Many, especially Republicans, are complaining about the computer problems with the rollout of the Affordable Care Act.  What did they expect?  Version x.0.1 to be ready on day one?

They should look at the software on their iPhones.  Everyday I seem to receive an update to one of the apps that I downloaded.  What is the main reason for the update – bug fixes!

Many think of Germans as being superefficient.  Consider one of the reasons for the latest update for the Die Zeit newspaper app update: “Generelle Stabilitäts-Updates!”  In other words, the previous version of the Die Zeit app crashed.

We often do our own screwing up.  I received a letter from my bank that they had moved money from my savings account to my checking account.  On my first try to access my account, the bank’s system was unavailable.  When I finally got on, I found that there had been yet another transfer made.  As I reviewed the online statement, I found that I had transferred money from checking to savings instead of the other way around.  At least I have an account that makes sweeps rather than overdraft charges.

That grand and glorious new iOS 7 for the iPhone and iPad is now at version 7.0.4!  Apple’s customer help forums are filled with questions on how to fix this problem or that problem, many of the questions unanswered.

I have been using Microsoft’s Outlook and Apple’s Address Book and iCal for years.  Outlook for email and events, Address Book for other purposes such as envelopes, and iCal for events.  Supposedly they should sync with very little effort.

Some time ago I found that I was getting more and more duplicated events and two items for every person in my address book.  If I remember correctly, my daughter’s birthday was duplicated 800 times!  After I cleaned that mess up, I stopped using Outlook’s calendar.
         
I also had duplicate names in my address books.  As with the calendars there was a sync that went bad long ago with the Outlook and Apple address books.  I gave up on syncing them and kept updates to each manually.  This past week I cleaned up the Apple address book on my laptop with Contact Cleaner.  It eliminated all the duplicates.  The duplicates were eliminated on my iPhone but almost all the names disappeared from my iPad.  There was only one entry for each of a dozen or so letters of the alphabet!  Needless to say, I did not sync my address book to my iPhone.

Then my iPhone would not turn on!  Off to the Apple Community.  Rather quickly I found a customer comment that said to hold the power and home buttons at the same time.  This is now happening on my iPad!  Could it be iOS 7.0.4 for this and the disappearing contacts?

My bluetooth keyboard would not sync with my iPad.  It had been working fine and made life much easier than typing on the screen.  Off to the Apple Community.  I had to “forget” the keyboard and then look for it again.  Thank you, Apple Community.

On top of all these other problems, I spilled coffee on my laptop keyboard recently.  I tried holding too many things at the same time.  Now the shift key on one side wouldn’t work and neither option keys worked.

I took my laptop to Best Buy to find out if the Geek Squad could repair my keyboard with little time and no charge.  I found out that I still had a service warranty that covered all hazards.  The agent recommended that I take my laptop home and back up everything.  He wasn’t sure if my laptop would be repaired or scrapped.  I’m glad that I backed most of the stuff up because I could then use my wife’s iMac to do all the computer tasks I’m accustomed to, including writing this column.

On Friday the Geek Squad called me that my computer was back.  Now we’re seeing some corporate efficiency.  Instead of the “safe” promised one month, the Geek Squad did the repair within a week.

It often seems that if one has a problem, one hears of others with the same problem.  Pamela Jaskoviak, a Swedish writer, spilled coffee on her MacBook Pro late at night working on a past due deadline.  She did worse than I did; the computer quit and she had to have her hard drive copied to a new computer.  If you understand Swedish, you can find her “Godmorgon, världen” monologue at http://sverigesradio.se/sida/default.aspx?programid=438

So many companies cannot be satisfied with their websites.  They seem to regularly roll out “exciting” new sites, sometimes they provide some useful new features, sometimes they are no big deal, and sometimes they are major screw-ups.  Recently Yahoo Finance did a major makeover of its website.  To me, they removed some clutter and replaced it with other clutter.  It took me awhile to figure out how to get quotes for a list of stocks, but once I did Yahoo Finance provided the request data in the format I was accustomed to.

Then, poof!  It didn’t work at all.  Every time I clicked the return button, it added a string of nonsense to what I had copied or typed in the quote box, and it told me it couldn’t find what I requested.  Off to “the community” to seek answers.  Hoo boy!  The critics of ACA should see the long list of bitter complaints, and some of these complaints come from people who make their living with timely stock quotes!

All those complaining about the ACA rollout should remember two bits of folk wisdom:

Murphy’s law: If something can go wrong, it will.

To err is human; to really screw up it takes a computer.

You can find more of my thoughts at
http://magree.blogspot.com