[TenTec] Jupiter firmware problems.

[Robert & Linda McGraw K4TAX]

All this reminds me of a story of a group of folks that were touring a
bronze foundry.  This location made very large bronze doors like one would
find on court houses, federal buildings and the like.  As the folks toured
the operation, they came upon a fellow that polished the doors.  The tour
group stood and watched as he hand rubbed this massive door.  They were
amazed at the luster being produced.  One of the fellows in the tour group
stepped over to the fellow that was polishing the door and ask;  "when do
you know you have it finished?"   The fellow doing the polishing never
looked up, continued rubbing and replied :"you never get finished, they just
come and take it away."

Welcome to the world of software QA.

73
Bob K4TAX

----- Original Message -----
From: "WA3FIY" <wa3fiy@radioadv.com>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2002 2:39 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Jupiter firmware problems.


> What am I missing here?    I see a company that is dedicated
> to delivering exceptional radios at a fair price and then, for no
> additional charge, improving the product and delivering the
> result over the Internet for immediate use.  And what
> happens?  They miss something in the testing of an update and
> get trashed for it!!!!    I don't get it?
>
> If we were paying an annual fee of substantial amount for the
> updates, then maybe we could expect the quality performance
> of, say Microsoft, or something.    But the last time I looked, I
> have not yet received a bill from Ten Tec for any of my
> updates.
>
> If, after I put an update on my radio and it did not work to
> expectation and I was stuck, I would likely be a little upset.
> But the last time I looked, I could go back to my previous
> version in less time than it takes to reboot my wonderful and
> costly and bug free Microsoft product.
>
> If Ten Tec released an update with bugs and then ignored the
> customer feedback that resulted, I would be in a position to
> say they are developing a bad reputation for buggy software.
> But the last time I looked, Ten Tec responds to bug reports in
> a very timely fashion.
>
> I think of this as a sort of Linux model.   Ten Tec releases
> software over the Internet at no charge to the customer.  As
> far as they know, it works OK.   BUT.....................when the
> software is released, there are now hundreds of testers
> pushing and poking and finding things that their few testers
> did not come across.   The findings are posted to TT and they
> make appropriate changes and release a fix or two on the
> Internet.   The process repeats and pretty soon we have some
> pretty nice software [I probably should have been saying
> firmware].   I have read that Linus sometimes released several
> updates to Linux a day during the formative years.  Users
> would download the latest and promptly find something Linus
> missed.  Last time I looked, he did not have a reputation for
> producing bad software.  In fact, I have some of his work
> running here that has been running 24/7 for several years
> without a single hiccup.  Not bad for someone who often made
> several releases in one day!!!
>
> Anyway, I think of us as part of the process and I'm very
> happy to add my two cents worth when I find something.  I
> sure hope we do not become part of the problem.
>
> For those who are really incensed by a buggy release, why not
> just wait a day or two to see how it goes?   If it has some bugs,
> don't install it.  If it is clean, have at it.
>
> Someone said here that TT is on the leading edge of software
> defined radios.   I agree.  They have a learning curve to climb
> and I for one hope we will help them up that curve not drag
> them down.
>
> So, what am I missing?
>
> -73-
>
> -Lee-
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