Email Oct 13, 2005
Why do people use ISP email addresses?  ISPs like Optimum Online, Comcast, Verizon, Netzero, Juno, and PeoplePC give you an email address when you sign up for their service.  Why do people use that?  You can pretty much guarantee that you won't stay with that ISP your entire life, so you'll eventually have to send out an email to all the people you know that says, "Hi, I got a new email address because I moved.  La la la."  Instead people should use free, web-based email like Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail.  (Actually, just Gmail.  Yahoo has big banner ads and Hotmail has always been low quality.)  This way, you won't have to change your email address when you move or change ISPs. 

I work for essentially the largest, most powerful company on earth.  Yet my email storage space amounts to a whopping 50 MB.  That's about as useful as Hotmail's 25 MB (with the possibility of 250 MB, or the possibility of death and dismemberment, whichever comes first).  You'd think that, y'know, since we're the most powerful and influential nation on earth, that maybe George W. could beat up some geeks and get a few more MBs for my nonsense emails.  Or you'd think that some of the idiots I work with would stop sending big huge emails that are full of pictures and junk. #technology
Catastrophic failure Oct 13, 2005
I find it impossible to ignore the possibility of catastrophic failure.  I'm not sure if this is from being an engineer, or if it's because I'm not a kid anymore.  When you're a kid, you're invincible; nothing bad could possibly happen to you.  But now that I'm a "grownup", I'm always afraid something terrible is gonna happen to me.  Whenever I go to Great Adventure, I have a hard time enjoying the rides because I think about what could go wrong.  Not stuff like, "Oh the ride might not work."  Stuff like, "This metal death train traveling at 120 m.p.h. could so easily lift off the track and go careening into the cold, hard earth that it would make my body literally pop."  As I was on top of the world's tallest, fastest roller coaster, it was really cool, but I was thinking about how much it would hurt if we fell from 456 feet in the air.  Or imagine if a bird happened to fly in front of us as we were going 120 m.p.h.  It wouldn't just bounce off us, like in the cartoons.  It would most likely decapitate someone.  These are the things I think about. 

Recently, I decided to try to almost sorta get in some sort of semi-shape, so I ate some Ho-Ho's and went for a bike ride.  But as I was gaining speed going down the hill near our house, I couldn't help but think about what would happen if I hit a pothole and flipped the bike or if I slipped off the seat and became a woman.  Of course I can't just enjoy the ride or concentrate on being healthy.  I think about the worst possible things happening; catastrophic failure.  Why do I think about these things? #psychology