Skip to main content

Software's Unfinished Songs




How would you like it if you bought your favorite bands new album, and although it cost you $400 you paid it because you love them and need this album to keep your life meaningful in this tech-filled world. But, when you go listen to the album you find that some of the songs are incomplete. Upon further listening you discover that there's sudden interruptions in the middle of songs, in-which you can hear the band talking about what they should play there. They fiddle with a few guitar riffs then say "Awe. F**k it. Let's just move on! We have to get this out by next month." They continue, and the record company releases it like that anyway.

That's what new software releases have been like for some time now. Unfinished songs from an album that you paid $400 or more for.

How do we deal with these "unfinished songs"? Well, for me, most of the time when I have problems with my computer or cell phone, I search the internet for a solution only to find other people who are lost in the forest of internet forums, asking questions, not exactly like mine, but similar to mine. And there's nobody answering them, or the answers are basic, like "Try restarting it." Or, the answers can be ridiculous "My cell-phone was doing almost the same thing as yours but I put it in a zip-lock bag then stuck it in the freezer for a couple of hours. It fixed mine right up!"

I wouldn't stick a $400 piece of technology in a freezer. And if that's what fixes it, then I have a disproportionately engineered four hundred dollar piece of shit.

Anyhow, I think part of the reason there are so few answers to peoples technical questions is because even the people who work for the software/hardware companies know that the complaints they're getting are for the current version of things, which will be obsolete in a year or less. So, why waste time becoming an expert at it and trying to fix it, right? Soon they're just going to release a new version to sell to you. And, you'll probably buy it because you need the upgrade that fixes all the shit that is wrong with the version that you purchased and have now.

Is this how it's going to be from now on?

Because, if so, I'm going open source, because then at least the software problems that I have will be from software that is free.

www.goliathflores.com



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

School and Home School

  Oh my. I don't have time to write this. So it will be as follows:   1. What is school for? I think that Seth has a good grasp on this at the bottom, see [1] 2. There's an ongoing debate about homeschooling vs. public schooling. 3. I agree with most things about home schooling. Which is why I take the view that my kids are home schooled 5 days a week, from 3pm to 9pm, on the weekends, and all of their vacation time. 4. Home schooling should feel like art, it's enjoyable (largely), so don't worry about overloading the tone of "school" in it. 5. Everyone's situation is different: (a) Some of us have checks coming to us from the government that give us all day to do as we please. (b) Some of us have to work long hours every day to survive. (c) Some of us have a spouse that gives us all day to do with as we please. (d) Some of us are the spouse that gives the other all day to do as they please. etc. 6. Thus, our ideals aren't applicable to everyone. 7. Th...

Open Eyes

It's difficult to manage contradictions It's distressing to see data that contradicts your beliefs It takes courage to challenge your assumptions It takes humility to acknowledge your human fallibility, and change your mind. I argue that you've not opened your eyes to the fullest without this. I've found that people run from ambiguity, and that the desire to escape ambiguity is a strong and hidden source for addiction, dogma, and procrastination.    

Closed Open Minds

     To be open minded means that you entertain all arguments. ALL of them. That's when you realize that many people who told you that they're open minded are actually not, because they'll judge you for listening to an opposing political argument, or for lending an ear to someone from another religion. I think that it's a mistake to think that we can all like each other sometime in the future. That would require a considerable amount of hegemony, and that's the opposite of freedom, that's the opposite of open mindedness. Freedom isn't rainbows and unicorns, freedom is complex and can be dangerous, and scary. In the woods, an armadillo wanders off into the road, and someone else's freedom paved a road, and ran right over it while freely traveling from one city to another. Perhaps, the root of many of our social issues has to do with the inability to sit with discomfort. The way that tribesmen had to sleep, with bears, and lions, or giant ants, and snakes ...