#SBase4 Update
21 messages in this thread
Hey Roy,
Yeah, I can't seem to find the time lately to get onto this forum. I think you
requested an on-line upgrade and I was considering it. We have decided against
it, so in order to upgrade please call us @ (310) 427-1227 to request an
upgrade..
Thanks,
Mike
Ok Mike –
I'll keep the number handy for use when I do upgrade. However…..
The issues tha Mark Manes has raise about the soundness of the 1.3
upgrade concerns me also. (There are others on this service that have
read Mark's messages) You really should comment on the issues that Mark
has brought up. There are some very glaring errors that really must be
corrected before anyone in there right mind would go ahead and purchase
the upgrade. Either that, or you have to tell Mark he screwed something
up and those things (file handling in specific) don't really happen.
Please ask Mark (74030,744) about his problems and address his
comments. If your answers can work out the problems, then I'll consider
the upgrade.
Really Mike – tell the Boss's that be that you need to be able to "Find
the Time" to support your costomes ONLINE. Either you do that or you are
going to HURT your companies reputation by NOT answering the comments and
questions that are post here on the Net in a TIMELY manner. It only makes
ya look real bad when people continue to post messages here and go for
days without a reponse. Precision had this same reputation for years here
on CIS – their online support was always on "ON" again "OFF" again (pun
intended) proposition. We 'users' around here had really hoped that when
Oxxi took SBase over that you would improve on this Online reputation.
For awhile there you were doing real good, however things are slipping.
Sorry if I'm laying it on hard, but this situation is serious (as well
as the condition of the SBase4 upgrade). If your company is experiencing
hard times – then tell us, we'll understand. But also tell us when and
how often you can be online. Set yourself a schedule and stick to it.
This support base that you have started here on CIS (and other networks
that you may be on – I do not know) is a very important avenue for your
company, especially in a tough software & computer market such as it is
now. You have people for ALL OVER THE WORLID here. This, IMHO, can be a
very inexpensive avenue for continued sales of all of your products –
provide great support and the word of month adverting will carry alot more
weight, your sales will continue even when you can't afford to do other
types of print advertising (BTW, have I seen any of your ad's lately for
the new Sbase? ).
Mike, need I go on and on about the value of provide great customer
service. Every business there is these days are preaching and learning
the 'value of the customer'. Anyway, you know what I am saying here is
right and I hope you and your company can find the resources to improve
this avenue of customer support.
Hopes the message helps, it's not ment as a "I'm washing my hands of this
company" type of comment. Hey, we're here and maybe we can help you too.
"Be Readin' Ya"
Roy Pahnke – Casper Wy
Roy,
Very eloquent words there. I hope Mike takes and shows the big brass
you post as it echos my sentiments exactly (also the other Oxxi products
that are supposed to be supported here).
…Steve
====>>> Motorola 68030 Inside <<<====
Steve –
I was just tellin' him like it is (IMHO). I manage a restruarant and
have olso owned my own retail store, so I do know all about "Servicing the
Customer".
I have noticed that as of today he has not received that message yet.
Maybe I'll capture it again and send it to him Email. Don't know how many
days it does take for messages to scroll off this forum.
"Be Readin' Ya"
Roy Pahnke – Casper Wy
Roy,
I believe Oxxi is in the thows of going out of business, or at least the
SuperBase business. I called to inquire about the upgrade, was told that
tech support is only available from 9:00 – 12:00 Mon and Wed and that I
had to speak to them to get the upgrade. (!??!) The girl sounded VERY
stressed and all I said was, "I'm calling about the Amiga Sbase
upgrade…".
So, if your in the mood to develop a good Amiga DB with SuperBase iimport
cababillity, me thinks you could do well….
wmc – via Autopilot!
Wayne,
Oxxi has had that miserable support setup for about a year. The only hope
of getting any answer from them that is close to right is to talk to Mike
Uman. Of course, he is the programmer, doc writer, bug smasher, beta
tester, packaging and all around support guy.
