Computer Repair Blog » Manderso Consulting

How I learned I want to code by myself

mike — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:35:12 +0000

A personal story
I created and administer my website using a program called Rapidweaver. It’s a low-cost alternative to Dreamweaver on the Mac; at least, it starts at a low-cost. The application itself retails for $79, and it does a lot of what you need it to do. And then it doesn’t do what you need it to do, as its simplicity makes it rather limited in its scope. You need to purchase plug-ins to do everything else, as well as additional themes.
Of course, the Rapidweaver plug-ins require a serial number to activate and use. I reimaged my Mac a few weeks ago, and loaded up Rapidweaver to make some changes to my website. To make all the appropriate changes, in fact to actually load my local copy of the website, I have to load all the plugins that are associated with it (in this case Sitemap, RWMultitool and Stacks, as well as the theme). Wouldn’t you know it; I don’t have the serial for Stacks. It was in an email that I didn’t get around to archiving before I killed. That is my fault, I get that. But should the software’s creator attempt to help me with his activation scheme? Yes, I think so. The Stacks website mentions to contact support if you have misplaced a serial, so I emailed the support for Stacks, and a few hours after that, I tweeted the creator asking for help. A few hours after that, he tweets me back stating that he would get to my email in the order it was received. That was 2 days ago.
Two days. That’s 2 days that I haven’t been able to update my website, to pull some information that I no longer want up there, to add some new information about my business offerings, to do general maintenance. That’s entirely too long. Sure, I could remove all the Stacks code from the site, and will have to do that today, but it requires redoing up to 10 pages of the site.
It’s time to learn to code on my own. I don’t want to have to rely on a program to do all the work for me, especially if I have to rely on the programs (non-willing, or slow) support to allow me to use the program. And it needs to be open platform, none of this Mac-only/pc-only nonsense. Good thing I have the time…

Piracy arguments (part 3)

mike — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:50:52 +0000

“This makes me want to participate even more in distributing pirated movies and never again pay to watch one.” – tmiuser found here http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/11/blu-ray-discs-get-managed-copy-hardware-support-nonexistent.ars?comments=1&comment_id=470005812041

This argument is extremely popular. The big media conglomerates, and their legal mouthpieces claim to have their consumers best interest at heart when allowing for the backing up of their media (through expensive and ridiculous ways), and the average consumer is (understandably, I think) fed up with it.
Example: I have a legally purchased copy of Ju-On: The Grudge, the Japanese version of the remake American horror film The Grudge. My teenage daughter absolutely loves this movie, and wants to watch it whenever possible, in her laptop, on the television in the living room, on the television downstairs and upstairs. And, being a teenager, manages to lose/trash/mangle/otherwise render unreadable the DVD I spent $20 on.
According to the Digital Millennium Copywrite Act (DMCA), tough rocks. I purchased the rights to view that movie using that DVD. I now have to re-purchase the movie in whatever the latest format is, in the latest too-much packaging with too-many previews of movies I don’t care about, and other nonsense. According to the DMCA, I don’t own that movie. My $20 pays for the right to watch that movie. That is all.
Unfortunately for the media conglomerates, software exists to remove the copy-protection from those DVDs. Software (AnyDVD) exists to allow me to make a copy of that DVD and put it on my NAS, or put it on another DVD (CloneDVD), or even put it on a portable media device, so she can take it out of the house and watch it, without killing the $20 DVD. By the way, this software also makes it possible for the Linux user to watch DVDs on their system, as the digital rights management software, built into the DVDs copy protection has no support for Linux.
When the average consumer gets pissed off because he/she has to replace yet another fragile disk, that’s another possible pirate. The average consumer is tired of being treated like a criminal when they purchase their favorite movie. They want to be able to view it on anything they see fit, and when there are restrictions on the media, they look elsewhere, like torrent sites. And then, the computer tech comes in to clean up the viruses brought in by the unsuspecting average consumer (see, you knew I’d pull us in here eventually, right?).

Website wording – who are you marketing to?

mike — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:40:16 +0000

What does your website say?

I requested a computer business forum check out my site today and give me some feedback. I did this because I felt it was a bit crowded, and also because it’s never exactly what I want. And I’m really glad I did.

I heard things that I never thought about. Someone told me that he couldn’t tell I did PC repair at all. Another told me that he wouldn’t ask a “consultant” to repair his computer, he’d look for a computer repair person.

I actually argued about this for some reason, like I was offended (maybe a little). The message on my site seemed to be directed to a larger business rather than a home-business or a home user. I realize that I need to review who I want to market to, and how to do so. It’s a lot to think about.

Also, one person took issue with one of the stock images on the site, of multiple people standing. He seemed to think that I’m overselling my company, telling prospective customers that there are many people in the company. Of course, I use the “we” on the website to describe what my company does, I’ve never thought of using “I”. How do you describe what your “1 person” company does?

It’s amazing what a few words can do to a message.

Here’s the site I requested feedback on. I’m hoping others will provide feedback too.

http://mandersoconsulting.com

Piracy – a discussion Part 2

mike — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:33:49 +0000

A follow-up to my previous Piracy post found at http://mandersoconsulting.com/blog/files/Pirated_Software.html
One of the reasons I gave to the reason people pirate was laziness. That’s accurate to a certain degree, but it only goes so far. Some developers that put out software which require an activation scheme, or DRM software, or a license server, have done so to protect their software from being stolen. And I could go into the whole “pirating software is/isn’t stealing” bit, but that’s tired. The point is, the developer put restrictions into the usage of their software so they could get paid for their work. That’s fair. But that crosses the line too often.
Case in point, Brady. Brady makes label printing software and hardware for scientific applications, mostly labs. They sell the label printer, they sell the labels, and they sell the software to run the printer. To use this label software requires a license key, but they sell multiple copies of their software, in different editions. There’s BradySoft Standard, Network (which allows the sotware to communicate with a license server) and Ultimate. These products have different feature sets, but all do the same basic job, print labels. And the licensing scheme is abysmal. When upgrading to a new computer, you need to verify you have the right software for that particular printer, and then you have to verify you have the right license code for the software. Brady makes this more complicated, by not putting the version of the software on the license sheet. Granted, this example would be less complicated if the software and licenses were better organized, but its label making software! It shouldn’t be this complicated!
Another example would be Adobe. A colleague purchased an upgrade to Adobe Master Suite CS4 from his version of Web Design CS3. At least, that’s what the Adobe rep told him he purchased. Not when you go to install master suite though. It only wants to upgrade from a previous Master Suite. And looking on Adobe’s website, the upgrade path is bizarre.
These developers need to take another look at their product line, and make some changes. The licensing is too complicated, there are too many versions, and the customer is becoming the pirate. Look at Apple. They have one version of an operating system (two if you count the server), no serial number to input, and a devoted customer base. That’s how software should be sold.