It’s sometimes been said, by many people, that turning the computer off at night and starting it up again is bad, because it puts an undue wear on the processor and components inside when you switch on or off the electric current.

This is almost entirely, completely false.

However, I think, some day, it should be measured the cost of turning Microsoft Outlook on or off. Whenever I come back to work, turn on the computer again, and start Outlook, I just let it sit there for a few minutes until Outlook has stabilized itself. It sort of steps out of the cave like a burly caveman who haven’t had his coffee yet, and who realizes that there’s been a time gap since he last was lucid, panics for a brief moment, and then proceeds to spend the next few minutes rummaging about in a frenzy and doing everything at once, until he finally comes to his senses again and idles back.

It’s pretty much come to the point where I usually start by opening Mozilla Thunderbird instead, go through the mail briefly, and then press the little Outlook button to wake up the caveman. In the meantime, I can go get coffee, say hello to my colleagues, chat a little, and when I come back, the caveman has just about come to his senses again, and I can continue working.

I wish I knew why.