Sometimes I really despise technology. For all its wonders and merits, sooner or later it turns around and bites you in the butt. Case in point: Mailblocks, a spam-blocking service I have loved and written many positive things about, has swallowed countless e-mails over the past week. It was only yesterday that I actually realized there was a problem. What potential assignments and/or urgent messages have I missed from editors? No way to know. The mail just isn't getting through. So I've had to take Mailblocks out of the loop--and now I'm getting the regular deluge of foreign-language spam and virus-infected mail.

Meanwhile, I'm reviewing a new photo-album application (though it's not really new--it's version 5), and it's absolutely terrible! The interface is unintuitive, it has problems getting photos from memory cards, and its print features are just plain confusing.

On an unrelated note, I'm now amending my opinion of Third Watch from "really good show" to "most underrated show on television." It's better than ER ever was, IMHO.