Broken Download Links

We've recently been having some problems with the file downloads area on our website. This is the section where brochures, columns, and magazine articles get posted for public download. With some recent updates to Adobe Reader, it looks like the pdf files haven't been downloading properly for some visitors running Windows XP. These are fixed now and the downloads should work fine for everyone again.

Of course, this is one of the joys of the Internet - software vendors (especially Microsoft and Adobe) sometimes release new versions of their products, that get installed during middle-of-the-night auto-updates, and break half your code!

Most of the time, we get advance notice of these updates through developer notes and pre-release test versions, offering lots of time to test and debug. However, every once in a while something unexpected happens and the final version breaks the live code.

We have people to investigate and resolve these issues so the impact on our production systems (both the CarriersEdge system and our public website) is minimized, but other companies aren't so lucky. If your business is moving freight, you probably don't have a team of technicians standing by ready to tackle these issues. Most trucking companies I know have a few IT people that are responsible for everything - network and desktop support, website development & maintenance, procurement, and anything else that relates to computers. That's a big job and most of these people are constantly on the run trying to keep up.

More and more companies outsource their website and application management and it's easy to see why. The Internet has matured tremendously in the last 10 years, but it can still be a jungle sometimes. Staying current with browser and plugin updates, new security measures, and emerging platform standards is nearly a fulltime job. On top of that, users are getting more comfortable with technology and have less patience when things don't work - they expect things to be up and running reliably all the time. That means more things to watch out for, and less time to fix stuff when problems do come up.

Nobody ever said the Internet was simple, but it's still a very cool place to be. Kudos to all the people who work tirelessly to tame the savage wilderness!