Open letter to Gavin Patterson

BT are driving me to mad with their BS. I wrote this to the CEO with some vague notion he might read it or maybe even give a hoot. Scroll down for the usual lengthy tale of woe.
Dear Mr Patterson,
Ref: xxxxxxxxxx
I am writing to you in the hope that you can help me with an ongoing difficulty that has left me dumbfounded. Over the past few months I have been disputing an engineers charge on my account. As the demand for payment is now approaching the legal stage I have tried to make sense of BT policy, but I find myself caught in an endless loop.
I have been told that it is impossible to freeze the payment demands pending the outcome of the dispute. I am sure that you have the authority to do this, and I am asking you to exercise it in the name of common sense. I will outline my experience below, but in short there was an error in levying a charge in the first place, but more importantly, I have found BT's response to be far too heavy handed during which I have been misinformed and evidence has been fabricated by Openreach.
I ask that you postpone the demands for payment pending the outcome of the dispute - anything else just seems irresponsible.
Many thanks in advance - xxxxxx xxxx.
The story so far:
1. On Oct 23rd an engineer replaced the NTE outside my boat. It appeared like a regular repair and he said nothing of it being chargeable - hence I had no need to take photos, examine old NTE etc. He advised we put a plastic bag over the new NTE, thus indicating the less than perfect waterproofness of the boxes.2. I disputed the charge on 6th Jan and was told I would not need to pay it until it was resolved. I was not told that this was conditional on maintaining my account. When I left BT (because of poor standards of service) the promise of not having to pay until resolved was reneged without warning. I gave the agent the details of the unusual installation (on a boat).3. The dispute was rejected. The agent I spoke to on 14th Feb said that her colleague had not passed the relevant information to Openreach; she said the information was vital to my case and in her opinion I should not have been charged.4. Today I was told that the reason for rejection was 'water ingress through internal wiring.' This is not on the engineer's report and no-one has inspected it since. The engineer's report say cause 'unknown.' Openreach have just made this up. If I had known that this was their reason I could have provided further information a month ago.5. The idea of water ingress through internal wiring is ludicrous. I won't go into details, but one look at it will reveal the stupidity of this idea. A few photos of the installation would show this.6. I am currently facing a threat of debt collection charges. The latest BT agent was unable to tell me what they might be or whether these charges would be cancelled if the dispute is successful. She advised I wait until the next letter from the legal department and I could then contact them about it. She knew of no way of finding this information.7. Everything underlined above is either negligence or bad practice or misinformation or a fabrication of evidence. I have received conflicting information from BT representatives and so have no reason to trust anything I am told. I feel accused of something over which I have no power to represent my position.
8. The catalogue of screw ups has delayed a resolution to the dispute such that it leaves me potentially facing legal action and credit rating problems. This is just plain wrong.

Welcome to this forum.
This is a customer to customer forum only, where forum members, who are only BT customers, can help each other with BT Retail products and services.
Anything you post here does not go to BT. Although the forum is moderated by BT, not all posts are read.
This is a public forum which can be viewed worldwide, so please do not post any personal information, especially phone numbers, account numbers, fault numbers, address information or email addresses, as this could be used to impersonate you.
If you have posted such information, then please edit your post, and delete it.
There is a giude to charges here.
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/12439/c/
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.

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Open Letter to Apple

Dear Apple,
I love your products and have been using Apple since 1985.
Currently, though, I am not too happy with the Quicktime 7.3.1 update.
I recently authorized the purchase of multiple iWorks for the computers in our office. I chose iWork for Keynote because it blows PowerPoint out of the water.
One of the reasons we chose Keynote is because it was so easy it import a variety of file types, most importantly for us, Flash.
The most recent Quicktime upgrade takes away the ability to view SWFs in Quicktime, but more importantly, in Keynote. A presentation we depend on to sell ourselves as a business has been rendered useless.
It's my understanding there is no easy way to Uninstall Quicktime 7.3.1 so that we can reinstall Quicktime 7.2 to make SWFs playable again. I've been told through the discussion boards that we need to reinstall the OS to achieve this. Not exactly a great answer when managing 20+ Macs.
Will the next version of Quicktime allow for SWF playback?
What are we as Keynote users to do? Please help, we have a new business presentation on Tuesday. This change is costing my company money.
-Kirk

Kirk ~ If you haven't already done so, it would be worth posting on the +"QuickTime for Mac OS"+ forum here:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=932
...and rather than the "open letter" style, may I suggest keeping it really simple, just covering the main points:
1. The functionality you've lost with the upgrade from QT 7.2 to 7.3.1
2. Whether there's an alternative to reverting back to 7.2
3. If there's no alternative, what is the simplest way to revert back to 7.2.

OPEN LETTER TO NOKIA: Fix Bugs Now or We're Ditchi...

Dear Nokia
After many years struggling with Windows Mobile's constant bugs that Microsoft are reknowned for, I finally bit the bullet and bought an E71 made by the king of mobile phone manufacturers... or so I thought... Nokia.
I have been utterly astonished and devastated by the number of extremely obvious bugs with this device and am shocked beyond belief that Nokia is allowing itself to tarnish its own previously good brand image by putting out untested phones with software that seems to have been written by a 12 year old boy as his first project.
I have tried posting the issues on these groups, but no solution. 'Wait for a firmware update', or 'hard reset your phone and lose all your hours worth of customisations', seem to be the standard replies. I have emailed your support, who cannot even read and send irrelevant replies. It is no wonder the bugs do not make it past them and get forwarded to you, and therefore no wonder you are not fixing them.
Worse still some of these bugs go back to phones before the Eseries according to my Google searches. You have knowingly carried forward bugs from old phones to new flagship ones. It is utterly unbelievable.
This is an open letter asking you to resolve the following bugs within 30 days via a Firmware update for the E71, or I will be returning my Nokia E71 under the UK Sale of Goods Act 1979 as it is "not fit for the intended purpose" (such as making a simple Bluetooth call or using WiFi), and "not of satisfactory quality". I urge other users to also return their Nokias if they are forced to endure such bugs beyond 30 days of this notice.
Here are the bugs I am experiencing, which I have seen multiple other users report, and I am sure other users will reply to my open letter confirming they will also be abandoning the Nokia brand in favour of something more reliable.
1) Bluetooth Disconnects - see http://tinyurl.com/3q9hmk
Excerpt: "My headset (Plantronics Voyager 510) disconnects every 10 seconds, then reconnects, then disconnects, then... I can leave them just inches from each other and they'll go through this strange dance.
Furthermore you cannot answer an Internet VoIP call using the headset's answer button, but CAN answer a cell call.
Then I get in my car (JVC KD-BT1) and make a call, and 2 minutes into every call the Bluetooth connection is dropped and the call transfers to the handset. Very dangerous."
2) WLAN Ghost Access Points and clunky behaviour
The WiFi integration is a mess. There are so many different ways to connect, via WLAN scanner, via Tools, via Internet Phone, and the outcome is that even though you are only within one access point, multiple access points get created. E.g. if I connect to 'WiFi' and define an access point, if I later connect via a different route, I get a ghost access point 'WiFi(01)'. Do this for a week or so at home and you end up with these access points:
WiFi
WiFi(01)
WiFi(02)
WiFi(03) and so on...
Try to delete one of them, and all 4 disappear. Experiment too much further and try to tidy up, and suddenly anything to do with WLAN access slows the phone down 1000%:
- Click WLAN Scan and the Home Screen freezes for 3 minutes
- Try to enter Internet Phone and the status bar freezes
- Try to connect to Email and it fails to ask for an access point and just gives up
Then you have to work out how to restore WiFi(01)... etc. to how they were before, and only then does the freezing stop.
Hard reset is not a solution - it just happens again before long. I have better things to do with my life than constantly configure my phone settings after each hard reset.
3) View Interrupted Downloads, if only I could - see http://tinyurl.com/6jeuvt
After a failed download, every time I reboot the phone or close Web, the phone asks 'View interrupted downloads?'. If I click yes, it just takes me to the Bookmarks. There is no 'Downloads' option in Web's Options menu in the E71. It is impossible to make this annoying popup go away. Unless you hard reset and lose all your settings and data.
4) A2DP is always on - see http://tinyurl.com/5nat3r
Excerpt: "I get in the car and the phone connects to my JVC KD-BT5 stereo. All audio is again routed through the stereo's A2DP source. But if I listen to the radio, I don't hear the phone audio, and again miss out on SMS alerts and more!
This is the only A2DP phone I know that doesn't let you choose whether each Bluetooth headset is also a 'Bluetooth Audio Device'! Even Windows Mobile had a checkbox for that!!"
5) Diabolical Camera Quality
The camera quality is appalling. The amount of grain must be a bug. Nokia will lose sales on this compared to the Blackberry Bold which has a lower-res yet better quality camera. Also AutoFocus should be Auto (!) not require pressing the 't' key.
When I try to find a repair centre at http://www.apps.nokia.co.uk/clubnokiaservice/ your website is down. Even the link to find a solution is bugged!
I am amazed that some of these bugs relate to older Nokia phones like no. 3 and that a customer has to go to these lengths to try to get Nokia's programmers' attention.
If other users agree, they will reply here and let Nokia know.
Yours frustratedly,
A new (soon to be ex-) Nokia customer
Message Edited by nokkyear on 13-Sep-2008 05:22 PM

