And I'm not referring to that great British "institution" ... the "beat bobby" - a rare breed [when you need one] these days. Nor am I talking about the "battle-weary" officer who "never" struck Ian Tomlinson ... causing the latter to keel-over and expire.

No, ... I MEAN nothing less than my Personal Computer - a Microsoft 'Windows Vista' - purchased at PC World in June 2008.

The problem is difficult to describe ... especially for a non-tech geek like me. But for some time now - especially since my internet provider tiscali.co.uk was take over by 'TalkTalk' - the service has been abominably sluggish. Then, conversely ...when it finally DOES get going ... the monitor screen seems to about after a while, becomes hazy - and posts I've put a lot of thought and effort into, suddenly seem to disappear altogether - before the system returns to "dead slow & stop". This weird "behaviour" appears to intensify whenever I'm typing a longish spiel ... and, today in particular, it's been having a profoundly deleterious effect on my already frayed nerves.

So if, as many believe, computers are capable of being almost "human", I daresay they must get "tired" too, through overuse ...!