I think John has a valid point, especially regarding small changes. We're not talking about a new mother board, or replacement or additional memory. A new peripheral may change the PC fingerprint, but not fundamentally--it's a filling in a molar, not a heart transplant. If Microsoft can accept minor changes without flinching, I expect FS could as well. I offer this as constructive criticism, as I have no fault to find with the level of tech support in this area. You're talking to a guy who couldn't activate the new software, because he let some program change the date on the PC. I don't know how it happened, but, with no more autoexec.bat, and Internet time service, time and date don't get the attention they used to. I've seen this happen twice in 20 years, and don't know what caused it either time. Anyhow, this was a foolish mistake, but the guys helped me diagnose and had me up and running in no time flat. Ted -----Original Message----- From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Heim Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 4:28 PM To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: removing authorization key, putting it back later ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bruce Toews" <dogriver@xxxxxxxx> To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 2:49 PM Subject: Re: removing authorization key, putting it back later > For one thing, it's not a problem. It's by design. It's a problem for me! I don't care if it's by design. My CD-ROM dies and instead of just being able to swap it out, I have to call FS and get reauthorized? That's bogus. Why would I care if it's a bug or by design >For a second thing, > if you're going to be using it, you'd darned well better read up on it. Who says? An authorization scheme that requires you to study it is itself a defect. I'm a professional programmer. And I consider it a failure on my part every time I have to explain how to use one of my programs. Sometimes it's impossible to have things simple enough that they need no explanation. But I haven't had to study the authorization scheme for any other software I've ever licensed. I don't lose my Windows XP authorization when i swap out a CD-ROM drive. > Third, whether you or anyone else thinks it's stupid is irrelevant, this > is the way it is. Ranting and stamping your foot isn't going to change First of all, I'm not "ranting" nor am I "stamping my foot". I'm stating my opinion just as you are stating yours. If you're questioning why I'm talking about it on this list, well, it came up. Why are you talking about it? But more importantly, this is how things get changed. They certainly won't change if nobody complains. I told FS that I found their authorization scheme unacceptable. I did them a favor in doing so. -- JFW related links: JFW homepage: http://www.freedomscientific.com/ Scripting mailing list: http://lists.the-jdh.com/listinfo.cgi/scriptography-the-jdh.com JFW List instructions: To post a message to the list, send it to jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send a message to jfw-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. Archives located at: //www.freelists.org/archives/jfw If you have any concerns about the list, post received from the list, or the way the list is being run, do not post them to the list. Rather contact the list owner at jfw-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx -- JFW related links: JFW homepage: http://www.freedomscientific.com/ Scripting mailing list: http://lists.the-jdh.com/listinfo.cgi/scriptography-the-jdh.com JFW List instructions: To post a message to the list, send it to jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send a message to jfw-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. Archives located at: //www.freelists.org/archives/jfw If you have any concerns about the list, post received from the list, or the way the list is being run, do not post them to the list. Rather contact the list owner at jfw-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx