More technology woes

It may not seem like it at this point, but ol' Ty is actually pretty technology-savvy. I have installed my own wireless network, maintain my own PCs, and even help others with theirs. I also get involved with management of the applications and network at my office.

So it just pisses me off when some piece of technology isn't very well thought through. I had that experience this weekend.

I was going to work on a video in Pinnacle Studio 9 Sunday when I received a message offering an upgrade to Studio 12 for just $29.95. Well, who can resist that? I mean, this one goes to 12, which is three more than 9. So I took the plunge, plunking down my hard-earned cash for the upgrade. I figured 15-20 minutes or so and I'd be on my way with all kinds of great new capabilties.

Hah! As it turns out, it takes freakin' hours to download this software. But that's not the bad part. About 3/4 of the way through, and three hours later, it stopped downloading. I received an error message saying all the resources for the buffer were used up, and that I should restart GetRight to continue the download. I have no idea what GetRight is or how to restart it. I did everything I could think of to try to get it restarted but nothing worked. (I'd had a similar stoppage once with a Garmin GPS update and it picked up right where it left off. Which is the way it should be.)

Finally, I had no other choice but to shut down and try to go again. Since I couldn't pick up where I left off, I had to search for how to start the download all over again. That took a while but I found it. Sure enough, three hours into it again the damn thing stopped. I restarted it one more time to run overnight and when I left this morning, despite another glitch, it looked like it would finish. Hopefully it does so I can start actually using the program -- after running the install, of course. This was just the download to enable the install.

This is not the first time I've run into something like this. Why can't software manufacturers actually test their downloads for quality and make sure they will run properly? The average Joe, with little experience beating software programs into submission, stands no chance against the stupidity here. Software manufacturers, here's a clue: if your software won't download in 20 minutes on any properly equipped machine, don't offer it as a download. Nobody wants to tie up their computers for hours. If you feel absolutely compelled to do it, at least warn people of the consequences -- like this download will tie up your computer for an entire day and it still might not work.