{"id":544138,"date":"2010-04-26T23:38:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-27T03:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5587346.post-2146369921549447309"},"modified":"2010-04-27T00:04:56","modified_gmt":"2010-04-27T04:04:56","slug":"gordons-laws-for-software-and-service-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/544138","title":{"rendered":"Gordon’s Laws for software and service use"},"content":{"rendered":"
CrashPlan gets great press and even a Tidbits Take Control recommendation, but when I used it<\/a> I ran into numerous fundamental flaws. Clearly, I can’t rely on reviewers.<\/p>\n

From that and similar experiences, here are Gordon’s Rules of Engagement for software and services.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Inspect the uninstaller. The best apps don’t need one – just delete the app. After that look for something built into the app. Then look for something that downloads with the app. If there’s no installer stop immediately.<\/li>\n
  2. If there’s an online account – is it easy to delete?<\/li>\n
  3. Look at the installer. Drag and Drop is fine, but if it needs an installer it better be Apple’s installer. Anything else – run.<\/li>\n
  4. If it’s a service, do they want your Google credentials? If so, run and bar the door.<\/li>\n
  5. If it’s software, is there an unlimited full feature trial period? Limited feature trials are worthless. I need at least a month, or, better, 10 days of use (which may take me months).<\/li>\n
  6. Does a service require a security question? If so, they’re stupid. Run.<\/li>\n
  7. If your storing something precious online (ex: backup data), what’s the password reset policy? “Industry standard” practices means losing control of your email will cost you ALL your backup data. (for example)<\/li>\n
  8. Is there a high quality manual? It doesn’t matter whether you’re going to read it or not. Products with good manuals are almost always good products. It’s a very reliable quality measure.<\/li>\n
  9. Can you get your data out in a useable way? If not, run, run, run.<\/li>\n
  10. If there are annual renewals, is there an option to request approval prior to renewal?<\/li>\n
  11. How makes the product? What’s their support site like? Can you find downloadable fixes?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    That’s 11 for now, I’m sure I’ll come up with more.<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    Notice there’s nothing in here about features, reviews, price, performance, etc. They only matter if a product passes the above screening tests. In fact it’s rare for a product to pass all of the relevant tests and then be fail due to bugs or performance. A vendor who can do the above can usually do the product as well.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    CrashPlan gets great press and even a Tidbits Take Control recommendation, but when I used it I ran into numerous fundamental flaws. Clearly, I can’t rely on reviewers. From that and similar experiences, here are Gordon’s Rules of Engagement for software and services. Inspect the uninstaller. The best apps don’t need one – just delete the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":711,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-544138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-software"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/711"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}