It was day four of a week long intense standards writing session. As Sandy and I reviewed documents to look at how we were presenting technology in the standards, Barb came in cradling her laptop like a fallen comrade. It had fallen and a crack in the display rendered the computer all but useless.

The screen, however, hemorrhaged spectacular blips of light. When another committee member pressed the screen with a forefinger, the screen spewed color like a fountain of brilliance. As much as I felt bad about the loss of work for the group and of personal equipment for Barb, I was transfixed.

A husband in another timezone was called by one committee member. An LCD was pulled out to reroute the computer’s display. My own productivity came to a halt.

As the majority of us stood around prodding and suggesting and generally not able to do a whole lot about the situation, I was reminded of the calamities that befell the travelers in the Apple II rendition of the Oregon Trail of my youth. Is this the Oregon Trail of the Digital Era? Had our axle broken? Had we failed to successfully ford the river? Improperly squandered our resources?