Who cares whether it was a server problem, Aliens having fun at MS's expense, human error, a faulty reporting system, or mice chewing through power supply wires...IT IS AFFECTING PEOPLE AND COSTING THEM TIME AND MONEY.
Does MS efver consider failure cases when they are testing? I mean, come on, what kind of coding genius does it take to have WGA take a few retries on it's own BEFORE causing the customer grief.
If WGA fails validation due to a server problem (suspect reasoning, but at all costs, NEVER EVER admit there could be a flaw in WGA), let's say the server is unavailable, so WGA can't phone home and do it's job. How about a background mode. It tries again in 24 hours, and again 24 hours after that. This way, TRANSIENT WGA failures are NOT customer affecting.
This is just one in a hundred ways WGA could be made less obtrusive and fairer to the customers, but that is not MSs goal. Extra revenue is.
I just can't believe that there are no atoorneys out there who can't find a way or loophole that allows for false positive WGA failures to get into court. Or that no one has gone to small claims court because they have been flagged guilty until proven innocent.
TripleII
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