Note: This site is currently "Under construction". I'm migrating to a new version of my site building software. Lots of things are in a state of disrepair as a result (for example, footnote links aren't working). It's all part of the process of building in public. Most things should still be readable though.

Poor drive support web site

I was screwing around with my computer and deleted a peice of software that I needed to make my wireless internet connection work. Silly mistake, normally I don't uninstall anything because it always seems to lead to problems, but I thought it was messing with something else..... Anyway, I needed to reinstall it, but discovered that I can't find the CD. I've been straightening up and after organizing a bunch of stuff I can't find anything. Anyway, I searched for the part number in google and got to the manufacturer's web site where I could download the software. I had two options. The original version and version 4. The card itself didn't have any version listed so I tried version 1. No go. Then version 4. No go. After doing some looking around on other sites I saw people mention version 2 of the software. I went back to the equipment web site and walked thru it a different way and discover that both version 2 and 3 exist. I try v2 first, but no luck. Finally, I get to version 3 and at last the wireless connection comes back to life. Through a combination of bad (meaning no) version labeling on the physical part and a deceptive web page (only listing two of the possible four versions) I spent probably an hour and a half trouble trying to figure out what was going on and swaping software on and off my machine. This is a prime example of one of the things that the overall Computer Industry needs to start getting right. I'm fairly savy when it comes to computer stuff and it still took me what seemed like forever. Most people I know would have given up long before, and the problem wasn't with a bug in the software, it was just labeling.