Good to see you back Eric. Hope you had fun! I just got my eAOS CD in the
mail yesterday so I haven't had a chance to install it yet, but some
comments from people at the Pac Central say that some of the info available
in Wildcatt or OrchidWiz - in terms of species make up of a hybrid - is
lacking. IMHO the only reason to have this is the AOS award photos. But I
really shouldn't say anything untill I install the program.

K Barrett

"Eric Hunt" wrote in message
...
Folks,

Coming into this a bit late, but let me say my e-AOS Awards experience has
been uniformly bad.

First off, like someone said above, SAVE EVERYTHING. There is an order
number buried in your order confirmation email that is required to install
the program. This is *NOT* the same order number that appears on the
packing slip that accompanies the physical CD-ROM.

Secondly, I emailed the AOS and was informed that I needed that email.
Well, at the time I thought I'd deleted it and I replied back to Pam Giust
*AND* Lee Cooke. I told them that their current system was very poorly
thought out and could someone please look up that order #, because I
deleted the email, and by the way, why didn't you offer to look that order
# up as part of your original reply?

No word after two days from either of them.

I finally did a search in Outlook and FOUND that darn sales confirmation
email from the AOS and was able to install the program.

I wasn't encouraged to see the installer drop for an extended period of
time to a freakin' DOS window.

Then I ran the program.

If there weren't 11,000 photos, many of rarely seen species, I would have
returned the whole thing and asked for my money back.

It has to be the most amateurish implementation of an embedded database
that I've ever seen. It looks like something from Windows 3.1 from 1992!
It has a negative usability rating in my book.

At this point I really do just give up on the AOS. Put simply: They Don't
Get It, and I don't think any amount of work by volunteers at this point
will make them see the light.

Oh, and I think OrchidWiz is much much better - and will continue to
improve rapidly. The owner/developer, Alex Maximiano, is amazingly
responsive to comments and feedback and his photo database is expanding
rapidly. This really is a case of you get what you pay for.

.....My $3 (adjusted for inflation)

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

Ray,

Kathy explained it beautifully. Don't be shy about clicking on things in
OrchidWiz - many times it will do something you want.

I'll let Alex know that an easier interface for seeing a full family tree is
important.

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

"Ray" wrote in message
...
I haven't seen eAOS, and as awards don't mean that much to me, I probably
won't bother - especially after these such "rave reviews".

Eric, et al - is there a way in OrchidWiz to get a FULL family tree,
instead of just a couple of generations? IMO, that's the only shortcoming
compared to WildCatt.

Ray,

Like I said, it *DOES* have 11,000+ awards slides, and that alone does make
it worth the hassle. There are photos of species in this compilation that
have never been made publicly available.

The program does give an opening disclaimer that the taxonomy might not be
right, and the disclaimer also says that they have no plans to go back and
correct the old taxonomy, but it's still useful, IMO. They are going to go
into the future referencing the Kew taxonomy. (There are a million arguments
surrounding that decision, too)

-Eric

"Ray" wrote in message
...
I haven't seen eAOS, and as awards don't mean that much to me, I probably
won't bother - especially after these such "rave reviews".

Eric, et al - is there a way in OrchidWiz to get a FULL family tree,
instead of just a couple of generations? IMO, that's the only shortcoming
compared to WildCatt.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"Eric Hunt" wrote in message
...
Folks,

Coming into this a bit late, but let me say my e-AOS Awards experience
has been uniformly bad.

First off, like someone said above, SAVE EVERYTHING. There is an order
number buried in your order confirmation email that is required to
install the program. This is *NOT* the same order number that appears on
the packing slip that accompanies the physical CD-ROM.

Secondly, I emailed the AOS and was informed that I needed that email.
Well, at the time I thought I'd deleted it and I replied back to Pam
Giust *AND* Lee Cooke. I told them that their current system was very
poorly thought out and could someone please look up that order #, because
I deleted the email, and by the way, why didn't you offer to look that
order # up as part of your original reply?

No word after two days from either of them.

I finally did a search in Outlook and FOUND that darn sales confirmation
email from the AOS and was able to install the program.

I wasn't encouraged to see the installer drop for an extended period of
time to a freakin' DOS window.

Then I ran the program.

If there weren't 11,000 photos, many of rarely seen species, I would have
returned the whole thing and asked for my money back.

