DIRT-Question about Software Programming team.

[cditty]

Since many of us are extremely frustrated with the 722K slowdown bug, I want to pose some questions. I understand if you can or can't answer.

1. How many people work on the code? Are they in teams based on receiver groups or is it one team for all receivers?

2. What is your validation & testing process?

3. Why does it take so long to fix such a severe problem. Seriously, how many resources and calls have you devoted to trouble calls? Sending out receivers to replace boxes that are not really defective? At what point would it not be wiser to just hire another programmer?

4. With the poor coding of these boxes, at what point does that team get blown up and new people brought in? I am an IT Manager and I beta a very important product that we use in our group of radio stations (the automation system). If I find a problem in it, I typically have a fix in hours. Worst case, it is a day. So I fail to understand how this problem can not be fixed.

If you can't answer these, maybe you can send this post to some of the management team that make decisions on the coding, direction, and bugfix priorities, so that they can see the frustration.

I came back to DISH for the DVR. I would have been better off keeping Xfinity. At least it works at the same speed all the time.

 

[TG2]

most likely they don't have programmers since "Echostar" builds the damned things. The issue here is that Dish doesn't communicate. Sure they're quick to tell us of the latest and greatest, quick to annouce a product they don't have full support for (BBMP) and even to announce devices and capabilities and then not back them up (sling adapter, sling extender, dish remote access both web & app, and Dish Online).

Dish's marketing department has been steering the good ship Dish ... parallel to the rocks.. brushing up against them every day.. customers getting tossed about on deck, some falling overboard as they tell dish to kiss their asses goodbye and then they go into the next life and order from a competitor .... chum in the waters, churn to the satellite companies, each creating the other.... all the while 100 of dish's finest life guards hearing the people flail aimlessly but only able to assist one at time for dish bought only 1 lifesaver, and only half the necessary rope to sling it out to the drowning needy.

 

[KAB]

most likely they don't have programmers since "Echostar" builds the damned things. The issue here is that Dish doesn't communicate. Sure they're quick to tell us of the latest and greatest, quick to annouce a product they don't have full support for (BBMP) and even to announce devices and capabilities and then not back them up (sling adapter, sling extender, dish remote access both web & app, and Dish Online).

Dish's marketing department has been steering the good ship Dish ... parallel to the rocks.. brushing up against them every day.. customers getting tossed about on deck, some falling overboard as they tell dish to kiss their asses goodbye and then they go into the next life and order from a competitor .... chum in the waters, churn to the satellite companies, each creating the other.... all the while 100 of dish's finest life guards hearing the people flail aimlessly but only able to assist one at time for dish bought only 1 lifesaver, and only half the necessary rope to sling it out to the drowning needy.

...Metaphorically speaking.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The software guys don't work anywhere near the DIRT guys. They usually find out about things in new software when we do.

 

[Lt Disher]

The software guys don't work anywhere near the DIRT guys. They usually find out about things in new software when we do.

Even if the DIRT guys can't give answers, maybe they can find out or give a 'best guess' answer. Cditty raises serious questions. It is truly a shame that DISH software is managed so poorly.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

No they can only give answers which their bosses say they can answer. If they don't know anything about the software team or how they work then they are not going to answer it.

Dirt works miracles but I wouldn't want to see any of them lose their job because they spoke out about something they are not authorized to discuss. Remember these guys are the public face of Dish here So sometimes they need to tote the company line.

 

[Lt Disher]

No they can only give answers which their bosses say they can answer. If they don't know anything about the software team or how they work then they are not going to answer it.

Dirt works miracles but I wouldn't want to see any of them lose their job because they spoke out about something they are not authorized to discuss. Remember these guys are the public face of Dish here So sometimes they need to tote the company line.

Fair enough Scott. I would not want them to face any problems either. They do great work here.

But the questions remain and are serious. Who can give any answers about the software development? At most companies if the work was as slipshod and with such little apparent attempt at explanation or remedy, heads would roll.

 

[KAB]

Fair enough Scott. I would not want them to face any problems either. They do great work here.

But the questions remain and are serious. Who can give any answers about the software development? At most companies if the work was as slipshod and with such little apparent attempt at explanation or remedy, heads would roll.

Another,
How long you juniors been in this world?? Think Windows Vista. IMO, I would much rather suffer (which I have NOT) through the growing pains than have other equipment (say Motorola) that never was an equal to begin with. Go there, if you want to...to the adult kindergarten.

 

[powerhouse1960]

Another,
How long you juniors been in this world?? Think Windows Vista. IMO, I would much rather suffer (which I have NOT) through the growing pains than have other equipment (say Motorola) that never was an equal to begin with. Go there, if you want to...to the adult kindergarten.

