Update Ad Nauseum

Update Ad Nauseum: a reader asks…

Why does my computer and all my technology devices constantly need updating? Am I buying lousy products? Can’t the manufacturers do a better job designing their devices?

In a (near) perfect world, we would buy a product and it would work for its entire service life without trouble. And that service life would be long (years, decades?) and trouble-free. But we live in reality and life factors require that consumer technology products need near-constant updates to continue to work. They can’t guarantee trouble-free operation, nor long service life – because there are too many variable factors that keep these products from performing as designed. The parameters are constantly changing.

Why is it this way? Well, there are criminals out there trying to steal things – money is the big motivator. Your personal data and information has value, and your inadvertent actions that compromise your digital life has even more value. If a criminal can get you to buy bitcoin or gift cards and deliver them, or can get you to divulge your banking information, or give them access to your online accounts, they get money. Plain and simple.

That motivator drives criminals to look for and poke holes in every bit of consumer technology that you and we all use. Your product manufacturers have to try to keep ahead of this, and those updates, patches, and upgrades are the only way they can. It’s not that the manufacturers created lousy products (although there are lots of those out there as well), but that the landscape is shifting constantly, and whatever they craeated has to shift to compensate. Here’s a metaphor:

Let’s say you build a pool. You hire someone to survey your back yard and they assure you that the ground is stable, and you hire someone to install the pool. It looks beautiful and you enjoy your pool. Then, an earthquake happens, or a huge rainfall, or some other calamity that disturbs the ground, and the pool develops problems. You can’t blame that surveyor, nor the installer for the event that happened and was beyond their control, can you? So you have to pay to have the pool repaired. Your technology is a little better than that pool, the software and firmware can be updated to fix the problem, and lots of software can be repaired if it gets damaged.

The other issue is service life. Each piece of consumer technology has a defined service life, and your actual device may last longer or shorter than that lifetime. The manufacturer can’t control your usage, nor external factors that affect that service life, so they only warranty the product for a set period of time. That service life (and warranty) are based primarily on money. We all want to pay the least amount for our devices, so the manufacturers have to try to design their products to fit the cost model. When dealing with reputable manufacturers, you generally get decent value for your money. At the low end, there are many disreputable manufacturers who create cheap products that aren’t worth anything, yet they sell them anyway. This is the world in which we live.

So buckle up, buttercup, and do those updates. It’s part of the price you pay for living in that world. For your computer, update the operating system and all installed software regularly. That usually means running every application you have installed (whether you use it or not) and checking for updates. I work this into a monthly routine: in the last week of the month I do this to every computer and device I have. It’s a (necessary) pain well worth enduring.