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Oil changes, safety recalls, and software updates
- x0x0 9y agoI'll admit to putting off applying security patches because my laptop is a giant repository of state and it's a pita to bring it all back up again. I have to remember how to start postgres, the erb command to make rails work, figure out how my upgrade to bash subtly broke virtualenvwrapper, make sure I didn't accidentally leave anything open in vim in some random window or go through the whining about vim swap files, and dump/restore all the state spread through 20+ browser windows, probably 30+ bash instances, and a couple repls. etc. It's really fucking annoying. Another thing that ate 3 hours of my life recently: post reboot, zoom.us, which previously worked flawlessly, no longer works. I of course discover this as a meeting is starting.
- x0x0 9y ago:s/erb/rvm/
- aargh_aargh 9y agoSolution for you: more frequent updates. Breaks less stuff at a time.
- rwallace 9y agoBut breaks stuff more often. Why would that be a net win? Probably a net loss because you incur the mental overhead of putting down whatever actual problems you are trying to solve and getting into a frame of mind to try to fix your computer, more frequently.
- aargh_aargh 9y agoLet's sum up the available options: 1) update rarely, fix a lot of breakage at a time 2) update daily, run into each breakage as soon as it happens and fix it 3) never update, no need to fix anything Did I miss anything? Just saying 2) is what works for me. Takes 1-2 minutes every morning before I start working (updates to all systems have been checked and downloaded overnight).
- AnimalMuppet 9y agoThe problem with #3 is that, while there are no updates to break things, there are also no updates to fix things, so whatever is broken will stay broken.
- StavrosK 9y agoDo this, and you'll thank me: https://www.stavros.io/posts/provisioning-your-computer-one-command-awesome/ https://www.stavros.io/posts/provisioning-your-computer-one-...
- jacquesm 9y agoWas that blog post meant to end like that? It looks as if a lot is missing. The last lines for me read: "The main script First, let’s start with the main Ansible script: ~~~yaml This playbook is meant to provision a new computer. Run with: ansible-playbook -i , provision.yml"
- StavrosK 9y agoOops, no, I recently migrated to a static site generator and some posts broke. I'll fix it now, thanks Jacques. EDIT: Phew, fixed, good catch, thanks. There was a triple dash in the article, which Lektor interpreted as the end of the post :/
- z29LiTp5qUC30n 9y agoOr better yet https://nixos.org/ https://nixos.org/ Make state something exactly defined.
- StavrosK 9y agoThat's good, but you need to move to a whole new OS :(
- bluGill 9y agoMost people in this situation are forced to reboot at some point because of critical failure (power, or something physically break). Thereafter they carefully reboot on a regular schedule to just ensure everything will come up after the unplanned emergency reboot.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- King-Aaron 9y agoWhile I totally agree with most of the article, it made me grind my teeth at the frequency the author changes the oil in their car... That poor valvetrain will be full of gummy carbon deposits. RIP whoever buys the car second-hand.
- rypskar 9y agoHow would changing oil every 2 000 km be a problem? Modern oil should last 10x that long without any problem. I am used to having recommendations for changing oil once a year or every 15k km depending on what comes first. I remember recommendations to change 2 times a year 15-20 years ago because it back then was more normal to have different viscosity in summer and winter
- LoSboccacc 9y agoDepends on oil. Many cars still run on semi-synth and those require the 15k/1yr routine, full synth can use longer kms and two years, or every year if you do under 5kkm/year
- jhayward 9y agoThe sticky sludge that GP refers to is for the most part an emulsion of water, produced by combustion and/or from ambient humidity, and oil. If an engine is not run frequently or is used only for short intervals the water isn't driven off by engine heat. Engines that aren't run much must be maintained based on elapsed time, not duration of use, due to factors such as this. The author's vehicle is a prime sludge candidate, although not as bad as people who go years w/o changes. Loss of viscosity is a wholly separate form of degradation which along with accumulated Ph changes is responsible for the "every N miles" recommendation.
- King-Aaron 9y agoSpot on
- miahi 9y agoI always wondered how this oil-change scam still continues in the US. Modern cars with synthetic oils don't need an oil change every 3-4 months or 3000 miles. I always changed the oil according to the (European or Japanese) manufacturer's schedule (once a year / every 10-15000km) and had no issues with the cars (even >10 years old cars).
