This forum is definetly pretty kooky.

Still not as bad as the iLok site though- I have to use an ancient version of Firefox to authorize my plugins with those guys.

John


What you say may be true but the problem is that most users in the world use an MS OS with IE as their browser. You may not like it but there is no other standard as far as I can tell. This tiny forum is not and never will be the real world (meaning larger) in how forums work. 

As for a stable OSs XP was and so was Vista and Win 7 and now Win 8. As far as I can tell OSX is perhaps 15 % of the total market for computing. Maybe more maybe less. When I tried to use Open Suse for audio 64 bits I had nothing but problems. I found that Windows was easy and stable and things just worked. No one supported the kind of hardware I use for audio under linux and I am not in the market for any Apple product even if it were given to me. 

I like Windows and trust it. I don't use IE and like Opera. I have the option to use a buch of browsers if I choose. But when it comes down to it their a lot of companies out there that hate MS and don't help in assuring browser compatibility. Java was created by Sun Microsystems to help them in their ongoing battle against MS. It was not allowed to be used by MS in their browser. What all this means is us the end user gets screwed. 

What should be done is a commission setup to create standards for browsers independent of any corporate interests that we the end user can rely on.

One last thing to keep in mind. Before MS decided to bundle its browser with the OS most browsers cost money. Sometimes a lot of money. Now we choose our browser at no cost to us.  

Hey John,
      No offense, but I'd like to offer just a few clarifications.


      Java is just a programming language that runs in a Virtual Machine.  The VM's were set up to offer web programmers a real programming language to offer applications via a browser.  The problem between MS & Sun arose when MS (ironically the company soooo concerned about people not paying for software) did not want to pay Sun for their usurpation of Sun's intellectual property.  If you install Sun's Java, it functions in IE just the same as in FF or Chrome or Safari.  You just don't have a MS Java engine and rightly so.


      As for standards, W3C (http:/www.w3.org) is the consortium set up to be the manufacturer independent standards group of which MS is a member.  It is unfortunate that MS doesn't adhere to those standards despite the wealth of real developers who are trying to program to those standards.   I've spent the last two years working on a new web-based application development platform that works in every browser without modification except for IE.  The big joke is that IE stands for IF...ELSE which need to have all over your code to maintain IE compatibility.  I don't hate MS, I just don't care about MS any more because of their own unwillingness to comply with the very standards which they helped to create.

      As for OS stability, the next time you feel your system is running stable, open up the Event Viewer (eventvwr.msc) and check out the number of warnings and errors that have occurred for which you have never been informed.  On a Windows server, these can sometimes be severe errors indicating imminent failure that the end user doesn't find out about until said failure.  I've actually found hard-drive bad-sector errors in the log that were never presented to the user despite their prophecy of impending catastrophic failure.  Check out Microsoft's Services applet (services.msc) and look at the list of running services (half of which are irrelevant to a DAW) that are eating precious CPU cycles and occupying memory.   I wouldn't recommend shutting them down if you're not sure of what you are doing, but suffice to say that there is enough bloat to be able to gain significant performance advantages is those services are disabled.   Don't get me wrong, XP was one of the best OS's from MS thus far and Vista (properly patched) and Win7 were pretty good though I wouldn't call them stable, just more stable than previous versions.

     In regards to browser availability, Netscape Navigator was always available for free download even after being taken over by AOL.  After MS' big faux pas (missing the importance of the online paradigm shift) they decided to create their own non-standard standards in a typical anti-compeitive antagonistic attempt to take over the entire online industry rather than work with the already established businesses and standards at the time.

     Lastly, your statement about "most people of the world using Windows" may have been the case, but the winds of change are upon us. People are getting more and more tired of having to pay big money for being MS' beta testers.  There are plenty of companies and municipalities (both nationally and internationally) switching to to some open-source solution including some type of Linux desktop and OpenOffice, that are more than purely anecdotal at this point.  As an example:City of Munich makes the move to open source on desktops ...

     I don't really care which company wins, just so that the real winner is the end-user.



Best,
guitardood

As I recall, the old forum software worked better, before Cakewalk switched over to the current one a couple of years ago.  No reason was given for the switch. 

I just checked as it's been 3½ years, with lots of complaints during that time.  A lot of issues were first reported in this thread:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1777486

Maybe some of the initial problems got fixed, I don't know.

Steve - I pm'ed you twice this morning and both times I've had an "Internal server 500 error", so I don't know if they got through or not.

+1

 
randyman


(i know, sorry)

The OP is blaming cake for the forum software - which they didn't write.  While they do have control over what is used for the forum, I don't know of any bb sftware that is perfect all for all 12 (or ever how many variations there are) brands/versions of browsers that the users may use.