I have no comments regarding the above issues, but have a few of my own. I know some 'features' with some of the phones are hard to distinguish from 'bugs', so I'll just list a few glitches I feel are obvious bugs. My phone is the Finnish version of E71-1.
The e-mail hardware shortcut button on my E71-1 is giving me the "Feature not available. Reverting to default setting" error if the button is set to open up the Create New E-mail screen when held down for a second or two. All other settings that can be set-up in the Mode Settings work normally. Note that the default action *is* to open up the Create New E-mail screen when the button is held down. Hard reset doesn't help.
In the Gallery if I rotate a picture that I've for example shot in portrait orientation (E71 has a landscape screen), the new orientation doesn't get saved. After exiting the image viewer the image has reverted to it's original orientation. As-is, the feature doesn't make sense to me at the moment. This is quite an old 'feature' dating back to the E61 at least.
Connecting my Motorola HT820 A2DP-compatible stereo headset to my E71 is giving me grief. The audio keeps cutting off even though I keep my cellphone in my shirt pocket. To be exact, for some peculiar reason the phone either pauses the music or goes fast forward if I have my hand between the headset's receiver and the phone. After doing so, occasionally the pitch of the music has hightened, like an LP playing too fast on the turntable. Listening to music while keeping the phone at the opposite side of my body to the bluetooth headset is nearly impossible, because my own body mass is apparently enough to block the signal (I'm 80kg, 185cm). I've had no problems with connecting to other A2DP media players (e.g. Palm TX PDA, Bluetooth 1.2) to my headset.
The video camera's zoom is still jerky (a bug with my ex-E61i) and the jerkiness gets recorded to the video file. Last time I tried recording video I found out that the phone had lost about one minute from the beginning of the recording. I'm getting a feeling that the E71 is underpowered for these kinds of tasks - but is it really?
I have some old programs and themes that I used in my previous phone the E61i in my 2GB memory card. After inserting the memory card to my new E71 and starting the phone up, it tries to install the applications to the new system. The installing fails, but this isn't really the problem. The problem is that the phone suggests installing all the remaining "untrusted" programs manually, and even after successfully doing just that, the phone still attempts to install the new software after every single reset. To "clean up" the memory card of the remnant software and files that cause this behavior I had to search around the net for in-depth knowledge about the Symbian filesystem and folder structure. Asking the help desk about the problem only results to such answers as: "Do a hard reset." "Don't fiddle with the memory card folders." "Format the memory card and your phone."
All I need is the phone to tell which files are causing the problems, or the ability to simply turn off the automatic installer at startup. The worst kind of error messages are the kinds that don't help at all.
Message Edited by kvirtanen on 13-Sep-2008 09:22 PM
kvirtanen.deviantart.com

Open Letter to Tim Buntel

Sorry for the "spammy" post, but I am hoping someone from
Adobe will notice:
http://techfeed.net/blog/index.cfm/2007/8/22/Open-Letter-to-Tim-Buntel
The basic idea of the letter, is that I feel Adobe could do a
LOT more to market ColdFusion, and I give a lot of ideas.

re: I DO have an
"I'm alright Jack" attitude because I do not have any
particular loyalty to
CF.
And as I say "I" disagree with that attitude. I like CF and I
don't want to
be forced into using something that is less productive or
less fun to use.
So "I" think we should get behind it and not adopt an
attitude like yours.
Thats my thinking.
You talk like having an attitude like mine is inflexible and
somehow
prohibits me from moving on and learning another language -
you are wrong,
it is more about at which point I want to "give in" and make
such a move.
re: The simple fact of the matter is that
> when CF is no longer viable, I am not going to cry about
it, I am going to
> switch to whatever gets the job done at the time
Talking in general terms from the perspective of web
developers in general -
CF already is not viable. For me personally, it IS still
viable. I choose to
"cry about it" rather than accept it - it's not about
loyalty, its about
wanting to keep a good tool alive and not getting forced into
ditching it if
at all possible.
re: ANY steadfast loyalty to a programming language is
detrimental to
> your career and to your thought process.
Yes, of course. But thats not what is happening and its wrong
to view this
in those terms.
"tclaremont" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:[email protected]...
> Wrong attitude? How can you assess my attitude without
knowing my
> objective ?!?!
>
> My point to you is that once you get some experience in
programming you
> will
> realize that ANY steadfast loyalty to a programming
language is
> detrimental to
> your career and to your thought process.
>
> YOU need to be flexible...not ColdFusion. YOU need to
know how to do this,
> that and the other thing... not ColdFusion. YOUR loyalty
is to yourself
> and
> your customers... not to ColdFusion. If you have a job
that requires
> functions
> and capabilities that CF cannot provide, YOU need to
change to another
> platform...not beg/wait for Adobe to change ColdFusion.
You keep implying
> that
> CF needs to change or improve or go open source. The
real story is that if
> YOU
> need the things that CF does not provide, then YOU need
to change...not
> ColdFusion.
>
> ColdFusion is what it is. If it does not work for you,
then move along to
> another platform. If CF thrives, great. If it dies, use
something else. We
> aren't talking about abandoning a litter of puppies
here. There is no
> benefit
> in boasting some artificial loyalty to a mere
programming platform. There
> is no
> shame in moving on to another platform.
>
> It ain't rocket science.
>
> You keep accusing people like me of having my head in
the sand. I DO have
> an
> "I'm alright Jack" attitude because I do not have any
particular loyalty
> to CF.
> THAT is what makes me alright. Right now, CF flat out
works for me. There
> is NO
> incentive for me to change environments. The simple fact
of the matter is
> that
> when CF is no longer viable, I am not going to cry about
it, I am going to
> switch to whatever gets the job done at the time.
>
> The people with the skewed attitude are the ones that
think they need
> ColdFusion more than ColdFusion needs them.
>
>
>

Open letter to people who complain about not recei...

