So why not do that? Instead, legroom seems to be based on the size of an ‘average’ person. The problem with that is that people shorter than the average person are quite happy, but people taller than the average person need to stow their feet in the luggage compartment under the seat in front. The airlines have seats with extra leg room, but those cost extra. So if I am tall and I can’t fit into a standard seat, I am forced to pay more than everyone else. If this is not a text book case of discrimination I don’t know what is. Yet this goes on.

The 747 may have introduced flying to a wide audience, but more recently there has been a new push to make flying even more affordable –  the no-frills airlines. That has put the final nail in the glamour of flight. Not long ago I flew with Tiger airways on a domestic flight. I’m very glad it was a domestic flight as I am not sure I would have survived an international flight under those conditions. Whilst in many cases sitting for me in an airplane seat is highly uncomfortable, flying Tiger airways is just impossible. The seating arrangement is based on the size of tall midgets. I was not able to fit into the seat at all and had to throw myself in. This resulted in my knees digging deep into the seat in front. So much for no-frills. The person in front of me got a free lower back massage, whilst me being able to actually fit into the seat is indeed a needless, no good frill.

Just getting to the Tiger Airlines plane was adventurous. I arrived at the main airport building. The helpful sings in the main building indicated that Tiger had it’s own terminal and that I should just follow the arrows. So I did. This took me back to the entrance. Then I started walking down the street. I continued to walk down the street. I started to get worried since I was heading back towards town. But then, there is was. A big metal shed with Tiger written in large print – Terminal 4. I checked in and found myself somewhere to sit since two hours before the flight it was already announced that the plane was going to be 1.5 hours late. Many hours later, when it was time to board the plane we started the pilgrimage to the gate. After walking quite some distance through a metal cage walkway passing by the goods shed we got to the ‘gate’. The ‘gate’ was a small metal door which led out to the tarmac from which we climbed into the plane. In other words the ‘gate’ was literally a small gate.

After throwing myself into the seat (remember this is Tiger) I overheard the staff talking about what one would consider a serious problem. The door wouldn’t close. Finally the captain got pissed off, got up, went to the door, slammed it shut and got us under way.  And he wasted no time. I’ve never seen a plane speeding during taxiing. We were already accelerating for take off during the final turn to the runway. The rest of the flight was anything but smooth. Any time a course correction needed to be made, the passengers were flying within the plane. As the plane  was landing, the captain was determined to get the first turnoff for the gate. The deceleration was so hard I thought my eyes will just pop out. I wasn’t really worried about anything else popping out since the rest of me was so tightly imprisoned in the small seat that I was practically one with the fuselage. Safe to say I won’t be flying with Tiger again.

It is said that it is not the destination that is important, but the journey there. Well if I have to sit in a cramped seat for hours on end I sure hope the damn destination is worth it. Since the journey there is anything but pleasant. So does that mean I will avoid flying? Hell no. That roar of pure power. The acceleration that pins you to the seat. Soaring high above the clouds in the glow of the sun. Looking up at the beautiful blue sky, that much closer to outer space. I’m at FLY-CON 1 at all times, ready to go at a moment’s notice.

There are many ways to mark a wedding anniversary. One might have a nice dinner, go on a holiday getaway, have heaps of sex or simply get a divorce. But in our consumer society that we are still trying to keep afloat, giving gifts is usually the best way to go. What to give of course depends on how long one has been together. After all, those expensive gifts need to be earned.

The traditional way to start off, at the first anniversary, is to give something made of paper. Hence just a card is usually all one needs. Some fake flowers made out of paper could also be an option. Newspapers or toilet paper are usually frowned upon.

At the second anniversary we move to yet another material made out of processed plants – cotton. I guess the best thing to go with here are some nice big cotton undergarments. It says I love you, even if you dress like the generation that fought the second world war. This level of comfort with the other person only continues to grow by the third anniversary, where leather is the name of the game. At this stage you are probably ready for some S&M and it’s time to get some of those hot leather outfits.

After being together for four years it’s time to stop sleeping all over the place. You are getting older and the relationship is getting more mature. Hence it’s time for some linen. By the fifth year, one has to give wood. Though getting wood might already start to become a strain. Here is a more environmentally friendly idea. If after living together for five years and after seeing those cotton undies for the past three the man can still get some wood for his lady, I think that should be enough of a gift.

Reaching the first decade means getting something made out of tin. So this one is pretty easy. A tin can of tuna is all you need. The tricky one is the 14th. You have to give ivory. Which means packing up the bags and off to Africa to kill an elephant. But remember, you need to bring back ivory, not AIDS, so if tempted use a condom. Oh, and remember, monkeys like porn too.

Fifteen years after the wedding it’s time to get some expensive shit. So you get some crystal. Just to be clear, here we mean crystal glasses, vases, etc. not the drug. Five years later you get more kitchen shit, but this time it must be made out of china. Note carefully, made out of china, not made in China.

