Chipboard...
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The following is absolutely true: We email a license key to a customer, he emails back and says "what do I do with this license key?" (completely ignoring the instructions in the email message), we tell him to just follow the instructions in the email: copy the email message to his clipboard and then click a certain button in the program that takes it off the clipboard and installs the license key automatically. Literally two steps, if you can copy, you can do it. He emails back and says "I can't do that because I don't have a chipboard and it would cost me 35 bucks to get one". His domain: AOL.COM
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I support two teams: the Canucks and whoever is playing the Leafs! -
The following is absolutely true: We email a license key to a customer, he emails back and says "what do I do with this license key?" (completely ignoring the instructions in the email message), we tell him to just follow the instructions in the email: copy the email message to his clipboard and then click a certain button in the program that takes it off the clipboard and installs the license key automatically. Literally two steps, if you can copy, you can do it. He emails back and says "I can't do that because I don't have a chipboard and it would cost me 35 bucks to get one". His domain: AOL.COM
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I support two teams: the Canucks and whoever is playing the Leafs! -
That's why we use license files....
"Vierteile den, der sie Hure schimpft mit einem türkischen Säbel."
mlog || Agile Programming | doxygenAre you joking mate? Do you have any idea how a user like this would react to having to download / save a file? We'd be supporting them for a month just to help them find where they saved the file to.
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I support two teams: the Canucks and whoever is playing the Leafs! -
The following is absolutely true: We email a license key to a customer, he emails back and says "what do I do with this license key?" (completely ignoring the instructions in the email message), we tell him to just follow the instructions in the email: copy the email message to his clipboard and then click a certain button in the program that takes it off the clipboard and installs the license key automatically. Literally two steps, if you can copy, you can do it. He emails back and says "I can't do that because I don't have a chipboard and it would cost me 35 bucks to get one". His domain: AOL.COM
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|--------0--2-----3----------3--2--0--------0--0b2-----2--3--2--0-----|
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I support two teams: the Canucks and whoever is playing the Leafs! -
The following is absolutely true: We email a license key to a customer, he emails back and says "what do I do with this license key?" (completely ignoring the instructions in the email message), we tell him to just follow the instructions in the email: copy the email message to his clipboard and then click a certain button in the program that takes it off the clipboard and installs the license key automatically. Literally two steps, if you can copy, you can do it. He emails back and says "I can't do that because I don't have a chipboard and it would cost me 35 bucks to get one". His domain: AOL.COM
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I support two teams: the Canucks and whoever is playing the Leafs!John Cardinal wrote: His domain: AOL.COM :laugh:
-Nick Parker DeveloperNotes.com
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Are you joking mate? Do you have any idea how a user like this would react to having to download / save a file? We'd be supporting them for a month just to help them find where they saved the file to.
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I support two teams: the Canucks and whoever is playing the Leafs! -
The following is absolutely true: We email a license key to a customer, he emails back and says "what do I do with this license key?" (completely ignoring the instructions in the email message), we tell him to just follow the instructions in the email: copy the email message to his clipboard and then click a certain button in the program that takes it off the clipboard and installs the license key automatically. Literally two steps, if you can copy, you can do it. He emails back and says "I can't do that because I don't have a chipboard and it would cost me 35 bucks to get one". His domain: AOL.COM
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I support two teams: the Canucks and whoever is playing the Leafs!I hate to say it, but there are plenty more customers where that one came from. Regardz Colin J Davies
*** WARNING *
This could be addictive
**The minion's version of "Catch :bob: "It's a real shame that people as stupid as you can work out how to use a computer. said by Christian Graus in the Soapbox
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The following is absolutely true: We email a license key to a customer, he emails back and says "what do I do with this license key?" (completely ignoring the instructions in the email message), we tell him to just follow the instructions in the email: copy the email message to his clipboard and then click a certain button in the program that takes it off the clipboard and installs the license key automatically. Literally two steps, if you can copy, you can do it. He emails back and says "I can't do that because I don't have a chipboard and it would cost me 35 bucks to get one". His domain: AOL.COM
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I support two teams: the Canucks and whoever is playing the Leafs!$35 for chipboard? That's pretty expensive. I would charge him $30 for it and tell him it was on sale.
Todd C. Wilson (meme@nopcode.com) NOPcode.com Skinning Toolkit MP3 Server for Windows And Lots More "The source, it was leaked : therefore, it must be rewritten."
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Are you joking mate? Do you have any idea how a user like this would react to having to download / save a file? We'd be supporting them for a month just to help them find where they saved the file to.
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I support two teams: the Canucks and whoever is playing the Leafs!haha no joke... "Ok, how browse to the file...", "Where is it?", "It's where you saved it.", "I saved it? Huh?"
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The following is absolutely true: We email a license key to a customer, he emails back and says "what do I do with this license key?" (completely ignoring the instructions in the email message), we tell him to just follow the instructions in the email: copy the email message to his clipboard and then click a certain button in the program that takes it off the clipboard and installs the license key automatically. Literally two steps, if you can copy, you can do it. He emails back and says "I can't do that because I don't have a chipboard and it would cost me 35 bucks to get one". His domain: AOL.COM
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I support two teams: the Canucks and whoever is playing the Leafs! -
haha no joke... "Ok, how browse to the file...", "Where is it?", "It's where you saved it.", "I saved it? Huh?"
