Difficult but Boring

On the sitcom Frasier, Niles found learning ballroom dancing "difficult but boring". In the past week I have set up multiple versions of PHP to run on one Windows server, while a friend has installed a new operating system and hard drive on his laptop. Both qualify as "difficult but boring" - so much so that my friend (hi Peter!) unwittingly quoted the TV show.

On the other hand, I'm learning a bit of Japanese, where the "two" in "two people" is different from the "two" in "two things", and that "two" varies depending on whether the things are flat, small or long and thin. That's difficult, but I find it amusing as it makes English seem positively simple by comparison.

This ought to be a test of any technology you're asked to master. Is it inherently boring, fixing a problem that ought not to exist. Or does it open up possibilities that are interesting?

I just succeeded in demonstrating my code for talking to SQL Server Service Broker. Difficult? Certainly. Boring? Too soon to tell. It might be cool, if my clients' IT departments are welcoming of the technology.