Saturday, May 31, 2008

Advanced Technology Madness

About to air a pet peeve here. As appreciative as I am of the miracles of modern technology, specifically the PC and the Internet, and as cognizant as I am that it is simply amazing that a little machine like my laptop can do and access so much, why is it that with all our techno-sophistication we have not perfected ways of running these systems securely? Every day it seems there is some new weirdness going on inside my laptop, some new executions that I (at least) have not asked it to perform that it has taken it on itself to perform anyway. And every day there are glitches and bizarro happenings at some of the websites I use or visit frequently.

Look, my refrigerator does not rebel against me. My television does not seem to have a mind of its own (well, maybe with Tivo). My car is not invaded at night by nanobots who take over the controls. But all those things, roughly, do happen frequently in the world of computers.

And keeping up with all of this could be a full-time job. As an end user, I am expected to be aware of viruses, worms, trojans, spyware, adware, malware, unwanted cookies, tainted websites, keyloggers, hijackers, zombies, registry problems, etc., and to know the fixes for each. I could install and/or run dozens of anti-virus, anti-adware, anti-spyware, and anti-hijack programs, firewalls, spam blockers, registry boosters, site advisors, defraggers, Microsoft patches, and so on -- but, oh, I also have to remember to always keep their definitions updated too. It's exhausting, and even when you do all of it, it maybe fixes a given problem about half the time. Right now (among other issues) I've got a nasty little "web rewards" pop-up that no anti-adware or anti-spyware program I've run seems to recognize. Why oh why can't I simply press a button on my computer labeled "Clean-Up" and have it all be done? Is it in no one's best interests to fix this system?

I'm afraid I know the answer to that question.

Let me trot out one more example of what drives me up the wall. If I go into my Windows Task Manager to check on processes, the names of the .exe programs are so completely arcane and non-communicative that I have no idea what is doing what, so how would I know what to delete or halt when I've got a problem? Oh sure, I can do Internet research on this, only to find that legitimate and illegitimate programs frequently have the exact same names, and that my computer often can't help me figure out which is which, and that even if I delete programs they are set to re-install themselves automatically (I've actually watched this happen).

For all its miraculous abilities, my laptop simply doesn't present me with a very reassuring picture of human tendencies.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Patrick, You might consider getting a mac. Spyware and addware are much bigger PC problems than mac problems. That could change over time as the mac increases market share, but for the time being it's something to consider.