Its funny that you compare Microsoft to dish network Microsoft releases patches and fixes every week is there the fix for 721 ? Are they even telling customer there is a problem when they contact them? For two years i read how great this equipment is over everybody but I see no evidence of this .

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I think part of the issue is there is no one building programming the DISH software. Parts and pieces are written around the world, with some happening in Denver, some in Atlanta, some in England and god know where else.

 

[gdarwin]

I think part of the issue is there is no one building programming the DISH software. Parts and pieces are written around the world, with some happening in Denver, some in Atlanta, some in England and god know where else.

No wonder nothing gets done...

 

[3HaloODST]

Its funny that you compare Microsoft to dish network Microsoft releases patches and fixes every week is there the fix for 721 ? Are they even telling customer there is a problem when they contact them? For two years i read how great this equipment is over everybody but I see no evidence of this .

Agreed. Microsoft pretty much fixed Vista after SP1. Every other "problem" was due to lazy companies with crappy drivers. Windows 7 is basically Vista SP3 (SP4 now that 7 SP1 is out.)

 

[TG2]

I think part of the issue is there is no one building programming the DISH software. Parts and pieces are written around the world, with some happening in Denver, some in Atlanta, some in England and god know where else.

Which would make my point even more. A publicly accessible BugTrack server.

• User X puts in problem ...
• admin Y qualifies it, does the triage and submits the issue to Programers Queue ...
• Admin Y is pinged on the issue (by default timers built into bug track) every X days for follow up ... so that Admin Y contacts programmer's to request updates ..
• updates are placed into the Bug Ticket ..
• any additional questions or requests for assistance in or steps to reproduce the bug are added, and
• User X gets direct email identifying there has been action (notes, resolutions, questions to answer etc)
• Bug gets beta-quash, user's receiver identified, fix pushed to user X + others requesting ...
• User's are pinged for feedback on resolution ..
• if no further issue ... bug is marked tentatively resolved, and slated for next push to a wider range of receivers.

Programmers don't have to be in one location ... there could even be versioning controls through the bugtrack site ... etc. etc. etc.

Knowing dish if they ever DID do something like this, they would treat it just like they do Zendesk now ... When you submit "Feedback" at dish online .. it goes into Zendesk ... a very powerful support & tracking site/app ... and at first they were just left open ... then the tickets were all set to a "Pending" state (pending *the users* input about the issue's resolution) and upon re-plying to tickets (ie. why is this pending user input since the issue is still happening) the tickets were *re*admined into pending status .. and then accounts shut off from accessing the site.

So dish's history suggests anything they do from this point forward without a proper "reset" of how they act would mean the same customer abuse over again.

 

[KAB]

OMG

 

[whatchel1]

The closest anyone does what you are asking TG2 is Mozilla(Firefox). They have what is know as bugzilla but it is due to it being open source. So many people write the code for it. W/O E* opening up their code to other developers I just don't see how it would work. The company isn't an open source company due proprietary reasons.

 

[pabeader]

i can say that one of the problems with the 'slow down' problem is that if someone from the testing group doesn't experience it, it's hard to get fixed. I personally, have had my unit for over a year and it's been through, MANY software changes. at no time have I had an issue with speed that I wasn't able to fix by swapping the remote channel number.
if you can list the steps that allow the slow down to be duplicated, i would love to try them.

 

[TG2]

The closest anyone does what you are asking TG2 is Mozilla(Firefox). They have what is know as bugzilla but it is due to it being open source. So many people write the code for it. W/O E* opening up their code to other developers I just don't see how it would work. The company isn't an open source company due proprietary reasons.

Quickest answer?
Installation List :: Bugzilla :: bugzilla.org

Full List
This lists the 1268 companies, organizations, and projects that we know of which are using Bugzilla (last updated: Wed Oct 26 08:40:04 2011; history). If you or your company are using Bugzilla and would like to be listed, please mail Gerv. Links will have rel="nofollow" unless your Bugzilla is public. Remember, lying is a sin.

And bugzilla isn't the only software for doing the task ..
Bug and Defect Tracking Tools

And the bugzilla list actually denotes those sites that they know of (or have been told) are using it publicly with "(public)" next to the site.

Its not unheard of ... and the point of it, is to keep the customers removed but informed. You're not going to have every Tom Dick & Harriet going to the site.. look at how few of the 16 million subscribers are here, and at dishsupport, and other sites combined..

BUT that there would be a common place to refer to for bug information, known issues which can be more easily linked to, along with common trouble shooting, steps to help get users to provide the information that Dish's people can use .. etc..

Its something to wish for. And the day it would no longer be needed ...