Houston, we have a problem. Let's say you're an astronaut risking your life in outer space. You're brave enough to trust that your craft won't burst into flames and that your ground control crew can get you through any potential tight squeezes. But would you feel comfortable knowing that your safety and welfare is relying on Windows? We thought not...

Yes, according to a Reuters article kindly pointed out by faithful viewer Jerry O'Neil, apparently it's not enough that the Discovery crew is risking life and limb to repair the Hubble telescope-- NASA's also making them deal with Windows and its attendant bugs. Apparently the shuttle crew is able to receive email sent by NASA, which is used to "transmit some vital information" as well as to send hometown news to help ward off homesickness. But all was not well when the crew tried to retrieve their email a couple of days ago: "It's just coming out as x's and o's," reported astronaut John Grunsfeld. Luckily, that particular message was just a hometown news update, and not some of that afforementioned "vital information." The actual important data did get through-- though the crew had trouble getting it to print.

The article doesn't go into detail about what the crew had to do to get their email and printer working properly again, noting only that "Grunsfeld struggled with the Windows-based application and a balky printer for much of the morning." Shadowy and incredibly unreliable AtAT sources assure us that Grunsfeld spent over forty-five minutes on hold after calling the printer manufacturer's tech-support line-- and long distance charges from space are murder. So much for your tax dollars going to good use. All we can say is this: if NASA ever starts sending incredibly sedentary and out-of-shape television producers into space, we're not going until they let us use Macs. The last thing we need is to be missing the majestic beauty of seeing the earth from space because we're fiddling with IRQs after Windows plug-and-pray futzes with a registry setting.