Dear fellow Nokia phone geeks,
Hi and how are you. Let me start by saying I mean no disrespect to JimmyIreland, who's open letter was thoughtful and fair, but I despise "open letters" because they are the work of individuals who think they speak for the group and assume (incorrectly) that anyone cares what they have to say.
The company, Nokia, puts out some of the best hardware on the market, including the best camera phone on the market, and an OS that, while much maligned, has some huge advantages over other systems. It's very stable, uses fewer resources, and ultimately demands less of it's hardware than any other smartphone OS.
In 10 months since the N8 was released it has had two complete firmware updates, one in the process and one soon to be released. Nokia was clear about the fact that Anna would be released for some vanilla variety phones in some countries by the end of August. They also said that other countries and variant phones would follow.
Even with this knowledge that Anna would be released by the end of August, dozens of people complained on these boards that Anna was not coming as promised pointing out that Elop was responsible for screwing you and that you are going to go right out and ditch your Nokia and buy an iPhone. Guess what, not only did the initial release come out by the end of August, it came out in the middle of August.
Nokia also told us that they could not predict exactly when each phone would be updated and that certain countries and variants would be forthcoming. Yet you complained that they should have released all the updates at once or that they should have an exact release schedule. That is unrealistic my friends.
Obviously if they were to release all of the updates at once, it would mean that everyone would have to wait for the single release and then, upon the release, everyone would have to deal with the technical support nightmare associated with such a worldwide release. Releasing a schedule would require that Nokia be able to fully control all of the variables and that again, they would have to make some folks wait to get the update until all of the variables could be controlled and a release schedule could be created.
You speculated that Microsoft and/or AT&T were the evil doers responsible for the fact that some of you do not have your update yet. You told the community that you were done with Nokia and that you would never buy another Nokia.
However, you're still here posting your complaints. And every time I visit this board and see new messages posted under the a heading about Anna updates, I click on the thread hoping to learn something new. Nope, there you are still posting your complaints, your speculation and your threats.
Thank-you because reading your posts is like watching a train-wreck in slow motion. I no-longer need waste my time watching reality TV because I am getting my fill here! However I ask you to do us a favor and go ahead and ditch your Nokia and pick up one of those Androids (because Google is so great at updating their phones) or iPhones (because Apple produces such great hardware).
All my Best,
cecampbell

terryowen wrote:
I purchased my N8 from Amazon who sold it to me with the promise of an update to Anna. Since new N8s are being sold with Anna, that seemed reasonable to me. However, the waiting around had exceeded my return window, so now I'm stuck and not very happy.
In my case, I really need the portrait keyboard and the camera update. If Nokia were to release them separately from Anna, or an independent software developer had created apps with the same functionality, then I wouldn't be complaining. I guess I could put the phone in a drawer until the update comes around to the US but I spent hundreds of dollars on this thing and oddly enough, I don't want to. I just want it to work as promised. And yes, Amazon bears some of the blame but so does Nokia.
I have had enough Android phones to not want another but seriously, Apple's hardware is as good as or better than Nokia (camera excepted) and for the money, why would I want to go through this yet again? I like my independence and no contracts but at some point, you start to rethink it.
Nokia makes awesome phones. Their software and customer service - not so much. As a software support person myself, I really do sympathize with them but as a consumer, I'm sick and tired of phones (not just Nokia) being rushed out with serious software flaws.That's one reason I got tired of Android, flashing my phone every other week got really old, even if it was fun in the beginning.
For almost five hundred dollars, I expect it to just work. That's not unreasonable, especially when the same hardware is being sold with the fixes I need. For not too much more cash, I could get the most popular smartphone on the planet (with an app store to match). As much as I like Nokia, the experience of owning one in the US is more and more of a drag. If they don't want us as customers, why not just stop selling us phones and promises?
Terry
Firstly IF Amazon gave you a promise of an update, Then I'm damn sure they didnt give a date, nor would they promise something like a portrait keyboard. If you really needed a keyboard like that why the heck firstly did you BUY it, and secondly why didnt you buy an E7 at least you can see the converstaion whilst using the keyboad part of the phone. Whilst the cam might not be a 12MP it is an 8MP cam and more than enough for most things, they are similar size and do simialr things only the E7 has the keyboard. When you buy soemthing you buy it for what it is, not what it could be. There is never any guarantees that an update either fully or in part can or will be availble in any particular country. that is the control of the carriers in that country
Also if new N8's were being sold with Anna obviously at the same time for you to compare them like you have in your statement, why didnt you buy one of them. You have been told you will get an update, but you will have to be patient. If you read any of the threads that started to talk about the portrait keyboard, you would see that many people didnt like it, that it was hard to use.
If you want information about the Update then RING NOKIA USA and ask them, dont continue to complain to other users. Only Nokia USA will be able to give any extra information, other than what skyee has said. And currently that is, that its still being worked on.

Open letter to the top management.

Open letter to the top management Dear Sirs, I bought my BB 9790 four months ago. I really like its design, its QWERTY keyboard, its interface., its features ... but in the opposite direction, I have had problems with the battery, synchronization with Outlook, I can't to implement Skype,... I thought: a Z10?. I'm sorry but I don't like the design absolutely nothing. Where is the QWERTY keyboard?. Now it's tactile. The design is rectangular like the vast majority of SmallPhones. BlackBerry was different, unique, special but the Z10 has lost its essence. . Why high technology is at odds with elegance? Why high technology is at odds with beauty? Sirs, I'm sorry, but your Z10 is not an Blackberry. BlackBerry company has sold its soul with this design. For the near future, I suggest you a new trademark and a new logo ... I'm sorry for being so sincere and express my own opinion about this important matter.. Thank you very much for your time and attention. Yours sincerely,

I have a good idea...Why don't you post this on your Facebook status and leave this forum for the people who have real needs to get problems resolved?
Signed,
Top Management

Open letter to adobe: What future for Fireworks?

Open letter to adobe: What future for Fireworks?
Hello, My name is Fred and I'm a Fireworks user since ever.
I prefer to warn you about my complete addiction to this software.
There's many discussions on this forum and others, on how you deal with Fireworks "improvements". Some say that you are in the process of discontinuing this program, others of a possible resale ... I even read some arguments about switching to Creative Commons license.
All this is the literal translation of a sincere concern!
Can you give us some answers on the future of Fireworks?
I think our community is quite alive and active, so I hope that you'll respond in a clear, fast answer.
Thank you in advance.
If I made huge mistakes of spelling and grammar, I apologize.
English is not my language.

