patching

This just came into my Snarfer!

How can I not love the fact that hacking the CPU - the hardware - is the next big threat? I mean, how do you patch a CPU?

---

IT-manager: "Oh, its patch day. Let me just shut down the boxes."
(Shuts down most boxes in the server room)
IT-slave: "Oh, so silent it suddenly became. It's almost as when I was a kid, and only had my Nintendo DS to play with!"
IT-manager: "Yea, well, lettus gedon widdit."
(They open each box, snap out the CPU, add a transistor or two to the CPU, stick it back in there, and put the lid back on. )
IT-manager: "Cross the fingers, and hit the POWER button."
IT-slave: "Please, please, pretty please, let the main server start again."
(The server spins up, lamps blinking red, green and blue. An ambient light comes out of the cup-holder and after a few seconds, the screen flickers blue, then black, and finally back to blue. A Log-On screen appears on the screen).
IT-manager: "Ah, it worked again. God, I miss the days with automatic updates from Microsoft."
IT-slave: "Yea, when do you think Intel will start with automatic updates?"

---Technorati Tags: kai roer, blog, hacking, cpu, it-manager, roer.com

I have been using the new Plaxo Pulse feature - an attempt Plaxo is making to turn the address book update tool into a social and business network tool.

I see many issues, but those do not belong to my blog.

What do belong here is this error message I have received a few times. It says:

"Oops! There seems to be a problem. I'll tell you what... let us fix it and this can be our little secret."

I do like the fact that I do not have to see all the programming error message blah-blah that usually turns up when a web application have a hick-up. Doing so means the Plaxo team tries to make an effort to make their tool user friendly - a must for a web application IMO.

The problem with this error is the last part of it:

"Let us fix it and this can be OUR LITTLE SECRET."

Tell you what - if you do have a problem, you should fix it. Sure thing. But to ask me to keep it a secret? Wow, thank you but not thanks. If I keep it a secret, here is what might happen:

• You do not fix it
• Someone exploit it
• it is not one error, but many
  
• I get suspicious about your service (keep the error a secret - so no one else will know there is a problem)
• I will never know when you fix it (if you do - see above)
• I will stop trusting you
• others will stop trusting you

I suggest a different approach to such errors.

• First, be frank - earn my trust! You do this by telling me what is wrong , and what you are to do about it.
• Be direct - tell me what exactly is wrong. Do this by including an error code, and point me to a knowledge base. Chances are I will never look there, but if I wanted, now I can. You earn my trust.
• Tell me what you are going to do. If you know the issue, you are likely to have a plan to deal with it. No need to share the details - but let me know that you are going to do something, and preferably add a deadline.
• Do not single mindedly focus on making new functionalities - fix your errors too. I will NEVER use your new, cool features unless I trust your application first. Seeing the same (or what I perceive as the same) error for weeks, reduces my trust in you and your application. It is a loose-loose situation.

Plaxo, I suggest you change your error message with this one:

"Oops! There seems to be a problem! Tell you what. Let us fix it, so you can go about and enjoy our tool.

If you like, you can read about this error here! (link). We plan to fix this by the next patch, which is due by (some date)."

You might also want to include contact information - contact our support team - so the user gets an option to complain or ask around. Plenty of support management tools exists - this is not a big deal.