I thought you might be entertained by the following exchange I had with a company called CodeWeavers. They produce a product called Crossover which lets you run some Windows apps on a Mac. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Crossover for Mac sucks, but I wouldn’t put it in the same category as other non-free applications that I whole-heartedly endorse (Love you CSSEdit!). Anyway, Crossover let’s you run IE6 and IE7 on a Mac without desecrating your machine by installing Windows on it. And that is what I occasionally used it for. The conversation below picks up after, to my surprise, they were going to charge me for a minor update to my copy of Crossover. Let the fireworks begin…

CodeWeavers,

I was disappointed to learn that I will be charged for an upgrade from version 8.01 to 8.03 of crossover. If this had been a major new release, I could understand charging for an upgrade, but as far as I can tell the latest update is addressing compatibility and stability issues, not introducing new features. Charging for extending a license just to get minor updates is a bad business model. Before I become a very vocal and visible anti-crossover customer, I thought I would give you a chance to remedy the situation. Thanks in advance for giving me access to your product upgrade.

Adrian Hanft

Adrian,

Interesting e-mail. Its a bit early for threats, isn’t it? Before you chastise our business model, I’d ask if you know our business model? Here’s the deal. When you buy CrossOver, you are really purchasing support. With Pro and Games, you get 12 months of support. With Standard, you get six months of support. Support includes all software updates, software upgrades, and help desk support. When your time runs out, you have the option (YOUR OPTION) to renew your support. We don’t charge for any one particular update. We don’t charge for any one particular upgrade. We don’t charge for creating a help desk ticket. We package all of that into your support that expires on a specified date. When your support expires, you need to renew support regardless if the next update is major or minor. That’s our business model, and our customer tend to appreciate the way we do business.

So let me review your situation and clarify a couple of points…

1.) YOU NEVER PAID FOR CROSSOVER. You got a free subscription to CrossOver during our Lame Duck Challenge. You took advantage of our promotion, and you received one year of support. You upgraded your software accordingly from 7.2 to 8.0 so that you would have the ability to run on Snow Leopard. So to clarify, you haven’t paid for anything to date and gotten 15 months of joy from the software. And we fulfilled all our obligations as stated in this free promotion.

2.) HOW BAD OF BUSINESS CAN IT BE TO GIVE AWAY YOUR SOFTWARE? If you do decide to be very vocal and visible anti-CrossOver, I’d ask that you at least tell people that you got the software for free. That you received two minor updates and one major upgrade over the course of 15 months. Then, you threatened the company that gave you the free software and free support with bad PR when you were told it was time to pay for future support. After all, fair is fair.

3.) YOU KNEW THIS DAY WAS COMING. Everyone that took part in the Lame Duck Challenge received e-mail (most would say too much e-mail) with notices, special pricing, deal codes in regards to renewing their support. At some point (well before you tussle with Jack), you were notified that your support had expired or was about to expire. The timing of your support expiring had nothing to do with a minor upgrade to 8.0.3 and was going to happen at some point. It just so happens that your support expired on November 9, 2009.

4.) YOU NEED TO RENEW YOUR SUPPORT. The only way for you to acquire 8.0.3 (and the major 9.0 release) is to renew your support. Threatening me with being very vocal and visibly anti-CrossOver will do you no good. Actually, I find your comments to be quite incredulous considering you received the software and support for free (even more so when I go out to your website and see how you interact with your customers). Being that you have an illness that prevents you from being happy unless you are creating something, I hope that you can appreciate that for my developers to keep their hands busy and create new updates to our software they need to get paid. This is how our software improves which hopefully creates a better experience for our customers.

5.) STILL A CHANCE TO SAVE MONEY. If you wish to renew your support of CrossOver and support our business model, I’d ask you to use SPECIAL DEAL CODE: DEADDUCK this will save you 50 percent on your purchase of CrossOver Mac. That’s roughly the cost (actually a few pennies less) then what we ask people to pay to renew their annual support. For $35.00 (USD) per year or less then $3.00 (USD) per month or less the $.75 (USD) per week, you can continue to receive our software updates, software upgrades, and help desk support. And with CrossOver 9.0 scheduled to be released by March 1, 2010, you will receive one of the better software upgrades as part of this support (no additional costs to upgrade to a major release). Just enter the SPECIAL DEAL CODE in the Special Deal Box in the cart screen (has to be the cart screen) of the order process. You’ll see the discount applied before you complete your transaction.