This BY FAR is one of the absolute best user supported forums anywhere.  The fact that not everyone is having an issue is more indicative that is a user/browser/os issue.

Just my two cents on the rant.

My experiences (I use Chrome)

1.  Formatting seems OK with Chrome
2.  PM messages are often failing now - internal server errors
3.  Quite often, even after I have read a PM, I will keep getting emails telling me that I received a PM, and it is the same one I have already read.  This has always been the case for me.

I do not think the forum software is very good - and even though MS hasn't and doesn't follow the standards, and folks using Firefox get their formatting jacked up, the forum software folks ought to either fix their code to handle it, or ought to hire some folks to fix their code.

The same problems should not be present for YEARS in something that should be as benign as a forum.

To the Bakers - I would venture to say that the GIGANTIC volume of negativity from forum users on the lack of stability/usability of the forum software is quite likely to cost Cakewalk CUSTOMERS.  

If I were a potential customer and looked at the forum prior to purchase, I would have to say I would be leery of trusting a software company to make a quality product if they could not even get a forum to work properly.

I think that addressing some of the long-standing issues with the forum software would be a one-time thing, or at least an infrequent thing, and might be worthy of taking a look at.  If that means tasking someone to have a heart to heart between Cakewalk and the developers of the forum software then by all means DO IT.

Bob Bone

non sequitur

Yep....definitely this forum seems to be run by HAL9000

Cactus Music

I don't see Apples in the schools, Library, Insurance Broker, Rec centre, or Banks or the Health Authorities. I see IBM ( Lenovo ) and XP desktop and IE as the browser. They even use Outlook for offical e mail.

The schools had Apples for a while because Apple had some kind of a deal on computers for education. I had the job of pulling the hard drives from 3 pallets of them a few year ago. 

I did a lot of work in hospitals, banks, and all businesses when I serviced office equipment. Not once in 25 years did I ever see an Apple product in one of those institutions except for a graphics design business ... and that was just for compatibility for when a client would send them a project so they could open it. They also had every other major operating system and graphic design program set up on individual computers.

The deal with Apple being in schools was, IIRC, they gave them to the schools just to get exposure. Microsoft announced they were doing that a few years back and that's probably why you see Apple's being replaced PC's. The only reason they were ever used was because they were free ... they aren't used in the real world, so having students use them in a school setting (with the exception of graphics design) is really a very bad idea.

Of course, I remember when I attended the first 'Computer' class at my school, there was a classroom full of TRS-80's, and a huge sign on the wall that read ... "Do NOT sit Floppy Diskette's on top of the computer!". Heh.

I'm using chrome and I like it generally better than FF now, I think it's spying on me. I was shopping for something the other day, and a new tab opened with a Amazon store selling the same item, All is good because it was a better deal, but I did not instigate that page.

Chrome is 100% without a doubt spying on us. There were some forum discussions that I was part of here and ever since then, certain 'key' words of those threads have popped up over U-Toob video's and various places when I do searches.

The one that always gets me is when I watch a u-toob video and an advertisement for Z3ta pops up and blocks a third of the video window.

SteveStrummerUK

Didn't someone from Cake once admit that ASP had offered them the available upgrade, but that it was just too time-consuming to port over everybody's personal details and post counts etc. If that's all that's preventing the switch, then they've got no valid excuse.

Yes, they can upgrade ... for free.

And yes, I remember reading that thread too about it being too time consuming to port over all the accounts. The reality on that is probably that they will be charged a small fortune by the people they lease the server from to do it. So, yeah, it is time consuming ... but the real reason is probably the cost.

SteveStrummerUK


Let's be honest, it's been completely useless since they last updated it a few years back (and if you remember, even that so-called update broke or got rid of some great features we had enjoyed previously, like 'proper' and easy to set up/read quotes, and the extremely useful In Reply To that was attached to everyone's posts).

Actually, I'd go farther than that, to me it's a complete disgrace, and it should be an embarrassment to any company that wants to be taken seriously.

Even if the matter could argueably be ignored on the basis of just a few regulars complaining about it, just imagine for one moment what image it portrays to potential new customers.

Didn't someone from Cake once admit that ASP had offered them the available upgrade, but that it was just too time-consuming to port over...

[snark-nag]
I'll bet they covered all this at the NAMM Retail Boot Camp. 
[/snark-nag]

mike_mccue


non sequitur

How does it not follow, Mike? The question is really asking how was that data collected. The question was "I wonder if that includes China".  If you think questioning the validity of an assertion is illogical than we live in very different worlds.  

Just out of interest, is there anyone here who can change their avatar at the moment?

I can't in IE, Firefox or Chrome.

Cactus Music


Just go to the coffee house and post 20,000² times like Bapu did. 

TeeHee