computers - logical or illogical?

As I have gotten older, the rift of my love/hate relationship with computers has been growing. Every day I feel like spending less time with them. But let me explain something first. I practically grew up with computers. I wrote silly programs in BASIC with colors, faux conversation and midi tones when I was ten years old. I build my own computers. I program websites. I get my news from the internet instead of the TV. In a nutshell, I am "mister computer".

However, things are getting out of control. On certain days, I spend more time trying to make my computers make sense than I do using them to make my life easier. I've narrowed down the problem to a simple case of logic. If computers always acted logically, their performance would be predictable and they would prove themselves to be a useful tool. However, over the years, as the computer has expanded its foothold into every other part of our lives, it has become anything but predictable. There are inconsistencies, incompatibilities, and dare I say gremlins. As a result, someone like me, who "knows" computers, ends up hating them.

Here's an example. I was working on a multitrack sound file the other day. It was complex. There was a lot going on, but my laptop was handling everything like a champ. The next day, I opened up the very same file and it was hiccuping every other second. What gives? Nothing changed between then and now. I struggled for half of the day trying to troubleshoot the problem (with no success) before finally giving up on it and working on something else. I went to open it up the next day and guess what? It worked fine. To me, these are the times when I feel like throwing my laptop through the wall.

Yesterday, I was working on a new website design which incorporated small flash buttons beside MP3 links. I was using the free XSPF music player combined with a javascript that automatically placed the flash button beside any MP3 hyperlinks (similar to Digg's playtagger). It was working great until I started to fidget with the page design a little. Suddenly the flash buttons disappeared. It turns out that you can't set your background to position:absolute and have flash function properly on the page. What does the background CSS have to do with flash, you may be asking. I have no idea, but after searching a bit I discovered that this is a fairly common problem and that it has been a problem for years.

As much as I loathe working through these types of computer quirks, there is a bright side. We are not alone. Google can provide links to solutions if you don't mind spending half a day sorting through the results and trying the suggestions that others with similar problems have received.