Re: FLASH: [RESPONSE] Recent Flash Player Release

[unique]

At the exact moment of 2000.01.25.02.15, her/his local time, Eric J. Wittman

<

emanflash [dot] com

> put forth:


> Ken Sherwood writes:

> 

>> [[(1) Why was the 25/20 player not withdrawn from public distribution

>> immediately upon Macromedia's awareness that it is defective? Think it

>> through, and you will discover that the release of a new player will

>> *not* erase the existence of how-many thousands of bad ones! Are we

>> supposed to design around these players? You keep pumping them out, even

>> today.]]

> 

> Understand your frustration here Ken. We experience the same frustration


Sorry to hear this, but two wrongs don't make a right. I understand your

empathetic angle here though; thanks.


> when Netscape, AOL and Microsoft ship varying plug-in APIs, JavaScript

> implementations, and JavaVMs for their browsers compounded on top of the

> variances in flavors of Windows, MacOS, Solaris, Linux and IRIX.

> Challenging that, we have worked very hard to ensure our developers that

> our features to be identical across all those platforms and browsers. The

> development minefield becomes larger as these types of issues compound in

> various releases.


Eric, I believe that "you all" are working very hard. I actually wonder,

when might be the last time you had to work this hard?! :-) (Empathetic

angle by me, heh.)


However, I'm preaching to the choir.


Somewhere, somehow, there has to be a missing link; else, this sort of thing

would not happen.


Macromedia continues to shoot itself in the foot by rushing something to

market. It is embarrassing to have to try to explain these things to our

clients. We have enough to express just to get them over the plugin hump.


> We discovered the problem last week and had a properly fixed and QAed bits

> within a week. Once the proper sign offs have been made, we will release

> the updated players this week. I think you will find our process very

> thorough and prompt.

> 

> The Players were not pulled for two reasons: (a) the released players had

> features/fixes that outweighed those of previous releases


Am I reading you correctly? Are you saying that the "pluses" of the 25/20

players *outweighed* an actual consideration as to whether to remove said player

and replace it with the previous one?


If so, I surely would be interested in knowing *who*, or at least what sorts

of "staff", put their heads together to come up with this Brainstorm. Did

you guys actually have a list of pros and cons, with the cons being all the

DISASTER that this player can cause us developers, and you're telling me

that the "pros", whatever they may have been, actually outweighed the cons?


<thump, thump, thump>


(That was me, banging my forehead on the keyboard ... )


> (b) the fix was able to be quickly applied and tested for a thorough and

> quick release cycle.


What "quick" fix? I don't see any fix. I see the broken player still being

uploaded to *our* -- **not "your"!** -- customers, at least *nine* days since

y'all knew about it.


>> [[(2) How many thousands of these players have been released to the

>> public since December 6, 1999? How many were released since MM's

>> awareness of the problem?]]

> 

> The 4.0r20 Macintosh and 4.0r25 Windows Flash Player releases have been

> shipping from the Macromedia Download Center since 12/15/99. I don't have

> the official numbers off-hand, and would be more than happy to get them,

> but I would estimate around 20-30 million downloads, not successful

> installs, occurred during that period. Problems with the download numbers,

> and why we usually don't give them out, is that this doesn't actually

> track a users successful installation. We successfully track this

> information through third party surveys such as the one done by NPD

> Online. Based on those results, you can estimate that about 50% of those

> folks successfully installed the player.


I'll only comment that I am stunned by one decimal place. Or maybe it was

wishful thinking.


Minimum 10 million buggy players out there, successfully installed. How very

very dandy.


And, extrapolating conservatively from your figures, over 2.25 million of those

buggy players have been downloaded *after* you knew. Gaack.


For the life of me, I still can't grasp "why". Where is the balance of values in

the kind of thinking that must be going on at MM regarding this concern?


And, as we continue our enticing dialogue, every day that that buggy player is

up there, another quarter of a million of them get pumped out and successfully

implemented.


>> (2a) And, more to the point, what percentage of Flash 4 Players that are

>> out there are of the 25/20 variety?

> 

> Again, just an estimation, but I would assume 10-15 million viewers with a

> successful installation of the 4.0r20 Macintosh and 4.0r25 Windows

> versions of Flash Player. I will have more information at hand in a few

> days.

> 

> Thus said, this issue effects approximately 4-7% of web viewers who are

> viewing Flash 4 sites specifically using the load variable feature.


Extrapolating again, your numbers imply that you estimate there the total number

of Flash 4 Players out there is between 200 and 250 million. Thank you for that

information.


> All of

> this is assuming that these numbers are accurate and the holidays did not

> throw the download rates off.

> 

> To help support you further Ken, please forward me the Flash sites you

> have developed so that our QA team can incorporate into our testing

> matrix. The team wants to ensure that this issue is resolved to developers

> satisfaction.


I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm afraid it's way past time to get back to

total satisfaction here; irreversible harm's done. At least until Flash 5 Player

sees daylight.


I hope you can tell I don't really mean to be rubbing salt into your personal

wounds, Eric; you just happen to be the one on the other end of this, huh?!


Thanks again for all the info you've provided, and Good Luck.


Ken Sherwood


                         *zenkat: the Flash trailer*

                    http://www.kensherwood.com/zenkat.htm


kensherwood.com

http://www.kensherwood.com




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