SN Not Valid: A Non-Fiction Novella Chapter 2 by Emily Berk

Subject: SN Not Valid: A Non-Fiction Novella Chapter 2 by Emily Berk
From: Berk/Devlin <armadill -at- earthlink -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2001 10:01:04 -0800

Chapter 2
Summary: Grade A for customer support
Grade D- for product quality
Elapsed time: 19+ hours and not yet installed

In our first episode, I tried everything I could think of to enter a valid serial number so as to successfully install FrameMaker 6.0. I:

1. Entered the SN exactly as displayed on the back of the jewel case, multiple times;
2. Re-booted before entering the SN exactly as displayed on the back of the jewel case, multiple times;
3. Tried entering the SN in all-uppercase, in all-lowercase, with hyphens, without hyphens;
4. Tried entering the SN of the product I was upgrading;
5. Inserted random spaces into the serial numbers of both the new product and the upgraded products;
6. Searched the Adobe knowledgebase for insights and ideas and tried many of them;
7. Gave up for the evening and so sat down for a cup of tea.

(Thanks to all who provided suggestions, but, basically, in about 8 hours of trying yesterday, I tried EVERYTHING all of you suggested and more.)

This morning started very pleasantly with a call to Customer Support, as recommended by one of the pages in the knowledgebase. I was well-rested and resigned to never installing FrameMaker 6.0 but tried my best to be calm and controlled. The person who answered my call, pretty much on the first ring, was polite, helpful and friendly.

It turns out that my long and checkered past with FrameMaker had come back to haunt me and although I was trying to install plain vanilla FrameMaker 6.0, the serial number printed on the back of the jewel applied to some version of FrameMaker SGML. In other words, it WAS indeed a VALID serial number for some version of FrameMaker, but it was an INVALID Serial Number for the version of FrameMaker 6.0 in the jewel case and therefore NOTHING I did or said yesterday would have made it work.

(Never knew that the SN was custom-made per customer, did you? I used to have an English teacher who would dreamily wave her arms around and intone, "Every experience is a growth experience. If you fall out of a tree and break your arm, well, then, you've had an experience." So, I'm telling myself, the hours and hours I spent yesterday were an EXPERIENCE. I learned a lot. And it helped me write this poetic novella. Can I in good conscience bill my client for this experience? Probably not, huh? Wouldn't show much productivity.)

After a tense interval in which the Customer Service person thought that maybe I would have to physically produce the receipt for this upgrade (the packing slip, complete with my name, phone number, customer ID, purchase date, purchase amount, invoice number, tracking number, etc. etc. was insufficient) and perhaps drive it to San Jose, ...

it was determined that Adobe WOULD issue me a new serial number. This afternoon, or maybe tomorrow. They won't leave it on my answering machine, though, so if I am not in my office to receive it, I'll have to call back tomorrow.

I'll end this novella now with the mysteries:

The mystery: Will Emily ever actually install FrameMaker 6.0? How else will her long and relatively productive history with FrameMaker continue to shape her future? Has she gone as far as she can go with very technical technical writing? Should she perhaps go on to less frustrating endeavors such as, say, inventing time machines or mastering telepathy?

And, the biggest mystery of all: The serial number is an annoying, long string of numbers that the user must type in when installing the CD. The serial number is obtained from a piece of paper that comes in the same box as the CD. Most users with any degree of organization are going to COPY that annoying long SN from the slip of paper ONTO that CD so that they do not risk losing that SN if their CD gets separated from the slip of paper or because they are traveling with the CD but don't want to carry all the docs, or whatever.

So, how much added security does that stupid SN give vendors when compared to the incredible frustration and lost hours that result from the apparently highly bug-prone SN-generation and recognition process?

Tune in again next time, when I try to install -- Linux?

--Emily
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On the web at www.armadillosoft.com *** Armadillo Associates, Inc.
~ Project management, developer relations and
extremely-technical technical documentation that developers find useful.~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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