"Automatic" doesn't mean what you think (7/21/10)

It's perfectly understandable, not at all surprising, even endearing and full of hope. Unfortunately, it can be wishful thinking and sometimes it's quite misleading. I can't tell you how often a client will ask me if something on the computer is "automatic," and I have to explain that it's usually not that simple.

What it usually means
When it comes to computers, "automatic" typically means that some action or process should occur without the need for you to do anything, assuming the proper conditions are in place.

For example:

When you turn on your computer, many programs will be run before the computer is ready for you to start using it, including antivirus software, firewall software, and other behind-the-scenes services that enable your keyboard, mouse, printer, and internet connection to work.
If you leave your computer on and just walk away, after a certain amount of time your screen saver may start, or your computer may "go to sleep" to save power.
At a prearranged time of day on certain days of the week, your antivirus scanner, backup software, or software update program may start.
When daylight savings starts or ends, depending on your timezone settings your computer's clock may "spring forward" or "fall back."

What it doesn't mean
"Automatic" sounds great, but because computers aren't perfect, there are a number of potential catches:

Unreliable: The given action may never occur, or not occur every time it should.
Imperfect: If the given action starts, it may simply fail to do its job.
Poorly configured: The given action may do something different than what you wanted.
Silent: You may not see any indication if it worked, or if any of these problems occurred.

More examples

"My online backup service runs automatically all the time, right?" Probably, assuming that the software is installed properly, your account with the company is in good standing, your internet connection is working, your computer is on, the software is not backing up more data than your account can hold, and that it's backing up what you want and skipping what you don't want.
"My external backup drive comes with 'automatic' backup software, so it will always work, right?" Such backup software is very easy to use because it assumes you only want to back up certain folders. If any of your important data is located in any other folders (which is quite likely), that data won't be backed up at all, but you won't discover this until it's too late.
"My antivirus software will automatically scan my computer for viruses, right?" Many antivirus programs are set to do their full scans every day at noon by default. This doesn't work for everyone. I had a client who only turned her computer on between 10 and 11 p.m. after the kids were in bed, so a noontime scan would never be able to run. Another client was always in the middle of his work at noon, so moving that scan (which made his computer sluggish) to the evening made his workday much more productive.

A better way to look at it
I often find that "scheduled" is a better word than "automatic." For example, "your backup is scheduled for 5 p.m. every day, assuming that the computer isn't off, your external backup drive is plugged in, there's enough room on the backup drive, and some other unforeseen glitch doesn't prevent it from running altogether."

Where to go from here

Question anything that says (or implies) that it's "automatic." Don't just trust that everything will work as you hope it will. Be a nosy, pushy consumer.
If some "automatic" process is important to you, learn more about it, how to help make sure it occurs, and how to confirm later not only that it ran, but also that it ran correctly.
In particular, avoid backup software that does not let you specify what does and doesn't get backed up.

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If you have a topic that you'd like me to write about, I'd love to hear about it!

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