Roll-Out Update

[alden]

The unpleaseant reality is that software represents a 'state engine' with a truly enormous number of states (for all practical purposes, a number large enough that even in the entire product life it is unlikely that all of them will ever be entered). Your beta testing may provide tens of years of product experience. The problem is that when you put it out to tens of thousands of customers, you run up thousands of years of product experience in a hurry, and there is a very high probability that there will be some unpleasant surprises. My advice is always expect the customer to do the unexpected and use features in ways the developers and product markeing people never imagined!

I used to build computer hardware. At one point we built some of the fastest HDD controllers in the world.  I remember one particular problem that surfaced after we had been shipping for about 3 years, and we had literally hundreds of these things in the field. The reality is the problem had been there since day zero, and to this day I still don't understand why it took nearly 3 years to be noticed, because it was something pretty basic.....

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I said before and I am saying now: Verizon should not get involved in the IMG development in the first place. Verizon is not software company it's media privider company. Their goal is to provide customers with quality media content , not to develop new software. That is what software companies are for, they equipped with expertise, knowledge, experience to make qood reliable software for reasonable price.

Somebody in Verizon top management ( who I guess does not have any clue what  software development is about ) decided that Verizon can develop new IMG on their own. Just hire IMG development team, explain them the goal and that's it.

As far as I know among cable and sattelite TV providers ONLY Verizon have chosen to develop new IMG themselves - other cable and sattelite companies hired software companies to develop IMG.

Result we are seeing now - delays. confusion, beta testing, rollout, then complaints by customers, stop rollout, IMG 1.9a redevelopment, then testing again, etc. etc.

It's very good example for any other media company how NOT TO MAKE WRONG BUSINESS DECISIONS.

[alden]

The unpleaseant reality is that software represents a 'state engine' with a truly enormous number of states (for all practical purposes, a number large enough that even in the entire product life it is unlikely that all of them will ever be entered). Your beta testing may provide tens of years of product experience. The problem is that when you put it out to tens of thousands of customers, you run up thousands of years of product experience in a hurry, and there is a very high probability that there will be some unpleasant surprises. My advice is always expect the customer to do the unexpected and use features in ways the developers and product markeing people never imagined!

I used to build computer hardware. At one point we built some of the fastest HDD controllers in the world.  I remember one particular problem that surfaced after we had been shipping for about 3 years, and we had literally hundreds of these things in the field. The reality is the problem had been there since day zero, and to this day I still don't understand why it took nearly 3 years to be noticed, because it was something pretty basic.....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I said before and I am saying now: Verizon should not get involved in the IMG development in the first place. Verizon is not software company it's media privider company. Their goal is to provide customers with quality media content , not to develop new software. That is what software companies are for, they equipped with expertise, knowledge, experience to make qood reliable software for reasonable price.

Somebody in Verizon top management ( who I guess does not have any clue what  software development is about ) decided that Verizon can develop new IMG on their own. Just hire IMG development team, explain them the goal and that's it.

As far as I know among cable and sattelite TV providers ONLY Verizon have chosen to develop new IMG themselves - other cable and sattelite companies hired software companies to develop IMG.

Result we are seeing now - delays. confusion, beta testing, rollout, then complaints by customers, stop rollout, IMG 1.9a redevelopment, then testing again, etc. etc.

It's very good example for any other media company how NOT TO MAKE WRONG BUSINESS DECISIONS.

[MrKal_El]

"IMG 1.9a started getting loaded into the network last night - nearly there..."

»bit.ly/m2p8hE

This was from Joe earlier today...hopefully we will start to see some movement on rollout of 1.9a...

[Keyboards]

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I said before and I am saying now: Verizon should not get involved in the IMG development in the first place. 

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Hate to tell you but 1.8 (the version you and most others have) was developed by Verizon, not an outside company.  This is not a new thing that Verizon just decided to do on a lark.

[Keyboards]

I said before and I am saying now: Verizon should not get involved in the IMG development in the first place. 

[jackmcgann]

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@Keyboards wrote:

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Hate to tell you but 1.8 (the version you and most others have) was developed by Verizon, not an outside company.  This is not a new thing that Verizon just decided to do on a lark.

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Well now, That explains why I found 1.8 so lacking and "klunky".

[tns]

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@jackmcgann wrote:

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@Keyboards wrote:

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Hate to tell you but 1.8 (the version you and most others have) was developed by Verizon, not an outside company.  This is not a new thing that Verizon just decided to do on a lark.

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Well now, That explains why I found 1.8 so lacking and "klunky".

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If you want to hear about "lacking and klunky", find someone who had the original FIOS interface that Microsoft had written for them.

1.9a, now starting its rollout, is a big step forward from 1.8.

[Keyboards]

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tns wrote

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If you want to hear about "lacking and klunky", find someone who had the original FIOS interface that Microsoft had written for them.

1.9a, now starting its rollout, is a big step forward from 1.8.

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I resemble that remark.  Have had FiOS TV for over 4 1/2  years now and believe me that original M$ interface was the kluniest, slow, and just downright painful to use.  1.8 was an improvement (finally pushed early 2008 and many bugs / delays) and 1.9 is a major step  up from that.  Will it be wart free and please everyone - no, someone will always find something that they want done differently and manage to complain.  That's just the nature of the human beast.