It has to be the most amateurish implementation of an embedded database
that I've ever seen. It looks like something from Windows 3.1 from 1992!
It has a negative usability rating in my book.

At this point I really do just give up on the AOS. Put simply: They Don't
Get It, and I don't think any amount of work by volunteers at this point
will make them see the light.

Oh, and I think OrchidWiz is much much better - and will continue to
improve rapidly. The owner/developer, Alex Maximiano, is amazingly
responsive to comments and feedback and his photo database is expanding
rapidly. This really is a case of you get what you pay for.

.....My $3 (adjusted for inflation)

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

I'm aware of that, Kathy. I meant is there a way to get ALL generations in
a single view.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"K Barrett" wrote in message
. ..
You click on teh hybrid you want to know about and that opens up a second
window. You can stack the windows, too.

So for example, if you put in V. Robert's Delight (note you have to use
the apostrophe. If you are ever unsure about whether punctuation is
required in a name you just search on some other version of the name (like
'delight' and it will return every registered plant with 'delight' in the
name. you scroll down the list and choose the one you want)

For V Robert's Delight Orchidwiz will return 7 or so generations for the
hybrid in the TEXT tree. There will be a couple of hybrids listed at the
end. Click on the hybrid (node) and a second window will come up with that
tree. You can stack up windows and move them around in order to go through
your research. In the picture tree you can only get 3 generations or so,
but again, if you click on the hybrid you want to research it will open a
second window and continue farther into the plant's background.

K
"Ray" wrote in message
...
I haven't seen eAOS, and as awards don't mean that much to me, I probably
won't bother - especially after these such "rave reviews".

Eric, et al - is there a way in OrchidWiz to get a FULL family tree,
instead of just a couple of generations? IMO, that's the only
shortcoming compared to WildCatt.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"Eric Hunt" wrote in message
...
Folks,

Coming into this a bit late, but let me say my e-AOS Awards experience
has been uniformly bad.

First off, like someone said above, SAVE EVERYTHING. There is an order
number buried in your order confirmation email that is required to
install the program. This is *NOT* the same order number that appears on
the packing slip that accompanies the physical CD-ROM.

Secondly, I emailed the AOS and was informed that I needed that email.
Well, at the time I thought I'd deleted it and I replied back to Pam
Giust *AND* Lee Cooke. I told them that their current system was very
poorly thought out and could someone please look up that order #,
because I deleted the email, and by the way, why didn't you offer to
look that order # up as part of your original reply?

No word after two days from either of them.

I finally did a search in Outlook and FOUND that darn sales confirmation
email from the AOS and was able to install the program.

I wasn't encouraged to see the installer drop for an extended period of
time to a freakin' DOS window.

Then I ran the program.

If there weren't 11,000 photos, many of rarely seen species, I would
have returned the whole thing and asked for my money back.

It has to be the most amateurish implementation of an embedded database
that I've ever seen. It looks like something from Windows 3.1 from 1992!
It has a negative usability rating in my book.

At this point I really do just give up on the AOS. Put simply: They
Don't Get It, and I don't think any amount of work by volunteers at this
point will make them see the light.

Oh, and I think OrchidWiz is much much better - and will continue to
improve rapidly. The owner/developer, Alex Maximiano, is amazingly
responsive to comments and feedback and his photo database is expanding
rapidly. This really is a case of you get what you pay for.

.....My $3 (adjusted for inflation)

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

Eric - don't hold back - tell us what you really think!

David

"Eric Hunt" wrote in message
...
Folks,

Coming into this a bit late, but let me say my e-AOS Awards experience has
been uniformly bad.

First off, like someone said above, SAVE EVERYTHING. There is an order
number buried in your order confirmation email that is required to install
the program. This is *NOT* the same order number that appears on the
packing slip that accompanies the physical CD-ROM.

Secondly, I emailed the AOS and was informed that I needed that email.
Well, at the time I thought I'd deleted it and I replied back to Pam Giust
*AND* Lee Cooke. I told them that their current system was very poorly
thought out and could someone please look up that order #, because I
deleted the email, and by the way, why didn't you offer to look that order
# up as part of your original reply?

No word after two days from either of them.

I finally did a search in Outlook and FOUND that darn sales confirmation
email from the AOS and was able to install the program.