From the looks of it, the writing is already on the wall. I own a Creative Cloud subscription and one of the main benefits touted for the Creative Cloud is regular updates and bug fixes. And every other app like Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Bridge, Lightroom, the Edge Tools, etc. have seen multiple nice updates as part of the Creative Cloud subscription which has made me a big fan of Creative Cloud.
All except for Fireworks.
Not a single update or bug fix has occured for Fireworks in Creative Cloud. Even for the simplest of things. I have reported typos in Fireworks that still have not been fixed. In fact, I think the only app in Creative Cloud that has not been updated is Fireworks.
So like I said, it seems the writing is on the wall. It's a shame too because even with its lack of care, it works phenomenally well for designing user interfaces. But now others are starting to catch up and people seem to be switching to alternatives because Fireworks appears to be a dead end.
Without Fireworks, Adobe doesn't have a single UI design app in their portfolio and in particular it seems lots of UI designers are jumping ship now from Adobe to Bohemian Coding and their Sketch app. I'm dumbfounded that Adobe has allowed this to happen.
From what I understand, the Sketch app is created by just two people which makes the inability to keep Fireworks updated all the more baffling.

Open letter to Apple and MPAA

An Open Letter to Apple and the MPAA
I have been an “Apple fanboy” since 1989 when my father first brought home a Mac IIx. I’ve also always believed in paying for things you consume. An addendum to that is I also believe that those you buy from should be honest and treat their paying customers like they want repeat business.
The Apple TV and the “airplay” feature has caused me more pain than it is worth. In many instances it has failed me to a level that makes me want to never watch a movie again. I buy every single piece of music or video I watch, and yet the MPAA and Apple continues to treat me like a pirate. I ask, why should I not just become a pirate?
I work at a great job. My time is worth $60/ an hour. So when I waste an hour trying to airplay movies from my iPod Touch to my Apple TV in an internet outage only to find out Apple assumes I am a thief and says my previously authorized Apple TV is “not authorized,” it is frustrating to the highest degree. You cost me 60 dollars in time because you are worried about someone stealing $10? In every day life, that is called a horrible human being.
I expect my media to work on VHS standards. By that I mean, I should be able to pack up my Apple TV and my iPod, go to a friends house that doesn’t have internet, and be able to play on their TV. If you cannot deliver that to me, you are a waste of my time and I will seek entertainment elsewhere. It makes me extremely upset that I bought the movies thinking it would work in these situations. Instead, I am fumbling with the remote and others are laughing that Apple isn’t so great. It won't even let me stream a DVD from my iMac in an internet outage!
It is bad business to tick off your paying customers because you are worried about poor people that can’t afford $10-20. To me, the convenience of buying from iTunes was well worth the money in time savings. I don’t have to worry about backup and can download anywhere. That is far more valuable than pirating. Yet, you still restrict what I can do. That type of business mentality deserves to be punished harshly. I now understand why people pirate, and hope they pirate to the extent that you all lose your jobs and the movie industry is no more. Video games are better anyway, and that industry (except EA) knows how to treat its paying customers.
My only beef with Apple is not explicitly saying this when I purchased. I assumed it worked like a physical copy in that I can play it where and when I want. Apple, I love what you guys stand for and place great trust in you to fight these big media companies that want to deliver as little as possible for as much as possible. Until you fix the movie streaming, I am not going to buy any movies on iTunes.

These are user to user technical support forums, what is your technical support question?

Censorship on Adobe ColdFusion forums - Open letter to the management of the Adobe ColdFusion forums

