Washii Ponderings

So, I just downloaded the Windows 7 RC DVD ISO from Microsoft, since the download links go dead on Thursday (2009-Aug-20). Figured I’d grab a copy to play with in VirtualBox until March or June.

After I downloaded it, I wanted to ensure I had a bit-for-bit perfect copy, something a torrent would have provided me, of course. So, I quickly searched Google and grabbed an MD5 given with some torrents uploaded to The Pirate Bay.

Okay, good, the MD5 passed. So, since I had the bug up my bum now, why not go pester Microsoft a little bit about adding MD5 hashes for all their files?

I got to the Microsoft Help and Support page, entered ‘file hash’ in the ‘Ask our Automated Customer Service Agent’ search bar and clicked ‘Ask’

Here’s what I got in the pop-up ‘chat’:

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Guest: file hash

Ask Customer Service: It seems I may be having trouble answering your question. I am available to assist with common customer service issues. For questions about error messages, technical issues, and how-to articles, visit our product solution centers by selecting your product.

Guest: provide file verification hashes with downloads MD5 SHA-1 SHA-512

Ask Customer Service: What’s the point of saying things like that to me?
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Err..what? Automated Customer Service FAIL.

(A crude PDF of the conversation is available by request.)

The text I sent to Microsoft on the ‘e-mail customer service’ page I had to dig for with that automated agent will follow, but first, want to know what is awesome? The header for the page is: “E-mail this converstation to a Customer Service Support Agent”

That’s directly copy-pasted. They allowed a misspelling like ‘converstation’ onto a production contact page!

Here’s the text I sent them:
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_Please_ provide publically-available MD5/SHA-1/SHA-512 file hashes for your downloadable files! I just downloaded the Windows 7 RC from Microsoft before the download links are pulled on 2009-Aug-20.

After I downloaded it, I wanted to ensure I had a mostly _bit-for-bit_ copy, and had to resort to a blog post of somebody uploading torrents for x86 and x64 to a notorious BitTorrent tracker. Thankfully, they also listed the ‘true’ MD5s there, which matched the ISO I downloaded directly from Microsoft.

–Now I have to nitpick:
First, if I make a request on the ‘Automated Customer Service Agent,’ and that request is “provide file verification hashes with downloads MD5 SHA-1 SHA-512,” the Automated Agent _better damn well NOT_ reply with “What’s the point of saying things like that to me?” and then ask me in the same ‘breath’ if that answered my question.
My blog post about that is here: http://washii.110mb.com/blog/?p=185
I also made a crude PDF of the chat.
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However, the text box was character locked, something they failed to mention on that page. Here’s what I actually wanted to send them:
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_Please_ provide publically-available MD5/SHA-1/SHA-512 file hashes for your downloadable files! I just downloaded the Windows 7 RC from Microsoft before the download links are pulled on 2009-Aug-20.

After I downloaded it, I wanted to ensure I had a mostly _bit-for-bit_ copy, and had to resort to a blog post of somebody uploading torrents for x86 and x64 to a notorious BitTorrent tracker. Thankfully, they also listed the ‘true’ MD5s there, which matched the ISO I downloaded directly from Microsoft.

Now I have to nitpick:
First, if I make a request on the ‘Automated Customer Service Agent,’ and that request is “provide file verification hashes with downloads MD5 SHA-1 SHA-512,” the Automated Agent _better damn well NOT_ reply with “What’s the point of saying things like that to me?” and then ask me in the same ‘breath’ if that answered my question.
As shown in the ‘Questions submitted’ text, I mentioned I was going to blog about it. That post is available here: http://washii.110mb.com/blog/?p=185 (A stand-alone WordPress installation).
I also made a crude PDF of the chat with the Automated Agent which I will try to keep for perpetuity.

Second, on this ‘e-mail a customer service support agent page (https://support.microsoft.com/contactus/emailcontact.aspx), ‘conversation’ is spelled wrong in the header.
It should be
“E-mail this conversation to a Customer Service Support Agent”
and not
“E-mail this converstation to a Customer Service Support Agent”

I make that error too, but it’s really awful that got into production.
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