Daniel M. Edwards wrote: "Ok, how browse to the file...", "Where is it?", "It's where you saved it.", "I saved it? Huh?" Yup, I once wrote a system where people needed identification files. They'd send in a request for the file, we'd create it and email it with what we thought were clear instructions to save it to the desktop. Once it was on the desktop they'd start our program which would immediately pick it up from the desktop and move it to a better location. Uh huh. What's my desktop? How do I save to the table top? Etc etc... Our email ended up with embedded images catering for windows 98 (our most common target O/S) but we'd still get many email followups from people who didn't grasp the concept. Eventually we added an automatic identification file generator in our software that connected to our server. (It was a game oriented chat client so a server connection was expected and normal). But then we had to explain to new players that they had to register using THAT dialog box before their scores would be recorded against their names. It was simpler for most people but we still had a small core group of people who didn't grasp it. Frustrating but on the other hand, we know this stuff by training and inclination - they don't. Rob Manderson http://www.mindprobes.net "I killed him dead cuz he was stepping on my turf, cutting me out of my bling the same way my ho cuts cookies, officer" "Alright then, move along" - Ian Darling, The Lounge, Oct 10 2003
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Are you joking mate? Do you have any idea how a user like this would react to having to download / save a file? We'd be supporting them for a month just to help them find where they saved the file to.
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I support two teams: the Canucks and whoever is playing the Leafs! -
Daniel M. Edwards wrote: "Ok, how browse to the file...", "Where is it?", "It's where you saved it.", "I saved it? Huh?" Yup, I once wrote a system where people needed identification files. They'd send in a request for the file, we'd create it and email it with what we thought were clear instructions to save it to the desktop. Once it was on the desktop they'd start our program which would immediately pick it up from the desktop and move it to a better location. Uh huh. What's my desktop? How do I save to the table top? Etc etc... Our email ended up with embedded images catering for windows 98 (our most common target O/S) but we'd still get many email followups from people who didn't grasp the concept. Eventually we added an automatic identification file generator in our software that connected to our server. (It was a game oriented chat client so a server connection was expected and normal). But then we had to explain to new players that they had to register using THAT dialog box before their scores would be recorded against their names. It was simpler for most people but we still had a small core group of people who didn't grasp it. Frustrating but on the other hand, we know this stuff by training and inclination - they don't. Rob Manderson http://www.mindprobes.net "I killed him dead cuz he was stepping on my turf, cutting me out of my bling the same way my ho cuts cookies, officer" "Alright then, move along" - Ian Darling, The Lounge, Oct 10 2003
Rob Manderson wrote: we know this stuff by training and inclination - they don't. Always an important thing to keep in mind when dealing with customers. They're not computer experts, and don't want to be - they just want it to work when they turn on the power. We need to remember that, not only when writing documentation and installation instructions, but when we design the product and the schemes we use for product registration/activation. If a significant minority can't figure out how to install, register, or use our products, it's our fault, not theirs. "Your village called -
They're missing their idiot." -
Rob Manderson wrote: we know this stuff by training and inclination - they don't. Always an important thing to keep in mind when dealing with customers. They're not computer experts, and don't want to be - they just want it to work when they turn on the power. We need to remember that, not only when writing documentation and installation instructions, but when we design the product and the schemes we use for product registration/activation. If a significant minority can't figure out how to install, register, or use our products, it's our fault, not theirs. "Your village called -
They're missing their idiot."Yup. That was my point though I suspect I don't make it strongly enough :) A couple of years ago I was involved in the development of a monitor utility. The functional spec was delivered to me and my task was to implement it. It monitored one or more directories looking for files with specific file extensions. When it found a file that matched it's search criteria it would perform some kind of processing on it and then delete the file. All well and good. But the designer was concerned about the performance implications of leaving in the directory all the files whose extensions didn't match so he came up with the idea of moving any unrecognised file into an 'alien' file directory. And so I wrote the utility. It worked fine and we passed it to Q&A for testing. They passed it and we were about to release. And then I had to reboot my machine! And you guessed it - sometime during my testing I'd set the root directory of my boot drive ( C:\ ) as the directory being monitored. And sure enough the utility had done exactly what it was designed to do. It moved
ntdetect.com,ntldr,boot.inietc into the alien file directory. One unbootable machine. Once I realised what had happened I went straight to management and described the problem. Their response? 'We'll put a warning in the manual'. Say what? When was the last time you read a manual for some software you installed? I spent maybe a couple of weeks arguing with management without success. I even went as far as adding code to detect potentially dangerous directories and disable the alien file processing for those directories (root directory of all drives, windows installation directory and all sub directories of the windows installation directory) but that code meant some configuration dialog boxes didn't behave as per spec. I was required to remove the additional code. So the utility went to a beta test site and creamed their server the first day. Voila, no more 'alien file processing'. My point? Even the best of us don't always read the manuals, nor do we always think the way the designer thought. In this case the designer* was convinced that noone would be silly enough to monitor a system directory and thus a flaw in the design would never become a serious problem. Uh huh. If even the developer can cream his machine, let alone a beta test customer, maybe it's time to rethink the problem in terms of what a 'reasonable' user would expect. And in the case in point, the 'reasonable' expectation -
I hate to say it, but there are plenty more customers where that one came from. Regardz Colin J Davies
*** WARNING *
This could be addictive
**The minion's version of "Catch :bob: "It's a real shame that people as stupid as you can work out how to use a computer. said by Christian Graus in the Soapbox
Halloween was yesterday. Stop trying to scare people. :)
Software Zen:
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Are you joking mate? Do you have any idea how a user like this would react to having to download / save a file? We'd be supporting them for a month just to help them find where they saved the file to.
