Accelarated Obsolescence!

I get a rather aggravated by how often IT manufactures have over the years introduced "New Editions" of products when the old ones were still working perfectly. In most cases they persuade us to get the new which are supposedly more sassy and avant garde and of course.new to the market. I am currently using MS Windows 10 Suite at work, which replaced Windows 7 and Prior to that Windows XP. To be honest I do not get that much difference other than the icons (for example representing the folder)are different. The programs' ribbons on the component programs are mush more elaborate on the 10 giving us more ways of using the programs. Like many other unfortunate consumers of these products, I have to re-learn to navigate a program I  have used for years. But many of the bells and whistles  are rarely used by a mundane computer user. Microsoft (the manufacturer) and the computer vendor shall we say Best Buy, will tell us that after all they are all bundled in the suite. By the way many of the programs on the suite new or old are NEVER used by a mundane computer user! How often does he/she use MS Infopath; MS Groove;  or MS Onenote or even MS Publisher! which are found on MS. Office Suite.

To view accelerated obsolescence from another angle, I have just thought about how many cell phones my family and I have thrown away in the last six years many of which were still working well.. I was on the New York subway one day and I observed a gentleman in a nice suit using my first edition cell phone and it was working properly! Such stubborn reluctance to waste products is not peculiar to New York. I visited a relative in Germany about three years ago and I had to use their underground metro in Bonn. To my surprise, again a well dressed gentleman was using our first edition Nokia cell phone! It was also working perfectly or so it seemed.

Is there a conspiracy theory among manufacturer and marketers to promote consumerism at the buyers expense? By the way, there is a host of other products in our markets that fit this theory. Perhaps respondents to this blog will provide us with some.

Akai


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Your Cash In The Bank Security??!!?

Last Friday, I went to my bank one of the mega ones and the bank officer asked me about my online banking. I asked "what online banking"? She went on to remind me how she had told me, may  be two months earlier about doing all my transactions online. I said oh that one! I replied that I had mentioned how I am really uneasy about it. Then she said with a demo that you use our secure site the "https" and all that jazz.

My response was have  you ever heard of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange? I said do some home work, do some Googling with a phrase such as "has the US Department of Defense ever hacked?" Or replace the DOD with Microsoft corporation or Norton or such other IT gigantum and realize that if any body really wants your account they will get it. Second, if your computer has spy ware, hackers hack into the divine "https" as you. What is the moral of this muse? Surf with caution, because nothing is really safe!

Akai

Is information technology the savior of all human ills or is it the cause of many of our mega human problems?

As I drove to work this morning I mused at some of the issues that appear to be generated by IT. I have worked in the field most of my life on this planet, but sometimes I feel like getting off it. Yes, I can technically lock or open my house from my office from my office, but I dread the disaster if some crazy geek picks up my private code! Do You also know that IT vendors do set the life of your product even before use it?

The IT Googlemma

Just to add to to my earlier reflection on IT and how it virtually controls our lives. As I drove to work this morning, I again thought of all the information we get from Google, Mamma, Dogpile, Excite and the like. Do you realize the level of intellectual chaos it brings to the layman, how to sift all that chuff and get the gem one is looking for? Can Real information professional come to our rescue?