{"id":74,"date":"2014-05-05T02:57:24","date_gmt":"2014-05-05T08:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jayctheriot.com\/bbs\/?p=74"},"modified":"2014-05-05T02:57:24","modified_gmt":"2014-05-05T08:57:24","slug":"the-importance-of-keeping-your-system-updated-or-upgraded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/?p=74","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Keeping Your System Updated or Upgraded"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are several reasons that an electronic device needs to be updated regularly.\u00a0 Here are a few:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. System stability<\/li>\n
  2. Security<\/li>\n
  3. New features<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    1.\u00a0 System stability:\u00a0 Programmers are not perfect.\u00a0 We all make mistakes, either in design or in implementation.\u00a0 As the complexities of software increase, so will the ability to maintain a good, stable code-base.\u00a0 For this reason, updates are published, addressing issues that can slow down your system over time, burn your hard drive, blue-screen or just not work properly.\u00a0 Updates try to address these issues.<\/p>\n

    2.\u00a0 Security:\u00a0 Vulnerabilities exist in every piece of electronic equipment you have.\u00a0 Period.\u00a0 Everything has a failure rate.\u00a0 People are out there with the sole purpose of hacking into your system.\u00a0 Once they penetrate one device, should you have the same username\/password on anything, else, they own that too.\u00a0 Vulnerabilities need to be plugged to address these vulnerabilities and lesson the incidence of identity theft, spam-bots, and other elements of cyber-crime.\u00a0 Yes, your little unpatched web-cam, computer, tablet or dvr can be turned into a hub of cyber-crime without you even knowing it.\u00a0 Updates are released to stifle this type of activity.<\/p>\n

    3.\u00a0 New features.\u00a0 This area can be sometimes frustrating.\u00a0 We all know change is bad.\u00a0 It forces us to learn new things.\u00a0 Sometimes, I wish I were still using my C=64 to browse the web… However, progress is progress.\u00a0 We cannot move forward in life if we do not accept change.\u00a0 This goes the same for electronic devices.\u00a0 New features can be exciting, frustrating or both at the same time.\u00a0 Updates sometimes are released to give the device new capabilities, sometimes they actually remove capabilities to be better in-line with legal issues.<\/p>\n

    One recent update to Windows XP was simply a notification that support was ending on April 8, 2014.\u00a0 (If you are still using XP, your next stop should be http:\/\/www.dell.com<\/a> or any other place that will sell you a new system.)<\/p>\n

    There is a difference between an update and an upgrade.\u00a0 Updates address issues within a system for various reasons.\u00a0 Upgrades replace that system.\u00a0 Microsoft Windows XP is one example of a forced upgrade.\u00a0 Everything has an end-of-life for support.\u00a0 Many items are unsupported before you leave the store with them.\u00a0 Microsoft Windows XP was supported for 12 years.\u00a0 A lot has changed in the computing world in 12 years.\u00a0 Enough is enough, time to move on.\u00a0 Nevertheless, official Microsoft support for that operating system is gone.\u00a0 Now, the fun begins with cyber-crime as this element of our society is hard at work trying to identify these systems and exploit them.\u00a0 XP will increasingly be the target of Zero-Day Exploits.\u00a0 You can google that term or wait for an upcoming post on this website, but the end result is that if you have an XP system connected to a network, you are now part of the problem by giving “them” a launchpad for evil.<\/p>\n

    I love my Amiga and C=64 emulators.\u00a0 I do not use them to do anything of significance.\u00a0 They are there to entertain me and take me back to the roots of my programming experiences.\u00a0 I would hope that you will move out-dated systems into this category of your life.<\/p>\n

    In closing:\u00a0 All modern systems have a method of updating.\u00a0 As a responsible Netizen, your duty is to learn how to do this and then do it.\u00a0 Microsoft Systems us Microsoft Update or Windows Update (depending on your system’s configuration).\u00a0 Different Linux distributions have their own methods of updates.\u00a0 (yum update, apt-get update\/upgrade, etc).\u00a0 Apple products operate through the App Store or iTunes.<\/p>\n

    It is our duty to keep these systems and our information safe.\u00a0 If we don’t learn the fundamentals needed to use these systems properly, we are slightly better than the criminals exploiting them.<\/p>\n

    Thanks for reading.\u00a0 J<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    There are several reasons that an electronic device needs to be updated regularly.\u00a0 Here are a few: System stability Security New features 1.\u00a0 System stability:\u00a0 Programmers are not perfect.\u00a0 We all make mistakes, either in design or in implementation.\u00a0 As the complexities of software increase, so will the ability to maintain a good, stable code-base.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-microsoft-products","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayscafe.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}