Analyzing a typical HP.com URL

I love HP Servers, I've been running them for over 10 years now, with very few issues.  The only way I could hate their website more was if it commited genocide.  I've never found a company with more obtuse URLs, horrific navigation, inconsistencies, broken URLs and miserable performance.

Search for the Truth

I wanted to download the HP Array Controller Utility for the Linux command line. The search on hp.com did everything in it's power to crush my spirits short of killing my dog. Luckily a fledgling company named Google pointed me in the right direction.  You can download the Linux CLI ACU from this page:

http://h18013.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/software-management/acumatrix/sw-drivers.html

Go ahead, try and download the Linux Command Line Version (CLI) ACU.

Hot damn that's useful!  It takes you to a Search page with 138,361 results.  That won't take too long to page through at 10 items per page.  Luckily the kick-ass search functionality will only allow you to see the first 500 matches, or 0.36% of the results.

Dissecting an HP URL

Here's a typical HP URL:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3288134&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=1121516&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=2025#7832

Let's break it down and analyze it:

  • http:// – This is standard on most websites. See also: https://
  • h20000 – This is obnoxious bullshit.  It's meaningless and there is are no servers with h19999 or h20001.
  • .www2 – There is no reason to have this AT ALL. There's not even any reason to have www you douchebags.
  • .hp.com – They need this.  If they didn't have hp.com you'd most likely be on a pleasant and operational website.
  • /bizsupport – We support business, but we'll call it 'biz' to look cool.
  • /TechSupport -In case you didn't get it, this is SUPPORT. Case sensitive URL by the way, /techsupport/ will break it.
  • /SoftwareIndex.jsp – SoftwareIndex because god-forbid you have a normal default index file. Removing this will result in a 404 page.  Why have a default choice when you can complicate things and add two choices! .jsp because Java is cool, just like our server admins black fingernails and emo music.  And their TIME MACHINE((Tip of the hat to Don and Mike, whose voices I'll always hear saying TIIME MASHEENE)) that lets them perform their job duties while living in the year 1995.
  • ?lang=en – Just in case they want to support more than one language. Which they don't.
  • &cc=us – Gotta track the region. This parameter also does nothing. Try setting a cookie you pricks.
  • &prodNameId=3288134
  • &prodTypeId=15351
  • &prodSeriesId=1121516
  • &swLang=8 – You can never have too many ways of setting a language preference.
  • &taskId=135
  • &swEnvOID=2025

What's a 404 page look like?

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/service/site/404/Bsc404_en-us.html

That page redirects to:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/service/site/404/Bsc404_en.html

Notice they dropped the -us.  Watch out though, sometimes the redirect doesn't work properly and it'll keep redirecting to itself. Forever.

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Posted in Software, Technology on February 27th, 2009 at 05:02pm

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Stupid Software Decisions

Lately I'm convinced HP is the king of writing stupid software.  I've been evaluating a HP 2710p tablet pc for a couple months now, and not terribly impressed with it.  One big negative is HP Update. I installed this assuming it would grab the latest drivers for me, and make life easier.

It didn't.

In fact it's updated itself three times now, and each time the only updates were for… HP Update.  Two security updates for HP Update, and the latest release 4.0.11 which fixes "minor defects".

That's fairly annoying, but it seems that a "minor defect" also included an update to HP Health Check.  As far as I can tell, HP Health Check is totally useless.  What the new version does is bind itself to the Ctrl+Shift+C hotkey combo.  If you use Outlook a lot you may recognize this as the Create New Contact keyboard shortcut.  There's no doubt in my mind that I'd rather run a Health Check on a laptop 4 or 5 times a day than create a new contact.

Lessons for Application Developers

  • First off, don't use global hotkeys.
  • If you insist on using global hotkeys, allow the user to change or remove them.
  • If you're not going to allow the user to change or remove a hotkey, allow the user to uninstall the offending program.
  • Periodically check out the Google Search results for the name of your program. If they're all complaints or mostly negative, perhaps it's time to address some issues.
  • In the same vein if there are a large number of results for "Your Program's Name useless", pay attention.
  • And never, ever bundle new applications with an update for different software.

Removing HP Health Check

There's no option to remove this crap from Add/Remove Programs, the start menu, the program's directory, or in any of the HP utilities.  Luckily I never deleted \swsetup\ from this computer after I installed everything, and I was able to find the HP Active Support Library installer in c:\swsetup\sp36082 and another copy (huh?) in c:\swsetup\sp39157.  The uninstall works for both of them.  Reboot, hit Ctrl+Shift+C again and acknowledge that the target of a shortcut is missing and should be deleted.  After that you'll be able to create new contacts with the hotkey combo in Outlook again.

UPDATE:

Per Brad in the comments, there is an easier way.  Find the shortcut for HP Health Check and get its Properties. I'm no longer running my HP Tablet, but aside from the name the properties dialog will be the same.  Click in the Shortcut key text box and press the Delete key to clear the hotkey combo.  Click OK and you should have freed up the Ctrl+Shift+C hotkey combination.

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Posted in Software, Tablet PC, Technology on September 2nd, 2008 at 06:09pm

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