Mobile Connect Lite Usage

[ginggs]

Please give us your esteemed technical reasoning for the above two statements. And please back it up with the extensive empirical data you obviously gathered on the subject.

vodacom3g always seems to take it personally when comments are passed about Vodafone branded firmware/software! See this post for another example.

I'm not a fan of branding at all, it often causes delays, you may find that the manufacturer releases an update and it may take weeks or months before the updated branded version ever gets released, if at all.

In the case of the Vodafone Mobile Connect software, it is a hugely bloated program that attempts to work with every data card Vodafone has ever sold and in my opinion it is far better to use the streamlined software direct from the manufacturer that was designed specifically to work with their card.

I feel the same way about PC components, when building one I'll throw the motherboard and video card driver CDs in the bin and go straight to the motherboard, graphics chip and network chip manufacturers' websites and download the drivers there.

 

[vodacom3g]

vodacom3g always seems to take it personally when comments are passed about Vodafone branded firmware/software! See this post for another example.

No, no, no...

vodacom3g always gets upset when claims are made without backing them up.

You can make any claim you want, Vlite is cool/crap, Bush is a true statesman/the devil reincarnate or Mugabe is going to sort out Zim, but just be ready to back it up with facts.

And even more so if it's a technical environment that works according to well known engineering principles.

As an engineer and supporter of the scientific method, I get irritated when claims are made based on 'personal experience'. Would we have accepted Newton's laws, Relativity or Evolution if someone said he believes it based on 'personal experience'? No, we expect repeatable results and evidence.

So this is not a 'Vodacom' thing at all, rather it's a call to put facts or empirical observations on the table (this forum is cool) and then we can discuss.

The other thing that gets me going is when someone makes a 'factual statement' based on a very small sample. It could well be that a specific setup produces a specific error, say an E220 with VMLite on a specific machine, but that does not make all installations with one or both these components crap. If you have a problem with your car, it does not make all cars of the same brand and model crap?

Another example; I could not get your app to work on my notebook. I did not publish here that it's a piece of junk as I'm sure it works fine in many other installations. But my specific setup with all the other stuff I loaded created a specific condition you've not seen and could not therefore accommodate.

So, if you see a problem, post as much detail as possible and your observations / deductions. Now we can work it. But don't say "Based on personal experience I think this or that". Means jack and helps no-one.

I'm no fanboy of Vodafone software (many internal, critical mails will attest to that). The lack of a proper usage counter, and no SMS support in the first versions are just plain wrong and should never have been released.

VMC is a fat, heavy app, but it needs to support every phone and datacard sold in all the Vodafone networks. And it must work on every platform permutation out there. Your app support one or two modems on specific platforms. Big difference. But I fully support these type of initiatives and have, in the past, even supplied data cards to developers like yourself. (In the early days we had two active ones here)

Lite probably got created because they could not squeeze the fat version onto the flash drive.

 

[ic]

Lite probably got created because they could not squeeze the fat version onto the flash drive.

Yep, I always assumed that to be the reason - that a 75MB VMC iso image would not fit onto the E220's internal ~15MB flash drive, what I don't understand is why Vodafone didn't give up at that point and just release the E220's with the generic Huawei s/w - AFAIK the firmware and the iso image are stored separately so locking for the European market could still be achieved with the generic Huawei s/w and separate Vodafone firmware - at least that's what I think...

 

[vodacom3g]

Yep, I always assumed that to be the reason - that a 75MB VMC iso image would not fit onto the E220's internal ~15MB flash drive, what I don't understand is why Vodafone didn't give up at that point and just release the E220's with the generic Huawei s/w - AFAIK the firmware and the iso image are stored separately so locking for the European market could still be achieved with the generic Huawei s/w and separate Vodafone firmware - at least that's what I think...

I also wondered. As they say: "If it aint broke, don't fix it...."

I suspect branding had a lot to do with it, will ask. Don't hold your breath though.....

 

[ginggs]

And even more so if it's a technical environment that works according to well known engineering principles.

You cannot expect all your customers to be engineers. One does not have to be a medical doctor to know one is not feeling well or a motor mechanic to know something is wrong with one's car.

As an engineer and supporter of the scientific method, I get irritated when claims are made based on 'personal experience'. Would we have accepted Newton's laws, Relativity or Evolution if someone said he believes it based on 'personal experience'? No, we expect repeatable results and evidence.

Don't knock personal experience or intuition, it was seeking the answers to personal experiences like 'why did that apple hit me on the head?', or 'why did that ship disappear over the horizon?' that got science going.

Another example; I could not get your app to work on my notebook. I did not publish here that it's a piece of junk as I'm sure it works fine in many other installations. But my specific setup with all the other stuff I loaded created a specific condition you've not seen and could not therefore accommodate.

If you have the time, I would like to try and establish why it didn't work, please PM me.

VMC is a fat, heavy app, but it needs to support every phone and datacard sold in all the Vodafone networks. And it must work on every platform permutation out there. Your app support one or two modems on specific platforms. Big difference.

So we're in agreement over VMC, although I wasn't comparing it to my app, I was comparing it to the manufacturer's own software, or Huawei Mobile Partner in this case.

But I fully support these type of initiatives and have, in the past, even supplied data cards to developers like yourself.

So how about an E220 on loan, just for a couple of days?

 

[vodacom3g]

You cannot expect all your customers to be engineers. One does not have to be a medical doctor to know one is not feeling well or a motor mechanic to know something is wrong with one's car.

I don't. But I expect self-confessed specialists to follow the established scientific method.

So how about an E220 on loan, just for a couple of days?

Could be arranged. PM me. Where in Cpt are you?