Finally you hit the first quarter mark at 25, and it’s time for some shiny silver. This will happen around “midlife-crisis” time, so silver genital jewellery is the best way to recapture your long gone youth. Then if you avoid any nasty infections and make it to 50, you trade up for gold. At this stage you are probably very old and getting gold teeth may be the most practical. It shows you care about the other person’s welfare and saves you from having to pre-chew everything for them at the same time.

If by some miracle you are still around ten years later, you sell what little you have left and take out a mortgage that your grandchildren will be responsible for and buy a diamond. Inexplicably the rules of etiquette also cover the unlikely event of an 80th anniversary. By this stage you are unlikely to be very mobile, and time for fleecing your descendants is long gone. So all you have to give is something oak. It is only at your 80th anniversary that you realise why moving to Canada was such a good idea. Well, apart from the fact that the rest of the globe south of Canada is at that stage most likely uninhabitable.

This traditional path of anniversary gifts is being superseded by modern etiquette. Here you start of with a Eames Lounge Chair. I don’t know what that is, but already we can see far more efficient consumerisms. Traditionally one had to wait for china 20 years, but now that’s what you get after just two years. And after a decade, tuna is replaced by diamond already. The jewellery stores have figured out that with the way modern marriages are going, waiting for the 60th anniversary will make for wee diamond sales indeed. So diamond is at number ten and number 30.

The new etiqutte also includes new items. Four years into it, you don’t get linen now, you get electrical appliances. “Here you go, my beloved, a vacuum cleaner just for you.” I’m quite fond of the 7th anniversary gift – pen and pencil set. Certainly not every year one gets to buy a wedding anniversary gift at Officeworks.

The 13th is indeed not a lucky one for furry animals, since their skin becomes the centre piece of this anniversary gift. And after 14 years of waiting for your beloved you finally get to fight back with a watch. Two years later you give each other a shoe rack. Apparently something you finally need, after 16 years of living together.

Modern etiquette does not mark the 80th anniversary. It calls it quits at 70 with something platinum. But do not despair. If you do succeed in having a long term relationship, it apparently is quite an achievement. You can get a Papal blessing or a card from Her Royal Highness, Lizzy II. Yes, you might cure cancer, stop global warming and resolve all issues in the Middle East, but it seems that is nothing compared to the almost insurmountable task of living with the same person for a long time. I’m guessing the secret then to achieving it has something to do with loving the other person and wanting to spend time with them and not spending all the time shopping. So for you next anniversary, just save some money for a change and spend some time together. At least the sex is free!

Microsoft recently claimed, among other things, that they follow browser standards and that indications otherwise are only myths. Below are results from the ACID 3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_3) tests I conducted with all browsers I happened to have, including Internet Explorer 8. I was surprised by the results, but I really should not have been.

First, all the other browsers:

Safari

Safari on the iPod Touch

Google Chrome

Firefox 3.5

Opera 10 beta

And now for the main event. Since Microsoft claimed that they have followed standards with IE8 I was actually expecting a reasonable score. But that clearly was a mistake. I forgot that Microsoft doesn’t care about product quality, when lying is so much easier. Below is the pitiful IE 8 result.

Internet Explorer 8

I noticed that the Compatibility View button was available. So, just for fun, I clicked that. And what fun it is.

Internet Explorer 8 in Compatibility View

A word to Microsoft. We know you suck. So just stop lying about it. You are not a market leader because your products are good. You are a market leader because you lie, scam and cheat. Shameful really.

Yes it is true. The king is dead. The king of pop that is. It was his ticker. It went pop. And the media has gone into meltdown. They are interviewing everyone. The guy who saw MJ cross the street in ‘84. The guy who cleaned the toilet when Mike went for a pee in ‘87. Also, the dog who sniffed the pavement that Jacko walked on in ‘93. The most exciting part of the media coverage for me are the words “and in other news…”

It has been a while since the last set of trip posts. So here is one straight from the plane on the way to happy San Francisco. More will follow from Phoenix as well as the Grand Canyon.

After extensive coverage of the European trip, I did drop the ball a bit on travel reporting. I had made a trip to a physics conference in Adelaide, but I never finished writing the blog post about it. In case you are wondering, in Adelaide they still party like it’s 1959.

At the start of the year there was also a visit to Hobart. But I never even got around to starting writing about that. All I can say is that a visit to the Cascade Brewery is a must and due to severely bad weather we didn’t make it to the Cadbury Factory tour.

But now I am going international again and no this is not a reference to ‘that’ Tom Jones song. It will be a short trip that will include San Francisco, Phoenix and a quick visit to the Grand Canyon. I was very busy prior to departure hence a lot of the trip will have to be planned ‘on the fly’.

Due to turbulance we were not allowed to get up so it took some time before I could get the laptop. Now there is a giant queue to the toilet as well. Surely they could keep it in for a 16 hour flight. It’s just a test of determination and commitment.

