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 – 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.

Computer Repair Blog » software

How I learned I want to code by myself

Piracy – a discussion Part 2