Let me pass on something to Steinberg: in project management, this disaster of an update is well known, as a classic “final 5%” failure. The final 5% is what matters. The mechanic fixes the car, but leaves a screwdriver under the hood. The plumber fixes the tap, but leaves a mess in the kitchen. The customer will forget all the good stuff - they only see the failure.
On projects, the fix for this is to get a fresh team to begin work about 4 weeks before the deadline. They look at everything for the first time. They see what other people cannot see. This has been done with everything from software, to hydro-electric dams. Once you’ve worked on something for so long - it’s like a mix you can no longer evaluate objectively. But the fix is there. Don’t let the same team do the release. They will miss the obvious.
Try it out. You might learn something about customer satisfaction in the process, because you just washed your reputation down the drain, which is a shame.
Sorry but you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Dropping a fresh team into an abyss of code and protocols - is - not - the way to go.
It’s the coder of the code, who knows the code. This is why software companies tend to hold onto coders and have to pay them competitively and give them competitive raises to retain them. Bringing new people into your code is a huge time investment, it is intentional lost time knowing it’s going to take time for any coder skill level to become familiar with what is going on.
5h!t just happens some time, it’s not that much of a disaster. It’s fairly typical in fact, it’s actually pretty much a measurement of success in the software world.
Boeing crashed 3 to 5 planes full of people before they figured out they all had the same problem and before they figured out what it was. Cut Steinberg some slack, and carry on.
Yes well everyone can see just how well this current plan is working. And I beg to differ - I do know what I’m talking about because I have a degree; and I’ve handled large projects, including multiple albums when they had real budgets and we used real studios. Of course I’m not talking about the code. I’m talking about the release - the system that failed had nothing to do with the coders. The final 5% is a real project management dictum. I don’t need to “cut anyone slack”. I’m a paying customer. I get to complain. If you don’t like me complaining - you move on junior. I paid. I get to complain. End of story.
“I have a degree”, I’ve heard that before receiving felatio.
Well, the servers have their own protocols, and certificates, and probably customized specific to Steinberg. These things are spec’d for expected volume with some wiggle room… And for whatever reason, activity was way beyond expected volume.
This happens with video game servers, it happens with ISP, it happens with government service websites, COVID relief, Hospital waiting rooms, toilet paper during pandemics, restaurant menu items, and so on… it’s… I would say… the nature of reality.
That’s all.
…5%… lesson… washed your reputation…
So many words for nothing.
Every clever man dealing with Steinberg for a while understands that Steinberg will do all necessary steps to avoid such situations in the future. If Steinberg were a company which needed such a tutor as you’re to reveal their mistakes for them, we’d hardly see anything more than Cubase 0.0.
So what we know now: Cubase is still Cubase. **it happens. Nobody’s perfect.
I understand there is no reason to freak out about all this. Personally the delay doesn’t effect me. But I don’t understand the apologists. The roll out was / is a massive co*k up, not a mark of success! And I’ll bet it happened because they have been kicking a can down the road with their elicenser system or servers or whatever to save a few €. It’s not like Steinberg are a plucky startup they are owned by Yamaha, a global corporation!
Saving coins on IT and infrastructure is the story of the day at any company today! Steinberg/Yamaha is no different! They will only consider upgrades after the s/it has hit the fan. So we’ll probably have to get used to dealing with issues like these?
they want to save money! They want to get discount… Do you think if those people were owners of Yamaha they would behave another way?
And all in all we’re talking about software for music creation, nobody dies. Even not about the software exactly but shipping delay.
I don’t say that’s everything is ok and we should take it as normal, but I think that one topic on the forum where everyone who wanted could express their disappointment would be quite enough. Look - a single topic with 1000 post is always on top and we could have a nice organized forum, but now we have 1000 topics with a single post and huge mess on the forum.
No, THAT would call for a disaster. I am working as a programmer for many, many years. In my company, new employees are granted at least 1 year(!) before full productivity. You obviously can’t imagine how complex code, coding environments and tool chains can get.
The server problems were nothing serious. poopies happens in this business, especially when networking is involved. Maybe Steinberg underestimated the punctual load at day zero. Don’t want to excuse them, but I didn’t see anything disastrous. Just tried the next day - and everything was fine.
This was the download equivalent of a postal delay. So instead of getting your package on a thursday you had to wait till saturday. I mean you still had your previous version of cubase to work with. You were inconvenienced true but this ferocious-esque post seems somewhat harsh, despite your entitlement to argue the case as a paying customer.
I upgraded early in the morning. With luck I only had 3 times purchase error but it got resolved quickly. Also we do not know if it is really because of high interest or some glitch. (High interest argument is a good way to turn a disaster to a promotion material) There is no excuse for this to happen but same day Apple had the same issue with Big Sur release so the richest company in the world with the unlimited resources can mess up too. It is frustrating but these things happen and can happen to anyone.
I paid or it yesterday and got a message saying my purchase would need to be “evaluated” by the team or something to that effect. Still haven’t received “permission” to buy the software. Hardly a hiccup. Embarrassing and frustrating.
Boeing knowingly introduced and released a completely new, automated, safety critical feature to the autopilot system and did not train their pilots in it’s use, and how to mitigate it if it failed.
They also made this new feature dependent on a single external mechanical sensor, and if that failed, there was no way for the autopilot to know that it had bad data to work with.
Boeing are entirely responsible for botching this facility in at least two places - no fault tolerance in the design, and insufficient/no pilot training on either the new feature or what to do if it went wrong.
The solution, even after the failure, shoud of been easy. Pull a circuit breaker to disable the new feature.
But as I say. Nobody had been trained.
Big companies sometimes do act wholey irresponsibly. Even aviation companies who operate in a massively regulated and certificated world. Unlike most software companies who get away with faulty products as a way of life, but they don’t call them faults. They have concocted the word ‘bug’, which has somehow become almost an acceptable fault.
Most software seems to be written and tested on a ‘best effort’ basis, with little structured itterative testing. This is why faults sometimes reappear in later releases having previously been fixed.
If it hadn’t been for the pandemic, most people wouldn’t have been at home at the time and the activations would have been more staggered. Reading these forums it’s clear that when the first few dozen didn’t activate they just sat there for hours clicking away and adding to the overload. If people had been in their offices/schools/kindergartens there would have been no issue, as has been the case with the other updates in recent years.
Is the OP suggesting that project management has been successful elsewhere in dealing with the unpredictable consequences of this global health emergency? Give me a break.
There was a delay getting a Cubase update activated. Nobody died. Some of us had to wait a little bit for a retail-induced dopamine rush.
I am not sure. I thought they were just not allowing purchases of updates from 10.5 to 11 but if it allowed you to buy it and then said to wait for some evaluation, that sounds like an EDU version where they have to evaluate if you qualify for it. But you can’t buy EDU updates (I don’t believe). You just buy a regular update and the EDU version becomes a full version. That is why I thought maybe you bought a new EDU version (not an update).
and the activations would have been more staggered. Reading these forums it’s clear that when the first few dozen didn’t activate they just sat there for hours clicking away and adding to the overload. If people had been in their offices/schools/kindergartens there would have been no issue, as has been the case with the other updates in recent years.