When The Internet Attacks! Episode #15: "You don't want to waste your life" - 8/30/05

Welcome to another episode of When The Internet Attacks!. Last month, we had 3 great episodes, but now we're at the end of August and nothing has aired. It's time to end that lull, with episode #15 entitled "You don't want to waste your life", with a nod to Counting Crows. As usual, the following emails were found during my day-to-day duties at Rogue Amoeba.

Email #1: Norton The Poet
Our first email today is almost lyrical. I believe this was the result of poor langauge translation, but perhaps Norton is just unleashing his inner poet. We've certainly seen it before. I leave you to interpret as you see fit.

To long back and forth, it folded nevertheless. The software is very good. Desires you for the future all good. Many greetings Norton

Email #2: Busy Bob The Consultant
This email came to us shortly after we officially announced that Audio Hijack Pro 1 was no longer supported (it was over a year out of date, with newer versions available).

I work for myself as a Consultant. As such it would cost me thousands of dollars in billable time to upgrade to Audio HiJack Pro version 2. I am happily using 10.2.1 and it would take me a couple of days to upgrade the operating system on my Macs, debug all the problems, and install the Pro version along with all the backups in the process.

I suspect most business people would feel the same way. I like OS X, the only downside is that Apple and the software vendors treat people as hobbyists whose time is not worth much. I need to continue using 10.2.1 until it can't do something I absolutely need for my business. So far, I do not see any new features I need in 10.3 or 10.4 that would allow me to increase my income.

I like Audio HiJack Pro a lot and use it regularly to record audio for my premium membership website. Version 1 works well for me.

Bob

Now, I understand that updating software can be a time-consuming process. You know what also seems time-consuming? Writing an email to us complaining about how "Apple and the software vendors treat people as hobbyists". Apple and software vendors alike treat their customers with respect. We offer new features and fix bugs, and yes, this means we release updates. We all do our best to make this as painless as possible. What's more, no one was forcing him to do anything here. We simply no longer support Audio Hijack Pro version 1.

The real question is, how long did this email take to write? Upgrading to Audio Hijack Pro 2 is likely a 5 minute process, with a ceiling at around 20 minutes. Doing some simple estimating, I'd estimate this email cost him around $900, making it the most expensive email we've ever received.

Email #3: Eddie Marks, Windows Version
I'm a windows version and will buy Airfoil as soon as it's available for Windows.

Macs are great, but until they're running on Intel I won't consider them (their core hardware has fallen to far behind Intel in performance).

Eddie Marks

Chicago

I found the typo here to be amusing (I believe he meant "I'm a windows user"). That's probably just me, though. But the idea that Apple needs to be running Intel chips to be competitive is just foolish. Are G5s slower than the very newest Intel-based machines? Perhaps, in some tests. Are they faster than others? Yes. Does it matter, in the least, for running Airfoil, a web browser, email, games, movies, or anything a normal user does? No. Computers are incredibly over-powered right now, and no processor out there is dogging it badly enough to say its "fallen too far behind".

Email #4: John Abrams, Master Of Tact
Airfoil? do you actually indent to sell this garbage? get a real job!

I just can't figure out the mindset of an email like this. Ultimately, I replied back quite civilly, explaining that it's our second most popular product, and that if he actually has a problem we're happy to help. He wrote back, and we solved his problem quickly. But why start out this way? I think it's the anonymity of email that allows for this sort of behavior - most people would never run into a store and just start going apeshit over a minor issue, but with email it's practically the norm.

That's it for today, but we've got a very special serial-number themed episode coming up on When The Internet Attacks!, so stay tuned!