After a yet another hi-tech bug, I realized something:
Hi-tech hates boundaries.
For example, I need the newest version of Flash Player to operate a piece of software. I'm using the software for some very good reasons religiously speaking, and not to watch action films or something like that.
Yet while it does install, I can't figure out how to enable it. And just knowing that it needs to be manually enabled (which was not indicated anywhere during the installation process) took several days of back-and-forth to discover.
During this time, I've been in touch back-and-forth for over a week with some very nice service people online to figure out this problem, but nothing helps.
I have a feeling that something in my computer or browser is blocking Flash Player, but I have no idea what, and neither do they.
For some reason, I always find software issues to be the most exasperating, but I'm trying to put this in the frame of mind that this obstacle is better than a million dollars because everything Hashem does is for the best and He hasn't sent me a million dollars, but has sent me technological malfunctions instead, so this is excellent.
Also, I much prefer this to Grad missiles from Gaza.
Actually, as far as problems go, an unable-to-be-enabled Flash Player is the ideal nisayon. So many more things are worse than being blocked from my beloved item of software, I'm grateful that this is my nisayon and not a million other things that would be worse. And frankly, I feel petty for even gritting my teeth about it.
Likewise, I recently paid for and downloaded another much-lauded piece of software that doesn't work on my computer, even though it worked very well for a friend of mine living in the same area. I have a feeling that my filter is blocking it from working right, but there is nothing to do about that. And so far, the developer is ignoring my polite requests for the guaranteed 30-day refund if I'm not completely satisfied.
And with this second software, the download itself wasn't straightforward. It tried forcing me to sign up for DropBox until I contacted the developer and he (or more likely, a virtual assistant pretending to be him) immediately sent me a screenshot to show a tiny box at the bottom with fine print that would allow me to side-step DropBox (even though that wasn't clear from the fine print and I couldn't have known this for sure without the developer informing me).
Hi-tech doesn't like boundaries. It doesn't like fences.
Judaism loves fences.
Judaism insists on fences and strongly encourages fences even when it doesn't insist.
But hi-tech loathes fences of any kind.
If you turn off cookies, a whole array of options becomes closed to you.
If you're not signed into Google Apps, you're blocked access to certain applications.
If you try to use a program to hide your identity, your computer often slows down.
You get duped into clicking a box to sign up for yet another service or download another application if you want to download the service you've ordered.
And some programs "punish" you for using someone else's browser (which is a fence against their browser market) by refusing to work fully or even work at all.
If you turn off cookies to prevent spying and tracking and infiltration, if you sign out of an application, if you have a filter against pritzut, software against viruses, or a security plug-in -- or even the basic standard Windows Firewall, then at some point, Internet technology says, "Open that gate, bub, or you're going down."
I have the same love-hate relationship that many people have with computer/Internet technology. Frequent computer crashes and Windows's Blue Screen of Death aren't in the distant past. Yet I also experience the same "can't live with it/can't live without it" dynamic that many others have.
But while I've struggled for years now with this love/hate, grateful/resentful relationship with hi-tech, it's only with this latest aggravation (which is better than a million dollars!) that the light bulb went on.
Hi-tech hates fences.
Hi-tech works best when you are logged in, signed up, penetrable, trackable, visible, defenseless, and wholly unprotected.
And it punishes you when you aren't.
Food for thought.
Hi-tech hates boundaries.
For example, I need the newest version of Flash Player to operate a piece of software. I'm using the software for some very good reasons religiously speaking, and not to watch action films or something like that.
Yet while it does install, I can't figure out how to enable it. And just knowing that it needs to be manually enabled (which was not indicated anywhere during the installation process) took several days of back-and-forth to discover.
During this time, I've been in touch back-and-forth for over a week with some very nice service people online to figure out this problem, but nothing helps.
I have a feeling that something in my computer or browser is blocking Flash Player, but I have no idea what, and neither do they.
For some reason, I always find software issues to be the most exasperating, but I'm trying to put this in the frame of mind that this obstacle is better than a million dollars because everything Hashem does is for the best and He hasn't sent me a million dollars, but has sent me technological malfunctions instead, so this is excellent.
Also, I much prefer this to Grad missiles from Gaza.
Actually, as far as problems go, an unable-to-be-enabled Flash Player is the ideal nisayon. So many more things are worse than being blocked from my beloved item of software, I'm grateful that this is my nisayon and not a million other things that would be worse. And frankly, I feel petty for even gritting my teeth about it.
Likewise, I recently paid for and downloaded another much-lauded piece of software that doesn't work on my computer, even though it worked very well for a friend of mine living in the same area. I have a feeling that my filter is blocking it from working right, but there is nothing to do about that. And so far, the developer is ignoring my polite requests for the guaranteed 30-day refund if I'm not completely satisfied.
And with this second software, the download itself wasn't straightforward. It tried forcing me to sign up for DropBox until I contacted the developer and he (or more likely, a virtual assistant pretending to be him) immediately sent me a screenshot to show a tiny box at the bottom with fine print that would allow me to side-step DropBox (even though that wasn't clear from the fine print and I couldn't have known this for sure without the developer informing me).
Hi-tech doesn't like boundaries. It doesn't like fences.
Judaism loves fences.
Judaism insists on fences and strongly encourages fences even when it doesn't insist.
But hi-tech loathes fences of any kind.
If you turn off cookies, a whole array of options becomes closed to you.
If you're not signed into Google Apps, you're blocked access to certain applications.
If you try to use a program to hide your identity, your computer often slows down.
You get duped into clicking a box to sign up for yet another service or download another application if you want to download the service you've ordered.
And some programs "punish" you for using someone else's browser (which is a fence against their browser market) by refusing to work fully or even work at all.
If you turn off cookies to prevent spying and tracking and infiltration, if you sign out of an application, if you have a filter against pritzut, software against viruses, or a security plug-in -- or even the basic standard Windows Firewall, then at some point, Internet technology says, "Open that gate, bub, or you're going down."
I have the same love-hate relationship that many people have with computer/Internet technology. Frequent computer crashes and Windows's Blue Screen of Death aren't in the distant past. Yet I also experience the same "can't live with it/can't live without it" dynamic that many others have.
But while I've struggled for years now with this love/hate, grateful/resentful relationship with hi-tech, it's only with this latest aggravation (which is better than a million dollars!) that the light bulb went on.
Hi-tech hates fences.
Hi-tech works best when you are logged in, signed up, penetrable, trackable, visible, defenseless, and wholly unprotected.
And it punishes you when you aren't.
Food for thought.
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