Just when I thought there’d be nothing to distract me from a bit of work (which has, in recent times, disturbingly and rather inexplicably become something of a guilty pleasure) I had to encounter a yellow icon in my Azureus under “DHT Firewalled”, which means two things: one, that somehow, somewhere, I’m getting restricted on my torrent speeds and two, that I’m destined to spend the next two hours attempting to fix it.

Attempting. I haven’t fixed it. Neither updating my Java runtime, nor going through endless checking-and-unchecking in the options area, seeding and re-seeding, port forwarding…Ah. I give up. I have pretty decent speeds going, and I shall treat this as a moment of Zen realisation, where I content myself with already-satisfactory speeds, and shut out the din of what-ifs and imagine-what-your-speed-could-bes.

Speaking of computer-tinkery, I fear I might have to give up my casual affair with recreational nerdery and become a professional nerd. By this I mean having a licence to kill…with my technical prowess. Forget the popular cousins of gaming and the now-trendy Linux business. I’m talking hardcore knowledge of the technology, trends and the vendors that move the business.

All because each member of the editorial staff were asked to choose an area of IT specialisation and mean it. I’m talking having a monthly column, becoming the resident authority, working up to availing ourselves to speak at related events.

Unsurprisingly (and now worryingly), I chose operating systems and open source, in a slight haze over my recently kindled love for Ubuntu Linux. I realise now this is like buying a car and suddenly deciding to crown yourself the all mighty sheikh of piston-engines.

Besides, operating systems means I have to be on top of all things Microsoft and Apple, to boot. Perhaps I’ll call for help, from time to time, on this space. I know a couple of you would have lots to contribute. And that would be truly open source.