Network's goin' down

Friday evening. So there I was in the bar on the 5th floor at Waterstones bookshop, Piccadilly. I'd just had a tricky job interview and I needed somewhere to sit down, calm my nerves and relax with a beer. I thought I'd pick the Waterstones '5th view' bar as I'd seen that they had free Wi-Fi access and I was itching to play with my cool new n800 Internet Tablet. So I took a seat and ordered a Kirin and a big slice of apple tart to go with it. I tried connecting to the network with the password I had been given. No joy. Hmmm. My refreshments came and the waitress then told me that "the internet isn't working"... Doh! I'd wish I'd known that before making my £7.50 order! Never mind, the tart was very nice.

Today. I encountered more technocrapola. This time it was on the Virgin Atlantic website when I 'checked in' online for my flight to JFK tomorrow. The check-in process was fine but I couldn't print my boarding pass due to a problem on the system. As requested by an on-screen error message I tried again later, and again later. No joy. Eventually I decided to ring their website help desk - 'Our team is looking at the problem. You can print your pass at the airport tomorrow.' OK. I will, if the machine at the airport works properly.

These are just two trivial examples of how people's lives are affected by supposedly integrated bits of modern technology going wrong. It happens all the time. Computers and networks crash. It's a good job that critical systems like aircraft fly-by-wire and missile defence control can't go down like this...

Anyway what am I grumbling about? I'm flying off to American airspace for a holiday in NYC!