Interesting article from { Kuro5hin } about { The Rise of Online Panhandling }LaNMaN2000 writes: "Recently, the internet has been plagued with a vile epidemic: online panhandling. From the woman trying to leave her husband to the car obsessed college student who is seemingly too poor to even afford his own domain name, it seems that every few days another site is launched with the same theme. These sites do not exist to entertain their visitors or satisfy a psychological need on the part of their creators; they are simply presenting a pitch designed to sell their webmasters as helpless charity cases worthy of visitors' financial support. And, it seems like the same marks who would otherwise be paying to import stolen Nigerian fortunes have embraced these sites as another way to flush their money down the proverbial commode."

Seems this kind of panhandling is geting worse owing to the numerous spammails in my inbox of late, with people relating all kinds of hardluck stories and asking for monetary help...are internet end-users perceived by many to be so gullible to fall for these scams? I wonder...

So much for her Perseverance -- as to her Sense of duty, it evinced itself thus; she liked to learn, but hated to teach; her progress as a pupil depended upon herself, and I saw that on herself she could calculate with certainty; her success as a teacher rested partly, perhaps chiefly, upon the will of others; it cost her a most painful effort to enter into conflict with this foreign will, to endeavour to bend it into subjection to her own; for in what regarded people in general the action of her will was impeded by many scruples; it was as unembarrassed as strong where her own affairs were concerned, and to it she could at any time subject her inclination, if that inclination went counter to her convictions of right; yet when called upon to wrestle with the propensities, the habits, the faults of others, of children especially, who are deaf to reason and, for the most part, insensate to persuasion, her will sometimes almost refused to act; then came in the Sense of duty and forced the reluctant Will into operation.

A wasteful expense of energy and labour was frequently the consequence; Frances toiled for and with her pupils like a drudge, but it was long ere her conscientious exertions were rewarded by anything like docility on their part; because they saw that they had power over her, inasmuch as by resisting her painful attempts to convince, persuade, control; by forcing her to the employment of coercive measures, they could inflict upon her exquisite suffering. Human beings -- human children especially, seldom deny themselves the pleasure of exercising a power which they are conscious of possessing, even though that power consist only in a capacity to make others wretched; a pupil whose sensations are duller than those of his instructor, while his nerves are tougher and his bodily strength perhaps greater, has an immense advantage over that instructor and he will generally use it relentlessly, because the very young, very healthy, very thoughtless know neither how to sympathize nor how to spare.

(Charlotte Brontë, The Professor)

Road Rage, Computer Rage, Internet / Web / Net Rage, Desk Rage and the { "rage" } list goes on...I've seen it happen. Just this week. A co-worker types something into an online form and clicks the submit button. The page times out and said person takes to pounding his fist into the keyboard causing the computer to have a nervous breakdown while myself and others stare on in shock. So let me ask you, have you found yourself at some point or another physically attacking your own computer? Could be caused by a number of things; supposedly faulty internet connections, frozen mouse, virus infestations, websites taking too long to load or your browser not being enhanced with the proper plugins which causes the browser to crash etc. These I understand, are only a handful of problems which have seemingly become a stress factor for end-users within the digital sphere.

Admittedly, I too have found myself verbally raging against the machine whenever I encounter some kind of annoyance, but going so far as to punch and kick the daylights out of it is something I've never been inclined/incited to do. Firstly, it's just not in me to lose control and physically attack the computer or slam the mouse on the desk or any such thing or God forbid! killing it with a sledgehammer or other weapon in similar fashion as { Gary Wilke } whom, earlier this year went to jail for taking out his aggression on his daughter's computer with a sledgehammer. Secondly, I know how much I invested in my 'puter and how long it took me to save the money to purchase it while in college, so I'd rather just refrain from any physical abuse and simply preserve this old baby for as long as I can. Besides, I just cannot afford another one right now. Nevertheless, it seems this kind of rage is steadily increasing. This { Ananova } article highlights some of the reasons why people are increasingly being driven to web rage.

How about "road warrior rage," the kind attributed to mobile computers. { Jesse Berst } explains: "You get your new laptop. It's small and sleek. You're in love. You go on your first trip together...and you hate it. The battery lasts about 10 minutes after charging it, the modem fails intermittently and you discover you can't stand the trackpad pointing device." Is this cause for physically abusing the laptop?

"Road rage mentality has made it to the Web. Folks aren’t just releasing their aggressions on the highways, and when your site doesn’t perform to your visitors’ expectations, they’re apt to turn primal and take a whack at their computers" says the the team at { Grokdotcom } who presents { Moments of Simplicity }, where "folks can defuse their web rage by listening to some soothing music and viewing some therapeutic images."

Related articles:
PC Rage Hits UK
Rediff Guide
Computer Rage