That’s the best deal that I can provide to you. If you don’t like the deal or feel that we’re still being unreasonable, I guess I’ll read about it on your many blogs (I’d just ask for you to spell my name right… its R-A-M-E-Y (pronounced RAY-me, not RAM-ee). Thank you again for your e-mail and interesting comments. My very best regards to you (and your father and son both named Adrian).

James B. Ramey
Vice President, Sales
CodeWeavers
[edit: contact info removed]

Dear Mr. Ramee,

Thanks for the email and personal attention. My email wasn’t meant as a threat as much as an attempt to show you the mistake you were making. You may not be aware that happy customers spread the word about great products. Disappointed customers complain and promote alternatives. That’s why most companies actually care about customer satisfaction. Word of mouth has the power to sell (or slow the sale of) products.

When I first emailed you I was on the fence about CrossOver and looking for a reason to get behind it. That’s why I tried your software in the first place. And yes, I tried it for free thanks to your promotion. (Actually, a friend referred me to you because he was a impressed with the concept of CrossOver – an example of word of mouth marketing in action!) Had it not been free I wouldn’t have tried it at all. So since it was free, I tried your software. And honestly, it is okay. I use it occasionally when I need to test a website on IE and I don’t have access to a PC. If you guys work out the kinks I would probably pay for the next major release. If you can get IE8 to run I definitely will. However, I will NEVER pay for support. Most people, like me, expect software to work – without needing technical assistance. Call me crazy.

The really funny thing about your business model is that it is almost the opposite of the traditional “free trial” concept. Instead of offering an enticing sample for free that persuades potential customers to part with their money, you guys are just giving your goods away and charging people for support – banking on what I assume is your inside knowledge that most people won’t be able to get CrossOver working. Why would a company base their pricing on support as their main product? Could it be that the software is so buggy that there is more money in helping people get it working? That is the only logical conclusion I can come to.

You can run your business however you would like, but here is some free advice. I owe you after all, for the 15 months of support that I didn’t use…

1. Don’t pull the plug on legitimate customers and hold them hostage with something as minor as basic performance upgrade.

2. Dont’ charge for customer service. That’s really what your support package is (and your thorough review of my billing records will show that I used exactly zero of it!) If you are losing money because you are spending too much time helping your customers, then take the product offline and put it in beta.

3. Sell software. Your products are your most valuable product, so sell it! If people need support, sell that separately.

4. Make it easy to upgrade. The majority of your users are Mac users after all, and they are used to user-friendly software experiences.

5. And most importantly… Oops, your subscription just expired. If you would like more free advice you will have to pay me for it.

Sincerely,
Adrian3

P.S. You probably didn’t spend enough time on my website to realize that I am not selling anything there. I contribute freely to several open source projects. I alone handle all support issues for Font Burner, a free service that asks nothing in return of my users. I actually feel guilty when I am unable to serve people as well as I should – even though I owe them nothing. I would never insult my users with the type of email you sent me.

Adrian,

Sorry to lose you as a customer. Best wishes to you in all your endeavors. Thanks for the advice. My best regards.

James B. Ramey

My wife gave me a short list of groceries to pick up on my way home from work last week. One of the items that proved to be elusive was the Velveeta cheese. As I searched up and down the aisles at Safeway I started thinking about the implications involved with where a store stocker places this non-cheese. For some reason the experience has stuck with me through the week. I keep coming back to it because I think it illustrates the “gray area” that marketer’s often find themselves when the try to do “the right thing.” Let me explain…

The Velveeta Paradox
If you owned a grocery store, where would you stock the Velveeta cheese? This question seems simple enough, but let me walk you through the moral implications embedded in this seemingly simple question…

Answer 1: The Dairy Aisle
It seems logical to stock Velveeta with the other cheeses. This is the first place a customer will typically look when searching for Velveeta. In case you didn’t know, Velveeta isn’t truly a cheese and doesn’t need to be refrigerated. This raises some problems. First, since dairy products need to be refrigerated it costs more for you to keep the product here. How do you pay for this extra cost? Do you markup the product and charge the customer for the luxury of finding the product where they expect it? Is it deceptive to sell imitation cheese as if it were actually cheese?

