You have the operating system.  You have your web browser - maybe it’s Firefox or some other extensible browser running half a dozen or more add-ons.  Maybe (like me) you have the Thunderbird email client, also with several add-ons installed.  Then there’s iTunes, Acrobat, Flash, Office - not to mention all the apps you’ve installed on your iPhone.  All in, you could easily have a dozen or more pieces of software, all regularly ‘phoning home’ for updates and alerting you to install them  - it all gets to be a little much at times, doesn’t it?

It reminds me of the signs I occasionally see taped to the doors of broken shower stalls at my gym:  “Improvements in Progress.”  You have to admire that level of spin, but it’s just a little disingenuous, isn’t it?  Similarly, at times it’s tempting to resent the constant stream of updates and patches we’re getting prompted to download and install as merely fixes rather than ‘improvements’ - it seems as though the software is the one industry where’s acceptable to sell a flawed product and then take a year or two to get it right, doesn’t it?

I know.  But ignore these prompts at your own peril - especially on any internet-facing software (i.e. operating systems and browsers) or on any attachment-handling software (such as Acrobat or Powerpoint) - because these days, chances are good that pesky update is more about security than any bug or programming error.  We might as well get used to it, because with our increasing transactional reliance on the internet and the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between the good guys and the bad guys, we’re all having to become our own IT security departments.  And it’s really not that bad - the developers are doing their part by releasing these patches, it’s up to us to do ours and install them.  In fact, running out-of-date software is one of the most unnecessary (and easy to rectify) risks you can take; it’s akin to running without the NAT insulation provided by a home router or without a software firewall in place.

Think of is as the price we pay for the convenience of online retail and banking.

Oops - this is unbelievable - as I just typed the previous sentence, Firefox just prompted me to install the 3.0.8 update and restart!

I rest my case.

And now I have to stop typing and update my browser - which I will do, because it’s a jungle out there….