Expanding FilePro Market

[Fairlight]

In the relative spacial/temporal region of
Fri, Aug 19, 2005 at 10:06:23PM -0400, Bob Stockler achieved the spontaneous
generation of the following:
> 
> NO ONE can successfully execute a demo of it on a date later
> than the time period I've coded into the table.

*resets system clock into the past*  Voila.  Timestamp methods have never
been foolproof.  While it may make the rest of the system less usable,
depending what they need, this may or may not be an issue.

Actually, -no- method is foolproof unless you have a client/server-only
model where you control the data structures on the server.  Hence, it's
really not worth much R&D time protecting something that anyone with a
modicum of the proper machine code can bypass inside an hour or two.

The silliest method I've ever seen for shareware demos: argv[0] checking.
I noticed the demo executable name was someabbreviationdemo.exe but the
help file that came with it was realname.hlp.  You rename the .exe to match
the .hlp and it was the full version.  They must think people are idiots.
Well, most probably are--but we're talking about selling to a market that
has a 0-day warez scene, here; a little more sophistication is in order.

The probable reality, after having seen many an fP-based application and
having known many developers for years, is that the product in question is
likely too specialised to be of interest for piracy.  I've seen several
clients' packages, and knowing that they go on-site to give training for
3-5 days in some cases gives me the distinct impression that the software
is virtually useless not only without docs, but without a fair amount of
training as well.  Especially if it had any custom functionality put in for
one client that others wouldn't need.

> I offered my technique to the filePro community, but no one
> was interested in it (I wanted to be paid to share it).

As is well and right.

> I thought it was a great way for filePro programmers to
> bundle programs and maintainence contracts, etc.
> 
> But I was wrong.

It's Not Just You, Bob.  I've had people ask for specific programs,
released them, and not sold a single $49 copy for over six months.  I
designed FairView after discussion on the list seemed to indicate a need
for it.  I believe I just sold the first one last month--to a place that's
not even on the list, as it was a referral.

The filePro community on the whole is very hard to sell to itself--and that
isn't just my opinion, but the opinion of numerous fP developers themselves
who would probably rather go unnamed.

I like to think of it as, "Hey, their loss."  If I sell some later (it's
not like it has a sell-by date), cool.  If not, well...not.  I've learned
not to develop for this community on spec though.  I want to see a
chequebook in hand before I even start to write the spec these days.  Been
burned too many times.

That said, there are some really good and decent folks out there who are
great to do business with and work for.

But the days of thinking of responding to "wouldn't it be neat if we
had..." type postings with actual development are over for me.  I respond
to stated-intent-to-pay only nowadays, unless I'm going to do it anyway for
the sheer pleasure or experience of doing it--and then don't be surprised
if a single copy never moves.  FairView taught me that all too well, once
and for all.  Or if I develop for someone and negotiate keeping the rights
to it for chances at further resale.  Even that's getting to be a losing
proposition.  I may do it with something in particular I want to offer, but
it seems like I'm better off just calling it custom and going full-rate on
it anymore.  I may lose the rights, but they usually don't end up being
worth keeping anyway, even in the long-term.

mark->
-- 
          *****   Fairlight Consulting's Software Solutions   *****
OneGate Universal CGI Gateway:                  http://onegate.fairlite.com/
FairPay PayPal Integration Kit:                 http://fairpay.fairlite.com/
RawQuery B2B HTTP[S] Client & CGI Debugger:     http://rawquery.fairlite.com/
Lightmail Mail Sending Agent:                   http://lightmail.fairlite.com/
FairView Image Viewer for Integration:          http://fairview.fairlite.com/