I wasn't encouraged to see the installer drop for an extended period of
time to a freakin' DOS window.

Then I ran the program.

If there weren't 11,000 photos, many of rarely seen species, I would have
returned the whole thing and asked for my money back.

It has to be the most amateurish implementation of an embedded database
that I've ever seen. It looks like something from Windows 3.1 from 1992!
It has a negative usability rating in my book.

At this point I really do just give up on the AOS. Put simply: They Don't
Get It, and I don't think any amount of work by volunteers at this point
will make them see the light.

Oh, and I think OrchidWiz is much much better - and will continue to
improve rapidly. The owner/developer, Alex Maximiano, is amazingly
responsive to comments and feedback and his photo database is expanding
rapidly. This really is a case of you get what you pay for.

.....My $3 (adjusted for inflation)

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

As afr as I know, no. Ask Alex (he's probably contqcted you already)

K

"Ray" wrote in message
...
I'm aware of that, Kathy. I meant is there a way to get ALL generations
in a single view.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"K Barrett" wrote in message
. ..
You click on teh hybrid you want to know about and that opens up a second
window. You can stack the windows, too.

So for example, if you put in V. Robert's Delight (note you have to use
the apostrophe. If you are ever unsure about whether punctuation is
required in a name you just search on some other version of the name
(like 'delight' and it will return every registered plant with 'delight'
in the name. you scroll down the list and choose the one you want)

For V Robert's Delight Orchidwiz will return 7 or so generations for the
hybrid in the TEXT tree. There will be a couple of hybrids listed at the
end. Click on the hybrid (node) and a second window will come up with
that tree. You can stack up windows and move them around in order to go
through your research. In the picture tree you can only get 3
generations or so, but again, if you click on the hybrid you want to
research it will open a second window and continue farther into the
plant's background.

K
"Ray" wrote in message
...
I haven't seen eAOS, and as awards don't mean that much to me, I probably
won't bother - especially after these such "rave reviews".

Eric, et al - is there a way in OrchidWiz to get a FULL family tree,
instead of just a couple of generations? IMO, that's the only
shortcoming compared to WildCatt.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"Eric Hunt" wrote in message
...
Folks,

Coming into this a bit late, but let me say my e-AOS Awards experience
has been uniformly bad.

First off, like someone said above, SAVE EVERYTHING. There is an order
number buried in your order confirmation email that is required to
install the program. This is *NOT* the same order number that appears
on the packing slip that accompanies the physical CD-ROM.

Secondly, I emailed the AOS and was informed that I needed that email.
Well, at the time I thought I'd deleted it and I replied back to Pam
Giust *AND* Lee Cooke. I told them that their current system was very
poorly thought out and could someone please look up that order #,
because I deleted the email, and by the way, why didn't you offer to
look that order # up as part of your original reply?

No word after two days from either of them.

I finally did a search in Outlook and FOUND that darn sales
confirmation email from the AOS and was able to install the program.

I wasn't encouraged to see the installer drop for an extended period of
time to a freakin' DOS window.

Then I ran the program.

If there weren't 11,000 photos, many of rarely seen species, I would
have returned the whole thing and asked for my money back.

It has to be the most amateurish implementation of an embedded database
that I've ever seen. It looks like something from Windows 3.1 from
1992! It has a negative usability rating in my book.

At this point I really do just give up on the AOS. Put simply: They
Don't Get It, and I don't think any amount of work by volunteers at
this point will make them see the light.

Oh, and I think OrchidWiz is much much better - and will continue to
improve rapidly. The owner/developer, Alex Maximiano, is amazingly
responsive to comments and feedback and his photo database is expanding
rapidly. This really is a case of you get what you pay for.

.....My $3 (adjusted for inflation)

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

David,

Well, as a paying customer for a product I feel there is a certain level of
support I am entitled to. Not only did I not receive that level, I feel like
I am actively being ignored by the AOS on this issue.

I actually made the decision today to uninstall and return the e-AOS Awards.
I gave it the 4-day reflection period and I am still as PO'd at them today
as I was when they first ignored me. I would only cuss under my breath every
time I used it, so why do that to myself?

I'll give the $45 to the Orchid Digest instead. Much better organization.

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

"David Edgley" wrote in message
...
Eric - don't hold back - tell us what you really think!

