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<\/a><\/p>\nAlmost 30 years ago John, an acquaintance of mine, purchased a Macintosh SE computer and an ImageWriter II printer. \u00a0His need was simple: He wanted to type stuff and print it out. \u00a0That need has not changed, and his trusty Mac SE is still serving him well in that regard.<\/p>\n
In the modern, Internet-connected world, your needs as a User of technology are constantly changing, though you probably don’t even realize it. \u00a0You might think to yourself, “my computer is the same as it was the day I bought it, and it was fine then; so why should I update or change anything?” \u00a0And you would be right–your computer hasn’t changed! \u00a0But the Internet has. \u00a0And if you are connected to the Internet, then your needs are changing whether you know it or not.<\/p>\n
First, let’s talk about code. \u00a0Computer code is the language that describes and controls how computers work. \u00a0Code determines how this web page looks. \u00a0Code determines what happens when you click on something. \u00a0Code secures your online banking transactions. \u00a0We like to think of computers as “perfect,” but the reality is that computers can only do what they are told, and it’s computer code that tells computers what to do, and computer code is written by people. \u00a0And how many perfect people do you know?<\/p>\n
Three\u00a0principle factors drive updates to computer code. \u00a0The first is flaws. \u00a0A flaw in code could mean it doesn’t do what it was designed or specified to do. \u00a0That can mean any number of things–the code was designed for 10 different things and only 9 of them work (it wasn’t tested thoroughly). \u00a0Or maybe when the code runs for too long the computer runs out of memory. \u00a0Or maybe it crashes when it runs on February 29th. \u00a0It could be anything. \u00a0When a flaw in code is found, it has to be updated. \u00a0The second factor that drives updates to code is security. \u00a0Security can mean keeping your data safe as it is transmitted from computer to computer (this is called encryption). \u00a0But security also means protecting the computer on which the code is executed (or “run”). \u00a0If a malicious user (frequently, if inaccurately, referred to as a “hacker”) executes code in a manner the author of the code did not anticipate, it could result in the user gaining an unauthorized level of access to the computer on which the code is running and, likely, many\/any other computers on the local network to which that computer is connected. These flaws, once discovered, are called “exploits,” and when they are found, code is updated. The third factor is features. People constantly want more and better things, and things produced by code are no exception. \u00a0Here’s what the SUNY Potsdam home page looked like in December of 1996, almost 20 years ago as this is written:<\/p>\n