My computer is blazing fast. They say it has several million times the computing power of the ones that scientists used to put a man on the moon, even though it’s only a fraction of the size.

I need all that power because I buzz along at over 20 words a minute when I type, and I watch a lot of cat videos on Facebook when I’m not playing Angry Birds or Words With Friends, something people could only dream about in the ‘60s. Back then, we couldn’t download apps that tell us where all our friends are and what they are doing every single second of every single day. With all that time on our hands, why not plan a trip to the moon? It’s not like we have something better to do.

But even with all that progress, we have problems the old-timers never had — like when I say, “Hey, watch this,” and call someone over to my computer. The video I want to share with them will refuse to start. Or it will say “buffering,” or it will just sit there as if the keyboard is disconnected. As soon as the person walks away in disgust that I have wasted 15 seconds that he could have been spending on Facebook, the computer returns to normal.

It makes me realize how lucky those guys were to make it to the moon at all. What if their computer worked perfectly during thousands of hours of tests and then, when the astronauts got into space, it suddenly started acting like mine, all shy and coy? I wonder if there’s a word for it. The InterNot?

If only it were just the computer. I also have a radio that squawks and hisses every time I come near it. As soon as I move away, everything is fine. It’s like owning the world’s worst theremin.

I have a GPS unit that works perfectly as long as I know where I’m going. But if I’m in a strange neighborhood full of zombielike pedestrians who are looking at me as if I were a succulent, aromatic, hot-off-the-grill steak, the thing won’t work at all. I don’t have a clue whether the next left turn goes into a dead-end alley or just a gang-infested, open-air drug market.