>> I am quite angry with the comment that 'it's been killed' and is 'no more'
>
> I was fairly annoyed about Active's failure to replace faulty Netconnect 3
> CDs. The difference between the strength of our respective feelings
> is odd because I have paid money to Active
Yes, but this is old ground and has been covered many times before. It's not
as simple as just 'replacing the CD's':
1) There is absolutely *nothing* I can do about the faulty CD's as the CD
company went bust earlier this year taking ALL remaining NC3 and STFax 4
CD's with them and, of course, any contract that we between us and the CD
company - so if I was to re-do them it would come out of my own money - and
I simply cannot afford to pay for the production of NC3 CD's, twice over.
We've sold no more than 'a few hundred', which barely paid for the original
production, never mind a fresh re-production :(
The company was Direct CD Marketing (http://www.directcd.co.uk - although
their web site is still running, I think).
2) Although, I agree, Voyager was at fault on the original CD, it's
amazingly easy to go on and download a new version - you buy a licence to
upgrade to new versions of the software, based on the netconnect 3 key that
is supplied with your copy of the CD.
Therefore, using your fully working keyfile, you can download new versions
of all the software on NC3.
Hell, if you buy a ESD version of Adobe/Macromedia (etc) software (ie.
software downloaded via the net), you pay the *same price* as the boxed
version, but are supplied with only the core components - you then can
download the PDF manuals, new versions of the software, etc etc, within the
future, using your license.
ie. you buy a 'license' to buy/upgrade the software. NetConnect 3 is
supplied with an upgrade and, since the original NC3 CD, you able to then
upgrade to new versions. Indeed, Oliver Wagner even released AmTalk v2 as a
free gift to NC3 *license/key* holders. AmTalk wasn't on the original CD.
Another interesting point is that when you buy Macromedia (etc) software,
you buy vX.0 and barely receive a vX.1, the next revision is another vX.0
(ie. v2.0 to v3.0), sometimes as little as 10 months after the original
release. But, NC3 has had many many updates to the core software, since the
original release, and majority of NC3's sold were at �26 to NC2 users -
that's hell of a lot less than most PC shareware software, never mind a
complete suite of net tools.
3) If I did repress the CD, with the original software, you'd be supplied
with an ancient old Voyager 3 pre-release 3 (which was supplied on your CD).
Clearly you've since upgraded to a new version, many times over. So it's not
as if having a new CD with a working Voyager 3 pre-release 3 is going to
make you happy? Don't tell me I should re-do the CD with the latest
versions, and supply that, that would be classed as a v3.1, and warrant a
very slight 'to cover manufacturing costs' payment.
ie. if you are owed a 'working CD', then you get the CD with the original
versions - is this really of use to you?
Personally I absolutely cannot see the motive nor reason for showing your
anger with me over and over again, making the same point, months after the
original release. It gets us no-where and makes the longer term support of
NC3 *less* uncertain - there's only a limit I can take.
I'm as equally angry as people angry with me, but I don't keep making the
same point over and over again. Indeed, I should be more angry - the company
that produced the CD's, and the hassle that followed, went bust taking all
our remaining stock (our NC3's and STFax 4's were stored with them, sigh).
Although, note, we are still continuing to support NC3 customers, through
the Vapor products.
Chris.
--
Chris Wiles
Active Technologies - http://www.active-net.co.uk
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