About two weeks ago I wrote about this new portable solution called MojoPac. I was pretty amazed about the way it works and how it actually is a new approach to the problem of portability of software and data. I installed it on my 2inch Trekstor 30gb USB 2.0 external drive and installed stuff like Office 2003 and other software on it. It worked like a charm: sweeeet! Until this weekend when I fired it up again and got notice that there was an update to the software. Off course I tried to install that newer version of the beta I got. Big mistake. As soon as I tried to install the update I got an error telling me that the update was unable to install because of the fact that my USB drive did not have a valid serial number. Excuse me?
Now, getting an error is one thing, but it also effectively locked me out my MojoPac installation because it would not start it up anymore and just kept coming with the same eror message and then would exit. Arghhh! An infinite loop!
So first I mailed MojoPac support and off course I turned to the MojoPac Forum for some help. Low and behold: there were more that 1700 people that viewed a topic called “What’s up with the serial number”. Mind you: the most views of ANY topic in their forum that before this happened was in a state of coma.
Anyway, what unfolded was the worst case scenario of ‘support’ I have seen in a while from a start-up. They even took down their Forum. because of all the negative reactions they got there!
Bad Mojo!
Ok, so what’s the deal then?
Well, as it turns out MojoPac changed the way their software works. It checks for a valid serial number of the removable device. Depending on what kind of hardware you use it will or will not report such a serial and as a result it won’t install. Obviously the update was not tested enough, and even if it was, it was bad move anyway (see further on about their claim that “about 5% of drives is affected”).
This is the official statement I got after I mailed support:
Dear X,
Thank you for your interest in MojoPac and for signing up to try our software.
Based on exhaustive feedback from our Beta users throughout our 4 months of Beta program, we have made changes to MojoPac in order to protect your privacy and security, and protect against someone else copying your MojoPac devices.
The installation of MojoPac has become more stringent. In an effort to make things more secure, MojoPac 1.0 installation looks for a unique serial number on the device. When a device is not exposing enough information for this purpose, the installation stops and does not proceed further.
Please visit our website for a list of devices that you can use to install MojoPac:
http://www.mojopac.com/portal/content/what/devices.jspHowever, based on feedback from users such as you, we realized there is a bug in our implementation (that we did not previously know about) that does not allow installation on some hard drives (including the ones mentioned in the forum), and one of the Flash drives mentioned in our Devices for MojoPac page. Our engineering team is working around the clock to address this issue, and we will have a patch out as soon as we fix this bug. This could be as early as next week.
We regret the inconvenience but we are working hard to make the product work better for you.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
MojoPac Support TeamTo get answers to commonly asked questions, please visit:
http://www.mojopac.com/portal/content/support/
Ok, I had a few issues right away with this e-mail.
First: I have been in the MojoPac forums a fair time and I never saw *any* post whatsoever about security or people demanding a serial ( so much for “exhaustive feedback”). What is more likely, is that MojoPac realized that you could just install their software on any device as many times as you’d like without paying for it, so they needed a way to make sure that their software isn’t pirated.
Second: all nice and peachy, but how would I be able to get my beta-version I used before working again? They never answered that question and just left me hanging out in the rain so to speak.
So I posted a few messages in the forum, hoping for someone to be able to help me out. I got zero help there. In fact all I read where people complaining they just paid anywhere between $50 to $150 for a nice USB device to install MojoPac on, but now they could not use it, because it simply would not install!
In a statement on the forum (that has been taken down as I mentioned before) MojoPac claimed it was a bug and it affected about 5% of the devices out there: yet another claim the can’t back up.
Go do the math: there are literally a couple of thousand manufacturers of USB devices out there and most of them have at least half a dozen – if not more – different USB products. That makes for literally tens of thousands variations. There is no way that MojoPac would be able to tell what percentage would have a valid serial and how many not.
Next I emailed support again that I understood their efforts to make things safer – even though I never seen *any* post that asked for a serial check and they never explained how I, as an end-user, would benefit from it. I also asked them to – pretty please – tell me how I would get my Mojopac working again in the mean time.
