You realize that SMS is a standard, don't you?

There are no mobile email applications that have the ease-of-use and ease-of-entry of even crappy text message applications. Users don't care about the underlying tech, they just want it to be easy -- with text messaging they don't have to set up any account information; it's just there.

There's often no "To:" field to deal with, and there's no "Subject:" -- fewer blanks to burden the mind with. You pick who you want to send a message to and you send it. Or you reply, and don't have to think about what to quote and what to remove. Text message interfaces are built for streamlined back-and-forth between participants; email interfaces are not.

Again, I'm talking about interfaces -- the underlying technology doesn't matter. The tech is just a codec for what the user's saying.

(My bona fides: geek married to a geek for 8 years, in the relationship for 10.)

What does this even mean in the absence of socially defined gender roles? Please. To use your later example -- in my relationship, sometimes I'm the crazy one and she's the rock, and vice versa. Sometimes we're both a little crazy -- and that's problematic, but we both always know that it will pass.

This may be true for you, but it is not a generally true fact. Of course, I'm self-selecting against this kind of behavior -- anything like the "relationship testing" that this describes is purely disingenuous, and I believe that dishonesty of this sort is one of the most likely causes of relationship death.

I was diagnosed with ADD the year I turned 25. I was a straight-A student until high school, where I finally got a B. Then I did relatively well in college. My mental function is not a symptom of the educational system.

You only say this because you have not experienced the cognition-halting static that sometimes goes along with it, or the scattered thinking that can lead to thinking about, well, anything else during sex, or the loss of 8 hours because you were too focused on something, or the experience of physical pain while standing in a long line.

It is frustrating that anyone, anywhere, thinks that ADD is about attention, or that it's a deficit of anything, or that it's a disorder. It's about a lack of the ability to consciously control your thought processes that most of the people in the world take for granted. It is just how my brain works, and it can be useful or it can be harmful. It just doesn't fit with how our social structures are set up.

(I focus on the attention-oriented aspects above because these are the ones that people have a hope of understanding. The impulsivity is by far the worst symptom, but it's hard to explain in a way where people don't immediately jump to "Well, just don't do that," as a response.)

I am right there with you on the "I should really be able to concentrate on having sex" point. It's frustrating on a level that cannot be imagined by people who haven't experienced it.

This is exactly how both my wife and I use meds to help manage our ADD. There are some days where the ADD effects are honest-to-gods useful, and we don't want to clobber that.

You want either Adderall (an amphetamine blend), Ritalin (methylphenidate, technically amphetamine-derived but more like cocaine in its chemical action), or some other stimulant therapy. You do not want Strattera or any other SNRI, and you probably don't want Wellbutrin (which they might try to prescribe though last I knew it was technically off-label). Adderall works best for me (a combination of extended release and short-action), and Ritalin works best for her. I'm not personally familiar with any other stimulant therapies and haven't researched it in a while, so there may be other things out there.

Both Adderall and Ritalin are short-acting -- the extended release Adderall wears off after 6-8 hours for me, and about half that time for the non-XR version.

Good luck.

Wait, what?

I've had a number of legal prescriptions for straight amphetamine. I've had more for dextroamphetamine, and still more for an amphetamine/dextroamphetamine blend (Adderall). We eventually went to the Adderall because I had serious focus crashes when the straight stuff wore off -- there's a much calmer come-down on the blended form.

You've assumed that Nethack is part of the popular culture, which is an assumption that I don't think would be borne out as correct.

"probably wasn't influenced at all by Rogue/Nethack/whatever" is a bit farfetched. Especially given that there are items in the game that directly reference Nethack (cf. Worthless Piece of Violet Glass).

Except the Hellenic reconstructionists.

s/consecutive/cumulative

The only computer that is guaranteed to be secure is one that is encased in concrete and dropped to the bottom of the ocean.

So I guess you're right.

This is mostly wrong. XP/Vista/Win 7 are NT derivates. NT was "designed from day one to be [a] networked multi-user OS". Whether they were done poorly or not is a different issue, and not a question that can be factually answered.