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Tag Archives: software

Rewarding those WordPress plugin authors

Posted on November 5, 2009 by Steven Hodson
3 comments

share-the-wealth One of the nice things I like about payday is that I can chip away at my list of desktop software and WordPress plugin authors that I want to send a donation to as a way of saying thank you. This is different that software or plugin and services that I use across all my blogs, or in my daily computing life.

As it is I already subscribe to things like Clicky for my blog stats and have paid for a license for WordWeb Pro but that still leaves quite a number of plugins I want to show my appreciation for. Hell I’ve even donated to developer’s whose software I may end up never using but can still appreciate the work that has gone into them.

It is easy enough to try all kinds of software and plugins and ease our conscience about using them for long periods of time because they have been created by developers who are good enough to let us use them indefinitely for free.

That doesn’t change the fact that these hard working people deserve recognition for their hard work; and what better recognition that a few bucks to maybe buy something that will let them build an even better product or even buy a case of beer to celebrate with.

So now if you’ll excuse me I’m off to check my list for this month and show some thanks.

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Categories: Odds & Ends | Tags: plugins, software, Wordpress

Ed Bott gets all picky on Apple

Posted on September 27, 2009 by Steven Hodson
13 comments

apple_strudel I want to be clear here – I have the utmost respect for Ed Bott and I consider him to be one of the best authors around writing about Microsoft Windows. I have his great book for Vista and will be getting his soon to be published tome on Windows 7. However sometimes I think he gets just a little too picky over some of the things Apple does.

Case in point is his post today about Apple’s Software Update and how he thinks that they are using it to push their software on to people without permission. Now as he tells it the only reason he even see the program is because he installed Bootcamp on his Mac Mini so he could use Windows 7 on it. So when he launched Windows 7 this morning he was faced with the Apple Software Update dialog telling him that there is new software available from Apple – just as you see here:

unwanted-apple-updates

Ed points out in his post:

Under the Updates heading, Apple says I need the iPhone Configuration Utility. Oh really? Why, for heaven’s sake? I’ve never plugged an iPhone (or an iPod or any other Apple-branded hardware) into this computer. I have absolutely no need for this program. It will do nothing except take up disk space and memory and potentially represent a vector for security issues.

And yet Apple is telling me, for some reason, that I need to install this “update.”

They’ve also conveniently selected some additional software for me in the form of QuickTime and iTunes, which is 137.5 MB of compressed installers that expands to well over 200MB of disk space when installed. If I click the Install button, all of a sudden I have a pile of software I don’t want or need, including the Bonjour network service.

Granted in the past Apple got a lot of flack for automatically enabling all the items in the update dialog (and it looks like they haven’t learned anything from that little firestorm) but other than the auto enabled items in the list I’m sorry Ed but I think you’re getting a little carried away here.

I have no problem with any software maker – operating system or otherwise – letting me know that updates are available. In the case of companies like Microsoft, even though they would get smacked hard if they did something like this, or Apple letting me know that they have new products available.

Where they went wrong in my opinion was by auto-enabling things like the iPhone Configuration Utility, Quicktime, and iTunes. Given the typical habit of computer users to just click okay this could see unwanted software being installed. I can understand what Ed is suggesting when he says

A program called Apple Software Update should do what it says andupdate Apple software. It shouldn’t push new programs on users. Not without getting their consent first.

However how is the utility suppose to get your consent if it doesn’t run in the first place. Perhaps the problem here is really one of wording. Would it make a difference Ed if it was called “Software Notification Service”?

Perhaps Ed it’s time for a coffee break and maybe an apple strudel?

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Categories: Technology | Tags: Apple, software

FeedDemon lets users opt out of ad version with newest release

Posted on September 5, 2009 by Steven Hodson
1 comment

feeddemon-licenseI think it is safe to say from the many times I have written about FeedDemon that it is one on my most favorite programs that is among the first to be installed on any fresh build of my machines. In fact when I first started using it goes back to the original beta release but because it was software you needed to pay for I could only use it for short periods of time.

Then early during the version 2 cycle I was lucky enough to have one of the members of the WinExtra Community Forums buy me a license because at that point FeedDemon didn’t support PayPal as a payment option. At some point during the very early builds of version 3 beta releases NewsGator and Nick Bradbury, FeedDemon’s developer, decided to go the free with ad support. While I was happier than hell he was taking this route because I wasn’t sure how I would be able to pay for an upgrade when the time came there were a lot of people whining and crying.

At the same time there were also a large number of people who reached out to Nick asking that there be an option to pay for FeedDemon in order to make the ads go away. In the beginning there was silence on the matter but then in the latest Pre-Release of 3.0 Nick announced the availability of paying to remove those sinful ads.

For me this was a welcome change for two reasons, the first being able to get rid of the ads. The second and in my opinion more importantly it was a way to say thanks to Nick for all his hard work. Ya I realize that he is probably sitting pretty after selling FeedDemon to NewsGator and is getting a nice paycheck to keep working on it but I still liked this option.

My only fear given NewsGator’s past e-commerce options that didn’t allow for payments using PayPal was that I wouldn’t be able to pay. So imagine my pleasant surprise when I found that they where using esellerate to handle payments which meant I could use PayPal – which I did immediately – and gladly.

Oh and as an extra bonus – you only need to buy one license which can be used with as many installed copies of FeedDemon you might have. As Nick said in a forum post on this

I’m a strong believer that once you pay for software, you should be able to use it on any computer you own.  So yes, you can use the serial number on different computers.

I should add, though, that there is a still-to-be-determined limit on the number of computers a single serial number can be used on.  But I’ll be generous with that limit – my goal is to cut back on serial numbers swapped on warez sites, etc., and not to make life difficult for legitimate customers.

Thanks Nick from a very happy customer. Keep up the good work and I’ll keep evangelize FeedDemon from here to the end of the Internet. :)

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Categories: Technology | Tags: FeedDemon, Nick Bradbury, RSS, RSS readers, software

A TweetDeck – Seesmic Desktop teardown

Posted on April 8, 2009 by Steven Hodson
17 comments

seesmic_tweetdeck In the Twitter desktop client space the two undisputed kings of the mountain at this time would have to be TweetDeck and Twhirl. However the days are numbered for Twhirl as its parent company Seesmic has just released a preview release of their new replacement Twitter client – Seesmic Desktop. As much as I may not like the idea of Twhirl going away I can understand Loic le Muir’s reasoning for this move.

I like Twhirl even if it is an AIR application and will be really sorry to see it fade into the sunset; but hey – that’s the nature of software. Now being a software junkie from way back I figured I’d check back and see what was happening in the new TweetDeck beta as well as checking out the Seesmic Desktop preview. My hope was that with at least TweetDeck it would have addressed my one big issue – the lack of user selectable fonts.

When it came to looking at Seesmic Desktop I kept in mind that this was a preview version (read that as meaning – it’s not ready for prime time by a long shot but it should keep you quiet for awhile and out name in the news). As such I didn’t have any preconceived ideas of what it would look like.

What I was looking for though was not so much what either of the applications got right – there’s enough people doing that – but rather what in my opinion they were doing wrong. With that all said here we go with:

Read more …

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Categories: Technology | Tags: Seesmic Desktop, software, tweetdeck, Twhirl, Twitter
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