Messages

1

Screenshot Captor / trashed system lost licence etc.. for Screenshot capture

« on: August 22, 2013, 05:12 AM »

Hi there Mouser,
Been  Board ember a long time - lost my machine -paid a little at the time and want to resurrect my copy  - can't see how at moment.

Cheers!
from Downunder - in more ways than one..  :-}

2

General Software Discussion / Re: The indelicate subject....... money

« on: January 21, 2013, 08:51 PM »

Quote: "Apple "got it" and sidestepped Linux completely. Very smart."
Exactly my point!

Saved themselves and us a boatload of grief.
Not sure what you mean by "us" here? You mentioned Userland - do you go back that far?? :-)
I do recall a broohaha about Applescript doing the wrong thing to Userland. Never got the whole story - it was a typical Apple thang in them days.
I used to use the Apple story regularly in management-salvaging contracts that were my bread and butter in them days.
Had to stop, was threatened by Steve's "attack dogs" so switched to G.E. who didn't care.....   :-)

But what a story Apple was/is. Became a ...... meme.

3

General Software Discussion / Tiny addin to the massive NOTE TAKING Thread

« on: January 21, 2013, 08:26 PM »

A little late to the party and a USER not a CODER:

I write voluminously for three reasons:
1. I am a Writer
2. I am an Aetiologist (I have to know things, everything!)
3. I am getting old and I have a fading memory

Oh, and it's also how I make my living, such as it is these days. :-)
The complications created by the above three reasons mean that I do need what is really some sort of a secondary brain structure with a good memory.
  The nearest I have been able to come to in external tools are the following:
1. Zemanta
2. Zotero
3. QuoteURLtext
4. Jarte
5. StickyPad
6. Screenshotcaptor
7. CopyShortURL
8. Windows Live Writer

My most critical tool of all Is Dragon NaturallyPreferred voice to text program. (Does tend to make me a little more verbose than I probably should be :-))

1. Zemanta has been my second greatest find since Dragon. It monitors what I write in Windows Live Writer and instantly does a search for relevant material across the Internet.
2. Zotero. For greater precision and annotations in technical searches.
3. QuoteURLText. This little utility is what keeps me using Firefox for the Internet. It allows me to select text on a page of a website, collect the URL, and auto insert specifically formatted detail into Jarte or any program of choice.
4. Jarte is a brilliant replacement for windows WordPad with very valuable additional attributes for file management.
5. Sticky pad. What else can I say?
6. ScreenshotCaptor. Should be a big improvement for me over my old Microsoft version.
7. CopyShortUrl. Very useful for condensing very long URLs cleverly. I only wish it could be automatically added to QuoteURLText.
8. Windows Live Writer. A very useful adjunct to Zemanta as both a quick tool for posting to WordPress or simply as a MS Word document.

Codicil : remember, these are the best tools That I have come up with during the last 10 years or so as a typically non-tech user.

For many, many years my mainstay for all bits and pieces collections of information was a program called NoteTabPro.

Just recently I was at a function where there were many old members from a Computer Internet Users Club that I started as a consequence of giving free introductory lessons to using the Internet at my city library. In discussion I learned that many of them were still using the programs that I taught them to use in those very early days notably amongst which was NoteTabPpro!

There we are, FWIW - my small contribution from the other side.

4

General Software Discussion / Re: The indelicate subject....... money

« on: January 21, 2013, 07:10 PM »

Minor question: When it comes to Linux, exactly what "entire organization" is being referred to?

Because there really isn't one.

I also don't think the attitude that "software should be free" is a wholly western attitude. At least if the widespread eastern penchant for digital piracy over the last two decades is anything to go by.
 

-40hz (January 21, 2013, 07:24 AM)

Hi there, I get the humour, but there actually is quite an effort for years to capitalise Linux.
I've known a few of the people who tried and my advice was always as here:
Forget it. You are dealing with a meme.
To turn it into a real business you would have to abandon the Linux meme altogether and start a new Religion.
Do a "Jobs". Rename Unix just as Jobs did with the failed Apple O.S. and Linux.
Simply write it out of the picture and take the high ground by force.
But have a tangible product, aim at the "Early Adopters" and price to the top of the market, with a different colour scheme.

