CF issues...

[Bobbyn]

I've just bought the CF utility yesterday and already had so many issues regarding the payment, registration, another issue on the registration since there was an upper case letter on my hotsync ID and then there was the final but far most difficult to solve issue... the fact that I can't format the cards in a valid formating... I use the lacie's hexa media drive for editing Photos dirrectly from my several memory cards and after trying all formating available I am considering canceling my credict card orther since the support group at EruWare don't have the courtasy to reply any of my messages...

If there is any othere mean to format these cards I am posting this thread so that anyone can post there sugestions...

thanks,

[nmincone]

I think I'll wait to see how your ordeal pans out before I order mine. PS Run a spell/grammar checker before posting ;-)

[ayasin]

Ok, This isn't meant specifically at you, but rather at the class of people of which you are a member.

In the future, when purchasing ANYTHING:
1. IF there are instructions on what to do to get a registration code FOLLOW THEM. You appearently managed to ignore the 24 point red font message that told you that everything was case sensitive AND managed to enter it in the wrong case twice.

2. DON'T expect an immediate response from a small company at 11:30 PM on satruday night. $27 per driver doesn't pay for 24 hour support.

3. We didn't put a manual in the package because we needed the typing exercise. Try reading it.

This is in general when dealing with other human beings:

1. Be curtious. Don't swear at someone that you want to help you.

To your specific issue:
Try formatting the card with your CF card reader to FAT (not FAT32).

[RipDogger]

I bought the CF driver, followed the instructions, and SUPRISE!!!!!had no problems at all.

Now I am waiting for the driver update.

I knew what I was buying and knew that updates provided would be free, so why not?

Good work Eruware!

[NR70V-o-holic]

Originally posted by RipDogger
I bought the CF driver, followed the instructions, and SUPRISE!!!!!had no problems at all.

Now I am waiting for the driver update.



Same here, no Problems at all, to get the driver working!
So as most times usefull: !! Read the Manual !!

Impatient waiting for the update...

Noh

[ejanssen]

Actually, I find it amazing that any developer of software can put up with the arrogance and self righteous attitude that so many have toward any product. Once again, Aysain, thanks for the work you do. Sorry you are having to deal with the junk.

[LeggNet]

Ayasin - well put...

Bobbyn - Why don't you buy the other CF driver?.... oh, that's right - no one else has put the time and effort into developing one.

Cheers, Rich

[LaserProUSA]

When all else fails read the directions!

[n2ifp]

At least the poster didn't sign on as unregistered :)

[thewildlifepark]

I ordered

I received

I use

I happy

Thanks to Eruware....:):):)

[chinck]

Me too, have no Problems, and happily using it.:)

[CliePet]

> 1. IF there are instructions on what to do to get a registration code FOLLOW THEM. ...
> 3. We didn't put a manual in the package because we needed the typing exercise. Try reading it.

I assume the unregistered 'ayasin' is the developer.

This is a customer support issue, and that's the fun part of getting into business selling software (you do have to deal with paying customers, whether they read the manual or not)

A lot of the more techno-geek customers will get it right, but all it takes is a few people to have problems to run up the support costs...
---

I will add my own $.02 for general "registration code" issues.
I've registered a lot of products, and I found the CF driver registration to be excessive.

25 hex digits to enter a registration code and a 12 character CASE SENSITIVE ID that all must be entered perfectly to get registration?

Microsoft (which I thought was bad) usually only requires a 25 character case insensitive code.
----

Every time you hear the complaint (and I expect you hear it a lot), you can either say or think "RTFM" to your customers.

However, might I politely suggest you consider how to improve the registration process to make it less error prone and keep the customers satisfied, and at the same time reduce your support costs.

[thewildlifepark]

As a satisfied cf driver purchaser I am sure the long winded registration system is  probably to stop tight people who dont want to pay $27 from getting copies unoficaly.