- jacques_chester 9y agoAnother reason for the resistance is the pain of upgrading. Anything that requires a reboot, for example, is likely to be held off for a long time. When people are at the computer, it's because they want to use it right now. They aren't there to watch it reboot a few times. It's less painful once you scale past single systems. Insofar as you have distributed systems that tolerate some fraction of their instances disappearing and reappearing, you can roll an upgrade out across the system without users having to notice that it's happened. Where I work we do this very well -- we update and upgrade live production systems for CVEs and feature adjustments quite frequently without systems running on them being any the wiser. Still remaining is the sheer amount of independent dependency tracks into any given software system. Operating system, multiple language ecosystems, multiple infrastructure systems ... once you include development dependencies and tools -- and you ought to -- the surface area to watch and manage goes up sharply.
- barrkel 9y agoIt's even worse if the machine reboots while you're away; the risk of lost work is massively increased.
- vonmoltke 9y agoMy company's philosophy, for better or worse, is to have periodic scheduled restarts. It's nice knowing I won't be suddenly interrupted for an update, but it's also a PITA to have to restore my state every Monday morning.
- jacquesm 9y agoThe biggest change will not come from getting users to upgrade, it will come from producing higher quality software in the first place.
- TeMPOraL 9y agoSure, but if we're in dreamland, then I think the second biggest factor will be making security upgrades invisible to users. If you could ensure that you can upgrade any part of your OS/application while it's running, without ever requiring a reboot, then the problem disappears as you can simply stop asking people when they want a security patch. In terms of safety, not much good comes from asking people. (That, or let's just all agree that CVEs are a threat to Internet security, and have a policy for always displaying a message like "Your device will reboot in 05:00 in order to install a critical security patch. Please save your work." and have the users take comfort that it's not just their computer, but half of the planet is rebooting with them. That solution is game-theoretically unstable, though.)
- jacquesm 9y agoThat's fine, but it would require companies to abide by the rule of security updates being just that, security updates and not ways to push their corporate agenda after the fact, accidentally bricking your computer (or maliciously), installing spyware, adware or or other junk.
- OrwellianChild 9y agoAgreed that asking is largely counterproductive when it comes to security patches (as opposed to feature updates). To satisfy the concerns of folks like @jacquesm, it might be best to implement a soft form of the hidden update: Make them opt-out rather than opt-in. Keeps everyone happy and dramatically improves compliance.
- baking 9y agoI change my oil religiously, but I ignore safety recalls because I hate going to dealerships.
- madcaptenor 9y agoI'm with you on this. When we have self-driving cars I hope they take themselves in to get fixed for recalls. (But at a time of my choosing - not like how computers will update at inconvenient times now.)
- upvotinglurker 9y agoYes, the author's assertion that safety recalls "elicit prompt attention" doesn't reflect my [US] experience. Many people don't take the recalls seriously or just can't be bothered. There have been news stories about this too, e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/dec/17/us-drivers-struggle-with-recall-fatigue-driving-dangerous-cars https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/dec/17/us-drivers-str...
- rwallace 9y ago> counterproductive, in that presenting updates through the same channel tends to conflate them in the minds of users, with the result that critical security updates instead end up being given the lesser attention more appropriately due to a new feature update Good article, but actually understates the problem. It's not just that nonsecurity updates are appropriately due lesser attention. It's that they are appropriately due negative attention. My computer works fine the way it is. I actively do not want it screwed around with. I make a necessary exception for security updates. To put anything other than a security update into that channel is an abuse of trust that was granted for an important purpose, and trust that is abused is liable to be lost.
- fivestar 9y agoAll the items listed in the article are FUD to get you into the dealership so they can upsell you. Oil changes are necessary but not critical to be done unless long overdue. Cheaper to do them yourself or find a reliable shop. Software updates: Is the car running right or is there an issue? Safety recalls: We're obsessed with the dog-whistle safety, but like anything else, there are trade-offs. Our Honda got recalled for the airbag inflators and I waited a few months before eventually taking it in. Result: No one died. I also have one car that has no airbags at all. I feel fine.