Answer 2: Near the Dairy Aisle
If you choose a location close to the dairy aisle you face a different moral conundrum. The nature of the refrigerated section of the grocery store is that there rarely will be a good spot near the cheese. If there is a shelf in eye sight of the cheese, chances are the items found here will not be a context where you would look to find cheese. Stacking bricks of Velveeta between loaves of bread or between coffee grounds puts the macaroni lubricant severely out of context. If you truly value your customers you won’t want them to miss the location and walk aimlessly around the store for hours. Or perhaps you are the kind of person who would hide the cheese intentionally so that customers will load their cart up with other non-essentials as they search for the holy grail of cheese products.

Answer 3: The End Cap
To compensate for the lack of visibility caused by taking Velveeta out of the context of the cheese section you may decide that an end cap is the best place to stock your loafs of lard. End caps, however, are the prime real estate in the store. Can you afford to give up this space (and possible revenue) just to make the orange jelly easier to find?

Answer 4: The Chip Aisle
Since imitation cheese is a common ingredient in dips, it might make sense to stock it in the chip aisle with the junk food. You are now presented with a different type of question. Velveeta has very few redeeming health merits. If you are concerned about the health of your customers, should you really be promoting I-can’t-believe-its-not-cheese in the first place? How do you avoid feeling guilty about providing a substance that kills people?

Answer 5: The Cigarette Counter
If your conscience gets the best of you, guilt might cause you to pull the toxic cubes off the shelves all together. Perhaps the cigarette counter is a more appropriate spot. You can add warning labels, age restrictions, and generally make people feel guilty about buying the irresistible yellow sludge. This would of course have the negative side effect of offending the responsible Velveeta user who uses it in moderation in the privacy of their own home.

Answer 6: Anywhere Else
There aren’t any other places left in the store that make sense to put the artery arsenic. Again, if you value your customer’s time it has to be in a place where they know to look. Additionally, as a store owner you will lose sales on Velveeta if people can’t find it. Can you afford to put it somewhere where it won’t be found?

I hope you found this analogy entertaining. As funny as it sounds, these are the kind of moral decisions that we all have to make on a daily basis. Although advertisers are often lumped into the same category as politicians and lawyers when it comes to measuring the “most loathed human beings,” almost all the marketers I have ever known have been good honest people. For the most part, the average human has nothing but good intentions when it comes to their careers. We want to help people. We want to produce quality products that people will find useful. We want to invest our lives in things that we consider good. Inevitable this will eventually put you in a catch-22 situation. Sometimes there just isn’t a safe answer to questions like these. If you are sincerely trying to be a good person you will regularly be confronted with situations that compromise your integrity. What do you do when you are between a rock and a hard place?

By the way, I am giving out high-fives to anyone who leaves a comment with a good slang phrase for Velveeta. I think my favorite so far is “the holy grail of cheese products.”

Oh, and if you were wondering where Velveeta actually gets stocked, you will usually find it in the refrigerated dairy section next to the other cheeses. You can be sure that the store passes the unnecessary refrigeration cost on to you…

Driving back from Nebraska on Easter earlier this year I was the victim of one of the most blatant gas price scams I have ever heard of. Put simply, the pump charged me a different price than what was advertised on the pump. Fraud at the pump is somewhat notorious on I-80 traveling through Nebraska, and I have complained about a North Platte gas fraud incident before. If you are ever stop for gas in Nebraska avoid the Cenex at the Ogallala exit. Here is what happened to me along with photo evidence of the gas scam they are running there…

We usually stop and eat at the Ogallala exit because they have a Runza at the Cenex gas station there. Being Easter, the station was closed as was the Runza, so we ate dinner at the McDonalds next door. While my family ordered our food I filled up the gas tank. The photo to the right shows what the pump looks like when you drive up. It clearly says $2.199 per gallon. Click on any of these images to see the full resolution photos that show the whole photo.

