During the 1990s, Whitney Houston acted and sang in three movies, to diminishing returns as a popular recording artist. Early in the decade, she starred in and recorded the vast majority of the soundtrack for The Bodyguard, alongside non-singer Kevin Costner, and the result was one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time, in which at least two covers (Houston’s version of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” and her version of Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman”) became smash hits. Later in the decade, she performed in The Preacher’s Wife, a role that was at odds with her own life, which was becoming more dramatic involving cheating and drugs with her husband Bobby Brown. In the middle of the decade, though, she was a part of an ensemble cast in the well-regarded movie “Waiting To Exhale,” where she had a notably successful hit with “Exhale (Shoop Shoop),” while some of the other songs on the soundtrack were also successful songs for other artists.
As is the case with Houston’s movie, sometimes events at work are ensemble casts. Today I found myself waiting to install a variety of programs on my work computer which I received in September before heading out of the country. To be fair, the laptop itself is perfectly fine. It is a bit small, but it is fast and works reasonably well, within its limitations. The limitations of the laptop, though, are the common ways that companies do not often do a good job trying to make sure that employees are able to do everything they need to do, and it appears that for at least a little while, and possibly some time, I will need to use two work computers to get everything I need done at work because the new one cannot do everything I need to get done on its own. Considering that a substantial part of my day was spent trying to get connected to network drives and I am still not connected to all of the drives I need to be (including the connection to the files to upload), nor do I have access to all of the e-mail addresses I need, it will be interesting to see how I am going to have to switch back and forth between laptops to get everything done that needs to be done. It is unclear when all of these bugs will be worked out, but I suppose we’ll see it happen at some point, I hope.
One of the aspects of contemporary technology that has often left me cold is the way that companies like Microsoft (responsible for the files that I was waiting to install this morning) are continually programming patches for their software to deal with the exploits that others find in it. The battle between companies and the people who seek hacks and vulnerabilities in them is somewhat similar to the battle that goes on inside of organisms between various species and the viruses and bacteria that infect them. Every time one or the other of the combatants in this eternal war gains a momentary advantage, the other side engages in some sort of self-sabotage to reduce their vulnerability to the mechanisms of the other side, often increasing the sort of problems that the life forms have already, but viewing their struggle with the other side as being more important than their optimal operation. If one can endure the suffering that is required to make a disease less deadly or make an antibiotic less deadly, depending on one’s side, such suffering will be endured rather than seeking the sort of wholeness that would lead to a more enjoyable existence as a whole. The same is true when it comes to designers of operating systems as well as internet browsers and other programs. Vulnerabilities must be stopped, even if that makes programs bloated and slow, and vulnerabilities must be exploited, even if that makes life more miserable for everyone who has to use a computer or another technological device.
Among the more annoying ways in which this battle takes place is in the proliferation of a trend I abhor, two-factor authentication. I abhor this to such an extent that I sincerely believe capital punishment for the people who have developed this technique and who urge it upon websites and networks and enforce it upon users is an appropriate means of discouraging such a practice. As it happens, the two work laptops I have use two different apps that both take up space on my cell phone that are required in order to use them, to provide security codes for the work laptops I have. With alarming frequency, the VPNs for the two computers fail, and have to be re-done, requiring new running of these useless pieces of software. Other websites I have to use on a regular basis require codes to be sent to e-mail addresses (or again, even my phone), that I have to put into them in order to access the websites, demonstration that the people who deal with technology only seek to make the lives of ordinary people more difficult in their endless battle with those who would want to enter into websites maliciously. The law may be made for the unrighteous and not the righteous, but it is always the righteous who pay the price for the exploits and efforts of the criminal classes.
