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 Stephen Withers turns his gaze on the world of Apple, with
detours into other aspects of IT and communications as they catch his
attention. |
Technology news and Jobs 
Our Blogs Core Dump Enough of the MobileMe moaning Minnies
Our Blogs Core Dump Enough of the MobileMe moaning Minnies | Enough of the MobileMe moaning Minnies |
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| by Stephen Withers | |
| Friday, 08 August 2008 | |
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Page 3 of 4 Apple deserves whatever criticism it gets for the schmozzle (in the British English sense of the word, not the Irish English meaning), but what I'd like to see the back of is people ranting about the whole thing being a piece of junk (they're usually more derogatory) and that Apple hasn't heard of quality control or doesn't know how to architect a web application because some function or other didn't work for them.It is possible that there is some sort of capacity problem, but if you can never sync and other people say it always works, that's probably not it. More likely, there's something relatively individual going on. Now let's make one thing clear - I'm *not* blaming the users for their own problems. If something doesn't work, then clearly there's an issue. Maybe it is a matter of configuration, but maybe not. In my experience, one of the most likely causes of such problems is some form of file corruption, whether that involves data or code. If you install an update or a new piece of software and a feature stops working or doesn't work at all, look for a pattern of similar complaints. If everyone says it doesn't work, then it probably is the software itself. But it's more likely to only affect a subset of users. If there's a common factor - similar hardware and operating system versions, for instance - then maybe the software is borked. More likely, there will be other people with a similar problem but there's no obvious pattern. Typically, there's a silent majority that can't understand what you're talking about because the product or service is working just fine for them. In the Mac context, this sort of situation often responds to trashing preference files, repairing permissions, or reinstalling software (which isn't always as easy as it should be, but that's another story). What's the actual cause of such problems? That's the $64,000 question. I'll take a stab at it on the next page. |
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