Skip to main content

We Blindly Tick 'Accept' - But At What Cost?

Every time I plug it in, my iJobs insists I upgrade its operating system. It requires about 1GB of download to install. After weeks of nagging pop-ups I finally decided to let it run - despite the fact my iJobs has been performing 'normally' up to this point. How easily we forget the countless times in the past when we've 'upgraded' only to discover that we've unleashed system clash hell on our increasingly confused hardware, only to bitterly regret the decision, again and again. But we always hope that this upgrade will solve all our problems - like my iJobs not picking up a mobile or wifi signal perhaps - and delight us with something new and amazing. Make it a better telephone would be top of my wishlist Mr JobsV2.0 if you're reading this.

So I finally give in and click 'OK'. I need to leave it running overnight since our internet bandwidth into the house only permits the occasional lonely passing byte to squeeze down the phone line every now and again. So imagine my unbridled joy to be greeted by my iJobs saying 'upgrade complete'. I was on version 5. I'm now basking in the glories of 6.0. Not everything went well, however. Inevitably it was all too much for my BillSoft PC. It's constant fight with iJobs crashed the new and even less friendly version of iTunes I had previously 'upgraded' (whose 'new' Store, by the way, is still the most chaotic online searching experience you could possibly invent - read this).

So what's new about V6.0 and the 1GB of data I patiently waited for? Nothing. Absolutely nothing I can see except for two things. A useless app has appeared which will apparently contain American Airlines boarding passes (+ Delta or Lufthansa - all other airlines already have their own apps), or discount vouchers - which I always forget and therefore never bother with (will they ever persuade me to shop somewhere I hadn't already decided to use?).

So what else does V6.0 contain that iJobs so desperately wanted me to tick the 'I accept' box? Nothing, it would seem other than offering me the option of reading hundreds of pages of minute text written by legions of lawyers who are paid obscene amounts to make the agreement not only as impenetrable as possible, but also as much in iJobs flavour as it can possibly be without actually promising them my soul.... although I must admit I didn't read every word (has anyone? Ever?), so maybe that was also included.


Footnote. Having written the above, iJobs have issued version 6.1 after only a few days of waiting for that 1 GB of 6.0 to download. A couple of days later (after my iphone refused to update the iOS to 6.1 anyway for a reason related to "software on my phone that needs to be transferred to itunes first"... How you twats? If itunes doesn't do it automatically, there's no way to force it to happen!), I get a text from Vodafone warning me NOT to upgrade!! Now I know you'll be amazed that Vodafone managed to actually arrange for a signal to deliver a text to my phone, so perhaps it's not a surprise that it arrived several days after it should have. The text stated that iOS 6.1 fucks with iPhone 4S 3G phone signals. Clearly this is of no interest to me since my iPhone can't get one at the best of times, but it sort of proves my point that upgrading software is almost always a very bad idea.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for taking an interest.

Popular posts from this blog

Phillips screws - yes I'm angry about them too

Don't get me wrong. They're a brilliant invention to assist automation and prevent screwdrivers from slipping off screw heads - damaging furniture, paintwork and fingers in the process. Interestingly they weren't invented by Mr Phillips at all, but by a John P Thompson who sold Mr P the idea after failing to commercialise it. Mr P, on the otherhand, quickly succeeded where Mr T had failed. Incredible isn't it. You don't just need a good idea, you need a great salesman and, more importantly, perfect timing to make a success out of something new. Actually, it would seem, he did two clever things (apart from buying the rights). He gave the invention to GM to trial. No-brainer #1. After it was adopted by the great GM, instead of trying to become their sole supplier of Phillips screws, he sold licenses to every other screw manufacturer in the world. A little of a lot is worth a great deal more than a lot of a little + vulnerability (watch out Apple!). My gromble is abo
7 comments
Read more

Would we pay more for their stuff?

I'm confused. Brexiters argue the Germans, Italians and French will still want to sell us their cars, so continued free trade with the UK is in their best interests. But we'll have to negotiate this (with an EU unwilling to make leaving easy) by threatening to make their cars more expensive for British people to buy. We'll do this because WE need to make imports more expensive to try to restore our balance of payments. Are Brits prepared to pay more for their Audis, Fiats and Renaults in order to make British cars more appealing, or do Brexiters want to pay more in order to punish them for taxing our insurance and banking products? Either way, imports will cost more. While in the EU, we buy their cars because we like the choice and don't want our own government to tax them. Indeed it would be better for British car manufacturing if we went back to the good old days of being encouraged to buy cheaper British cars (made by foreign owned factories). Is that what Brexite
Post a Comment
Read more

Addictions. Porn, Drugs, Alcohol and Sex. Don't prevent it, make it safer.

In 1926 New York, during Prohibition, 1,200 people were poisoned by whiskey containing small quantities of wood alcohol (methanol). Around 400 died, the rest were blinded. The methanol they drank was in the moonshine they had bought illegally. In fact it had been added by law to industrial ethanol in order to make it undrinkable. Prohibition existed to protect everyone from the 'evils of the demon drink'. However, people still wanted to enjoy alcohol. So bootleggers bought cheap industrial alcohol and attempted to distill it to remove the impurities the state had added, but the process wasn't regulated. The state was inadvertently responsible for the suffering - although it was easy for them to blame the bootleggers and to justify escalating the war. This didn't stop the bootleggers. In fact it forced them to become more violent to protect their operations, and even less cautious about their production standards. Volumes of illicit alcohol, and therefore proportionat
Post a Comment
Read more