is waiting for hours on the phone to speak to someone to fix something that cannot be fixed online, while listening to a computer urging over and over again to instead visit double u double u double u dot to perform all sorts of things online, never able to relax the attention lest the computer voice should suddenly be replaced by a human barking hello twice in rapid succession before disappearing forever.

It adds to the irony of this particular instance that the task is registering for FOCS, price tag $780 (this includes early bird discount).

In Italian, this would be a type of “joke” called “Il Colmo” which doesn’t exactly translate to irony. “Colmo” literally means “full to the brink” but also figuratively “the end” and “the last straw.” I would write the title as “Il colmo per un informatico.”

An online search reveals the difficulty of translating this word into English:

il colmo della maleducazione -> the height of bad manners

essere al colmo della disperazione -> to be in the depths of despair

essere al colmo dell’ira -> to be in a towering rage

e per colmo di sfortuna… -> and to cap it all …

è il colmo! -> that beats everything!

questo è il colmo! -> this is ridiculous!