It is no secret that I have a love/hate relationship with technology. I enjoy hardware, immerse myself in the use of computers and now tablets, and do my best to integrate any bit of applied science into my life where it is feasible, whether it is purchased technology, or something I have created. I suppose you could call me a "gearpunk". Where the hate part comes in is dealing, mostly, with "planned obsolescence" and the overall human quality of wanting to fix things that aren't broken. I try to live as sustainable a life as possible; keeping things fixed and working as long as possible is my mantra. Anyone who has been around me when I had to upgrade to a new laptop knows how curmudgeonly I can become. I hate giving up on things. Landfills are full of horrifyingly large piles of technology that people just gave up on.
This all being said, I just about threw my formerly faithful tablet into the closest suitable hole I could find, recently, but I should start at the beginning. Two years ago, I broke down and purchased a tablet. I figured that it would be handy for the craft side of our business, as well as keeping track of invoices and the like while I was out on the road for whichever job called at the time. I was slow to adapt to it. In fact, after bringing it home and charging it for the first time, it sat on my nightstand for several days, ignored, long enough to require another charge before I finally picked it up to begin using. I finally acquiesced, though, and began using it, not just for work, but for personal entertainment as well.
Things hummed along smoothly, and I had developed a rhythm with it, turning it on in the morning and letting it "sleep" during the day, so it could dutifully gather my email and messages while I was away from it. Then, one day last week, I came home and woke it up to find a little window that said it had downloaded an OS update. There was one button: Install. That's it. Nothing else. I had one choice, and that was no choice.
What followed was several days' worth of frustrating swearing and restarting and attempts to back up my most recent files before the thing caught fire. The new, "faster, smoother" operating system wouldn't even open itself without freezing or crashing completely; never mind any other aps. Again, I had one choice: No choice. After spending several minutes speaking to a company rep by chat window, the best the tech had to offer me after all their attempts at debugging the problem had left my tablet totally blank and unresponsive was, "maybe it's just time to upgrade".
I was nice. I didn't stick around for the customer service survey.
Isn't that about the way things go, nowadays? Cell phone contracts are generally two years long. Extended warranties on technology purchases are usually two years, unless you spring for a longer term for a much higher price. Some companies aren't so bad, but the place I bought my tablet from wanted just at half the purchase price just for a two year extension (which wouldn't have helped, since it would have expired days before this debacle occurred). Either way, though, technology is designed to last around two years, at which time it is pitched out and replaced by the newest piece of future landfill ornamentation to hit the market. Arguably, you can still fix televisions and cell phones and computers, but it's gotten to the point where the cost of parts is prohibitive in the face of total replacement. Not to mention the fact that many humans, being a product of our "instant gratification" society, would rather not waste the time waiting for a repair. Many, but thankfully, not all.
I did, however, solve my problem. The little tablet that I have used so well for so long is breathing again and, thanks to my experiences with 1980s style computer systems, I had backups of my files with which to restart. I even think I patched a few holes in the OS. Yes, I use technology quite frequently, but days like today are the reason I still use notepads for writing and planning. If a pencil gets dull, you can use a bit of old-school technology to resharpen it in a few seconds, then get on with your damned life. What I had to do today sucked several hours from other projects that I should be finishing right now, rather than ranting about it.
Meh. There's always tomorrow for that.
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