Stop Putting The SERIAL NUMBER right on the BOX!

[Broken_Arrow]

Does this idea need any more explanation? If someone swipes the box out of a mail slot at work and installs it at home, that becomes the "at home" installation. 

I realize Ideas with pictures do better, so here's a Golden Retriever puppy...

Message Edited by Broken Arrow on 06-11-2010 07:40 AM

[Intaris]

Love the pic. Kudos.

Seriously, I've made the same suggestion on the forums before  (Not the idea exchange) and most seemed to think of it as a non-issue.....

[RavensFan]

If you've got people swiping your mail, you've got bigger problems then a serial number being on the box.

I wouldn't care if it is on the box or not.  But I imagine some people want it.  Like a company with several LabVIEW users and a single IT type of guy responsible for updating their PC's.  He may want to warehouse all the boxes in one central location.  Then he can easily which box has which serial number without opening them up.  Although, I don't know if that really matters as I thought all boxes have the same CD's/DVD's, and the serial number only becomes important at the time of activation.

[Broken_Arrow]

From what I uderstand, the DVD's are not linked in any way to the serial number. As you know, the same serial number may stay with an end user (or company) for years, through many updates/new versions.

[altenbach]

The serial number does not need to be anywhere but "in the cloud" on "MyNI". Give us a good personal page with all current serial numbers online. People that need offline installations can easily print them out.

Even the activation should not need any numbers to be entered. What if the install process just asks for the NI profile and does the rest automatically by default? 

In addition, I would like to elect to not even receive any disks in the mail. By the time I typically receive the disks, I have downloaded and installed the new version already. I don't even remember last time I place a NI CD or DVD in the drive, probably pre-8.0. 😉 Save some trees! Everybody has a DVD burner these days if a disk is needed.

Mailing CDs (with or without activation code) is so last century! 😄

(sorry, maybe some of this should be a new idea ;))

[JackDunaway]

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altenbach wrote:

In addition, I would like to elect to not even receive any disks in the mail....Save some trees!

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Because, clearly, DVDs are made from trees.

[jlokanis]

I miss the days when I could just enter a12b34567 for the serial number and it would work everytime...  Never needed to remember my 'real' serial number.  So, now that they have a real licencing system, maybe they will stop putting the key on the box.  Imagine if MS put the reg key on the outside of every box of Office?

[altenbach]

> Because, clearly, DVDs are made from trees.

The typical media shipments I get are mostly cardboard packing, inserts, etc. and only a small fraction is the polycarbonate of the disks. 😄

Some numbers:

LabVIEW 7.0: 870g (box)

LabVIEW 8.0: 490g (box)

LabVIEW 8.20: 520g (box)

LabVIEW 8.5: 345g total, mostly cardboard. Mine is still sealed in the original wrap.

LabVIEW 8.6: 240g total, mostly cardboard. Mine is still sealed in the original wrap.

LabVIEW 2009: 190g total, (~50g for the 3 DVDs).

870...490...345...240...190g: It's getting better but as I said, 0g is easily achievable. 😄

[Intaris]

"If you've got people swiping your mail, you've got bigger problems then a serial number being on the box."

Well why don't we include our bank account details also.....

Sorry, I just don't buy into the "If that happens, you've got OTHER problems" kind of rewasoning for this because it does nothing to address the problem at hand.  It's a cop-out.

[RavensFan]

Is the serial number on the box a big deal?

The concern was that someone swiped the box, took it home and installed it.  Are they returning your box?

Even if you install the software and use the same serial number, you are doing it legally because it is yours to install.  Their home installation is the illegal one.

As I said, I don't care if the serial number is on the box.  Go ahead and take it off.  I'd be more p!$$ed off that someone stole my box out of my mail slot then the concern that they installed it illegally at home.

If they are going to go through the trouble to steal the software from out of your mail slot, they can find out the serial number in other ways.

Message Edited by Ravens Fan on 06-11-2010 06:35 PM

[Intaris]

@Ravens Fan:

So what's your Serial Number then?