This is reproduced from its original location at http://cfmlblog.adamcameron.me/2013/06/censorship-on-adobe-coldfusion-forums.html; it is also posted on the relevant ColdFusion forum. Apologies for the cross-post, but the two forums have different membership, and I think it's relevant to both.
Open letter to the management of the Adobe ColdFusion forums
(I do not know how to contact you, but I will try to find out and send this to you directly as well, as a courtesy).
Hi.
I am a veteran user of your ColdFusion support forums. Over the last decade or so I have been visiting the site daily (indeed several times a day: I get notified when any post is made on any of your ColdFusion-centric forums), and answering as many of people's questions as I can. For the last few years it's been via the web UI so you can go check my participation, but prior to that I was using the forums via NNTP, and my participation during that period is less easy to quantify, but it's to the tune of a few thousand posts / answers to people's questions. I consider myself an asset to the forums, and the ColdFusion community. I mean this just as "for the record", rather than any attempt to inflate any sense of my worth.
However as of today - unless you take remedial action as I will go on to detail - I will be surrendering my membership of your forums, and ceasing all attempts to assist people there.
Why am I considering doing this? Well firstly I will reproduce a thread from your forums, then I will discuss it. Where possibly the quoted material below is as it was initially posted, and if it's not exactly as originally presented, this is an accident on my part. I have highlighted some points I wish to discuss with you, simply for ease of cross-reference.
I have confirmed with Jason Dean (12Robots) that is happy for me to quote him here. I did not attempt to contact the other participant: "grazan".
Below is a chronological reproduction of the thread (in its original form, anyhow):
cold fusion 9 500 Internal server error.
created by grazan
all of a sudden none of our cfm web pages work on a windows 8 server running iis 7 .... the
server shows no errors in the event viewer .... occasionally functionality comes back w/o doing
anything ...... cold fusion did have all the hotfixes updated a few months ago but i cant get to
the admin page to give what the version is
thxs
created by 12Robots
First, ColdFusion is one word.
Second, what is a WIndows 8 server?
Third, and most important, you have provided ZERO detail. We can't help you if you don't provide something other than "none of our cfm web pages work". ColdFusion has logs (<coldfusionDir>/logs) JRun has logs (<coldfusionDir>/runtime/logs). Even if the Windows event viewer shows nothing, there should be info in those log files about what is going on.
Good luck,
Jason
created by grazan
YOU KNOW JASON YOUR A FRICKING IDIOT ......
I DIDNT REALIZE THIS WAS A GRAMMATICALLY CORREDCT FORUM ...
THANKS FOR NO HELP
created by 12Robots
*you're
jason
created by Adam Cameron
Hahahahaha. Nice.
Adam
created by Adam Cameron
Well if you got over your misplaced indignation for a moment, let's see:
ColdFusion is what people will google for, so in the spirit of helping others who might have the same question as you later on, spelling it right will help the community.
Jason's observation that you give us absolutely nothing to go on so it's basically impossible to help you is a fairly poignant observation, right? You do want help? Right, so here's some suggestions:
Articulate your issue clearly, with sufficient detail that we can help you. Read this:
http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smartquestions.html
Secondly... being rude to someone like Jason who really is one of the most helpful people on
these forums is a pretty stupid idea. And just serves to make you look a bit of a dick. Esp. with the caps lock on.
But anyway, let's call that a false start. Give us the details of your issue, and we'll try to help.
Cheers.
Adam
At this point, the moderator started redacting earlier messages, as detailed below:
Redacted version of earlier message:
created by 12Robots
First, [Jason, please see forum guidelines]
[rest of message as above]
Redacted version of earlier message:
created by grazan
[please see forum guidelines]
Redacted version of earlier message:
created by Adam Cameron
Entire message redacted
Redacted version of earlier message:
created by Adam Cameron
[unnecessary comments removed - Adam please see forum guidelines]
Give us the details of your issue, and we'll try to help.
Cheers.
Adam
And now back to the live thread:
created by 12Robots
Forum admin,
You censored the comment "ColdFusion is one word"? Seriously?
I didn't realize that suggesting that someone spell the name of the product correctly was against the forum guidelines. I guess I could go look it up, but I will just unsubscribe and help out at Stack Overflow instead.
Good luck,
Jason
created by Adam Cameron
Please see how much I used to help out on these forums.
I'm outa here, but not before I complain about your dictatorial behaviour.
Censorial nazi idiot.
[The entire message above has now been redacted].
That's the end of the relevant part of the thread.
Clearly I wish to speak to you about this censorship your moderator is choosing to undertake.
Firstly, let me say that I understand the perception that forums require moderation. Personally I think this position is of dubious merit, but so be it: it's a common practice. And I generally understand when I see things that have been moderated, or when a moderator step in and advises that they consider someone's wording contravenes forum guideline. I understand all this.
However.
I think the behaviour of your moderator in this situation is unacceptable. Let me elaborate.
Firstly, The highlighted comment of Jason's was removed. This comment stated - correctly - that the correct spelling of ColdFusion is as one word, as per his guidance. This comment was censored/redacted by your moderator. For the life of me, applying my most "socially modest" mindset, I cannot see what was wrong with Jason's comment, and why it needed any follow-up on any description. It was accurate advice.
The original poster's response to Jason was indeed a bit gratuitous, but - really - so what? No-one is taking offence here, and there's nothing anyone reasonable could take offence at. The person is just being a bit childish in their response. And, I hasten to add, at their own expense, I think. I see not reason to have redacted what they said.
We now come to my responses. One entire response I made was redacted (I've only just noticed this, whilst proofreading this letter). A number of tracts was redacted from my own initial post on the thread. Here I was simply explaining why Jason said what he did, and why it's good advice. And it was good advice. Your moderator here has removed both good advice, and an explanation as to why it was good advice. Again, I cannot fathom why your moderator has done this.
Following on from this I back-up Jason's assertion that the original post was inadequate on detail for us to help. This too is accurate. I reiterated this to try to make the origial poster see that Jason wasn't simply being unhelpful - to the contrary - pointing out we need more information before we can help is very good initial advice here. Advice that has now been deleted.
Next is some slightly contentious wording on my part, I suppose... at least if one doesn't actually read what I say, instead simply zooming in on one word and assessing it out of context. I pointed out that being abusive and writing in all-caps is unnecessary, and makes the person look like a dick. Note I didn't say the person was a dick (that would be abuse... very mild though), I was saying that given the behaviour the person was engaging in, they could be perceived that way. Which is... accurate. And saying someone is a dick and suggesting they could be perceived as a dick are two different things. One is ad hominem attack (bad), one is simply an observation / guidance (not bad).
At this point Jason drew my attention to this censorship going on. And this is another thing that I think is inappropriate on the part of the moderator. I have little problem with them thinking that content on this thread needs censorship (whilst they are wrong, they are entitled to their opinion), to silently and anonymously redact people's posts is an inappropriate - and to be frank cowardly - handling of this situation. If the moderator has an issue with something written on the forums, the courteous and professional thing to do would be to advise the participants that they have overstepped. This would give us a chance to remediate the situation, or to simply disagree. Simply excising someone's work - because this is volunteer work we are engaging in here - is unacceptable.
If anything ought to have been censored from the thread it was my last comment. Whilst it was accurate, I did use harsh sentiment, I accept this. However in the given situation, I don't think I have been the most out-of-line participant in proceedings.
I would like you to remediate this situation, and here is how I would like you to do it.
Restore Jason's original post. There was no reason to censor it.
Restore grazan's all-caps post. It was doing no harm.
Restore my second post (not the one laughing at Jason's joke, the longer one I discuss above). Again, useful and accurate information was removed from this post, and there was simply no reason to have had done so.
You can leave my last comment redacted. Fair enough. Whilst I stand by what I said, it is unhelpful in the context of the thread.
I also want the moderator to be censured, and I would like them to apologise for their behaviour, by posting on that thread explaining that they understand their behaviour was inappropriate and unacceptable.
If they are a community volunteer, they should be dismissed from their position. They are clearly not capable of fulfilling this role in a professional, well-balanced manner.
If they are an Adobe staff person, then the censure will have to be sufficient, although I think they should be relieved from their duties as a forum moderator, as they are not up to the task at hand.
Talk to your other moderators and advise them they need to act with a sense of balance and professionalism when moderating the forums.
In return, I will continue my participation on the forums, and continue to help the ColdFusion community members where I can, in the spirit of goodwill and co-operation. I will also try to convince Jason to do the same.
If you cannot see right to resolve this situation appropriate, I will surrender my membership of the forums and cease helping your community.
You can reply to me either via a comment against this post, or via email ([email protected]). That said, see the caveats in my communications policy: I reserve the right to publish any communications on this topic as I see fit (within the bounds of common sense).
Thanks for your time.
Adam Cameron

Adam,
Comments from a kindred spirit...
I suggest you take a breather and go do something else for a few days or weeks. Don't stomp your feet and say "I'm done for good, I won't be back", because like it or not, some of the reason you're here is to benefit YOU, and if you do go cold turkey you'll miss that benefit.
In other words, "never say never".
Like you, I have been extremely frustrated by the running of the forum from time to time as well. Sometimes it's the quality of the forum software, sometimes it's the mix of other immature people who comment, sometimes it's just me. Usually it's not the moderation or actual running of the forum, but I do understand where you're coming from.
I have benefited greatly on several occasions just by taking a vacation from forum participation.
We all have to understand two things:
1. We're able to communicate here by the good graces of Adobe, who are first and foremost a business, trying to achieve their business goals. They'd rather not upset all the idiots, because unfortunately idiots have money to spend too.
2. Nobody's perfect.
I'm not sure about the specifics, but the moderators are generally also volunteers. See item 2 above.
Hope you don't choose to stop contributing to the community, as no matter what, your contribution is good for the world.
-Noel

IOS 8.1 issues on iPhone 4S - open letter

Dear Apple,
Thank you very much for an extraordinary Apple experience during my last almost 5 years.
I’m an Apple fan, starting with 2008 when I’ve entered Apple iPhone family with my first 2G terminal.
Today, I do own and currently use Apple products in my day-by-day activity as well at home.
Your development, since my first iPhone device (first generation iPhone -2G), represents for me an astonishing journey through everything your company has offered in line of devices and software. Today in my family are been used by me nad my family an iPhone 4s, an iPhone 5s, an nano-iPod, an iPad 2 generation, and a MacBook, devices which are extremely reliable and current updated to the last software version Apple had issued for each as applicable.
My bitterness comes from an unwanted experience I have encountered with my 4S on iOS 8.1. I am profound unhappy of the actual disruptions in usage on the basis of un-adaptation and non-fluent operation of my 4S. iOS 8.1 was presented and it should be the step-forward for such devices but, instead, it is only a great “pain”. Apps are closing unattended, the fluency of the operation is so lagged, and functionality has a lot to suffer in this line.
I've made the transition to iOS 8.1 as recommended by professionals and after taking into view and applying all what your engineers and specialists have recommended. Thoroughly I respected letter-by-letter the given indications referring update. And later, after not being satisfied with the newly issues development, I restored three times my device in regard of obtaining that new-breath which was presented during Keynotes and your support service. Still, without any success.
Therefore I had visited Apple local service for a full diagnostics upon my iPhone. Their test came all OK, but without any improvement in general usage on iOS 8.1. Same problems and operation issues are present. I do mention that before, using iOS 7.1.2 none of these above-mentioned issues were appearing.
I’m sorry but I cannot take the step-forward to buy a new 5S nor a newer 6 in order to get rid of these “creepy” problems, due the cost of such terminals on local market in Romania, costs that I cannot afford for few next months. So, hereby I’m kindly asking you to help me, and all of other unsatisfied users of such iPhone 4S terminals, to be able to restore our devices to an early iOS 7.1.2. Or else, to solve somehow, as fast as possible, in a later iOS 8.1.x version of all those impediments we’re hitting ourselves these days after update.
It is extremely hard and frustrating not to be able to use at a designated and well-defined high-level scale of a fully functional device, because operating system or programming-issues, or because the hardware cannot fully comply with the actual needs of a new developed operating system. OS designed for to be used with anything starting with 4S and above, too. I’m writing this letter for to point out to your attention that this is really happening and, due to my humble opinion, all this particularities does not concur to the gained positive image and professionalism which Apple has built and demonstrated in all the past years.
Thanking in advance for your kind support in this matter, I’m looking forward for your kind answer.
Kind regards,
Kikishor - still wanting to be a proud user of Apple products

