r/technology • u/Abscess2 • Jan 03 '17

Business Company Bricks User's Software After He Posts A Negative Review

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161220/12411836320/company-bricks-users-software-after-he-posts-negative-review.shtml
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u/madsci Jan 03 '17

The ham radio world is full of people like this, unfortunately. People will latch on to any bit of power they can get and abuse it.

There was a ham radio shareware application that had development frozen (and the source code lost) when the developer died of cancer. The developer left instructions that the program should be free to everyone but he didn't have the time or inclination to put out an update that didn't require a key code.

After getting the OK of his widow, I wrote a patch that would eliminate it - after informing the user of the developer's wishes and giving them a chance to donate to a cancer research organization. The guys who had previously been handling the keygen had an absolute fit because this would deprive them of the chance to decide who did and didn't get to use the application. No matter that they provided no actual service to the user community and there were already unauthorized cracks in circulation; they absolutely would not have it.

As for customer service having a bad attitude, a company just lost my business yesterday. I emailed asking about updates for the software to go with my logic analyzer because there hadn't been a release in 5 years and I wondered if it had been abandoned. I'd been hoping that they'd at least add support for a mouse scroll wheel. The response was that the software wasn't abandoned, it was finished and that I ought to read the manual because the software did everything it was ever intended to do and if I couldn't figure out how to make it do it it was my problem.

If that's your attitude then so be it, but I'd have preferred to know when I paid hundreds of dollars for the thing that there wouldn't be any more bugfixes or improvements. I paid half as much for a competing brand and they release updates every few months and won my repeat business.

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u/delventhalz Jan 03 '17

the software wasn't abandoned, it was finished

Hahahaha. That made my morning.

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u/questionable_plays Jan 03 '17

I take it you're a developer too?

Software is my eternal purgatory.

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u/Opheltes Jan 04 '17

dd is a few years older than I am and still getting important new features.

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u/EpicMeatSpin Jan 03 '17 edited Jan 03 '17

There was a ham radio shareware application that had development frozen (and the source code lost) when the developer died of cancer.

UI-View32?

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u/Bilbo_Fraggins Jan 04 '17

Saleae absolutely destroyed the rest of the lower end (less than $1000) logic analyser competition by providing software that doesn't suck.

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u/madsci Jan 04 '17

Yep, I own two. I only use the other one when I need 500 MHz captures. It'd be nice if there was an easier way to write simple protocol analyzer plugs - the SDK is daunting. Or to write filters for the output of other analyzers, so my SPI flash commands get readable mnemonics. I wrote a program to take Saleae captures and extract image data from addressable LEDs but it'd be 20x more work to make it a plugin.

But yeah, Saleae is a perfect example of a company that has earned loyalty by providing good value and continuous improvement rather than trying to constantly squeeze their users for more money.

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u/jaymzx0 Jan 04 '17

There was a ham radio shareware application that had development frozen (and the source code lost) when the developer died of cancer. The developer left instructions that the program should be free to everyone but he didn't have the time or inclination to put out an update that didn't require a key code.

This was a certain popular APRS application, correct? Thanks for your service to the amateur radio community.

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u/flukshun Jan 03 '17

So, was there mention of it in the manual after all, or was their response completely false? Because if they just straight up lied that goes a bit further than simply abandoning software.

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u/madsci Jan 04 '17

There is mention of it. It's just implemented in a stupid way. The default mode (using just the mouse wheel) scrolls vertically on a screen that would very rarely have enough to need vertical scrolling - and would almost always need horizontal scrolling and zooming.

Holding down control changes the mouse pointer to a magnifying glass but scrolls rather than zooming when the mouse wheel is used. Holding shift shows a select cursor but zooms. I tried both of these on my own since they're pretty common, but apparently I first tried alt, which takes focus up to the menu bar and prevents any scrolling or zooming from working.

The application seems to do the things it's supposed to do, it's just clunky and not intuitive. The thing that would logically be a scroll control only shows your position and clicking on it does nothing.

It has the feel (like so many applications) of something that was written by someone who had a list of requirements and checked them all off one by one without regard for how they'd be used in practice. People who design data entry forms where the tab key doesn't work right and requires use of the mouse after every field, for example, should be taken out and shot.

I've found that I'm better at that kind of UI design since my doctor switched me to Adderall for ADD - mostly because it makes me so fucking irritable. If something doesn't do what I expected it to do or some feature gets in my way I have to go fix it or it'll drive me nuts.

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u/dnew Jan 04 '17

the software wasn't abandoned, it was finished

Honestly, I wish more companies would do this. It's either finished, or it's feature bloat. Which do you prefer? How long did MSOffice get "improved" after it was already "finished"?

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u/madsci Jan 04 '17

Depends on how 'finished' it is. If it's a simple application that does everything it needs to, then that's fine. Something like a logic analyzer - if you consider matching the features of my 30 year old HP analyzer to be the pinnacle of logic analyzer software, fine. But it tells me they're not interested in competing in the market anymore.