Though I am beginning to ask myself why. There always seems to be something I should be doing to this machine besides actually working. Whether it is updating drivers to make my hardware care about my software; or updating my software because what was sold to me to begin with was not quite right or whether it is updating my Operating System which was sold with a hundred faults.
And I find myself hoping that one day I will have a HAL because even a psychotic computer would be an improvement on a locked, crashed, slow, add infected burnt out modern pc. And this is all from binary code feeding through electronics. I fear for my grandchildren (if I ever have any) and what the brilliant minds of this generation will invent to improve their working lives.
It is wonderful when these things work. It is awful when they don’t and you spend a whole day trying trying to find out why, and if it is not some thirteen year old who put a virus on your computer that got into the Bios it is a conflict between your cherished software package that actually helps you, and the sturdy, most robust Operating System ever without which there is DOS.
In a way it reminds me of nature. Take away the most insignificant insect you can find, and guaranteed you will discover after six months it was vital for keeping down aphids, or its dung helped keep spores thriving that killed off honey bee viruses. My whole career rests on code I do not understand and suddenly cannot live without.
It is so much easier to make a cup of tea.