David

Ray,

Here is Alex Maximiano's response, posted here with his permission:

"Be careful what you ask for. :-) Yes, I could do such a tree but it would
be extremely hard to see. For example, take Phal. H.P. Norton and try
drawing its tree on a large sheet of paper. It will take you several days to
do so, and major rewrites as you work your way back the large number of
generations. You would end-up drawing 240 boxes to enter Phal.
rimestadiana(amabilis) alone!!! Try clicking Genealogy for H. P. Norton. It
will tell you there are 240 rimestadiana nodes in the background.

But that's not all. Once you've completed the chart, your two first parents
will be so far removed vertically you will not be able to see them at the
same time. Sure, I could make such a chart, but who would want to see it?
You'd have to do so much vertical and horizontal scrolling it would become
meaningless.
Wildcatt does not draw a chart going all the way back to the species! That
is a common misperception. I wish people would realize that.

If you have any ideas on how to get a "full chart" to display in a way that
is easy to see, for goodness sake let me know! I mean it. I really want to
do it. I just haven't figured out how. I know how to do the programming for
it; I just don't know how to display it. If you tell me what you want it to
look like, I can program it."

Ray, Alex is keenly interested in getting your feedback - I encourage you to
start a dialogue with him. In the interest of not feeding the spam
harvesters, his email address is on the OrchidWiz homepage.
(www.orchidwiz.com)

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

"Ray" wrote in message
...
I'm aware of that, Kathy. I meant is there a way to get ALL generations
in a single view.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"K Barrett" wrote in message
. ..
You click on teh hybrid you want to know about and that opens up a second
window. You can stack the windows, too.

So for example, if you put in V. Robert's Delight (note you have to use
the apostrophe. If you are ever unsure about whether punctuation is
required in a name you just search on some other version of the name
(like 'delight' and it will return every registered plant with 'delight'
in the name. you scroll down the list and choose the one you want)

For V Robert's Delight Orchidwiz will return 7 or so generations for the
hybrid in the TEXT tree. There will be a couple of hybrids listed at the
end. Click on the hybrid (node) and a second window will come up with
that tree. You can stack up windows and move them around in order to go
through your research. In the picture tree you can only get 3
generations or so, but again, if you click on the hybrid you want to
research it will open a second window and continue farther into the
plant's background.

K
"Ray" wrote in message
...
I haven't seen eAOS, and as awards don't mean that much to me, I probably
won't bother - especially after these such "rave reviews".

Eric, et al - is there a way in OrchidWiz to get a FULL family tree,
instead of just a couple of generations? IMO, that's the only
shortcoming compared to WildCatt.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"Eric Hunt" wrote in message
...
Folks,

Coming into this a bit late, but let me say my e-AOS Awards experience
has been uniformly bad.

First off, like someone said above, SAVE EVERYTHING. There is an order
number buried in your order confirmation email that is required to
install the program. This is *NOT* the same order number that appears
on the packing slip that accompanies the physical CD-ROM.

Secondly, I emailed the AOS and was informed that I needed that email.
Well, at the time I thought I'd deleted it and I replied back to Pam
Giust *AND* Lee Cooke. I told them that their current system was very
poorly thought out and could someone please look up that order #,
because I deleted the email, and by the way, why didn't you offer to
look that order # up as part of your original reply?

No word after two days from either of them.

I finally did a search in Outlook and FOUND that darn sales
confirmation email from the AOS and was able to install the program.

I wasn't encouraged to see the installer drop for an extended period of
time to a freakin' DOS window.

Then I ran the program.

If there weren't 11,000 photos, many of rarely seen species, I would
have returned the whole thing and asked for my money back.

It has to be the most amateurish implementation of an embedded database
that I've ever seen. It looks like something from Windows 3.1 from
1992! It has a negative usability rating in my book.

At this point I really do just give up on the AOS. Put simply: They
Don't Get It, and I don't think any amount of work by volunteers at
this point will make them see the light.

Oh, and I think OrchidWiz is much much better - and will continue to
improve rapidly. The owner/developer, Alex Maximiano, is amazingly
responsive to comments and feedback and his photo database is expanding
rapidly. This really is a case of you get what you pay for.

.....My $3 (adjusted for inflation)

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

You might consider sending a few $$ to the International Phalaenopsis
Alliance as well. At least they have nice pictures. Thanks for your
evaluation of the new AOS offering. I think I will wait until they either
modernize the "Windows 3.1" interface or force me to subscribe by
discontinuing the AQ.