Death to Oxxi. I hope that someone like Softwood buys SuperBase
Professional 4 (it's real name) and takes Mike Uman with them.
Excuse me Wayne,
I don't know where you are getting your conclusion. It is totally incorrect.
We cut back on tech support hours because we could not replace our last tech
support staff. When he left we decided that we could not justify a new full
time employee to answer maybe 10-15 calls a day. That being the case we cut the
time down to 9-12 Monday to Friday {not Mon-Wed as you imply}. Also, I don't
know why you would have to talk to tech support in order to upgrade, that
doesn't make any sense. The only reason you would have to talk to Tech Support
would be if you had a technical question concerning your upgrade.
So, Wayne, if you want to start spreading rumors like this, please go some-
where else.. So I don't get offended. You are really out of line in this
posting.
Thank you,
Mike
Mike,
Talk to the lady that takes the calls. I barely got "I called with some
questions about the upgrade" when she told me I would have to talk to tech
support but they weren't around except for (as I recall but I am vague on
this one) Mon and wed (not mon – wed). She was, as I mentioned, sounding
quite harried. Maybe you could hire that extra person and have him/her
lend the phone gal a hand some too! (Or maybe work on the SBase printer
interface and font use, or … – you know, people can multi-task :^}
wmc – via Autopilot!
Hmm,
I don't know why anyone would tell you that. It is not the truth and I can not
think of a reason why she would lie about our support hours. But that is
neither here nor there. The truth of the matter is that OXXI's tech support
hours are 9AM-12PM Mon-Fri. If you were led astray all I can do is apologize to
you about it.
Mike
Mike,
She sounded real harried as I mentioned. Sometimes people in that state
have their minds multi-tasking and two trains of thought get mixed on the
output. The fact that she didn't let me elaborate on what I wanted also
said "panic" to me and I figrured the best thing I could do for her was to
get off the phone.
I really would like to upgrade, but I need to know that the problems
identified by Mark Manes have been corrected. Unfortunately it seems his
message scrolled off the board here.
I am also very worried that you are a single-poit failure. What happens
if you decide to leave Oxxi and seek enlightenment in Tibet? Since you
are SuperBase in all its aspects (pprogramming, tech support, public
defender :^} etc.) it doesn't give me a good feeling. The tech support
hours make me suspicious that you already have another day job other than
Oxxi. I'm not making personal attacks here. I'm expressing a concern as
I have had other companies disappear on me on products I depend on. In
the case of SuperBase, my other options are to move to another platform
since there is no other relational database that I know of on the Amiga.
I am reluctant to place the well being of my fledgling company on a
company that, to me, appears on the brink. The reason I fear that is that
when companies start down, fewer people wear more hats, become more
frustrated and get spread too thin to do a good job, thus accelerating the
demise of the company.
If I'm reall off the mark tell me. But my phone experience, the comments
of others here and at conferences regarding SBase support in particular
and Oxxi in general do not work to dispel my concerns.
wmc – via Autopilot!
Wayne,
in terms of pure sales and investment, I would be more likely to port Windows
NT to the Amiga and run the SPC version of Superbase on it than to take over
support for Amiga Superbase itself. Certainly it would be cheaper than buying
SB from Oxxi and then trying to bring it up to the Windows standard.
Ciao, Neil [Robinson-Tannenbaum Software] 02-Aug-93 at 09:41:55 MDT
Neil,
I was assuming what came form Oxxi would still contain the rumored source
code aggreement with SPC so that the two versions could remain compatible.
think the agreement was only for file compatibility, but general look and
feel would also have been nice.
wmc – via Autopilot!
Roy,
Thanks for your interest but we currently have limited resources. I can't do
everything. I understand that Customer Support is a very essential ingredient
in a product in order to create sales. Unfortunately we are currently
evaluating our priorities to determine if we are in the right software market.
