I don’t know who else to gripe at, so I’ll share my gripe with you. Maybe you can form it up into something rational.
Bought IBM’s ViaVoice for a doc I know who wants to speed up writing a book. (You’ve seen various doctors’ penmanship so I think you can see that part of the problem. They don’t do technology nor keyboarding very much better.)
He’d gotten himself a brand new dell that some one gave him a hand setting up.
So, he knew I did “dictation” so he asked for my help.
Bought the software. Oh excuse me, I “licensed” it.
No problem, I’ve installed my copy before on a succession of machines over the last two years.
Argh. The install hangs! Reboot , restart hang, reboot, restart hang.
Look for some support. IBM did something and now support is Nuance aka ScanSoft.
(That’s not good news. I don’t like their non-support of Paperport. So already I’m in trouble.)
I look around their web site. There’s nothing in the “knowledge base” to shed any light on my problems.
I do find that there is a $10 charge to ask a question M-F 9-5!
That really annoys me.
There’s a restocking fee of 20% and a doc who is depending upon my skill, so I am committed.
I spent four hours tinkering with it. Just clear, install, fail, and reboot. After countless times, some error messages and uncountable just plain hanging unresponsively, one install worked!
Now I am not sure that we are out of trouble or that it will work for him, but at least it is installed!
I think we have arrived at a time where brand (i.e., IBM) doesn’t matter, vendor doesn’t matter, promises (implied or explicit) can not be relied upon.
Personally, I am getting off the Windoze express. I’ll be going to Linux as fast as I can. If it isn’t Open Source freeware, then I am not going to buy it. Professionally, I am going to recommend the same thing to any business that will listen.
I’ll pay for service but not for vapor- or abandon- or any other crud-a ware.
Posted by reinkefj 
Reinke Faces Life 