I've ranted about this before, but I just can't help but do it again. I absolutely despise the fact that most applications (except browsers and FTP programs) that perform operations over the net do not have a stop command. The worst offender is SQL Enterprise Manager. Let me describe a typical session with EM....

I open it up with the desire to browser a local SQL Server box. I accidently click on the wrong one. The one I happen to click on is a remote box. EM pings the server. And I wait. And wait. While this happens, the application becomes frozen. You can't do jack with it. You can't cancel. You can't open another SQL Server instance. You're stuck.

Another fun example. You right click on an instance so you can update the properties. Every right click is a remote call. If you move your mouse while the call is being made, the right click menu will most likely disappear as soon as it displays.

There is absolutely no reason for all of this! Why not simply perform remote calls only when necessary? As a developer, I don't mind having stale data as long as I know it (via visual cues), especially if it means I don't have to deal with crap like I described above.