The next photo shows what the price changes to after you start pumping gas. As you can see it changed to $2.239! When you have finished pumping it switches back to the cheaper price. I couldn’t believe what just happened! There was no sign anywhere showing that the gas cost $2.239. It could have charged me whatever it wanted.

Since the gas station was unattended on Easter, there was nothing I could do but warn another victim who had just pulled up to the pump. Finally we noticed that the sign by the road said “cash price” in tiny letters next to the price. Apparently the advertised price is only if you have cash. And since the station is closed, nobody can pay cash. Credit card is the only option and they don’t tell you what that price will be. If you pay with a credit card they change the price to some arbitrary and unadvertised price. You don’t know the price until you actually start pumping. It could be $7.50 per gallon and you would be at their mercy.

There are dishonest people everywhere, I suppose. Crooks like the owners of the Cenex Station can get away with their scams because they have found a way to exploit their customers. Their scam might even hold up in court, but I wonder if in the long run it is worth it for them. I can tell you that I will never buy gas from that station again. I will tell every person I know who travels through Nebraska not to stop at that Cenex station. The price change cost me less than $1, but I will never buy gas from a Cenex station ever again. I hope you think twice before buying Cenex, too. Hopefully they actually lose money from their rip off methods.

Twenty-three days ago my MacBook Pro crashed. Since my computer was out of warranty I decided to take it to the Mac Shack in Fort Collins rather than the Apple Store. I figured that it would be cheaper and it was also closer to my house. I wanted to give an honest review of my experience with the Mac Shack so that if you find yourself in a similar situation you can make an informed decision. This post is kind of long and boring, so the excerpt is this: It took a long time (three weeks) to get my computer back but the price was good. If you care for more details, read on…

Once I knew something very serious was wrong with my MacBook, the first thing I did was visit the Mac Shack website. Compared to the Apple website, the Mac Shack’s website looks, well, kind of like a PC. (I would love to redesign the Mac Shack’s website, but that’s a whole other story.) So, I got the phone number from the website and gave them a call. I talked to someone from the Boulder store who was very helpful. I explained the problem with my computer being stuck in a startup chime loop. He said it could be a logic board issue, a diagnosis that turned out to be correct. He recommended that I have them send the computer to Apple for me because they have an “Apple Mail-In Service” where they will fix anything for $399 if your computer is in good condition. Since a replacement logic board replacement typically costs over $1000 it is a great deal.

So I took my 17-inch MacBook Pro to the Fort Collins Mac Shack on Wednesday, March 11. I talked to the manager C.J. and he also confirmed that it could be a logic board issue, but said he would run some tests before he sent it to Apple. The Mac Shack employees look like they could be stand-ins for the “Mac” guy on the commercials. That’s not a diss necessarily, I just think it is just kind of funny. Compared to the tightly branded robots you get at the Apple store it is a noticeable contrast.

Anyway, I had to agree to pay $79 for labor for them to diagnose the problem. He explained that this would go towards the repair if I decide to have Mac Shack fix the problem. I left my laptop with C.J. expecting to get a call from him on Thursday or Friday with a diagnosis of the problem.

At this point in my review I should mention that I am what you might call a “squeaky wheel.” I am not rude or anything, but I will call to get an update every day and closely monitor the progress of repairs. So that’s what I did. By the time I got my computer back, I was on a first name basis with C.J. and Sky, the other person who was working on my laptop. They were patient and responsive overall, despite how long it took to get my computer back.

I called on Thursday and was told my computer hadn’t been looked at yet. I called on Friday and was told the same thing. They said they might work on it on Saturday even though they typically don’t work on the weekend. They must be really busy. I called on Monday and my computer was supposedly on the list to be looked at in the afternoon. I called at the end of the day and they had supposedly started looking at my computer. The next day I called again and the problem was still unknown. On Wednesday I was told that the problem was either the logic board or the left IO board. I am not sure what that part was, but since it was much cheaper than a new logic board it was worth a try. Mac Shack ordered the part and I was back to waiting.

