Note to Buffalo: Hire a Proofreader

A client of the Ur-Guru’s just bought a Buffalo DriveStation Duo USB drive. Kudos to him for taking care of backups, but when he installed the software, he found something a bit less than reassuring in the dialog boxes:

In case you didn’t catch it (I didn’t, the first time), the RAID setup utility is asking the user to restart WiDNows instead of WiNDows. This is doubtless a typo, and while it probably doesn’t indicate anything about the RAID software, it’s not encouraging.

Badly written user interfaces and documentation suggest that the manufacturer is cutting corners and the product may not be reliable. If you’re using free software downloaded from a small start-up site, that may not be such a big deal, but Buffalo Technology is a major corporation and the DriveStation Duo is not a cheap piece of equipment.

Hiring one editor/proofreader to polish the documentation is probably more cost-efficient than employing only programmers with fluent English, but however you choose to do it, make sure your software is literate.