[corona]

A few months ago, I bought some used car parts online. The dealer -- a big outfit -- gave me two choices. Either register as a customer, with promises of lots of good things -- or just fill in my name, address, and basic credit card info. And get my darned car parts. Minimum fuss and bother, maximum customer satisfaction.

Yesterday somebody recommended a book to me, "The Windup Girl." The author's got it available online, for just a few bucks, so do the right thing and everybody's happy, with no top-hatted, stogie-smoking, corporate middleman.

Great. Then I go to the site, which is webscription.net. I'm sick of having to "register" every time I turn around on the internet. Answer a whole bunch of questions, miss some, fill some in in the wrong format or something, do it over a bunch of times and have the machinery forget each time what I've already filled in, pick a username that's already taken and have to start all over again, get the "capcha" wrong and have to start all over again... and anyway why do they all need to know so much about me?

Why can't I just take out my credit card, or call forth my PayPal account, and be done with it? If a junkyard can do it, why can't other online retailers?

Anyway, I didn't buy the book. Too much bother, and the weather's still nice enough to go out and work on my car.