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Increasingly unreliable computing
Sep. 10th, 2017 07:17 amFrom day to day I live with all manner of computer-related irritations. For example, in logging into Dreamwidth just now with Firefox 55 the autocomplete popup appears over the text field so that it just slows my typing or makes it impossible for me to see what I have typed or occasionally grabs the focus so I altogether miss a letter. My work laptop hangs on every shutdown because SysVinit support already means so little to Debian that for months now this is simply how it interacts with one's also using eCryptfs. (I am tempted to switch distribution to something less assimilated by the RedHat-Borg but I do try to keep my work machine fairly mainstream.) I now have badblocks failing on a within-warranty brand-name drive and I am still determining if it really is because of the drive or the kernel's USB driver code given that the latter has shown other imperfections on my Intel hardware. This is all despite my not making decisions before carefully reading many reviews, not filling systems with random needless cruft, trying to avoid unusual configurations, etc.
I feel as if my time is increasingly wasted by computers simply not doing what they are supposed to. If the trend continues then my personal computing will eventually be held together by so much that smells suspiciously like glue and string that it will become untenable. What particularly irks me is that I know that things were different twenty to thirty years ago: I had previously mentioned how software bugs were once rather more surprising and less obvious, also hardware kept trucking on for years. It is not that I was inexperienced: as an undergraduate I was already invoicing businesses for various IT consultancy. I know that things have since become more complex, more featureful, cheaper to produce; I just doubt that it was worth it. I shall someday become a crazy old man who bores his grandchildren with his hazy recollection of an ancient golden age in which computers actually used to work correctly and comprehensibly, at least until they stop visiting me.
I feel as if my time is increasingly wasted by computers simply not doing what they are supposed to. If the trend continues then my personal computing will eventually be held together by so much that smells suspiciously like glue and string that it will become untenable. What particularly irks me is that I know that things were different twenty to thirty years ago: I had previously mentioned how software bugs were once rather more surprising and less obvious, also hardware kept trucking on for years. It is not that I was inexperienced: as an undergraduate I was already invoicing businesses for various IT consultancy. I know that things have since become more complex, more featureful, cheaper to produce; I just doubt that it was worth it. I shall someday become a crazy old man who bores his grandchildren with his hazy recollection of an ancient golden age in which computers actually used to work correctly and comprehensibly, at least until they stop visiting me.
