Just when I was beginning to think...

...I might be just another ordinary mortal, I managed to use Knoppix, a CD-bootable version of Linux to load the NTFS partition on my Windows machine and correct the dates of large group of files that had accidentally been created with a date far in the future. These incorrect dates caused the software I use to do my job to completely stop working, wasting three days as I iterated through dozens of possible solutions before finally finding one that worked. Thanks to Chris for the suggestion to re-investigate Knoppix, which I previously didn't think as able to write to NTFS. Microsoft suppresses info on this file system to make it harder to migrate and inter-operate with anything non-Windows. Extra kudos to the Linux community for finding a way to get it done.

There's an object lesson here. We've got two computers and three operating systems.

I have Windows. What is it doing?
Nothing. It's fucking broken. I can't do my job.
Why is it broken? Because the cheap-ass HP clone I have can't remember what time it is.

I have Knoppix. What is it doing?
Fixing fucking Windows because Windows can't fucking fix itself.

I have MacOS X. What is it doing?
Keeping me sane by playing episodes of Dr. Who after having been dropped from waist height while running at least three times.

And laughing at fucking Windows.