We are finding it difficult to continue development in the Amiga market. What
is developing is a "Catch-22" situation which is sad but true.
Concerning SBase4… I think that it is a superior product, and there are tons
of users who call me saying it is the best thing on the Amiga. But then there
are others who have problems, and it is those people who are making all these
claims about problems. Most problems can be solved by calling our tech support
# (310) 427-1227 from 9AM-12PM. What Mark's problem is I am not sure. But if he
contacts me, I'll try and solve the problem.
Thanks,
Mike @ Oxxi
Mike,
I have contacted you, long before the 1.3 upgrade was finished. I asked
several questions, most notably had the software been tested on an A4000.
The answer was no.
I left a detailed message here for you to read and answer discussing the
problems I had with 1.3. This is a support forum Mike. I think Oxxi
should consider using it for such.
I shouldn't have to try to wrap my work schedule around a miserable 3 hour
a day support where I wont necessarily get you. I might add that this
support line is on my dime. I can understand that, only IF I get the
information I need. Often times, I do not.
In summary:
– Display Database support is MISSING in the 1.3 upgrade.
– You can NOT use the forms created in DBLNTSC under a Productivity
Monitor.
– SuperBase does NOT allow you to set a preferred monitor mode, nor
is the monitor mode saved in the form.
Where is this AGA support Mike? Why is it printed on the package? This
thing acts just as stupid as 1.2 did on my A4000.
Well Mark,
What SBase4 does is allow you to open 256 Color form screens. That is what we
mean by AGA support. Also, if you set your workbench to a screenmode, SBase4
will inherit that screenmode. Some of the points you make are being addressed
in the next minor upgrade. We will be releasing V1.3e shortly. We have also
added support for the Locale library. And a new DML command for changing the
SBase4 screen font.
Concerning our support policy. That is the way it must be for now. You can FAX
us your request, and we try to get back within the week.
Thanks for your support,
Mike
Mike,
Inheriting the Workbench settings is *wrong*, except at startup and if
their is no user preference. The Screenmode should be set based on the
screenmode that was in use when the form was created. It should also be
possible for me to set via SBase4's preferences what screenmode I want the
program to operate in.
Opening 256 color windows is NOT AGA support. AGA support means to me
that the display database is used.
Mike, I am not flaming you. I just need this thing to work reasonably. I
can't request my customers to change their workbench everytime the want to
run my software under SuperBase.
Try this for fun. Create a form on an A3000 in 640×400 Interlaced. Now
move that form over to an A4000 that has the workbench set in productivity
mode. Now open that form.
What you get is Productivity Interlaced, which is 640×800 (and more if you
have an overscanned Workbench). Your form is the tiny FLASHING beast at
the top of the screen. Fun, but hardly usable.
Not acceptable at all.
Thanks for taking the time to answer me though Mike.
Dear Mark,
I agree with you whole-heartedly. We are currently working on this problem and
will be releasing 1.3e very shortly. Please contact me through EMail and maybe
we can work out a beta arangement.
Thanks,
Mike
Mike,
That would be *MOST* appreciated.
Thanks for the note. Ok, I'll calm down now and be nice. 🙂
OK,
Please EMail me your vitals. And then we can work something out.
Thanks,
Mike
Mike,
Mark D. Manes
Video Computer Resources
1200 N. Battlefield Blvd.
Chesapeake, VA 23320
(804) 436-9508 (Voice/FAX)
I have an A4000/040 running v40 of AmigaDOS 3.0, as well as a 2.1 A3000.
I have access to an A1200 as well.
I appreciate this Mike, I think you'll appreciate it too. 🙂
MARK –
You be better off responding to Mike via Email – as per his request. I
hope you are able to help. I think Mike is doing his best and trying to
work things out.
You know how he can disappear sometimes and not get up and around here,
so it would probably be best to start a communication thread with him in
Email. That way your message won't scroll off and he will for sure get
you address and stuff.
"Be Readin' Ya"
Roy Pahnke – Casper Wy