On April 29, I'll be discussing Over The Air updates to computers. You can listen in to the free webinar put on by the Technology and Maintenance Council, a trade association I've been part of for more than 25 years now. The focus will be on updating the software in the many computers on a car or truck. That got me to thinking about all the other things we do to keep up-to-date, and some of the problems. Let's look at it in the areas of software, physical, personal, and professional.
SOFTWARE
I've got multiple iPods, iPhones, and iPads, three Apple TV’s, a MacBook Air, a MacBook Pro, an iMac and I'm waiting for my pre-ordered Apple Watch. All are helpful, but are constantly being updated. It's easy when it's done overnight with no problems. It's a bit more cumbersome when I have to initiate the update or the computer needs to restart. It's bothersome when the update creates new problems that I have to live with or work around until the next update to fix the update that was supposed to fix or improve something. I'm dealing with the worst of it with the change from iPhoto to Photo. It is literally taking days to update and move all my photos to "the cloud" and bringing my internet connection to a crawl. I went to the Apple store to discuss what was happening. The guy said it did take time to upload his 2,000 photos--about 3 hours. He was shocked to learn I had over 100,000 photos. I now turn the update off in the morning and only let it run at night. I think we used to call it batch processing.
PHYSICAL
I intentionally did not call this hardware, because we might limit our thinking to computers. Certainly, we might update our memory or processor or peripherals on a computer. But, there are many other physical things we update. For instance, I'm looking at getting some new suits because they do wear out and they go 'out of style' even faster. We are updating our refrigerator/freezer this week because the old one in the garage is not working as well as it used to, and the new refrigerators have new features and functions that my wife wants. Next, we'll be looking at the coffee maker that is no longer brewing the right amount per cup. Repair it? How does anyone do that anymore? One more example. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we've already been cutting our grass for a couple of months, when it's not raining. It's time to update the blade on my lawnmower, either by sharpening and balancing it, or getting a new one.
PERSONAL
What are you doing to update you? You probably watch the news to get an update on what is going on in your community, the country and the world. You check the sports scores for your favorite teams. Maybe you read or listen to a meditation to update yourself spiritually. Many people check Facebook to get an update on what is happening with friends and family.
PROFESSIONAL
What books are you reading to update your knowledge and skills? What courses are you taking on-line? What trade magazines are you reading? You’ve got to keep up-to-date on what’s happening at your business, in your job and for your career.
Nothing stands still--and you can't either. Keep Up-To-Date.
