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

[Berk/Devlin <armadill -at- earthlink -dot- net>]

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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