So far this trip has had a few firsts for me. I booked the whole trip over the Internet. Then before departure I did the online check-in thing. I have to say the Internet has made the whole process a lot more civilised. Then we got to the airport ahead of time without any issues, which was a first as well. But the biggest surprise was when the lady at the check-in counter changed the seat bookings to give me an ‘exit seat’ (seat next to the door which has 1.5 meters of ‘leg room’) because of my size. I had stopped asking for a special seat since the airlines were never that helpful, but the lady at United has been a life saver.

The first leg of the trip was a flight from Melbourne to Sydney. That particular plane then continues to LA and terminates in Chicago. After arriving in Sydney we decided to have lunch. This proved a costly decision, with a simple Chinese rice meal costing $14. Everything else was also ridiculously expensive, which quite frankly looks like extortion to me. However having lunch there was still a good idea since the ‘lunch’ that was to follow on the plane was more like a entree sized meal.

We boarded the flight to San Francisco, which originated in Adelaide and terminates in New York. This flight was a lot more full than the Melbourne to Sydney leg. I still have plenty of leg room which really is the only thing that matters to me. I also seem to have been given an interesting honour. When the US president flies aboard an airplane the call sign of course is Air Force One. This flight has a call sign E71-heavy, where heavy literary means the plane is heavy, clearly indicating my presence on board. For those interested in air traffic control chatter United offers a special treat by broadcasting all of the calls on one of the audio channels. However, unless one is familiar with the abbreviations and acronyms the whole conversation sounds like gibberish.

There is one more thing I might mention about flying United. Do not rely on the on-board entertainment system to entertain you. There are no individual screens and half way through the flight the system is still broken. It does have an 80 music channel though, so I am happy.

Now it’s time to get some work done. I shall report again once we get to Frisco. Yes, Frisco. I prefer that abbreviation to the one I keep hearing, namely San Fran. I’m sorry but San Fran sounds so gay.

After more than a decade, I bought a new computer game. I unpacked it. I installed it. The game didn’t start. I was able to fix the game, but the IT support at EA Games is permanently kaputt.

Installing games (on anything really) on a Mac is very different to the Windows experience. For the vast majority of applications it simply means copying the application from the DVD to the computer. The reason for this is that Apple’s operating system has a very different design to Windows. Or more precisely, Apple’s operating system has a design.

After installing the game I discovered that I could do nothing with it, because the operating system insisted that the application was not “supported by the architecture”. After double checking the game’s system requirements I was satisfied that my computer was indeed enough to meet the needs of the game. A bit puzzled by the computer’s stubborn refusal to even consider starting the game, I contacted IT support at EA Games. I described the issue and soon got a reply. All I had to do is turn off all other applications. Then force quit all other processes. Now, how this was supposed to help I had no idea. What was more puzzling is just how I was supposed to kill the OS process whilst still using the OS. This game was becoming mysterious. It only runs on a computer that doesn’t run anything else, including the operating system.

Since this “expert” help wasn’t doing much to help I started to look into the issue myself. In the meantime I emailed back saying that the suggested solution did not solve the problem.  I discovered that the problem lies with the way the game was ported from Windows. The Windows file system is not case sensitive, and whoever ported the game to OS X didn’t bother being consistent on that front either. OS X however does have the ability to tell the upper case letters from lower case letters. And the reason why the game didn’t work was simply the fact that the names of some of the configuration files did not follow OS X capitalisation conventions. My short term solution was simply to run the game from an external hard-drive which was formatted with a case-insensitive file system. In the long term I will have to give my internal drive the same case-oblivious nature.

But EA Games had more “helpful” suggestions. They suggested to make sure that the OS is up to date. They also suggested that if I have an unsupported computer architecture to unplug all external devices. Yes, the game won’t start because the speakers are plugged in. Finally I also needed to make sure all the permissions were set properly. Interestingly, none of these suggestions had anything to do with the symptoms I described to them.

I have decided not to inform EA Games about the nature of the actual problem. The reason being is that they are obviously not very interested in customer service. Sending me random suggestions hardly constitutes IT support.

There was just one more thing. The game also has a patch that needed to be installed. I tried installing it and of course failed. After some inspection of the patch I discovered that the patch is trying to “fix” files that are not actually included with the game. One line in the script was trying to delete a Thumbs.db file from one of the folders. Apparently someone forgot to get rid off it when the game was ported. The actual problem though is that someone did get rid off it at some stage, and forgot to note it down. Very difficult to delete a non existing file.

A few days after all this I got an email request to fill in a survey about the EA Games Customer Support. I will leave it to your imagination, as to what my response was.

Well there you have it. I was just trying to inform my large following about further exciting things in my exciting life, when twitter.com died completely.

It seems still some way to go when it comes to reliability. They also need to react quicker to the damn thing going down. It took some time before they put up a message informing us that twitter is down for maintenance. I guess I am starting to collect these now. Here it is: