Restarting technology to get it going again - a fact of life?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Sunday, 23 March 2008 11:29

Opinion and Analysis

Technologies such as refrigerators (fridges) usually need to stay permanently on, although if you are unlucky enough to have an older model you might discover that your fridge’s freezer needs defrosting every now and then, forcing even the humble fridge to have a restart from time to time.

While it would be wonderful if ALL technologies could safely be left permanently on at all times, the reality of the world today is that even Linux and Unix boxes will need to be restarted, if only eventually.

And following Mum’s advice to turn things off at the wall when not in use, for most technologies (but not all), is still solid advice, even if it’s only become recently fashionable from an environmental point of view.

So, the restart is, for most people, just an inevitable fact of life. Check your drivers, check your firmware and check for updates to see if you can get more reliability out of your technologies, meaning fewer reboots.

But we must remember that, for all our advanced technology of the 21st century, we still live in a very technological primitive world compared with the imaginary worlds of science fiction and Star Trek.

We haven’t even figured out how to truly harness renewable energies from the sun, wind, hotrocks and the ocean, although we’re well on the way, while ‘zero point energy’ remains firmly in the realms of Stargate and other science fiction scenarios.

So, don’t freak out about needing to restart. For the most part it refreshes your gadget or technology so it starts again anew, with all its resources at the ready. Turning off in today’s world is a good thing – and you can, and very likely will, turn on again soon!