I've been using a major media fulfillment service. Fulfillment is jargon for a company that fulfills your orders for you. In this case, it's a company that produces media. These are big guys, handling media orders for a lot of the big name software companies. You'ld think they would be a good bet for someone like me, right?
Wrong. You knew that one was coming, didn't you? These guys came highly recommended. Now I can safely blame them for the delay in getting Mechanick Exercises into production. Four, count'em, Four times I've fixed supposed problems with my master files and uploaded the files to their site. Each time something new has happened.
Try #1: Preset links between files and files within folders were lost. The Acrobat search index ceased to work.
Try #2: Links and the search index worked. But a bunch of blank folders appeared on the check disk.
Try #3: No blank folders, but the autorun function lost some links.
Try #4: (you'ld think I would have learned by now!) The file and folder structure I had included in the compressed upload file was lost. All the files were there, but as individual files on the desktop. No folders, no links, no navigation, no search index, no autorun. And two new files called pogo something.
I've ditched this company and am switching to another one. While not as massive as the first company, these guys seem to understand the little guy. They also promise to unzip whatever I send to them and burn it to the disk precisely as-is.
Now that I am in sort-of-retirement, I have time to actually pull this all together properly. I'm going to sick the AARP on that first company and accuse them of age discrimination, disability discrimination, poor customer service and flat pepsi. All four of these are my favorite complaints with the world.
As Chris Schwarz might say: "Bigger isn't always better!"
Till next
Gary
PS: Sometimes customer service actually comes through. Apparently my less than pleased feelings have resulted in some fixes. The unstuffing problem was solely the fault of the vendor. I think that for future titles, I'll simply mail a complete master disc instead of uploading a compressed file. Which I should have done at the very first. Just because we can do something in a digital way doesn't mean it's the best way. If I could, I would pack all the bits n bytes in a carton and hand carry them. Soon as I check that the disk is working properly, we'll be off and running.
PPS: I've been informed by one who knows that the 'long s' in the introduction is improper. Absolutely true. Finding a workable yet legible font that both replicates the 18th C typeface and is legible has been a chore. Hopefully my informant will be able to direct me to a font that more properly replicates the typeface. Some typefaces that do a better job (I used CaslonOldFace) are nearly illegible, at least to my aging eyes.