David

"Eric Hunt" wrote in message
...
David,

Well, as a paying customer for a product I feel there is a certain level
of support I am entitled to. Not only did I not receive that level, I feel
like I am actively being ignored by the AOS on this issue.

I actually made the decision today to uninstall and return the e-AOS
Awards. I gave it the 4-day reflection period and I am still as PO'd at
them today as I was when they first ignored me. I would only cuss under my
breath every time I used it, so why do that to myself?

I'll give the $45 to the Orchid Digest instead. Much better organization.

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

"David Edgley" wrote in message
...
Eric - don't hold back - tell us what you really think!

David

Actually, I've conversed with Alex a number of times.

On this subject, who says it has to be a tree chart? I find the text
listing in WildCatt to be sufficient for my needs.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"Eric Hunt" wrote in message
...
Ray,

Here is Alex Maximiano's response, posted here with his permission:

"Be careful what you ask for. :-) Yes, I could do such a tree but it would
be extremely hard to see. For example, take Phal. H.P. Norton and try
drawing its tree on a large sheet of paper. It will take you several days
to do so, and major rewrites as you work your way back the large number of
generations. You would end-up drawing 240 boxes to enter Phal.
rimestadiana(amabilis) alone!!! Try clicking Genealogy for H. P. Norton.
It will tell you there are 240 rimestadiana nodes in the background.

But that's not all. Once you've completed the chart, your two first
parents will be so far removed vertically you will not be able to see them
at the same time. Sure, I could make such a chart, but who would want to
see it? You'd have to do so much vertical and horizontal scrolling it
would become meaningless.
Wildcatt does not draw a chart going all the way back to the species! That
is a common misperception. I wish people would realize that.

If you have any ideas on how to get a "full chart" to display in a way
that is easy to see, for goodness sake let me know! I mean it. I really
want to do it. I just haven't figured out how. I know how to do the
programming for it; I just don't know how to display it. If you tell me
what you want it to look like, I can program it."

Ray, Alex is keenly interested in getting your feedback - I encourage you
to start a dialogue with him. In the interest of not feeding the spam
harvesters, his email address is on the OrchidWiz homepage.
(www.orchidwiz.com)

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

"Ray" wrote in message
...
I'm aware of that, Kathy. I meant is there a way to get ALL generations
in a single view.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"K Barrett" wrote in message
. ..
You click on teh hybrid you want to know about and that opens up a
second window. You can stack the windows, too.

So for example, if you put in V. Robert's Delight (note you have to use
the apostrophe. If you are ever unsure about whether punctuation is
required in a name you just search on some other version of the name
(like 'delight' and it will return every registered plant with 'delight'
in the name. you scroll down the list and choose the one you want)

For V Robert's Delight Orchidwiz will return 7 or so generations for the
hybrid in the TEXT tree. There will be a couple of hybrids listed at
the end. Click on the hybrid (node) and a second window will come up
with that tree. You can stack up windows and move them around in order
to go through your research. In the picture tree you can only get 3
generations or so, but again, if you click on the hybrid you want to
research it will open a second window and continue farther into the
plant's background.

K
"Ray" wrote in message
...
I haven't seen eAOS, and as awards don't mean that much to me, I
probably won't bother - especially after these such "rave reviews".

Eric, et al - is there a way in OrchidWiz to get a FULL family tree,
instead of just a couple of generations? IMO, that's the only
shortcoming compared to WildCatt.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"Eric Hunt" wrote in message
...
Folks,

Coming into this a bit late, but let me say my e-AOS Awards experience
has been uniformly bad.

First off, like someone said above, SAVE EVERYTHING. There is an order
number buried in your order confirmation email that is required to
install the program. This is *NOT* the same order number that appears
on the packing slip that accompanies the physical CD-ROM.

Secondly, I emailed the AOS and was informed that I needed that email.
Well, at the time I thought I'd deleted it and I replied back to Pam
Giust *AND* Lee Cooke. I told them that their current system was very
poorly thought out and could someone please look up that order #,
because I deleted the email, and by the way, why didn't you offer to
look that order # up as part of your original reply?

No word after two days from either of them.

I finally did a search in Outlook and FOUND that darn sales
confirmation email from the AOS and was able to install the program.

