Dear Microsoft...

Please stop back-revving my video drivers on Patch Tuesdays. It's really distressing to come down on a Wednesday morning to the sound of the fan whining on my laptop because the system is so busy having to restart crashed video drivers every few seconds. It's really distressing to discover that what you thought was plenty of time to get up, get showered, get breakfast and get out the door to be in the office early is actually going to result in being late because you have to re-find working video drivers (all while coping with a system made mind-bendingly slow by the constantly crashing, back-revved video drivers).

The really interesting thing about all this, however, is that, my auto-update settings seem to get overwritten, every so often. As a rule, whenever I get a new computer, I specifically change my "recommended settings" from auto-update to the "auto-download but manually apply" option (so as to avoid these kinds of morning debacles). If I'm going to have to deal with a potentially unusable computer - particularly one I use for work - I want it to risk becoming unusable at a time that's convenient to me, not just whenever Microsoft wishes to push out patches that fuck me over.

*SO* Not Reassuring

Why is it that every time a manager tells me "all your jobs are safe" I think "time to start looking for a new gig"? Even if a manager is trying to allay anxieties that are stemming from something that is well and truly innocuous, it just tingles your spidey-senses all the more. I mean, historically, such "assurances" invariably act as precursors to negative employment actions. Personally, if there's nothing to fear, said managers should just keep quiet. Offering such reassurances just makes the more career-experienced individuals start looking for new work in earnest.