I just got back to my desk after lunch and saw the usual screen saver there. Tried to log in by entering my password. It said "Authentication failed". I tried again, then noticed something odd- it rejected me with the first press of a key instead of waiting for the Enter key to be pressed.

Since I run linux, I pressed Ctl-Alt-F1 to get me to a text screen, logged on as root and disabled the screen saver. Back to the graphical screen and it has kicked me out. I log on again and now, opera tells me it already has a running version of it, but I tell it to load anyway. Now it tel;ls me there's an error with the mail reader. I tell it to quit, go back to the text screen and kill all opera processes.

Then it gets REALLY weird. The keyboard decides that Ctl means 8 and that Alt means nothing much at all. All my symbols are re-mapped to some foreign key board. The screen goes blank and than fills up with 8s as I try to use Ctl-Alt-Del to reboot.

Eventually I resort to bully-boy tactics and hit the power button.

The computer restarts and everything is back to normal.

I know that sort of thing happens in Windows, but this is Linux!!! We don't do random lock ups and "blue screen of death"

Computers- don't you love them? At times they can be so unpredictable- just like people 😀

Blessings

Keith