I wasn't encouraged to see the installer drop for an extended period
of time to a freakin' DOS window.

Then I ran the program.

If there weren't 11,000 photos, many of rarely seen species, I would
have returned the whole thing and asked for my money back.

It has to be the most amateurish implementation of an embedded
database that I've ever seen. It looks like something from Windows 3.1
from 1992! It has a negative usability rating in my book.

At this point I really do just give up on the AOS. Put simply: They
Don't Get It, and I don't think any amount of work by volunteers at
this point will make them see the light.

Oh, and I think OrchidWiz is much much better - and will continue to
improve rapidly. The owner/developer, Alex Maximiano, is amazingly
responsive to comments and feedback and his photo database is
expanding rapidly. This really is a case of you get what you pay for.

.....My $3 (adjusted for inflation)

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org

Wouldn't it be nice to marry OrchidWiz to AOS award slides?

I think I saw mention of a grex tree with pictures in OrchidWiz. That's
neat. The whole concept of a grex tree is so easy to confuse with a family
tree. Image examples of three to ten flowers per grex in a tree might drive
home the point that they are not the same.

It's a shame our grex record is not more detailed and that it is not
possible to trace a plant's pedigree from cultivar to cultivar within/though
each grex. If I ever go back in time I will try to correct this problem.

"K Barrett" wrote in message
. ..
As afr as I know, no. Ask Alex (he's probably contqcted you already)

K

"Ray" wrote in message
...
I'm aware of that, Kathy. I meant is there a way to get ALL generations
in a single view.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"K Barrett" wrote in message
. ..
You click on teh hybrid you want to know about and that opens up a
second window. You can stack the windows, too.

So for example, if you put in V. Robert's Delight (note you have to use
the apostrophe. If you are ever unsure about whether punctuation is
required in a name you just search on some other version of the name
(like 'delight' and it will return every registered plant with 'delight'
in the name. you scroll down the list and choose the one you want)

For V Robert's Delight Orchidwiz will return 7 or so generations for the
hybrid in the TEXT tree. There will be a couple of hybrids listed at
the end. Click on the hybrid (node) and a second window will come up
with that tree. You can stack up windows and move them around in order
to go through your research. In the picture tree you can only get 3
generations or so, but again, if you click on the hybrid you want to
research it will open a second window and continue farther into the
plant's background.

K
"Ray" wrote in message
...
I haven't seen eAOS, and as awards don't mean that much to me, I
probably won't bother - especially after these such "rave reviews".

Eric, et al - is there a way in OrchidWiz to get a FULL family tree,
instead of just a couple of generations? IMO, that's the only
shortcoming compared to WildCatt.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"Eric Hunt" wrote in message
...
Folks,

Coming into this a bit late, but let me say my e-AOS Awards experience
has been uniformly bad.

First off, like someone said above, SAVE EVERYTHING. There is an order
number buried in your order confirmation email that is required to
install the program. This is *NOT* the same order number that appears
on the packing slip that accompanies the physical CD-ROM.

Secondly, I emailed the AOS and was informed that I needed that email.
Well, at the time I thought I'd deleted it and I replied back to Pam
Giust *AND* Lee Cooke. I told them that their current system was very
poorly thought out and could someone please look up that order #,
because I deleted the email, and by the way, why didn't you offer to
look that order # up as part of your original reply?

No word after two days from either of them.

I finally did a search in Outlook and FOUND that darn sales
confirmation email from the AOS and was able to install the program.

I wasn't encouraged to see the installer drop for an extended period
of time to a freakin' DOS window.

Then I ran the program.

If there weren't 11,000 photos, many of rarely seen species, I would
have returned the whole thing and asked for my money back.

It has to be the most amateurish implementation of an embedded
database that I've ever seen. It looks like something from Windows 3.1
from 1992! It has a negative usability rating in my book.

At this point I really do just give up on the AOS. Put simply: They
Don't Get It, and I don't think any amount of work by volunteers at
this point will make them see the light.

Oh, and I think OrchidWiz is much much better - and will continue to
improve rapidly. The owner/developer, Alex Maximiano, is amazingly
responsive to comments and feedback and his photo database is
expanding rapidly. This really is a case of you get what you pay for.

.....My $3 (adjusted for inflation)

-Eric in SF
www.orchidphotos.org