Wishlist: Optional licence check integrated in new/upgrade installer

[Tim Fischer]

Simplest way to make licence max versions more obvious would be to add one extra screen in the install/upgrade program with a button that launches the licence check page in the default browser.

I was pondering this while working out (as well as writing parody lyrics, see my other thread), and I had the same thought. Nice job explaining it and doing the mock-up.

-Tim

[George Cotton]

Love the mock-ups and it should be very easy to implement and not take the web guy very long to do. I know the last web producer that worked for me could have the solution up and running in less than 15 minutes. Sometimes he could not see the forest for the trees, but give him a task and it was done before I got back to my desk. That's why he's making more money than me now, but I am also retired and he's not even 25. Plus LOR's webber may/may not be in product development anyway.

It would do what the user should have done - a users CYA step. A real-time check of what's authorized on the computer downloading the file would be perfect. If it's not the LOR computer, then at least you would have all kinds of warnings and a chance to upgrade during the process before installing it on your LOR machine during crunch time for many.

Frustration and headaches pretty much solved. It's in your face, if you don't pay attention to such dialog boxes, you deserve the problem.

Edited December 18, 2012 by George Cotton

[Gilrock]

I upgraded to 3.8.2 at the beginning of December and was able to follow the directions to check my license...luckily I didn't need to pay. I will not upgrade to 3.9 during Decemeber. Unless your show is broken why risk it. I also don't think SuperSpeed was a big feature to call it a major update. I'm an embedded software engineer and that sounds like adding one more entry to an enumeration of available baud rates. It's like a five minute software change. Oh wait...give me another 10 minutes to update your firmware.

[Don]

I upgraded to 3.8.2 at the beginning of December and was able to follow the directions to check my license...luckily I didn't need to pay. I will not upgrade to 3.9 during Decemeber. Unless your show is broken why risk it. I also don't think SuperSpeed was a big feature to call it a major update. I'm an embedded software engineer and that sounds like adding one more entry to an enumeration of available baud rates. It's like a five minute software change. Oh wait...give me another 10 minutes to update your firmware.

Call it a hunch, but if SuperSpeed was nothing more than simple entry into the available baud rates (and the 10 minutes for LOR to update the firmware) it would have been released a long time ago.

Granted, I have zero inside information about this, but I'm going on 8 years of LOR use here. I don't think LOR withholds 'simple' changes for the middle of the decorating season.

[LOR Staff]

Couch developers (quarterbacks), eh?

I know some of you who are developers and your words have more weight that others. I also see where some of you are calling yourself developers and should know that just because it sounds simple to you, it may not be when you get into the code.

The reason this 'upgrade' thing seems to be a MUCH bigger problem that what it is, is because this is the first release that was greater than 1 year from the initial release of S3 last year, that is also greater than the revision people were eligible for by renewing. This is a new situation and I'm sure it's something the users will need time to adjust to. In any event, The eMail that you receive when you renew your license (the same one when you ask for your license to be mailed to you) explicitly tells you what you qualify for.

You always have the option of spending $30 (or perhaps even LESS) for a renewal/upgrade that would have qualified you for 3.9 (and upgrades for at least ANOTHER year).

[Gilrock]

Call it a hunch, but if SuperSpeed was nothing more than simple entry into the available baud rates (and the 10 minutes for LOR to update the firmware) it would have been released a long time ago.

Granted, I have zero inside information about this, but I'm going on 8 years of LOR use here. I don't think LOR withholds 'simple' changes for the middle of the decorating season.

Well on the show computer side you are setting a register in the COM port. Fairly simple. Then you have to update the GUI to have new entries in the dropdown. Inside the USB converter you are probably using a USB to Serial chip. I'd bet it's probably an SiLabs CP210x using the virtual COM port drivers. I use the same USB chip inside a product I did for a side job...one that controls a focuser and another that runs the telescope controller. We didn't use the virtual driver. We have a full blown USB device that went through Windows certification. On the firmware side all your doing is changing the rate at which the data is received. If it was designed right adding a higher baud rate would be invisible to the application. And I said it would only be 10 minutes for ME to update it...that would be if I had designed the original code.

[LOR Staff]

I'd bet it's probably an SiLabs CP210x using the virtual COM port drivers.

Even though Dan has told me to stop gambling with the customers, I'll take that bet. How much?

[Gilrock]

Even though Dan has told me to stop gambling with the customers, I'll take that bet. How much?

How about we bet your paycheck about the chip and my paycheck about whether I'm really a developer?

[Don]

How about we bet your paycheck about the chip and my paycheck about whether I'm really a developer?

Didn't see anyone questioning if you were a developer.

[jimswinder]

How about we bet your paycheck about the chip...

It's been well documented that Mike occasionally gets a stale piece of bread thrown into his "cubicle" by Mary for his services...

Edited December 18, 2012 by jimswinder

[Gilrock]

Couch developers (quarterbacks), eh?

I know some of you who are developers and your words have more weight that others. I also see where some of you are calling yourself developers and should know that just because it sounds simple to you, it may not be when you get into the code.

I took this to be directed at me. But no problem here. I'm confident in what I do so I don't take offense. I've got software running in submarines, airplanes, telescopes, and missiles and have designed my own real time operating systems on some of the devices in them. What I can't stand is not knowing more about what you guys have going on in those boxes. Is the LOR network protocol proprietary or documented somewhere?

[LOR Staff]

How about we bet your paycheck about the chip and my paycheck about whether I'm really a developer?

I never said you were not a developer. I implied that you are being a couch developer in this case.

Are you absolutely 100% sure that I don't know what *WE* use for a communications solution with *OUR* hardware, that you can bet a paycheck?

[LOR Staff]

It's been well documented that Mike occasionally gets a stale piece of bread thrown into his "cubicle" by Mary for his services...

If by occasionally you mean for my brithday, and if by cubicle you mean 'chained to the water heater', then you would be correct

[jimswinder]

If by occasionally you mean for my brithday, and if by cubicle you mean 'chained to the water heater', then you would be correct

wow...Mary DOES spoil you!!! You get the warmth of a water heater!!!

[Gilrock]

I never said you were not a developer. I implied that you are being a couch developer in this case.

Are you absolutely 100% sure that I don't know what *WE* use for a communications solution with *OUR* hardware, that you can bet a paycheck?

To be honest I don't know why you picked out that one statement about the chip. That was just a guess and usually a fairly good one. I thought I saw the SiLabs driver message when it installed the hardware but it might not have been your device....I use a lot of USB devices. It was probably the Xilinx debugger we use at work I was remembering.

Anyways I was sure you knew what chip you used and by your acceptance of the bet my guess was wrong. My response to that was supposed to be joke. The joke was that we both would win the bets but I was betting on having a higher paycheck...lol.