Also if someone can`t cope with this registration system maybe the should go back to pen & paper and forget the Clie

[n2ifp]

It's true that some have great difficulty comprehending simple instructions. This is a general statement not aimed at anyone in particular. In another forum, a message was sent out asking who wants to be a beta tester and to please respond to the posted email address. Instead they posted to that forum instead. Then they couldn't understand why they weren't picked. If simple instructions can't be followed, what good is it to be a beta tester?

Then I remember the first CF Developer who specifically said that he wasn't selecting beta testers, yet there was quite a few who did volunteer anyway. After awhile, it was a joke amongst the rest of us as it was obvious that the original post wasn't read.

[OcellNuri]

Oh man Larry... those were the days. :D

"We are NOT looking for beta testers at the time."

--------------------------------

"I'll be a beta tester! Count me in!"

[CliePet]

> ... I am sure the long winded registration system is probably to stop tight people who dont want to pay $27 ..

Of course registration systems are to prevent people from pirating software, otherwise there would be no need.

But paying customers should not be overly inconvenienced.

IMHO a 24 hex digit key and a 12 character case sensitive key is excessive for piracy protection.
The longer and more variations on the key (especially on a PDA) the greater the chance of the human screwing up (regardless of their skill level). Longer keys are generally to prevent brute-force cracking (also less of an issue on a PDA usually)

IMHO that just a bad/over design with little consideration for ease of the customer or product support costs.

----------

Here are some little things that help:

* reduce the key length to what is necessary (and not over kill). 8 to 10 characters are usually enough
* keys are usually shorter on PDAs to respect the fact that PDA users don't have keyboards
* don't rely on the difference between 'a' and 'A'
* break long runs into groups of 4 or 5
* don't rely on letters that can be confused with numbers (ie. "I" or "O")
* if possible just stick to numbers

This is not rocket science. These are well known techniques that are used by a large number of shareware and commercial products.

----
> Also if someone can`t cope with this registration system maybe the should go back to pen & paper and forget the Clie

I'm not sure if you are kidding, but would I agree that most PDA owners can probably get by with pen and paper.

Taking the point seriously for a second:
if the registration process is meant to evaluate the skills of the purchaser, or their ability to read the instructions thoroughly, then it is a lose-lose scenario.

The customer loses because they fail to register after paying for the product and can be frustrated while they work through the overly complicated 'admittance test'. The company loses because they bear the support costs.

IMHO such a customer unfriendly skill test is not necessary.

Keep it as simple as possible, but no simpler

=======
re: stupid people on the BBS

Of course it is impossible to disagree ;->

There are stupid people out there, but I bet there are many more that just don't have/take the time to read.

If you give them opportunity to be stupid, then you reap what you sow.

Someone who starts a "sign up for a beta" or even a "don't sign up for beta" post that remains open for a long time is likely to get a lot of stupid responses.
Someone who designs an overly elaborate registration process will have to deal with the people who can't handle it.

[cliener]

Yes, I just have to post here (still working on my 100 posts). There are lots of people who are smart enough to understand the instructions and follow them but decide they are smart enough to bypass reading them regardless. There are people who read the instructions and can't understand them (thank goodness for the email for service). Then there are people who just don't have anything better to do than complain. Perhaps the obvious isn't entertaining enough, why not really make the writer of the driver really angry and email him with another complaint at eleven on a Saturday night (several times ) and see how long it takes to get some service. Maybe you should wait till you have a real problem before you do that though. Eruware is a small company, they are in CST and they do require sleep. They are not linked to 911 (however, some people obviously treat them like the response time should be the same) so if you try them during normal business hours you may get a satisfactory response time. I haven't made up my mind as to buy the driver yet...going back and forth and still think they are doing a good job but I am among the number that are not clie scientists so I would probably have a lot of questions too. SO don't go making ayasin angry before I can get to this...he could just get mad and leave...jk. btw, that comment about buying the "other driver", that was a good one.

[wanked]

um actually i am having problems with my compact flash driver. i bought the viking 512 mb compact flash card, put about a hundred or so mp3s on it. when i play htem on my audioplayer, my clie would sometimes randomly reset, or freeze up. only the audioplayer. does anyone else have this problem on their nx-70 with a viking 512 mb memory card? or could it be my clie? i only dropped it once. but i dont think that would affect it.