I continued to call daily and I think they must have started to recognize my number because I would get put on hold and the Mac Shack would never come back. Another time it sounded like they picked up the phone and then hung up. When the part arrived, they replaced it but I was told it didn’t fix the problem. They advised me to send it to Apple. I had the option of letting Mac Shack backup my data or risk Apple reinstalling the system and wiping out everything. I had a Time Machine backup that was about a month old, so I saved the $100 it would have cost for the backup. If I remember correctly, this was March 20, so it was about ten days from the time I dropped my computer off.

With my computer in Apple’s hands, I still called daily to check on the status of my order. Again I was put on hold quite a bit and was hung up on once more. Finally Apple updated their status on my machine to say that they had ordered a new logic board. That seems strange, as you would think Apple would keep most parts in stock. On April 1 I was told that my computer had arrived and I could pick it up. Luckly, this wasn’t an April fool’s joke.

The total time it took was 21 days. That seems like a long time, but there is good news. The total cost for the replacement of the logic board was $426. This is the cost of Apple’s mail-in service plus tax. That may seem like a lot, but I was not charged for Mac Shack’s time to diagnose the problem. If I had paid for a new logic board it would have been well over $1000. Additionally, I was not charged for the labor or parts when Mac Shack replaced my left IO board. My bill could easily have been $1500 or more. Another way to put that in perspective, the cost of AppleCare (Apple’s extended warranty) would have cost me over $349 for one year. You get a year warranty with the computer, if I remember correctly, and AppleCare would kick in when that runs out. My computer was almost two years old, So I would be about ready to pay another $349 in a couple months. Luckily, I never buy warranties. My advice is don’t buy Apple’s warranty (or any warrantee for that matter). Instead, put that money aside in case the unlikely happens and your logic board fails. Take it to Mac Shack and have them send it to Apple for you. It will save you in the long run. That is of course if you can afford to be without your laptop for three weeks. Man, that was tough…

Few people know that ping pong was an important part of Bruce Lees training routine. Bruce had the opinion that traditional martial arts techniques were too rigid and formalistic to be practical in scenarios of chaotic street fighting. That’s why the paddle speed, improvisation and timing involved in ping pong appealed to him so much. Lee would eventually formalize his ideas of “Practicality, flexibility, speed, and efficiency” into the martial arts system known as Foo Led Yu. Here is some recently uncovered footage of Bruce playing ping pong with nunchucks:

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Ok, so this is really just an advertisement for a Nokia phone, but isn’t it fun? What a great viral video! By the way, the Foo Led Yu thing, I came up with that myself. TM.

I created Font Burner so that there would be a really simple way to add rich typography to your website. My philosophy is that you shouldn’t have to be a professional web designer to use fonts other than Times, Verdana, Arial, etc. on your site. I knew that font designers and font companies would be hesitant to this idea, but I had a (perhaps naive) optimism that the value of the growth of typography online would win over the industry players. I might have been wrong.

Since the launch of Font Burner last April I have had several conversations with Font business people and I can’t point to a single person who has shown any interest in embracing sIFR. At best, they are willing to turn a blind eye to the use of sIFR. At worst, they expect an additional payment for a special sIFR license.

Think about that for a second. You legally purchase a font. You can use it freely anywhere you want. In advertising, on television, in a book, on the side of a plane, in your logo, anywhere. But if you want to use this font on your website, stop the presses! Oh, no! If you want to use the font that YOU PAID FOR on your website you will have to purchase an additional license. That is ridiculous. It is greedy, plain and simple.

This type of restrictive stance is a symptom of an industry that is only interested in turning a profit. This became even more clear to me when I had some correspondence with a representative from a relatively unknown font distribution website. I won’t give them the satisfaction of a link or mentioning them by name.

I was approached by this company because they wanted to know if I would be interested in promoting their free font of the month. At first I thought it would be a mutually beneficial partnership. I would promote their free font of the month and in exchange they would let me use the font within the Font Burner system. But when the details of how the arrangement would work were explained, the obvious one-sided arrangement became apparent.

