Those darn computers. 

            Who hasn't had a run-in with those byte-munching, gigabit-crunching, terabyte-hoarding boxes that sit on our desks or in our hands?  And, don't forget the ones that collect and/or process our information in office buildings and data centers.

            Did you ever have your credit card charged for a purchase you didn't make, only to have the credit company say it was a computer mistake and they would take care of it?

            Or, how about your financial software that didn't make your tax payment on time as they promised they would do because of a computer error, and they would pay the tax?  You still had to pay the penalty for being late.

            Back in the 1960s, we had a saying in the technology field: "Garbage in, garbage out."  When you follow the trail of the computer error, it usually found its way back to a human who plugged in the wrong programming or information feeding the garbage in to achieve the garbage out. 

            I imagine some sort of that still exists today.

            Recently New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill announced that more than 6,000 immigrants were wrongly added to the state's voter rolls, with about 400 non-citizens casting ballots in elections since 2023.  She blamed the automatic registration on a computer software glitch in the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission.

            We've had our own local headaches with the network-hoarding, broadband invitations to our personal and business lives via the work of hackers who just live to steal your information and sell it to others or use it for their own benefit.

            Don't even get me started on social media.  It's hard to determine what's true, false, or fantasy.  And, there are plenty of opportunities posted to get you to click on a website in order to steal your information or plant a virus in your own computer or network.  Be careful what you select when cruising through social media.

            Artificial Intelligence is the new kid on the block.  But somewhere it started with human programming.  So, we still run the risk of garbage in, garbage out.

            Computers seldom make mistakes.  It is the human factor, on the front or back, that is likely to blame.

            Do yourself a favor and be careful who you share your information with, and be careful whose software you trust whenever you use your computer.