[n2ifp]

Originally posted by CliePet
> ... I am sure the long winded registration system is probably to stop tight people who dont want to pay $27 ..

Of course registration systems are to prevent people from pirating software, otherwise there would be no need.

But paying customers should not be overly inconvenienced.

IMHO a 24 hex digit key and a 12 character case sensitive key is excessive for piracy protection.
The longer and more variations on the key (especially on a PDA) the greater the chance of the human screwing up (regardless of their skill level). Longer keys are generally to prevent brute-force cracking (also less of an issue on a PDA usually)

IMHO that just a bad/over design with little consideration for ease of the customer or product support costs.

----------

Here are some little things that help:

* reduce the key length to what is necessary (and not over kill). 8 to 10 characters are usually enough
* keys are usually shorter on PDAs to respect the fact that PDA users don't have keyboards
* don't rely on the difference between 'a' and 'A'
* break long runs into groups of 4 or 5
* don't rely on letters that can be confused with numbers (ie. "I" or "O")
* if possible just stick to numbers

This is not rocket science. These are well known techniques that are used by a large number of shareware and commercial products.

----
> Also if someone can`t cope with this registration system maybe the should go back to pen & paper and forget the Clie

I'm not sure if you are kidding, but would I agree that most PDA owners can probably get by with pen and paper.

Taking the point seriously for a second:
if the registration process is meant to evaluate the skills of the purchaser, or their ability to read the instructions thoroughly, then it is a lose-lose scenario.

The customer loses because they fail to register after paying for the product and can be frustrated while they work through the overly complicated 'admittance test'. The company loses because they bear the support costs.

IMHO such a customer unfriendly skill test is not necessary.

Keep it as simple as possible, but no simpler

=======
re: stupid people on the BBS

Of course it is impossible to disagree ;->

There are stupid people out there, but I bet there are many more that just don't have/take the time to read.

If you give them opportunity to be stupid, then you reap what you sow.

Someone who starts a "sign up for a beta" or even a "don't sign up for beta" post that remains open for a long time is likely to get a lot of stupid responses.
Someone who designs an overly elaborate registration process will have to deal with the people who can't handle it.

During the original beta testing the CF Driver had already been hacked several times, hence the elaborate registration system. I am neither defending or supporting it, only relaying the facts. If the driver became Warez, it would be all over before you know it and EruWare would be out of business. The one time Sony offered an upgrade to the N710, it was hacked and given out freely. Consequently, Sony offered no more upgrades, so we all lost out. I don't profess to know all the answers nor do I claim to be perfect, if I did, my name would be God :)!

To: cliener,

Very good comments!

[CliePet]

> During the original beta testing the CF Driver had already been hacked several times...

Can you explain how it was "cracked" ? (without giving too much info to other 'crackers')

Most 'WareZ' is a simple matter of posting the copyrighted material and a generic registration code. Since you need to enter a PDA specific code with CF driver, that should be sufficient protection (ie. no generic registration code). A short key can still be used (ie. hashing)

Rarely do people actually crack the registration code algorithm itself (which would allow them to generate their own keys)

If they did crack algorithm in such a short time, and that's the reason the developer decided to go with a longer key-- then that also points to a weak implementation.

IMHO, the N710 system upgrade issue is a little different, but your point is taken -- piracy is certainly a problem, especially when people get similar things for free on other platforms (system drivers, firmware upgrades, ...)

--------
> hence the elaborate registration system...

If you read my suggestions, you can still apply most of them to very long keys independent of the algorithm.

The longer the key, the greater the need for these techniques to reduce human error and complexity.

[thewildlifepark]

has anyony got a Beta they want tested then?

[Pelagic]

I have had excellent support since I bought the driver - I've sent 3 emails and received responses quickly in each case; even though in each case the information I needed was in the included manual ( I just wanted to get going on using it right away !) Hope we can see further capabilities to enhance the driver in the future...