Warning: it sounds like it could be one of those posts about teambuilding (there is no I in team, etc) but it isn’t. What you see is what you get with me. No subtlety, no metaphor, just a blog post about a missing letter. And how bad technology is – but most of my posts eventually get round to that anyway.

Churchill once talked about Russia being “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”. Computers are the same for me. I first used one when I was 29 and less than a year later finished my computer education, such as it was. Eventually I bought an Amstrad word processor then, after a few false starts, what now seems like a massive desktop computer. I never did learn how to use one properly.

Last night I read some blog posts and tried to leave a comment on one by LA. It went OK but I noticed the “i” wasn’t working. So I didn’t leave a comment and changed keyboards. Still no “i”.

Missing letters are a constant hazard in my typing because I use a home-made docking arrangement for my laptop since the desktop froze up on me.   Unlike those sophisticated set-ups you see on Amazon, mine uses several yards of USB cables, a keyboard balanced on a tupperware box and a scattering of junk. This often causes what I call “differential pressure” on the keys. Or in other words, it wobbles.

If you subscribe to the view that a cluttered workspace is a sign of high intelligence (I know this is true because I read it on the internet) I assure you that my workspace is close to genius. However, if you believe in order and cleanliness and self-discipline you will be deeply alarmed by what you see. Best just to gloss over this and move on.

For those of you with nothing better to do than look at badly taken pictures of untidy desks (the lighting is “all wrong” as we professionals say) I have enclosed a shot at the bottom of the post.  The top shot is Cromer Pier, which is tidier and more sophisticated.

I checked it out on Google, and found that I was able to write “i” in the search box. So I tried Open Office, and writing a post on WP. They all allowed me the use of the “i”.

This morning, reading a post by Paol Soren, I found I was still unable to type “i” in the comments. As you can tell, I have no difficulty in writing it once I get back into my post.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Does anyone have any idea how to fix it?

That’s a slightly sanitised view – I removed the pile of letters from bank, and NHS as they warn you about displaying this sort of stuff online. OK, and the screwed up food wrappers. But apart from that and the fact that this is just, like an iceberg of chaos, the tip, it is a fairly accurate picture.