L.E.
Limited "space" for an open letter...

[ANN] An open letter to Adobe devs/scripters

Hi folks,
Davide Barranca posted on his blog an 'open letter' that I think could be of interest to anyone using this forum:
http://www.davidebarranca.com/2013/12/adobe-scripting-collaborative-code-sharing-github/
@+
Marc

Hi Jongware,
I've been thinking a bit about this, actually - I mean my impression that the ID community seems to be more influential.
Given that I've little knowledge of ID people besides what I read sometimes in this forum or in a couple of websites I use to visit to borrow code and learn from (Marc's is one). I've been comparing my perceived influence of the ID group with the known influence of the PS group (known by me, as a member of it) - which alas is close to zero, as far as I can tell.
Might just be a battle of the have-nots? ;-)
A friend of mine who works as an ID consultant once told me - half joking, half serious - something like "Why don't you quit doing scripts for those kiddy cheapskates photographers and start working for the app where the actual business is?!" Was his provocation close to the truth? Possibly so... As someone who's been making his living out of PS post-production, I've seen many professionals in my business giving up and disappear in the last 10 years: is now Photoshop an application inherently targeted to, how can I say, "less professional" users than InDesign is? Might be the case, at least from the third party developer point of view... I have no definitive answers.
Olav Kvern (that I cited in the post) in effect wrote that "InDesign has the best scripting support of the three applications, because its coverage is the most complete." Photoshop DOM is dramatically *far* from being complete. Yet we have ActionManager code, as powerful as unfriendly, filling some gaps - and with its own set of limits and problems too.
(As far as I can understand, ActionManager code is what you'd use to compile Automation Plugins for PS in some C flavour - so that the ScriptingListener plugin by Adobe's Tom Ruark, outputting ActionManager as you work with PS, might be just an interface with / exposing lower-level stuff that we use to fill DOM's gaps. A solution sometimes worse than the original problem)
<rantmode>
Now, forgive me for this over-simplification: ID is - so to speak - an application that at its core "manages text" (ok, it's more than that but bear with me). PS is - so to speak - an application that "manages images". The sheer fact that ID scripters (as far as I know) can manipulate the text's smallest particle, its atom: a character (can you?) and PS scripters have no direct way to access image's atoms (freaking pixels - I cannot programmatically flip a pixel to my liking) drives me crazy ;-)
Rumors say that JNack tried to push that feat request on, but to no avail.
That said, I'm now at the point where I welcome the CC SaaS model (I can't believe I'm writing this!) because to support old PS versions (times 2 platforms) did become a nightmare.
</rantmode>
As a closing thought, a community capable to express a thread titled "ID CC SUI - Insane Daft Crazy Cuckoo Stupid Useless Idiotic" deserves all my respect ;-)
Davide Barranca
www.davidebarranca.com

How to write an open letter to nokia CEO?

hi,
i am really frustrated with nokia CC and complaint department. i want to write an open letter to your CEO. how to write an open letter and what should i mention in that letter?
Thanks in advance,
regards,
former staunch supporter now a frustrated user of nokia lumia device

hi adrianhughes,
thanks for reply.
thing is nokia cc and complaint dept both are saying the same thing "we are waiting for an update from nokia back end team"
my question is "how much time they need to decide with which device they can replace my mobile?"
going to consumer forum is not a practical solution in india btw.
regards,

NOW, WE'RE ONE MICROSOFT: OPEN LETTER FROM STEPHEN...

Today we are announcing that the acquisition of substantially all of the Nokia Devices and Services business by Microsoft has reached completion, following approval by Nokia shareholders and regulatory authorities.
Six months ago, we announced our plans to bring the best of Microsoft and Nokia Devices and Services business together. Today is an exciting day as we join the Microsoft family, and take the first, yet important, step in our long-term journey.
At our core, we are passionate about building technology that will change the world. From the early vision of Microsoft of placing a PC in every home and on every desk, to Nokia connecting billions of people through mobile devices, we have empowered generations. But we could not have achieved any of this without our fans around the world.
Your support has created strong momentum for Nokia Lumia smartphones and they continue to grow in popularity around the world. Last year alone, the awards, accolades and fan-generated rave reviews offered proof of the growing number of champions for our phones and tablets.
And we are committed to continuing our support for feature phones, the Asha family, and the Nokia X family of devices, announced at the Mobile World Congress in February.
Whether you want to read more, capture more, watch more, listen more or get more done, Nokia mobile devices have been and are your go-to choice.
As Microsoft and Nokia Devices and Services come together as an expanded family, we will unify our passion, dedication and commitment to bringing you the best of what our joint technologies have to offer.
Together, we can connect and empower people with one experience for everything in their life in a world where it is mobile first and cloud first.
From today onwards, the possibilities are endless. As now, we’re one!
Stephen
On Monday, April 28 at 1PM GMT, Stephen Elop will answer your questions live in our first-ever worldwide “Ask Me Anything” session here on Conversations. You don’t need to do anything to sign up. If you can’t make it, don’t worry: we’ll post a replay afterwards.
Source: http://conversations.nokia.com/2014/04/25/now-one-microsoft-open-letter-stephen-elop/

I have XP Home edition and installed Java 2 SDK , I got a GPF (well a new ms window saying do you want to submit the error to microsoft - i knew its their same old gpf.). Then I installed borland Jbuilder 6.0 Professional edition (Free download) . Its working great. I have no problem from Aplets to servlets etc., I have not tested RMI & ejbs yet , but, i am reasonably confident it should work - because i have Jrun and Oracle 9ias running on my box - i just have to spend little time to test if ejb and rmi would work in that. Best way is first time when you are installing Stay on the internet , Windows downloads a c routine for java. you can see this in control panel known as "croutineforjava" , you life will be smooth after that. However, i am not quite sure if croutineforjava made XP run my java programs. i am still investigating this. please share if anyone had similar experience running java stuff on XP.

