as I continue to use computers they seem to continue to become more fragile, today's events notwithstanding even
we should all become slime like 
@iliana When I first started using Linux around 2005, I'm pretty sure things used to crash a lot more.
Same with Windows, really; sticking a lot of images into a Word document used to be time-consuming and fraught with peril. It was a good rule of thumb to, like, save the document every time your eyeballs moved (which would often take in the tens of seconds).
@woozle I now realize I was bitter and reflecting on the bizarre pile of skulls my work computing environment relies upon
my home computing environment has been very stable, comparatively
@iliana I mean, there are other ways in which it certainly *has* become more fragile.
The idea of someone breaking into your computer and using it as part of a zombie robot army would have been laughable, not all that long ago. <.<
The idea of someone using web page views to covertly steal CPU cycles in order to create virtual money...
"Bizarre pile of skulls" -- this makes me think of the db cleanup work I was heavily involved in at Carrier. Certain front-end people became known for creating their own ad-hoc MS Access apps and DBs to accomplish various tasks more quickly.
These quickly became mission-critical, without ever having been documented...
...and then sometimes the person would leave, and then the mission critical app would break due to some change elsewhere...
We stopped those practices.
@iliana it's caused by capitalism, late capital and extreme inequality; intel have been cutting corners on validation for years and people have been warning about it, but it's a rational decision for them in a game of monopoly or bust. We've made strides technically and in process logic but capital is approaching a natural end game where it makes sense for uber to burn vc money while they build out a monopoly. For me we turned a corner when Nokia went under by being the world's third biggest phone maker. A monopoly is an existential requirement in late capital.
not terribly surprisingly I think the fragility I'm seeing is entirely caused by other humans