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This blog contains my random ramblings about everything Mac and some things OT
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Monday, November 17, 2003
Microsoft: Where do you want to go today? Me: To the Apple store! Attention! long < rant > I have been Windows-free since a year and a half and just from time to time I use VPC when I absolutely have to. VPC with either Win2kPro or Win2kServer. This works more or less flawless. Today I started my VPC to check, if I can use some training software with it. Software that comes, though not M$ related training, from a company that leans heavily towards the WinTel platform (thats where you make a lot of money obviously). I start IE and go to the training companies website to run one of the demo courses. Nope, needs Shockwave. It readily offers a download/install, I click the button and is starts downloading and once it gets to installing it reports a file error, corrupted or else. It offers a 'Try Again', I do so only to arrive this time at another error at 56%. And so on... After 3 try-agains, it comes up with another error message, something about a CPC sum error. I figure it's M$-speak for checksum and start the whole process again. After going 3 times through the whole thing (3 times file corruption error with final CPC sum error) I decide to go to Macromedia's website to look for a downloadable installer. I do download in average 3-5 shareware apps or demos a day on my Mac to try them out or upload and download work related files. Until now, and that includes 8 years since I am online, I had maybe 10 unsuccessful downloads in the sense that the file was damaged. I have downloaded on dial-up lines in 3rd world countries and if the file would arrive in its entirety, it would work. Double-click, unstuff (unzipp, untar, unrar, etc.) et voila it works. Now today I waste 2 hours on trying to download one meager plug-in (of who's size I wasn't even informed at that point). But the story isn't yet at it's end. So I went to MacroMedia's website in quest for a downloadable installer. And a quest it was. First find the downloadsection for Shockwave, all Flash here, but ok. Once I got there I am presented with a big button to download, which gets me back to square one which is the automatic download/install that's obviously not working. And on top of it the 'Security' window that pops up tells me that the signature from Macromedia doesn't match the content of the file. But the good guys of macromedia provided a link 'Need other version of installer?' Yeah, that's it! I am presented with a nice table of installers and versions and OSes and clicking on Shockwave 8.5.1 for Windows gets me straight to... the page with the big button, which will get me back to the automatic download. I am shortly before screaming. Cunning as I am, I go to the same 'choose your installer' page in Safari, thinking that, if I ask for a Windows installer from a Mac-based browser, I would get an .exe file to download. Boy, was I wrong... It actually presented me with the download page for windows which tells me to press yes on the above mentioned 'Security' window. Needless to say that it didn't work. As a well trained user I go and read the FAQ to see if I find something about a downloadable installer but of course nothing to be found. At the end of the FAQ page is then a paragraph saying something like 'if you still have questions, contact customer-support' sporting a link that brings me to a contact form to fill in. Filled it in and pressed send. Guess what I got as a reply? An Auto-Reply telling me to read the @#$%ing FAQ! Why me? < /rant> To be continued...
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