The company had no interest in letting me use their free font on Font Burner. In fact, they don’t allow the use of any of their fonts with sIFR to anyone without an additional license. Yes, you heard that correctly. You would have to buy a license to use a sIFR version of a font that they are GIVING AWAY FOR FREE! To quote:

We would not want our free font of the month posted to your site, either temporarily or permanently. Thus we were hoping that you would simply promote the free font, and link over to our site for users to download it.

Can you believe that? They expect me to promote their products and send traffic to their site without getting anything in return. They expect something for free in one breath and then in the next they refuse to loosen their restrictive policies in the slightest bit! I can’t use the very font that they want me to promote on my site without being in violation of their license! Unbelievable.

I will end this post with my response to this unscrupulous solicitor:

Thanks for clarifying your license restrictions. Unfortunately, I can’t endorse a company that takes such a limiting stance in regard to sIFR. I don’t agree with requiring additional licenses for using sIFR. If you purchase a font I believe you should legally be able to use it on your website without having to pay extra for that “luxury.” Frankly, I think you have more to gain from making it easier for people to use fonts online than by restricting them, but you guys have to run your business however you feel comfortable. Thanks again for contacting me, and keep me in mind if the licensing atmosphere loosens up at (campany name withheld).

I thought my problems with Adobe were over, but it never ends. To recap…

Part 1
My computer at work crashed and it took days of phone calls to Adobe support before they could remove Adobe Creative Suite 3 from my computer. I needed to remove it completely (more completely than there uninstallers will allow) and then reinstall it cleanly. CS3 was the only application that required reinstallation after my crash.

Part 2
After I reinstall at work my installation of CS3 stops working at home. It asked me to reactivate. I go through the reactivation process and it fails again. I call support. They provide me with a authorization code that I use in addition to my serial number and activation number. Finally I get CS3 working on my work computer and my home computer. Which brings us to today…

Part3
I needed to move CS3 from my home computer to my laptop. This should have been as simple as deactivating the software on my home computer and then installing and activating it on my laptop. Not quite. First, the deactivation process failed. They had me uninstall it completely from my home computer. It still won’t activate on my laptop, so next I had to go through the same hoops as before. I needed my serial number, my activation number, and a third number that they only give you over the phone that they call an activation number. Here is a screenshot of the absurdity:

I understand that piracy and theft are problems for Adobe and any software developer, but it shouldn’t be that hard for a legitimate paying customer to use what I am paying for. I am a saavy customer and calling support is always my last resort. I have had to call support to install the software. I have had to call support to uninstall the software. I have had to call support to reactivate the software. I have had to call support to deactivate the software. I have had to call support to activate the software. That is an unacceptable and it has turned me from an Adobe fan to an Adobe hater just waiting for any alternative to come around and make my live easier.

I have been blogging for a while and have participated in my share of heated discussions. I have been on the attacking side and I have been on the defensive side. I rarely make a post without being willing to defend my words in the comments. And yet it always surprises me which of my ideas get challenged. I just can’t predict it. Things that I think will be controversial go unchallenged. Things that seem harmless end up upsetting people. For example, take the following story which I wrote over a year ago…

“I was traveling from Colorado to Nebraska and stopped at a Conoco in North Platte. It is notorious for their high gas prices because their location is one of the few main stops on Interstate 80 between Denver and Lincoln. In the past, North Platte gas stations wouldn’t even show their price per gallon on their signs because they knew people didn’t really have any alternatives. You had to pull up to the pump to see how much they were going to stick it to you that particular day. When I took the exit, the first station was a Conoco with a big sign flashing at near strobe light regularity that their gas was $2.26 and they had “the best looking attendants.” Feeling somewhat insulted by the intrusive flashing of the sign, I passed it in favor of a Shell station a few blocks further down the road. To my disappointment, the gas at Shell was $2.49. I decided to pay the extra money and get back on the road. On our return to Colorado a couple days later, we again were ready to refuel in North Platte. This time, I decided to forgive the flashing sign and refuel at Conoco since they were still advertising $2.26. I pulled in and was shocked to see that the $2.26 price was nowhere to be seen on the pump. Since I was in a hurry again, I accepted the $2.49 price and filled my tank. When I got inside, I asked the attendant (who wasn’t good looking at all) sarcastically if I had missed the $2.26 price? As if I was the first person to ask this question, he said, “Oh, that is only on pumps one and two.” I think he mumbled something about “out of order” which seemed to be his backup answer. I was too disgusted to say anything else, so I just paid and left. It was a scam. Literally highway robbery. The gas in pump one came out of the same tank as the other pumps. Conoco, who has the prime location right off the highway, wasn’t satisfied with the usual profit they make from their inflated prices. Now they are deceiving every customer that stops there! I was so raving mad that I will never buy Conoco gas again, ever!”