Open Letter to Creative La

I've sent this via snail mail as well and sent it to by email to the few email Addies I can find. I hope some one gets it.
Dear Creative Labs
?This is to inform you that I have become very disappointed in both your products and your customer service.
?I recently purchased a X-Fi platinum fatalty champion series PCI sound Card. I have been a loyal Creative Labs customer for nearly 2 decades. I have personally owned and used the sound blaster Pro, the sound blaster 6, the sound blaster awe32, the sound blaster awe64 gold (with a memory expansion), the sound blaster 52 PCI, the sound blaster Li've!, the sound blaster li've! platinum 5., and the sound blaster audigy 2 zs platinum. A lot of these sound cards I still own and possess. I?ve also owned a lot of other Creative labs products such as speaker systems, headsets, modems and video cards.
Since I already owned a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 zs platinum and my new mother board came fully equipped with a very nice fully functional onboard sound card, I decided to researched your new sound cards in November of 2007 to help me decide if I wanted to upgrade to the X-Fi platinum fatalty champion series . It had all the features I wanted EAX Dolby Digital DTS ext. Every review I read said that this card supported onboard hardware Dolby Digital/ DTS decoding as past sound blaster products like the Audigy 2 had done so before. Even your own website at the time stated that this sound card had Dolby Digital ex/DTS decoding. The X-Fi platinum fatality champion series was advertised as ?Works with Windows Vista?.
?The DD/DTS driver decode and Xram were the only reasons I upgraded from an Audigy 2 zs platinum. One would think that the DD/DTS driver decode was going to be functional on my sound card so I promptly purchased this product from Newegg.com. Even the box it came in listed it as ?works with windows Vista? and had the Dolby Digital EX and DTS Logo?s on the box. I also purchased a digital I/O module from creative.
?Unfortunately there are 2 versions of the X-Fi platinum fatalty champion series sound card. A SB466 card that does support DD/DTS driver decode, and a SB46A that comes with a PowerDVD and no DD/DTS driver decoder. There is no way to tell the 2 cards apart other than by the serial numbers. At the time I never found anything that would lead to me realize that this card did not have DD/DTS driver decoder. 2 products same name, same description, and while they are physically the same the drivers are different. Creative Could have at least changed the name on the newer SB46A cards. Something like X-Fi neutered fatalty loser series would have fit perfectly.
?Some of the features I found lacking in windows XP pro where, no multi-speaker output in Digital or optical output threw the X-fi i/o dri've bay or the digital I/O module. Content can only be played in 2 channels unless you have receiver capable of decoding DD/DTS AC3 threw the SPDIF pass thru and then only with DD/DTS content. I also discovered there is no DD/DTS driver decode with my card. To make matters worse ever since the end of the SB li've! 5. series due to DRM in the drivers all creative sound cards disable digital out-put when listening to DVD audio disks. This includes optical, digital coax and even the digital if you have older speakers with built in decoders like the DDT-2500 and DTT-3500.
?I won?t get to far into the nasty messy nightmare that your product is in Windows Vista. I However must say when one buys a product like this and it is Clearly labeled as ?Works in Windows Vista? one would be led to believe that all the features worked in Vista as well.
?All of this has led me to believe I have not only been misled by Creative Labs but I have been downright decei'ved.
What makes this entire mess even worse is your technical support. I had no way on your web site to contact anyone in tech support not E-mail Chat or Phone. Your web based support system made me jump thru hoops to nowhere. I had to google your NOT toll free tech support line to get a working number.
?I called your tech support line to find that I had to purchase my product in the last 60 days for help if I selected no I got a message referring me to web support heard what sounded like a line transfer then I got hung up on. When I got to a tech support rep, I told the rep my problems, after jumping threw some hoops like physically removing and reinstalling my sound card, I was flat out told my card does not support DD/DTS driver decode and comes with a PowerDVD download. Keep in mind this is not a full featured version of power DVD and has no DD/DTS settings for DVD playback. I ask the rep for a supervisor or someone in charge. Conveniently there is no one there in a management or supervisor position in the entire building. Even though I dialed a 405 area code number having worked as high level support at a major ISP, I start getting the suspicion that I?m talking to a outsourced tier one support center in India. The thick ?can't understand him? accent the rep had didn?t help ease my suspicions. Frustrated I asked him out right if I was talking to someone in the U.S. the Rep said he was in the U.S. Having no one higher I could talk to I requested a supervisor to contact me as soon as possible.
?After my wonderful tech support experience (not) I decided to look up my problem on the creative labs forum and elsewhere on the internet. This is when I found Daniel K?s plight with Creative Labs, and the thanks he got for doing your job for them. Not only did this guy fix a few of Creative?s cards in vista he made them work better. Did creative pay him, offer him a job or at least say thanks? No! they threatened him and tried to silence him. Nice thing about the internet ? anything that gets on it tends to stay on it. There is now no way for Dan to make his work disappear. Can you say ?Bittorrent?!? Now not only did I find how to fix some of my problems like unlocking DD/DTS driver decode (without Dan K?s work). But I also found out my card can do Dolby Digital li've using another venders X-fi drivers and Dan K?s Fixes. That other vender actually locked down and secured it'ss X-fi drivers. Again nice thing about the internet ?.. Say it with me ?. ?Bittorrent?! DDL is a feature that only seems to come with the titanium series X-fi?s every one else with a sound blaster will have to pay for it. Dolby is charging creative what 90 cents per license for DDL. Creative wants to charge us what 4 or 5 bucks for the download. I could understand this with a $20 or $30 sound card but my X-fi platinum fatalty? champion series card cost what $90 bucks right now give or take a few dollars. And oh god the poor audigy customers that have vista have to pay like $0 bucks just to get their card to work with games in vista with Creative Alchemy.
?Now here is the really Sad part. Creative Labs is upset with Daniel Kawakami because he ?enabled Creative Lab?s technology and IP to run on sound cards for which it was not originally offered or intended,?. Now I could understand this if it was applied to ASUS sound cards or Turtle beach sound cards but it doesn?t. Daniel?s Fixes only applies to can only be applied to (without Hacking) Creative?s own sound cards. What Creative is so upset about is X-fi features working on audigy sound cards, or the X-fi titanium PCIe features like DDL working on regular X-fi PCI sound Cards. Daniel also revealed to the world Creative labs ability to turn sound card features on and off from one driver revision to the next. This may explain Creatives reluctance to work with the open source and linux communities. The entire Daniel_K situation has led many people to believe creative is deliberately handicapping their own sounds cards to turn around and sell the fix back to the customer or force the customer to purchase a newer card. An Example of this is my own Sound Blaster X-fi platinum fatalty sound card. The original Card SB466 supported DD/DTS driver decode. Right around the time I purchased my card creative produced the New SB46A card that comes with Free version download of PowerDVD and no DD/DTS driver Decode.
?The SB46A card Can actually do DTS/DD driver decode. I?ve done it with my sound card in XP by swapping out some SYS and DAT files on my system. This has also been proven by other people.
?When you look at all this one can come to believe that there is very little hardware differences from generation of cards to the next. Look at the Sound Blaster Li've! and compare it to the Sound Blaster Li've! 5., Compare it to a Audigy. Compare and Audigy to an Audigy 2. Compare my Audigy 2 zs Platinum to my X-Fi platinum Fatalty Champion. Not a lot of major hardware changes from one generation to the next. Especially when you consider the older generation of cards like the Audigy 2 can handle X-FI features. This might explain that lot of the Vista problem Comes from Creative using windows 9x hardware Tech that may not be able to fixed with simple drivers alone due to the Major changes from 9x to Vista operating systems.
?Windows 2000 and XP at their core are almost the same operating system (NT 5) That?s why they share a lot of drivers, And all the 9x operating systems are nearly exactly the same as well at their core (windows 4) from 95 to 95c to 98 to 98se to ME. 2k and Xp can use some 9x drivers or drivers based on 9x versions. The biggest hiccup Creative has had with drivers was from 9x to 2k to Vista. Vista being the biggest challenge due to the fact that unlike xp being 2k in new cloths it'ss a completely New Operating system from the ground up and handles programs and drivers differently. Now change from 32 to 64 bit. Good luck getting 9x drivers to run in windows vista 64.
?One could also believe creative holds out improvements intended for one card just to apply it to and sell a newer card that has very little improvements in the hardware itself. Then sell it to users of intended card if they don?t feel like upgrading, even to go as far as to break some of those features just to sell you by an
Improved version? or force you to completely updrade to the next generation sound card. Think DD/DTS Driver Decode on a newer X-FI and then think about DDL ? Pay for it or upgrade to a Titanium.
?PowerDVD adds a new problem with support. Cyberlink will not support Free and OEM version of PowerDVD. If it'ss not a paid download from them or a retail copy they will refer you back to the provider, In this case Creative Labs. Call creative about problems with PowerDVD they will most likely refer you back to Cyberlink.
?The Creative Labs Tech Support Supervisor called me back 4 days later (including the weakend). He told me the same thing ?no DD/DTS driver Decode no Fix only PowerDVD!? I told Him how much creative was full of it. Told him I fixed my problem Told him how I fixed my problem then proceeded to vent on the poor guy for about a half an hour. Then I thank him for returning my phone call and hung up. He sound seemed like he was expecting more out of me.
?There are a lot of fixes for my Problem.
I can just do what I did and Swap out 2 SYS files and a few DAT files and get DD/DTS Driver Decode. But I shouldn?t have to.
I can use drivers and software Creative Labs doesn?t want me to have get my DD/DTS Driver Decode back with DDL and a few other nifty features not intended for my Sound Card. But I shouldn?t have to.
I can rely on my Full Version of PowerDVD8 Ultra, Other DVD software and Filters. But I shouldn?t have to.
I can turn on my SPDIF pass thru and use the digital optical on my 550watt (000watts peak) 5. surround sound speaker system made by a competitor (ya! you all know which one I?m talking about.). Constantly switching between optical, and analog, depending on the application. But again I shouldn?t have to!
I can even go as far as to rip into and hack Creative?s drivers as well as their affiliates drivers using other resources and 3rd party products to see just how far the rabbit hole goes to get the most out of my sound card. BUT I SHOULDN?T HAVE TO!!!!
?This one product and Creative Labs behavior has led to believe that Creative Labs business practices are not only shady but absolutely dirty. It has led me to believe that Creative Labs acti'vely misleads decei'ves and lies to its customers just to make a fast dishonest buck. It has led me to believe that creative labs is no longer the makers of the finest consumer PC Audio cards, but a Sinking mismanaged company in dire straits unable to compete and willing to do anything except the right thing to stay in business.
In today?s tough market (I feel the crunch everyone does) and with mid to high end motherboards coming equipped with some very good and competiti've audio solutions and where the competitor?s products rival creative?s own products. Creative Labs needs to make sound cards twice as good as the other guys and using cleaner fairer business practices that will keep consumer faith and loyalty in their company. They should also stop wasting their resources trying to push bad products into a market already dominated by Apple like feral dog looking for scra
ps.
Concentrate on what your good at ? or was good at ? Sound card and PC audio it should have always been first priority.
?I have never purchased another sound card for my own use or my families use other then Sound Blasters. All of the my systems at home (8 computers in my home alone) and my business either have sound blaster audio cards or onboard audio or no audio (server) mostly sound blasters. Most of the non server systems I sell and build either use onboard or sound blaster audio cards. EVERY high end gaming rig I build and sell has the latest and greatest Sound blaster Sound cards I get in them. When my customers ask me for a good sound card I sell them or recommend to them a Sound Blaster. But enough is enough!?
?I?ve had problems with almost every Creative product I have ever purchase except their sound cards until now. This is the last straw.
?I want Creative to Fix my sound card make DD/DTS driver Decode work and correct all the other bugs and get my sound card back to full functionality in Vista. They can even keep their silly PowerDVD download I neither want or need it.
Or
?I want Creative to RMA my SB46A X-Fi platinum fatalty champion PCI card for a SB466 X-Fi platinum fatalty champion PCI or a SB088 X-Fi Titanium fatalty champion PCIe card
Or
?I want Creative Labs to buy back my sound card at the price I paid for it minus any rebates.
And
?I want Creative to stop trying to bilking their customers out of every last penny by making them pay just to get their product to work when they already paid good money them, or to add an a feature ?not originally offered or intended? when the product should have either already came with it or been included in an update and/or had the early comparable feature deliberately broken to make them pay more.
Or
?I swear I will never ever purchase another Creative product to the day that die. I will never ever recommend a Creative Product to anyone again. I will discourage every person I ever talk tech to from even looking at a Creative Labs product. I will never ever build and/or sell a gaming rig again with a Creative product in it again. And I will refuse to support a Creative product or system with a creative product If I have least inkling that the creative product is the cuase. Then I?ll explain why! I will also post my thoughts opinions and feelings about Creative Labs products on every blog message board review site fraternal site or forum I have an account on.
Thank You
Please note: I do not blame or hold responsible Newegg for any of my problems with Creative Labs. They have provided me with excellent products and services in the past and will continue to do so in the future whether or not they continue to sell Creative Labs products
Message Edited by Major_Mayhem on 08-03-2008 08: AM

