MSEvengs Webcast Site is Seriously Broken
Update: Oh, never mind. It's all still broken, but at least I'm not frustrated about it any more! And my apologies to Issam Elbaytam for renaming him. Sheesh.
Unless you've been living under a rock--or maybe hate Microsoft and don't use its technologies (in which case, why are you reading this?)--you've no doubt been invited about a gajillion times in recent months to watch a Webcast focused on technologies that won't be available for months. Right, VS and SQL Server 2005.
Rant warning! Even a couple of naughty words thrown in!
Well, some of these Webcasts are quite good and are worth watching. The only beef I've had with content has been that the presenters usually spend way too much time on background material before getting to the meat of the topic. (I just looked at one set of PPT slides from such a webcast, and it took until slide 19 to get to the topic. Slides 5 through 18 were an agenda item called Review. C'mon guys, I can go back and watch the other Webcasts on the topic!) As a conference presenter, I know how hard this is to avoid, to make sure that the audience is good on the prerequisites. But more than a dozen slides in an hour-long presentation???
Anyway, that's not my beef. My real problem is that the whole Webcase infrastructure is seriously broken. For the last few days I've been trying to watch a Webcast, recorded a few weeks ago, about SQL Server 2005. For starters, as Issam has observed, downloading a Webcast is a ridiculous exercise in frustration, requiring all the steps needed to register for a live event.
People, I just want to download the damn thing. You want me to watch it. Require me to login with Passport if you must, but just give me a link to download it.
Okay, I want this Webcast bad enough to go through the hoops to register (and because I've been trying to do this for a couple of days, this is about the third time I've had to do all those clicks to run through the process). There are three big problems. The first is that when I finally jump through all the hoops, I get the page shown below. When I fill in the info (all I have to do is add my name; the other data is already there), there is an error on the page.
[SQLJunkies is having some kind of technical problems. I'll add the image later.]
When I click on the error icon in the lower left it shows this:
[SQLJunkies is having some kind of technical problems. I'll add the image later.]
A permissions problem????? YOU had me jump through the hoops! Why is there a permissions problem???
Second big problem is that this figures prominently in the course description (the green is even their color):
Register to view this on-demand webcast and download a .wmv of the webcast now. By registering, you will also receive a confirmation email the following day with a link to the PPT download.
Okay, so if it is available for download, why are you making me view the recording? Where is the link where I can download it? The download link in the top menu takes me to a Live Meeting download, which at this point I sure as hell don't want (and I already have the client installed).
Finally, at the bottom of most of the preliminary pages has a link that says Questions? Feedback? Use Webcast Contact Us. Clicking the link causes an HTTP 500 error, Internal server error. Aargh.
There have also been some “technical difficulties” that have affected the Webcasts. I was supposed to attend Event ID: 1032267317, Digital Blackbelt Series: Beating the Hacker: Don't Let Them Steal Your Code, on Friday but it was cancelled for some uncertain future date because of technical difficulties. This has become common. Live Meeting is clearly not ready for prime time. Why did they release it???
Apparently this weekend they are doing maintenance, Due to scheduled maintenance, the Live Meeting service is currently unavailable. But if that is the source of my problems, why not tell me rather than have me curse Microsoft???? Just put up a Down for Maintenance page and stop wasting my time!
Worst of all, this is the company so desperate to have us use their technologies, particularly for Web applications. Yet they are so aptly demonstrating that even they can't competantly put them to use. How the hell are we supposed to???