Day 793

Why do software updates come so frequently now? I just installed Lion on my computer a few weeks ago and I'm already getting e-mails about the impending release of the next Apple OS, strangely named Mountain Lion. I'm assuming that this breed of Lion is different than the Lion I already have and will cause me just as many problems when I eventually decide to upgrade. I'm having the same problem with the Avid Media Composer software I recently started using. I literally just finished installing version 6.0 of Media Composer when I get an e-mail saying that version 6.01 is here and that it is an essential upgrade. Avid never makes it easy to upgrade either. You usually have to completely uninstall the previous version of the software and start over from scratch. Sometimes you even have to re-register the upgrade.

I just don't get the necessity for all these upgrades. Most people, including myself, don't even fully learn the old software before it's time to trade up to something new. Personally, I was happy enough with Photoshop 6.0 and would still be using it if my clients hadn't shamed me into upgrading to CS5. I'm sure it's better, but after years of use, I still hadn't learned all the secrets of Photoshop 6 and 7.

As recently as five years ago, I would have been knee deep in annual report writing by mid February. New annual report jobs awarded so far this year? Zero. That's not good. Writing annual reports used to be a good source of income for me. It was a good source of income for a lot of photographers and designers I know as well. Somehow it has totally fallen out of fashion for companies to produce elaborate annual reports these days. I guess they don't want shareholders to think they are being wasteful. The old style reports were a bit expensive, often having a unit cost as high as $5 each, but they kept a lot of small businesses like mine alive during the Winter and early Spring. Jeez! What's a boy to do when companies of all sizes just staple a cover to their 10-K Form and call it an annual report? There's nothing to write anymore.

I think I'll go out for breakfast again tomorrow. It's a sign of just how boring and predictible my life has become when I start looking forward to a waffle in a restaurant once a week.

Joshua is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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