On Sun, 26 Sep 2004 16:32:43 +0100, "Keith Jaffray"
<kjaffray@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> typed furiously:
>HI, I'm thinking about purchasing the new DX 7590 digital camera, and was
>wondering if anyone out there already has one and what is it like. I have
>just sold my Fuji Finepix S304 and am on the lookout for a new camera,
and I
>saw this Kodak one in W@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Mobile mag.
>Regards
>Keith
>
I thought that you may be interested in just why I will never
recommend that anyone even consider buying a Kodak camera. Please read
on for the the sorry saga and you might get some glimmerings as to why
I am just a little cheesed off.
In December 2006, a friend received a Kodak Camera as a gift. It came
with a CD containing Kodak EasyShare software V6. Unfortunately he
runs Win98 and V6 will not work with '98. He asked me to have a look
at the net and see if I could get an earlier version of the software.
The Kodak Site said that an early version which worked with '98 was
available. You had to download a program and execute it while
connected to the net so that it could install from the web. My friend
does not have broadband and rarely accesses the net for any reason. It
would have meant that he needed to pay for several hours of download
time.
I wrote to Kodak explaining the situation and requested that they
supply the software. The original contact was on 23 Dec. I received a
reply on 26 Dec. informing me that my friend had to be on the internet
to install the software. I replied by return asking why he had to be
online and requesting that the software be sent. They wrote back on 29
Dec asking for the serial number, which I had supplied in the first
place. I replied by return e-mail. They advised me on 3 Jan that they
would send the software and to expect it in seven to ten days.
Around about 5 Feb I wrote again asking why the software had not
arrived. I'm not sure of the exact date because I had a computer crash
and those e-mails were lost. We received a reply rather promptly
informing us that the CD would be posted from Kodak Australia. We
received it within three days. Why that didn't happen a month earlier
I am not sure.
The rest of this is the text of an e-mail I sent to Kodak today, 19
Feb 2007.
<quote>
He attempted to install the software using the no questions asked
option. The installer did not check if sufficient disk space was
available. It simply went ahead and attempted to install everything
onto the C: drive in spite of there being oodles of space on other
drives in the system. Needless to say the install crashed. It not only
failed to abort the install it caused the machine to go into a
continuous loop of rebooting. Going in to Safe Mode allowed the errant
software to be deleted but did not cure that problem.
I was the unhappy recipient of the machine at this point. I consider
myself to be rather knowledgable about computers. I have been writing
programs and teaching people how to use computers since the late
seventies. I spent two days trying various remedies including several
attempts to reinstall Windows. In the end I had to delete the system
files and treat it as a virgin installation before I was able to
achieve a stable system once more.
I then attempted to install your software. I will say that I consider
your installer program to be the clumsiest attempt at an installation
program I have ever seen. The directory chooser is not at all
intuitive and continually wanted to revert to C: drive whereas I
wanted to put the program on the P: drive.
The next problem that reared its ugly head was that the program would
not install unless Internet Explorer V5.1 was present on the machine.
Remember this is the machine of someone who does not use the internet.
I also question why your company would want to have its name
besmirched with such an insecure program such as Microsoft internet
Explorer. However I complied by installing IE version 6.
Next problem arose when it refused to install because of an error
involving three hex numbers. Your website says Find a file and rename
it, then run the MSInstaller. I did and wonder of wonders your program
installed. I did some investigation and found that both files were
identical although one seemed to be newer than the other. Yes your
software required me to replace a newer file with an older version
which was identical in form and function. Another piece of bad
programming.
Next your software installs itself in the start up sequence. It starts
up whether I have photos to fiddle with or not. Just who do you think
you are? Most people do other things with computers besides playing
with photographs. An "in your face" approach is, in my opinion, the
wrong way to go. It certainly got my back up and for the computer
illiterate it would be very annoying to have to shut down your program
every day when all they wanted to do was write a letter or play a
game.
Most of the unpaid angst I have had to go through since Christmas
could easily have been avoided if your company had had either full
installers or an ISO image for the earlier versions of software
available on your website for an easy download. Of course some thought
in designing the installer would have assisted as well.
I will be telling everyone I know of the difficulties I have had and
encouraging them to not buy Kodak.
</quote>
--
Regards
David Simpson
"Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him
without an erection, make him a sandwich."
- Someone on soc.sexuality.general
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