Today you can sing

Why is it impossible to get broken stuff fixed? I don't mean things like air conditioners or elevators. I mean getting broken services fixed. Specifically, I want the self-checkout stations in the main library to accept my card. Since they added a cycle where you have to type in your personal identification number several months ago, my card doesn't work in the main library. It works in other libraries; in the main library, it just reports There Is A Problem With This Account. There isn't. I complain about this about every other time I check something out; usually, I get told that I need a purely numeric PIN, not one with alphabetical characters. That I get the error before being asked for my PIN goes unnoticed, and I give up.

Today, the person at the desk that's supposed to deal with this actually listened to me, and put my card in the machine and it worked; my question, ``So how am I supposed to put the card in the reader then?'' was answered simply with, some machines are more sensitive than others. They'll mention it to the company next time the machines are up for repairs. Somehow I can't escape the feeling this means that my card will continue to not work in the main library.

More happily I just learned there will be a Civilization IV. I had assumed there would be someday; it turns out that'll be this year. (No word on the Mac edition, but that's all right; probably my video card wouldn't support it anyway, a problem that afflicts Railroad Tycoon III for me as well.) One of the Wonders of the World is a space elevator. I wonder if I can downshift from Europa Universalis II-class games, which have on the order of 200 nations in play simultaneously, anymore. It features audio quotes from Leonard Nimoy, though.

Trivia: The Saturn V's J-2 rocket engines had 112 various seals. Source: Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles, Roger E Bilstein, NASA SP-4206.

Currently Reading: Pogo's Will-Be That Was, Walt Kelly. mongologue reminded me that I haven't read it in ages, and I couldn't think why I haven't.