%$#^&!*# computers!

http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/04/12/wo_delio122404.asp

Now this could be the basis for an interesting metric for the HCI community, rage incidents per year.



Judging by past survey statistics, Norman figures that roughly 10 percent of all new computers and tech gear given as gifts over the holidays will be seriously injured over the next few weeks in frustrated fits of rage.

Ontrack Data Recovery agrees that the holidays are an especially dangerous time for computers, but notes that technology is never really safe from the wrath or reckless whims of their owners.

Last year the company was asked to restore data from a laptop whose owner had placed the machine in the toilet and then flushed several times, a computer that had been used as a punching bag to relieve the owner's frustration with its sluggish performance, and boxes that had been fried by power surges, squished by falling steel beams, and run over by airplanes.

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