Sunday, January 18, 2009

Hours of my life wasted due to crappy software design

Since the move I’ve been going through boxes I haven’t seen in years.  One such box contained a bunch of my old cell phones.  While digging in it I stumbled upon what used to be my favorite phone, the Samsung T309.  It was my trusty side arm during the transition from Florida to North Carolina and for a couple years after.  Having always been a fan of flip phones this was my very first foray into camera phone territory.  The cell reception was decent and the picture quality poor, but there was something about it I always liked.  Even with the low quality I had some choice shots locked away in this antiquated beast.

With nostalgia fueling my efforts I went searching for a way to get these pictures off the phone.  Of course Samsung went the proprietary route with their connection.  The data cable I needed was too old for T-Mobile to still have in stock and too obscure for any mom & pop places to carry.  Thankfully, the internet provided me with what I needed.  Fast forward a week and the cable has arrived.  I load the software from the Samsung website, plug in the cable AND….. nothing.  It didn’t work.

At first I thought it was the cable, but then I tried 3rd party applications that recognized the phone even though they couldn’t pull the pictures off.  To say I was frustrated was an understatement. Old habits die hard, so I dove into the issue with my usual troubleshooting ferocity.  Hours later I felt like chucking the phone out the damn window and punting my laptop down the stairs.  I wasn’t the only one, finding countless forum posts and angry websites from other users screaming at the craptastic Samsung software.  Upgrading to the newest version was a compatibility crapshoot and getting a hold of older software was damn near impossible.

In the end I went with the earliest software I could find and installed every version thereafter that was available.  Not the most scientific of approaches, but since there was no rhyme or reason to the way the software behaved it was the only option.  Well into the night I finally found a version that worked.  After all those hours and all the effort, I saved a paltry 14 low resolution photos.  In the end, it was the memories these photos represented that were worth more to me than anything else.

 

The love of my wonderful girl

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Good times with great friends

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and the best concert I’ve ever been to

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