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I support two teams: the Canucks and whoever is playing the Leafs!John Cardinal wrote: We'd be supporting them for a month just to help them find where they saved the file to. i can assure you - you are 100% correct. i spend a f-load of time tellin gpeople how to use WinZip, how to navigate folders, how to type their names and email addresses , etc.. makes me wanna scream. ImgSource | CheeseWeasle
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Yup. That was my point though I suspect I don't make it strongly enough :) A couple of years ago I was involved in the development of a monitor utility. The functional spec was delivered to me and my task was to implement it. It monitored one or more directories looking for files with specific file extensions. When it found a file that matched it's search criteria it would perform some kind of processing on it and then delete the file. All well and good. But the designer was concerned about the performance implications of leaving in the directory all the files whose extensions didn't match so he came up with the idea of moving any unrecognised file into an 'alien' file directory. And so I wrote the utility. It worked fine and we passed it to Q&A for testing. They passed it and we were about to release. And then I had to reboot my machine! And you guessed it - sometime during my testing I'd set the root directory of my boot drive ( C:\ ) as the directory being monitored. And sure enough the utility had done exactly what it was designed to do. It moved
ntdetect.com,ntldr,boot.inietc into the alien file directory. One unbootable machine. Once I realised what had happened I went straight to management and described the problem. Their response? 'We'll put a warning in the manual'. Say what? When was the last time you read a manual for some software you installed? I spent maybe a couple of weeks arguing with management without success. I even went as far as adding code to detect potentially dangerous directories and disable the alien file processing for those directories (root directory of all drives, windows installation directory and all sub directories of the windows installation directory) but that code meant some configuration dialog boxes didn't behave as per spec. I was required to remove the additional code. So the utility went to a beta test site and creamed their server the first day. Voila, no more 'alien file processing'. My point? Even the best of us don't always read the manuals, nor do we always think the way the designer thought. In this case the designer* was convinced that noone would be silly enough to monitor a system directory and thus a flaw in the design would never become a serious problem. Uh huh. If even the developer can cream his machine, let alone a beta test customer, maybe it's time to rethink the problem in terms of what a 'reasonable' user would expect. And in the case in point, the 'reasonable' expectationRob Manderson wrote: Do I hear someone mentioning buffer overrun bugs? :laugh::laugh::laugh: Good illustration! "Your village called -
They're missing their idiot." -
Rob Manderson wrote: we know this stuff by training and inclination - they don't. Always an important thing to keep in mind when dealing with customers. They're not computer experts, and don't want to be - they just want it to work when they turn on the power. We need to remember that, not only when writing documentation and installation instructions, but when we design the product and the schemes we use for product registration/activation. If a significant minority can't figure out how to install, register, or use our products, it's our fault, not theirs. "Your village called -
They're missing their idiot."Roger Wright wrote: They're not computer experts, and don't want to be - they just want it to work when they turn on the power I agree, but there is a certain level of understanding needed to use a computer. You should know wtf a desktop is. You should understand the directory structure. You should know where you're downloading a file to. You should know what cut/copy/paste do. Very basic things, that I have seen MANY people have problems with. Of course, I am the designated "tech support guy" in my family, and there are so many things I tell my parents, and yet, a month later, they have no idea what I'm taking about (and they all use computers everyday: everyone in my family has their own computer as well) I was trying to train them to "everytime the blue globe appears near the clock in the right hand side of the screen, i want you to double-click (left click twice) on it.. a new window will appear, and I want you to say yes to everything and if it asks you to reboot, do that, ok? do this everytime the blue globe appears" (i'm not even going to try explain what windows update is.. just get them to be (somewhat) protected with the security updates... i'm not even talking about service packs or anything. So, I go home 3 weeks later, and all the computers have the blue globe in the system tray. I asked, "Wtf, didn't i mention this last month?" "umm.. well, we weren't sure if that was the blue globe you were talking about." ARGH! :mad: The kindest thing you can do for a stupid person, and for the gene pool, is to let him expire of his own dumb choices. [Roger Wright on stupid people] We're like private member functions [John Theal on R&D] We're figuring out the parent thing as we go though. Kinda like setting up Linux for the first time ya' know... [Nitron]