Updated again

My laptop computer is brand spanking new, not quite two months old. It is fast, versatile and up to date. I should not have any trouble or concerns with this sophisticated equipment produced by some of the best techno minds. One would expect that it should last a long time and serve my purposes for years to come.


Think again.

In the few weeks since I began utilizing its features to store, correspond, search, file, revise, innovate, track – oh, so many tasks – I have received a couple dozen messages from either Microsoft, HP or Adobe. They invite me, with something bordering on the urgent, to upload a recent “update that addresses customer issues and/or security vulnerabilities.” Were the engineers really so inept as to be unable to predict such issues and vulnerabilities? How is it possible that so many matters requiring regular attention would not have been anticipated by the production team at some point in development and manufacture? Here is one site’s reply to the question – mine too – about the manufacturer’s insistence that cooperation by the customer-user in updating is important:

“If the update is not a critical update, do not run the update immediately after it has been released. In some rare cases Microsoft discovers issues with its updates after they are first released that may cause your computer issues.”

Hmmm… “if not a critical update”… And who am I, pray tell, to decide what is critical or not? The widespread distrust of the industry’s ability to build quality and durable equipment has one more consumer who is inclined to agree. Please, this would happen whatever model one buys. Perhaps the heart of the problem is Microsoft. That means the vast majority of home computer users will continue to suffer the inconveniences that simply do not let up. But I digress.

Is this not one more illustration of our collective incapacity to demonstrate expertise by crafting items with which we can all be satisfied, both the producer and the consumer? The “ground” of our efforts to produce the goods to sustain us is unquestionably diseased, cursed if you will. The best we can do still requires an update, modification or revision. In contrast, when the Creator God had completed his work of crafting the universe, and the planet earth in particular, he is reported to have pronounced himself absolutely satisfied with his finished product. His creative effort was complete, absolutely perfect and totally effective – “very good.”

I might add a thought or two, but I need to reboot the computer in order for the latest update to be properly installed. And then I will have lost my train of thought.