My computer is evidently not my computer anymore... at least in the eyes of some of the software I own. The disk problems I reported a little over a week ago forced me to go out and get a new main hard drive. I did a little housecleaning inside the computer case in the process, changing the type (SCSI vs. SATA) and size of drive I use, and eliminating one whole hard drive entirely. This change has evidently made my computer sufficiently different that some of the software installed on my computer feels that my computer is no longer my computer.
I've run into this problem with four pieces of software so far: Windows XP, Norton Anti-Virus, iTunes, and the Roxio CinePlayer DVD plugin for Windows Media Player. Each of these pieces of software has requested that I re-enter some kind of license key or somehow re-authorize the computer when the software starts.
Three out of four pieces of software were disposed of with reasonable ease.
Windows XP just wanted to reconnect with the Microsoft mothership. The Anti-Virus problem was solved with a 20 minute call to Symantec Support, where my activation number was re-validated. Apple iTunes was very gracious about the whole thing, merely requesting that I hit a button to communicate with the Apple servers.
The Roxio plugin has been a pain in the tuchis. Roxio doesn't have much in the way of technical support from what I could see... and what phone support they do have charges by the minute. I bought this plugin about two years ago, and any authorization and transaction codes I had with their web site have gone stale. In the end, I decided to forgo haggling with Roxio support and simply buy the plugin all over again -- it's only about $20. Still, I have to ask "why?" You buy a Mac with OS X, you get the ability to watch DVDs -- no plugins required.
I was telling this tale of woe to Obvious Zombie earlier tonight and he said summed it up very effectively:
That's really just wrong. That's like saying your couch stops working because you move it into another room.
Amen to that.
said drgeek
on 2008-01-15 at 10:35 p.m.
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The Wayback Machine - To Infinity And Beyond
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