[jgrahamiii]

I signed up for FIOS on June 17.  I had internet chats with several Verizon reps and techs tyring to get answers to questions before making the switch from Optimum.  My main concern was HD space, and no one could assure me that on Long Island I would get the 7232 DVR.  I was assured by two different reps/techs that the 1.9 software would allow me to hook up my eSata drive and would be rolled out nationwide by the end of August.

[jumpin68ny]

jgrahamiii, my neighbor recently switches from cablevision to FIOS and requested the 7323.  They were given the 7323.  Not going to say you will get one but they asked and received.

[barbshop]

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@alden wrote:

The unpleaseant reality is that software represents a 'state engine' with a truly enormous number of states (for all practical purposes, a number large enough that even in the entire product life it is unlikely that all of them will ever be entered). Your beta testing may provide tens of years of product experience. The problem is that when you put it out to tens of thousands of customers, you run up thousands of years of product experience in a hurry, and there is a very high probability that there will be some unpleasant surprises. My advice is always expect the customer to do the unexpected and use features in ways the developers and product markeing people never imagined!

I used to build computer hardware. At one point we built some of the fastest HDD controllers in the world.  I remember one particular problem that surfaced after we had been shipping for about 3 years, and we had literally hundreds of these things in the field. The reality is the problem had been there since day zero, and to this day I still don't understand why it took nearly 3 years to be noticed, because it was something pretty basic.....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I said before and I am saying now: Verizon should not get involved in the IMG development in the first place. Verizon is not software company it's media privider company. Their goal is to provide customers with quality media content , not to develop new software. That is what software companies are for, they equipped with expertise, knowledge, experience to make qood reliable software for reasonable price.

Somebody in Verizon top management ( who I guess does not have any clue what  software development is about ) decided that Verizon can develop new IMG on their own. Just hire IMG development team, explain them the goal and that's it.

As far as I know among cable and sattelite TV providers ONLY Verizon have chosen to develop new IMG themselves - other cable and sattelite companies hired software companies to develop IMG.

Result we are seeing now - delays. confusion, beta testing, rollout, then complaints by customers, stop rollout, IMG 1.9a redevelopment, then testing again, etc. etc.

It's very good example for any other media company how NOT TO MAKE WRONG BUSINESS DECISIONS.

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First let me say that I am a retired Verizon employee - 31 years in the IT department, so I have a little experience in "software development."   While it is true that Verizon is NOT a professional software development company, Verizon has been producing software for internal use for many many years, particularly in the service and billing area.  They have never used outside sources to do their software development.  As has been said here before, no matter how much testing you do do, and no matter how thorough it is, you can never uncover all of the things that will be revelaed when a product goes live.  Just look at Microsoft - now there's a professional software development company for you.  Ever have any problems with their work? There is no guarantee that had Verizon outsourced the development that things would have been any better.

Having said that, to repeat what has been said here a hundred times - this is not open heart surgery - it's just a user interface and as much as I am looking forwrard to it, I won't die if I don't get it immediately.  If this whole thing upsets you so greatly, why not just take your business elsewhere?

[barbshop]

The unpleaseant reality is that software represents a 'state engine' with a truly enormous number of states (for all practical purposes, a number large enough that even in the entire product life it is unlikely that all of them will ever be entered). Your beta testing may provide tens of years of product experience. The problem is that when you put it out to tens of thousands of customers, you run up thousands of years of product experience in a hurry, and there is a very high probability that there will be some unpleasant surprises. My advice is always expect the customer to do the unexpected and use features in ways the developers and product markeing people never imagined!

I used to build computer hardware. At one point we built some of the fastest HDD controllers in the world.  I remember one particular problem that surfaced after we had been shipping for about 3 years, and we had literally hundreds of these things in the field. The reality is the problem had been there since day zero, and to this day I still don't understand why it took nearly 3 years to be noticed, because it was something pretty basic.....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I said before and I am saying now: Verizon should not get involved in the IMG development in the first place. Verizon is not software company it's media privider company. Their goal is to provide customers with quality media content , not to develop new software. That is what software companies are for, they equipped with expertise, knowledge, experience to make qood reliable software for reasonable price.

Somebody in Verizon top management ( who I guess does not have any clue what  software development is about ) decided that Verizon can develop new IMG on their own. Just hire IMG development team, explain them the goal and that's it.

As far as I know among cable and sattelite TV providers ONLY Verizon have chosen to develop new IMG themselves - other cable and sattelite companies hired software companies to develop IMG.

Result we are seeing now - delays. confusion, beta testing, rollout, then complaints by customers, stop rollout, IMG 1.9a redevelopment, then testing again, etc. etc.

It's very good example for any other media company how NOT TO MAKE WRONG BUSINESS DECISIONS.

[dprovan]

When is it going to be released.  I signed up expecting extended storage to be available quickly. Now my bill is he same as I had with DTV, where I had over 4 TB in one room (4 dvrs x 1TB drive each) now I have 1 expensive DVR and no expanded storage. I could record 8 shows in that 1 room (If I wanted to) and store a whole season of EPL soccer, now I have to delete, delete, delete. As you can tell I am not to happy with your pricing model for equipment. (and please don't "state of the art" me). This update needs to be rolled out extra fast, or DTV here I come.