Is it me who's the crazy one....

or is it everyone else? When you encounter things like this, you wonder. Especially when you see some other bloggers' responses, especially Brad DeLong who ought to know better. Apparently it's ridiculous to, uh, switch off the computer when you aren't using it. Why would anyone do anything else? Do these people really think it's a good idea to leave them running all the time - I mean, do they leave the lights on all the time?

Personally, I don't see it's a valid criticism of PC/Windows technology that if you leave it running (and presumably connected to the internet) continuously for no apparent reason it will eventually become unstable. What happened to treating expensive and complex machinery with, ahem, respect?

But then, the Ranter is so far behind in technosnobbery it's pointless to try. Not only do I use - refined shudder - a Windows PC, I connect to the net via an NTL line. Unfortunately I can't offer any of those amusing "Shouting at NTL tech support" stories because it never breaks down. Ever. They do, for some reason, appear on my bank statements as "NTL South Wales" when I don't live anywhere near South Wales, but frankly that doesn't keep me awake at nights. I have never had any problems at with WinXP or SP2, have never had to alter the registry or do any of the other horror stories. Is it perhaps that I don't visit porn sites, online casinos or anything else silly? Or that I use a firewall, don't open spam, and run virus scans weekly?

It's not that hard. Grow up.