Severe software support
No delay in getting home this afternoon. No demonstrators. No interest, apparently.
Locally, an estimated 30,000 students held an official day of protest against the university tuition increase. 1500 found the waiting buses and joined the crowd in Montreal. 27,500 did not. My calculator talks about 5% participation, and doesn’t even blush.
On to other issues. Today, my lunch hour plus involved negotiation with a software support agent in a far off place. We purchase licenses. We install the related packages. Sometimes it doesn’t go as planned. Following the onscreen prompt, I called the 800 number and then learned that in the mindset of this particular software firm, we are a pack of undisciplined thieves (not nearly as prestigious as unprincipled pirates).
In support of my case, I recited serial numbers from stickers on the back of CD jewel cases. I scanned and emailed the liner notes (three times, because the agent claimed that he couldn’t be sure if I had sent a complete facsimile). I compared the names from registration forms to his computerized database. I even mentioned that I’d be happy to phone back at a later time and provide his supervisor with testimony to his devotion to the corporate cause.
In the end, I was given one more license key, with a stern warning that he would be watching for “us” in future. And with that we bid adieu (although there was a followup email with a support ticket number, just in case I required further mental torture).
No wonder I want to have a change in my lifestyle. Doing something fun seems like a plan, from where I sit.
