Monday’s Musings 4: enough with the updates and new releases… at least for now

Hey guys,
Steve here.

For a while now, I have wanted to become a software developer when I grow up. I was thinking about maybe working for microsoft, or even starting a software company of my own… however my opinion is slowly changing.
Earlier this evening, I had to downgrade my screen reader to an earlier version. The reason this had to be done is the same as the reason I will most likely not become a programmer–the rapid speed that technoligy is being updated, and new pieces of technoligy are released.
This particular screen reader (software that turns what’s shown on screen into speech) allows for the use of extra voices. My screen reader was updated twice in 3 months, thus the add on for the voice I wanted was no longer supported, so I had to downgrade to use that voice. With technoligy going this fast, by the time I were to develope software, it would already be outdated.
Another prime example of the rapid advance in technoligy is windows OS. Windows 8 and 8.1 were both released with in a year from each other… so software made for windows 8 had to be made compatible with windows 8.1 shortly after it was developed. If you ask me, I believe that the creators of these technologies need to slow down just a little bit–because the more frequent technoligy is updated, the rate that software becomes outdated and/or not compatible with the new technoligy will increase. And eventually, if the rate that technoligy advances continues to go up, software developers will decide to quit making new software, because it will be too hard to keep up with new technoligy.

Right now, you might think that I am being just a bit irrational… however I have two examples of software developers discontinuing their software due to the fast pase of technoligy development. First, let’s consider a mozilla firefox extention that was used to enhance the accessibility of webpages. As we Mozilla Firefox users know, Firefox used to update quite a bit. The developers of this extention called Web Visum (visum is vision in Latin) decided to stop working on the extention all together, because they just couldn’t keep up with firefox updates. Aditionally, although a small insignificant piece of software, that voice for my screen reader is still outdated, because the developers of it haven’t had the time to make it compatible with the latest version of my screen reader.

So having read this post, do you see what I’m talking about? Do you agree that the development of technoligy needs to slow down? Because after all, I’m sure your phone and computer are still good, even without all the unnesisary updates and tweeks.

Thanks for reading,
type you later,
Steve.

3 thoughts on “Monday’s Musings 4: enough with the updates and new releases… at least for now”

  1. Yes I do think they need to slow down. First, they put way too many bells and whistles that are mostly unnecessary and if they would just hang on until they had a few really important changes, then it would be better. Second, all those features are not on everyone’s best interest, such as how iOS 7 is horrible for low vision users. And they had one update right after the other. That’s dumb!
    However it’s always been this way with technology. It isn’t going to slow down I don’t think….
    I can definitely relate to your frustration. Hang in there Steve!

  2. I’m with you Steve…..they need to make sure that it works before they release an update and that’s a major problem…..unfortunately when it all boils down, it’s all about the MONEY. People will always buy the newest software with the bells and whistles…..personally, just give me something that works really well with no blue screens of death!
    Anyway, Steve, Happy New Year!

    1. Yeah. And the fact that on windows 8 you get people, messaging, sports, mail… all that stuff that I personally don’t need. Granted I like windows 8. But as you were saying about IOS 7, there’s already IOS 7.0.4… and it’s not any better as far as accessibility goes. That’s why I’m still at IOS 6.

      On 12/31/13, Steven D AKA Severe Storm Steve

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