Low tide, Arnside

Two buoys at low tide, Arnside, originally uploaded by Bay Photographic.

These mooring buoys, used by yachts in the summer, are attached to 'sinkers' made from concrete filled car wheels, which embed themselves in the sand, and become completely immovable after two or three passes of the tide.
As a highly effective and decidedly low tech solution to the problem of anchoring a yacht permanently, enabling it to ride out the wildest storms and the highest tides, this appeals to my Luddite instincts enormously. Despite making my living in IT, and having little fear of computers, applications or operating systems (except DNS), I have always admired the utilitarian and the functional. My million pound dream garage even includes a series one Land Rover and a Willy's Jeep.
In fact, I think that the Technology Resistance Movement at work probably have a point when they tell me that the world would be a better place without computers, that the IT industry deliberately sets out to make itself inaccessible and that people who work with computers should get out more (and not waste their time filling imaginary garages).
So, even though I am upgrading my computer this week so I can use Photoshop without making the lights go dim, I still harbour a wish that I worked as a lamplighter or a wheeltapper, and that the tools of my trade lasted a lifetime rather than being rendered obsolete by a new version of Windows.