This morning the desktop computer decided to do that Windows update thingy. Compared to the laptop, this is a doozey. At time of typing, it’s been five hours and it’s showing ninety percent installed. Later; all done in seven hours. End result? For me, same as it ever was.
This got me thinking. No mean feat by the way. If you think about it, all the first iterations of software seem to work really well at doing what you expect it to do - with fine speed. Take the recent Firefox for example. When an updated version was released a while ago, the speed was back up to excellent. The original Windows 10? Before 10, you turned on a computer then had time to make coffee and toast while waiting for it to get going. Then 10 rolled out and it was up and running in almost a heartbeat. Then, quickly but surely, with the usual ‘critical updates’, everything reverted to a snails pace and that’s when I had a thought.
Do you think that the original software is glued together by a jolly cleaver team with the sole aim of producing a bit o’ kit, frill free, that just does what it was intended to do; and does it well? Then, having perfected said program, they hand over the project to a team of young geek fiddlers who have loads of ideas for ‘improvements’ they’d love to see. Improvements nobody else is even slightly interested in and will never use and quite often never even be aware of. All the majority of users will notice is the original program getting more and more bloated and slower and slower. A bit like government in fact.
How many of us are doing exactly the same with our computers that we were doing, trouble free, from the command prompt or the Gem desktop? Does the Web-a-Net look any different through FF 60 than it did through FF 1? Or indeed, Netscape? Do numbers calculate differently through a huge spreadsheet than they did through that spreadsheet that ran from a five inch floppy? Do words string together better using a high price word processor? Me? You have to ask? Yup, for some strange reason I’m a slave to the update.
As of the above, I mentioned recently how poor Google News seems to be after their ‘update’ and since I mentioned that it seems to have gone into a nose dive. As recently as a couple of days ago there was still a link to an item relating to the expectation of hot weather for the early May holiday dated the fourth of May. And the business section? Next to nothing of import at all. You think they’re winding it all down towards deletion?
To close, a blast from the past; your word processor’s got a spell chequer, wright? Reed on...
PoQuo; Amanda Selvaratnam.
I have a spelling checker.
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot see.
Eye ran this poem threw it.
Your sure real glad two no.
Its very polished in its weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.
A checker is a blessing.
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when aye rime.
Each frays comes posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.
Bee fore a veiling checkers
Hour spelling mite decline,
And if we're laks oar have a laps,
We wood bee maid too wine.
Butt now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
There are know faults with in my cite,
Of nun eye am a wear.
Now spelling does not phase me,
It does knot bring a tier.
My pay purrs awl due glad den
With wrapped words fare as hear.
Of witch won should be proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaws are knot aloud.
Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays
Such soft wear four pea seas,
And why eye brake in two averse
Buy righting want too please.
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