I was working at my laptop this morning and getting more and more frustrated. Has this ever happened to you? Not the “working at the laptop”, but the “getting more frustrated” part. This is not the first time frustration has reared its pitiful head and I’m sure not the last. There will be other episodes. After all, we are dealing with technology. This technology is always moving forwards, always improving, always striving to be faster, and to do more for those willing to learn how it works. There are upgrades to the operating system, upgrades to the programs installed, new programs to install, patches to make programs work, downloading, configurations, systems, drives, icons, trojans…and the list goes on and on. It seems I want the computer to do one thing or another and, now, I just have to figure out why it’s not doing that “one thing or another”. Oh, I’ve certainly had my share of program glitches, and maybe even your share. I’m now rating my frustration level on a scale similar to those used in hospitals. The yellow smiley face is used to indicate no pain (Harvey Ball, the designer of the smiley face symbol, is probably smiling right now), following through with various degrees of emotion to the other extreme which is a crying face used to indicate excruciating pain. I am trying not to make it to the crying face level on the FRUSTRATION  SCALE. I am searching for answers earlier in my dilemmas. I have found one website that has close to 15,000 messages chocked full of questions and answers to just about any computer “issue” that comes up on your screen. It’s also interesting and educational just to read through the threads listed there.   http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/page1 

To learn more about Harvey Ball:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Ball