Once again I received a response (I’ll grant them: at least they read their mail *and* take the time to respond):
Hi X,
We regret the inconvenience. You were using a beta version and now you are upgraded to 1.0. Unfortunately you cannot go back to the beta version since we stopped beta activations.
If your’s is a USB 2.0 compliant drive it is most likely that it will work with the fix we are going to release in a week. Some times the problem could be with the enclosure. To be absolutely certain we would like you to send us the serial number that it currently shows.
Please follow these instructions:
Go to Start, right click on “My computer”, and select “Properties”
Then in the new dialog box, select the “Hardware” Tab, and select “Device Manager”
In the new dialog box, click on the + button on the left side of Disk Drives to expand it, and select the name of the USB drive you have connected, and right click on the name to select Properties.
In this final dialog box, select the “Details” tab, and under “Device Instance Id”, please view what is shown in the window as the ID. Please send us an email with that string.Thank you.
Sincerely,
MojoPac Support Team
Great! Again *wrong* information: it never upgraded because I could not get the installer to install the upgrade because my drive doesn’t have a valid serial. Duh!
Also, imagine Microsoft coming with an update for XP that prevents you from logging on to your PC and then telling you there is no way to revert back to the previous state? Right….
Even worse: after tinkering about with it for a few hours, I found a simple solution myself!
I figured that the start.exe was actually calling an install file and if I would somehow disable that, it *might* fix the problem. So I looked around at the filestructure a bit and did find the culprit. So I emailed MojoPac:
Guys, I managed to get back to the BETA version without any problems!!!
It never upgraded because it never managed to install, sorry to say so, but how could you guys not know this would work???
Here is the solution:
– Goto your USB/FireWire device
– Goto the directory called Program FilesRingThreestage
– delete the file MojopackInstaller.exeStart MojoPac as usual and cancel the download/upgrade and MojoPac will start as normal without locking you out.
One note: this will ONLY work if you have this problem after trying to UPGRADE MojoPac.
I posted this even in your forum!
Needless to say I *never* got any response to my mail.
Now, I put it to you that MojoPac must be aware of the problems and the fact (as they actually admitted themselves) that they f**** up.
And you know what: shit happens. But why LIE about it to your users? Why not tell the REAL reasons behind decisions like putting a serial check into your software (like protecting your own interest – which is very understandable)?
To top things off, MojoPac shut down their forums (I don’t know when, I just noticed it today). And once again they lie give a lame excuse for why they did it:
Dear MojoPac’ers,
We have had an overwhelming number of requests from many of you who asked us to revamp our forums. Our design today is free form and discussion-style, and we hear almost unanimously that you like to have it more like a live FAQ, with easy to navigate subjects that most of you frequently encounter with responses from our team clearly marked, and easy to find.
Thank you for everyone’s feedback. In the meantime, please contact us at support@mojopac.com or go to the feedback section on our website to send us any questions you may have.
Regards,
The MojoPac Team
My God, what a gotspe! I have been on the forums and just like with the “overwhelming requests for more security” I never ever saw even 1 person writing (not even staff/admins) that they didn’t like the forum (why wouldn’t they? and if you don’t like it just don’t use it?). Besides: why take it down *before* you have the alternative ready and working? That makes no sense whatsoever!
Anyway, MojoPac is not ready for prime-time yet and already they managed to shoot theirselves in the foot! I say: do *not* disrespect your users and do *not* take them for fools!
For now I will use the beta for as long as possible (it should work for 30 days I think and most of that is already passed by), but I will also look into an alternative called “moka5 LivePC Engine” that I just learned about when I read an article called “MojoPac – Potentially Great Software with Serious Flaws”. In the article some more flaws with Mojopac are exposed.
I just hope the folks over at MojoPac are able to pull their heads out their arses get their act together pretty soon, because I still am very much impressed by the potential of their software.