Immediate / Good to have / You decide / Probably Not / Keep away

Wouldn't it be nice to know: A. What's really important, and what is not, without reading the long notes of update, (anyway we either press NO and then wonder what it said, or YES and then wonder why we did that). B. Not being troubled with the updater, exactly when we don't want it. C. Knowing how it went for others - and if there are any known problems. D. Knowing that according to what you are expecting of the plugins, these features are probably irrelevant or very relevant to you.

You enroll to this service, and it periodically checks when you are online and how much traffic is going out coming in. It also knows of all the various software and plugins you have for the PC, browser and music making software (you tell the site what's important for you, or they have some fast way of reading your add-on list and other updates.

The experts of the site (or if its a wiki, the various members) check and support the updates, rate them and give them a good short description.

The site would be quick and interactive when you enter it, so that people feel comfortable supplying the info needed for this.

For security, it does not store any information about you except "kick-it" type of info, where new yet unknown add-ons are added to the list, while old ones get added rating of importance for the site's research team.
-- pashute, Sep 29 2009

I'm guessing pashute means software updates - new versions of browsers, editors, what have you.

Some applications and operating systems periodically "phone home" and ask whether there are updates available, then download them in the background, and finally pop up a dialog box asking you whether you'd like them to actually install those updates. Typically, you're really in no position to know whether it's a good idea or not; I tend to just click yes and hope that I get to go back to being productive in about five minutes or so.

And then there are updates of the operating system itself, which can completely screw you if you happen to hit them between the really important patch and the patch to the really important patch after the screams of wounded customers resonate loudly enough to make it back to the developers.
-- jutta, Sep 29 2009


>Why not google for it...

Well that's exactly the problem. I don't want to start doing research each time the FireFox or Windows XP or what not pops a message at me: "You have new software ready, do you wish to install". I want to know if its a good idea to press yes, or a bad idea to press no. Of course you can never be 100% sure, but as we recently read in Ecclesiastes: "And the idiot, in darkness he walks".
-- pashute, Oct 05 2009


Thanks Jutta. (BTW any thoughts of making a GoogleWave type of interface for Halfbakery2 ?)
-- pashute, Oct 05 2009


I'm still waiting for my invite. Ahem.
-- jutta, Oct 05 2009


Similar to the mouse-over alerts you get from Norton (can I say that around here?) on your Google results page.

Falls under the category of "things I didn't know I needed but now that I do, I do". [+]
-- egbert, Oct 05 2009



random, halfbakery