Wow, I came to the forums today to post my own strongly-worded letter about the Mozaic EZ300, which is sitting on my desk two months after purchase because I still can't get it to work properly. You saved me the time, however, because most of my issues with Creative are mentioned here. So, I'll just say, "What he said," only replace the model with Mozaic EZ300. I am shocked but not surprised that the issues extend beyond one player.
When I buy something from a company that I have experience with, I have a reasonable expectation of that product working as well as the others have. I have a Zen Vision M, Zen, and had the previous version of the Mozaic (which I lost). I expected to be able to sync this Mozaic with my WMP playlists. I expected to listen to music without it skipping. I never expected to wait 5-0 MINUTES (!) for my player to load a playlist. I never expected the screen to freeze again and again. I never expected to be told which music software to use to put playlists and music on my property. And, again, "What he said"....the Creative Central program SUCKS.
Creative, you have a problem. If this were my first Creative product, it would most certainly be my LAST. The last firmware upgrade for the Mozaic EZ300 was in August. You have to be aware of the problems...they're listed all over the Internet. I have spent the morning leaving very negati've feedback on shopping sites, trying to prevent people from purchasing a glorified paperweight.
So, my question to Creative is, "What are you going to do about all of these unhappy customers?"
I am anxiously awaiting a reply.
A formerly happy Creative customer
(BTW, I forgot to mention how much I HATE the new design of the Mozaic. Black buttons on a black player? What were you thinking?)

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