That was just part of my post and you can read the whole thing here if you are interested, but it is a true story. Then today I got a comment from a local guy named Jo that was offended by my essay. He claimed that the prices were clearly marked and that I lacked common sense. I responded with a link to a recent article written about the same deceptive gas stations and the obligatory counter insult which never helps things, but is hard to resist. I won’t bore you by quoting the conversation any further, but it just strikes me as funny: I try so hard to write engaging posts that challenge and inspire people; and the conversations that actually happen end up being stupid bickering about gas prices. Sigh…

My computer at work crashed last week. Thankfully, other than half a day of work, I didn’t lose anything. I was able to do an “archive and install” to get my operating system back up and running and you can only imagine how glad I was to see my cluttered desktop appear on screen.

The worst part of the computer crash was that it really screwed up my Adobe products. Just when I thought I had recovered everything I opened up InDesign only to be greeted with a “Licensing for this product has catastrophically failed.” I love that “catastrophically” part. The other Adobe products just said “Failed” but InDesign has to be the drama queen. I figured that I could simply reinstall the Creative Suite and get back to work. I got the same error. After three calls to Adobe’s tech support I was able to clean all the licensing junk off my G5 so that I could get CS3 reinstalled. The support people were nice and spoke good English and they knew what they were doing. The problem is it never should have happened in the first place. Why was the licensing so deeply embedded in my machine that it couldn’t be easily removed or overwritten? The techs told me this happens all the time.

It seems that each year Adobe products get more and more overrated. Generally they are the best thing on the market, but I never get the warm fuzzy “the designer of this software really cares about making a beautiful application” feeling. Upgrades always seem so minor and unless you count acquiring Macromedia, there really hasn’t been a major innovation from the company in recent memory.

For anyone that doesn’t think that there is room for innovation in the Adobe product lineup I point you to a web editor called Coda. I have been using this beautiful application instead of Dreamweaver for about a month and I absolutely love it. If you try hard enough, you can do everything you need to in Dreamweaver, but in Coda things are where they need to be and everything makes sense. Read about it here and download a demo to try it for yourself. And at only $79 Coda makes the case for how inflated and overrated Dreamweaver at $400.

I guess it must be difficult for an innovative company like Adobe to maintain their edge. Rather than reinvent and improve their software there is a temptation to protect their lead. Instead of competing with their rivals, they absorb them. Rather than making their products more appealing they focus on making sure that everyone is paying full price. Why change a product when you can add a couple bells and whistles and promote it as a major upgrade. I am hoping for more applications like Coda that make it easier to not rely so heavily on Adobe.

Got the following letter today. As obvious as the advice in the letter is, It makes me feel good to know the police are doing this. What a great PR opportunity!

Dear Resident,

In an effort to reduce crime and assist you from becoming a victim of crime, the Evans Police Department has instituted a theft target program. If one of our officers identifies a possible easy target for theft, he/she will report it to my office. We then contact you by this letter, hopefully bringing the target to attention.

On 11-04-06 at 11:45 PM Officer Povsha of the Evans Police observed the garage door of your residence was open.

Our suggestion for reducing your chance of becoming a victim of crime is the following:

Make sure the residence/garage is locked and secure.

Please accept this letter strictly as a service from the Evans Police Department. It is our goal to make the community crime free.

If you have any questions or would like further information about our other Crime Prevention Programs, please contact us at 339-2441.

Sincerely,
Lee Carrillo
Interim Chief of Police