Jim, I don’t know how to say this diplomatically but I really dislike these Panorama Monthly usage statements.
I know you are working hard to make a great program, but I don’t want someone or a company monitoring by usage and telling me how many hours I have used Panorama. I feel like big brother is watching over me and who knows what else is being monitor in this manner.
The end run on all this is to debited me 1 month off my balace so instead of pissing off people with this and I know people don’t like this, why not just charge us a monthly or a yearly fee, kind of like Photoshop or Mircosoft does?
I don’t want someone monitoring my usage, I have know you for 20 years and trust that you are on the up and up on this, but still it bothers me that someone can see how much usage I am using. In this time of Wikileaks and people prying into other people’s business what worries me is not what you personally or Provue is using this, but I don’t want to see you get hacked and have others be able to see what my usage is and how I am using Panorama X.
I hope this doesn’t anger you and that you think of what your users think, I bet a lot of others feel the same way that I do.
Thanks, Sal.
The other possibility is to just send a message when we do not use Panorama X enough to incur the fee. That will happen rarely, and it sounds like we are getting something extra.
My 2¢-- I trust the new system, myself, and like Jim’s thinking about it. There’s been a lot of discussion about it, which I won’t rehash; consider this a respectful response to Sal’s last sentence.
Bill
I think Sal’s main concern is that ProVUE might be looking over his shoulder all the time and not so much what information it is sharing back with him. I’m not overly paranoid but I can fully understand his concerns in this era of diminishing personal privacy. Personally I don’t have a huge problem with this as long as PorVUE has no way of knowing what exactly I’m working on at the moment.
Panorama isn’t monitoring anything except the amount of time you are running. It doesn’t track your mouse or keyboard, or what databases or forms you use, nothing. Just raw time. It’s kind of like the electric company knows how much electricity you use but not whether you are watching tv (not to mention what channel), using electric lights, or whatever.
There are a lot of organizations tracking you on the internet. ProVUE isn’t one of them.
The end run on all this is to debited me 1 month off my balance
Yes, for almost all Panorama users that is the end result. But when Panorama X starts being used more by companies, that will not always be the end result. A company may use Panorama X on 2 computers, 5 computers, or 100 computers. Panorama X automatically tracks that, so that you don’t have to fiddle with keep track of 2, 5, or 100 serial numbers. In that case your monthly statement will show what computers are being used. If you are going to get billed for using 5, 10 or 100 I think you will want some sort of itemization, and that is what the Monthly usage statement provides. In fact, the other users requests about this statement have all asked for more detailed itemization, not less.
why not just charge us a monthly or a yearly fee, kind of like Photoshop or Mircosoft does?
That would have been a lot simpler, and probably more lucrative. But also I think a lot less popular. And then it would have to be per computer, with explicit activation/deactivation and all the complication that goes with that.