I apologize to Adam and Dave for using the TidBITS forum to air dirty laundry. I’ll try to keep this as on-topic to VueScan as possible, but I do need to clarify a couple comments.
He claimed to be a software developer, but he’s not, he’s a 50-something
musician who does IT in his wife’s veterinary practice.
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The part about not being a software developer isn’t correct. I am a full-time programmer although my credentials are certainly not nearly as impressive as Mr. Hamrick’s. I studied computer science at SF State but didn’t graduate. The CS program was highly impacted in the early '80s so it was hard to get into required classes. I was a rash youth and after a lot of frustrated attempts to sign up for classes, I stomped off in an impatient huff. In retrospect, it wasn’t the wisest of career moves. A little sleuthing would turn up my public profile on Stack Overflow.
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My wife and I did own a veterinary clinic. We bought it in 2005 and sold it in 2018. As a business owner I kept the computers running and did the books. But that was in addition to my full-time job.
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Yes, music is a serious hobby of mine. I play in a cover band, sing in a community choir along with my wife, play in musicals for a community theater company, and play double bass in the orchestra at the local community college. It sounds like a lot but in the end it’s just a hobby that tries to pay for itself.
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Mr. Hamrick got my age correct.
He bought it in 2012, and I don’t have any way of refunding this. If
he sends me his paypal address, I’m happy to refund him so I never
have to read his obnoxious e-mails again.
I did buy an upgrade to the VueScan Professional license in 2012. I bought the regular license many years before that, but the detailed transaction information in my accounting software only goes back to 2011 so I don’t have any exact dates. I know I used VueScan as far back as 2007.
I sincerely appreciate the offer of the refund, if not the sentiment behind it. I’ve thought about it and am not going to ask Mr. Hamrick to issue the refund. VueScan did a good job for me for many years and I certainly got my money’s worth. I’ve switched to other software now so I will no longer be sending emails to Mr. Hamrick so to that end the refund is not necessary.
Here’s the exchange that ‘triggered’ Steve:
If we’re going to publicize the exchange, let’s include it from beginning to end in the interests of completeness. To Mr. Hamrick’s credit, his response time to emails was very impressive. Much of this conversation was essentially in real-time. I’ve not reviewed the emails before posting them here so there’s every possibility they’ll paint me in a bad light. But I am committing to including the entire interaction without edits except for removing links to uploaded files. The first email is a list of answers to the questions asked for support claims. (Incidentally, the behavior I reported went away in a subsequent update to VueScan.)
- Brother MFC-9970CDW
- The Vuescan preview pane flickers, especially when I adjust the selection marquee. It even flickers when it’s in the background of the login screen when I switch accounts.
- This problem has existed for months. I’ve restarted the computer and installed multiple VueScan updates.
- vuescan.log attached
- This happens whenever I use VueScan with one of the two user accounts on this iMac. With my main account there is no flickering, only with this account. The account that works is an admin account and the other is a Standard account. I tried making the other account an Admin account but that didn’t help. I also tried deleting ~/Library/Preferences/com.hamrick.vuescan.plist and ~/Library/Preferences/vuescan.ini
I’ve tried to attach a couple movies of the behavior. They’re pretty big so I’m not sure how or if you’ll get them. I’ve also copied them to a Dropbox folder: (link)
I know this is a weird one. I hope there’s something here that’ll help you track it down.
Best regards,
-Steve Nicholson
Yes, something is definitely wrong.
You might check to see if some non-Apple software
you’ve installed might be causing this.
The vuescan.log file shows that everything
is ok when you scanned.
Regards,
Ed Hamrick
Hi, Ed:
There’s nothing installed in that secondary user account that’s not installed on the main user account. In fact, it’s a much cleaner install than my main account. The only things I use in that account are iTunes, Preview, and VueScan. Do you have any ideas about what might cause that behavior? Has no one else ever reported this?
Thanks,
-Steve
Does VueScan work ok in the Administrator account?
Regards,
Ed Hamrick
When I changed the secondary account to an Administrator account, it didn’t change the behavior. When I get home tonight I can try creating a new Admin user and see how VueScan works with that one.
-Steve
Hi, Ed:
I tried creating a new Admin account and a new Standard account and they both have the flickering problem. Can you try creating another user account on your Mac to see if you can duplicate the problem?
Thanks,
-Steve
I get almost 10,000 people per day downloading
VueScan, and you’re the only person in at least a
year who has reported this flickering problem.
The only thing I can conclude from this is that
it’s related to something unique to your system.
Regards,
Ed Hamrick
Hi, Ed:
Have you tried creating a second user account on your Mac to see if the flickering problem happens there?
-Steve
No, it’s not worth spending time on. You’re the
only one reporting this problem, and I have tens
of thousands of customers using VueScan on a
Mac with other accounts.
Regards,
Ed Hamrick
It takes less than five minutes to create a new account, run VueScan, and delete the account. Are you refusing to spend five minutes to attempt track down a bug?
-Steve
You’re the only one reporting it, so it’s not a bug in VueScan.
Regards,
Ed Hamrick
Wow. I don’t even know how to respond to that. It’s obviously a bug in VueScan because it’s happening in VueScan. But if you refuse to acknowledge it or spend the smallest effort trying to duplicate it I guess there’s nothing else I can do. As a software developer myself, I’m completely at a loss to understand your actions and attitude.
-Steve
You’re missing the conclusion that any professional
software developer would reach:
- 10,000 downloads per day
- 1 report of this problem in a year
The obvious conclusion is that the problem is
with the software on the system that’s having
the problem - something you’ve installed on your
computer is causing flickering. It’s such a trivially
simple and obvious conclusion that I’m stunned that
you claim to actually be a software developer.
Regards,
Ed Hamrick