Re: bug in IDL's hanning() window-generating function

[bennetsc(at)NOSPAMucs.orst.edu]

In article <3B69C65C.74C8539D@noaa.gov>,
Pavel A. Romashkin <pavel.romashkin@noaa.gov> wrote:
>bennetsc@NOSPAMucs.orst.edu wrote:
>> 
>>      I didn't contact them.  I'm disgusted with them after seeing how
>> they cheated my faculty advisor and, when I asked them to rectify
>> their errors, they refused to do so.
>
>Wow. Are you sure it was not a misunderstanding? I have never had a
>problem on a consumer level with RSI. Of course, I am not trying to
>sparkle an outpour of complains by writing this.

     My advisor got a couple of IDL licenses back at IDL 5.0, one for
his Mac and one for a Sun, which is the one I use.  After 5.1 came
out, the only way we found out about it was when we heard and read
that other sites had gotten their updates and were using them.  Later,
we got 5.2, which came as a CDROM and a small book titled _What's_
New_in_IDL_5.2?_.  However, that book only covered changes between 5.1
and 5.2, so I didn't have what I needed to start using 5.2 if it were
installed.  Eventually, we heard that other people had gotten their
5.3 updates, but we never got one of those either.  Other people in
our college also have IDL licenses, so I was able to get the college's
computer/networking support folks to install 5.3 and we did get a
license string from RSI for it.  However, without up-to-date
documentation, especially on changes all the way from 5.0 to 5.3,
it was not practical to proceed from 5.0.
     I don't recall whether I had contacted RSI before this time
about missing releases and lack of documentation, but at this point
I certainly did.  My first attempt was ignored.  After waiting more
than adequate time for response from corporate staff that might be
backlogged, I tried again and got a response from a "Technical Support
Engineer," who claimed to have forwarded my message to our "maintenance
rep" and also claimed there would be a charge if we wanted the manuals
we were already supposed to have gotten.  (She didn't mention the
CDROMs.)  No word was ever received from the "maintenance rep."  What
I needed most by this time was an up-to-date version of the _Using_IDL_
book, but probably would have managed fine with a complete sequence
of the _What's_New..._ books.  She suggested using the on-line "help"
facility and otherwise gave me the brush-off.
     I was and still am quite busy with my work and dealing with
unresponsive software companies isn't really supposed to be taking
up my time, so I did nothing to bring more frustration upon myself
from RSI for some time after that.  Eventually, we got a CDROM for
5.4 and a book titled _What's_New_in_IDL_5.4_, which, again, was
insufficient for my needs.  So I tried contacting RSI again.  This
time a different person responded and, naturally, knew nothing about
the situation, so I started all over.  She told me that they stopped
shipping new manuals to educational licensees when they started giving
a greatly increased educational discount.  (I don't know when that
was supposed to have happened.)  If we wanted new manuals, they would
cost us.  So I told her to just ship us the update packages that they
had failed to send us and I would use the _What's_New..._ books to
get up to date.  She said all she had for 5.1 and 5.3 were the CDROMs,
not the books that were shipped with them.  I said they should make
good on the service contract by providing us an adequate substitute
free of charge for what they had failed to ship us in the first place.
She said they would not do that, but said they keep a pile of used
manuals that customers return for some reason (abandonment of package?)
and that she would look for some old ones to send us.
     That was the last I heard from her until today.  Apparently,
she saw or was given a copy of the complaint I posted last night.
She pretended in today's note not to know what my complaint was
about, nor the name of the licensee (i.e. my advisor.)  So to answer
Pavel's question, it does not seem to me to be conceivable that
there was any misunderstanding.  They simply cheated my advisor and
refused to make good when confronted with the facts.


                                  Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
                                  College of Oceanic and Atmospheric
					Sciences
                                  Oregon State University
                                  Corvallis, Oregon 97331
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* Internet:       sbennett at oce.orst.edu                           *
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* "Lay then the axe to the root, and teach governments humanity.     *
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