So it isn't really a good financial decision to support free/O.S. in any shape, except to support its adherents who will produce astounding work for the love of doing it. Oh, and the dream of coming up with that killer code...  :-)
 

5

General Software Discussion / Re: The indelicate subject....... money

« on: January 21, 2013, 06:52 PM »

I'm not sure I fully understand what you are saying -- perhaps you could elaborate a little bit?

-mouser (January 21, 2013, 05:45 AM)

Hi Mouser,
The key point is bound in one word: meme.

As an aetiologist, it has plagued me for half-a century.
The strange and awful belief structures that appear out of the common psyche. 
Buddhism is a great example. A strange belief system with no traditional origin structure,  which has been massively adopted without rhyme or reason in diverse cultures.
It has close ties aetiologically to the Linux world, but is far less emotionally charged. 
(A strange paradox in the business of Religions.)
Buddhism has no real-world structure of capitalisation at all. Thus, the money made in its structure is highly localised and inefficient.
It does excuse itself by claiming to be "unworldly", but in fact because it has no foundational/organised structure, despite its quite vast numbers, it has had no effect for 400 years. It is still broke, thus powerless in real affairs.
Thus, strange and bizarre belief systems prevail in totality, thanks to their unified front against such a would-be usurper.
Despite even less credible bases, and dangerously violent memes that you are with them or dead, they prevail.

By simple substitution: Buddhism = Linux/O.S.  and Microsoft et al = Commercial Software.

My point as always, is: it doesn't have to be this way.
But any change has to be sideways......   :-}
   

6

General Software Discussion / The indelicate subject....... money

« on: January 21, 2013, 02:54 AM »

Greetings from the other side of the fence!
More of a desperate User than anything, but 30 years in international corporate counselling makes me like an old, old racehorse: I still react to the starter's gun. :-)

Two things that made me very successful in corporate turnaround consulting were my habit of rule-breaking and the "5 Whys".

Rule-breaking meant simply challenging accepted conventions and here by example is a giant one: "Don't tell them the price till the end of the pitch".
This bit of insanity is still alive and well to this very day. Even the peddlers of home exercising equipment and cooking utensils have this insane belief that people will be interested in a 15 minute or 30 minute sales pitch before they get to hearing the price.Of course, the product has to have some value to it for any sort of pitch to work. But greater sales always go up to an informed  buyer.

This is vitally tied into another amazing belief that the price always has to be sugarcoated or hidden in some way. An excellent way to signal to the prospective buyer that the deal isn't a good one.
Of course, here is another  codicil:The seller needs to believe in his product and that the price is right.

Another very peculiar belief that is limited entirely to the Western world is that software should be free, after all, it is easy to create for a competent programmer. He (usually) doesn't have anything in the way of overheads, most of the code is usually borrowed, and he cuts the code quite often in an employer's time. Oh, and any really good code cutter finds it all very easy to do.......

This is an area of the jungle that I wasted several good years on in  the Linux zone, trying to educate those very well-meaning mainly extremely young people that profit of one kind or another is vitally necessary for everybody's survival. All I kept trying to do was inculcate the idea that at least overheads and direct costs should be met and that promotion was also going to be vital, if any headway was to be made against the Microsoft monster.

I even proposed a very simple solution: make the whole organisation a legal, non-profit and thus tax-deductible exercise.
I also put forward the idea that a simple "administration fee" of $10 should be charged and split 50-50 between the organisation and whoever designed the version.

Implicitly though, is the codicil that professional/rapid support to a commercial entity of any kind would be quotable or tendered on the System.
The alternative being Community Support via a Bulletin Board Forum.

It would have worked then, it would work now for  DONATIONCODER and to satisfy the desire for universal availability, a form could be offered to apply for a no-charge version on the grounds of inability to pay, or as a reverse donation in the case of a charity.

The "5 Whys?"
Every objection to change must answer the question "Why do it that way", 5 times.

Peace! Or else!