Technology stability - An Unattainable Goal?

Have you ever had to reboot your toaster? In the world of old-school electronics and gadgetry, the world is a binary equation - the thing either works or it doesn't. If it doesn't, if it is expensive you consider fixing it. If it is relatively cheap, you throw it away.

Today, Yahoo appears to be experiencing a service outage for its My Yahoo! customers. Yahoo is the most established online media outlet in the world. They serve more than 70% of Americas Internet users and a sizable chunk of the rest of the world's as well. Their entire business is their websites.

And they are broken this morning.

What does this say about technology? Its future? How it should be used?

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states that you can measure either the velocity of an object as it travels through space or its position, but never both at the same time. Is there a corollary for technology today? My thinking is this: stability requires static technology (no enhancements/changes); progress requires change. Therefore to remain competitive, compelling, and useful over time, you must adapt and change your technology. But this change creates instability (and is, by definition, instability) and with instability inevitably comes unreliability.

Given the competitive pressures of the world, I cannot foresee a static Yahoo. It would be marginalized in about a week. But who can trust a mission-critical function to something which may not be reliable? Would you fly a plane if every 10,000 seconds the engines cut off without warning? (that's 99.99% uptime) Would you use an oven if the voltage regulator managing the current flowing to the oven let massive bursts of energy flood your house every so often? Before you say no, consider the alternative - would you be happy cooking with the appliances used by your grandmother's grandmother? The pace of technological change (that has upped the ante for what is required in order to live) is such that this 4-generation gap occurs in about 1/10th the time now, so sticking with what you have right now will leave you obsolete within about 15 years.

This is a pretty rambly post, but my inability to access my My page today made me think of this.