Life of a Sysadmin

The occassional trials and tribulations of a jack of all tr ades sysadmin in a startup in Silicon Valley

archives

October 2008 (2)
September 2008 (3)
June 2008 (1)
April 2008 (1)
March 2008 (6)
December 2007 (6)
October 2007 (1)
September 2007 (1)
August 2007 (2)
July 2007 (1)
June 2007 (5)
May 2007 (5)
April 2007 (3)
March 2007 (7)
February 2007 (2)
January 2007 (3)
December 2006 (4)
November 2006 (3)
October 2006 (3)
August 2006 (3)
July 2006 (1)
June 2006 (2)
May 2006 (4)
April 2006 (2)
March 2006 (5)
February 2006 (5)
January 2006 (7)
December 2005 (2)
November 2005 (6)
October 2005 (4)
September 2005 (4)
August 2005 (1)
July 2005 (2)
June 2005 (3)
May 2005 (4)
April 2005 (1)
March 2005 (2)

December 2005

Corel's Exclusive Offer, or Marketing Taking Over an Update System

I like the concept of self updating programs. In practice however they are usually implemented poorly (ala Acrobat Reader) and/or co-opted by marketing for nefarious purposes.

While checking for updates for our installation of Corel WordPerfect Office Suite 12 I found that some manager in the marketing division of WordPerfect thought they were being clever when they decided to use the update system to send out what amounts to an advertisement.

For an update system to be effective and trusted by users it can not be co-opted by marketing in an attempt to make money. Whatever manager that approved this "update" message should be fired.