Here’s another in our series of profiles of our members. All we asked was this: How did you get started?

Jerry Stern, of Science Translations, joined the ASP on October 18th, 1992 and his various online projects are online at www.sciencetranslations.com

Back in the Autumn of 1991, I had successfully escaped retail management, was working on a Masters’ Degree in Professional Writing, and was creating a database for a conference of academic journal editors at Towson University. I was asked if it was possible for me to desktop-publish a book written by an Associate Professor. They wanted a pretty complex layout for the time: two columns, lots of tables and clip art, 100 pages long, with an index and table of contents. The software available was WordPerfect 5.1 for MS-DOS running on an original IBM PC (4 MHz), and I would create camera-ready copy for the university print shop to print and bind, using the HP Laserjet (first edition, no numbers!), in the graduate school office..

The problem in assembling the book was mostly in collecting the clip art, and then having the author choose what went where in the book, in some organized way. I needed a clip art catalog, and there was no such thing for WordPerfect back in those days. I was already programming extensively on the TI-99/4a, so I looked for a programming solution. I learned the WordPerfect macro language, and wrote the basic cataloger than I needed, including options for columns and image sizes, and I gave it the obvious name of ‘Graphcat’. That made producing the book easier, and that’s how we created Teaching Strategies for Writing-Across-the-Curriculum Faculty. In those days, I also wrote occasionally for WordPerfect Magazine, and I submitted an article with the macro, but the reply came back immediately: “Oh, sorry, we did that last month; it should arrive any day now.” It did, and “it” was a spectacularly trivial piece of code.

Now, Graphcat 1.0, as sent to the magazine, was one page of program code. I decided to convert the program to a product; I added a full-screen display and error-trapping for every prompt, plus an order form, sample graphics, installation instructions, and a 20-page instruction manual. The macro code jumped to 20 pages. I released Graphcat 2.0 as shareware in October 1991. This was back in the BBS days… First sale was two weeks later, from 60 miles away. Then 300 miles, then 500, 3000, and then international.

Months pass. Public Brand Software, in Indiana, published Graphcat in their shareware catalog, and mailed me a flyer about the upcoming Summer Shareware Seminar. I drove to Indianapolis that Summer, took 30 pages of notes, heard about the ASP, and decided to join.

Two decades later. The conference is now ISVCon, owned by the ASP, and I’ve been editing the ASP’s newsletter, ASPects, since 1997. Graphcat is up to version 6.1 for WordPerfect X5 now, running in 64-bit Windows. I have many projects these days, but the beginnings of all of them was programming and publishing software back in the early ‘90s.

Profile: Jerry Stern is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

Here’s another in our series of profiles of our members. All we asked was this: How did you get started?

Tom Simondi, of Computer Knowledge, joined the ASP on April 28, 1987 and is online at www.cknow.com

After college I went into the Air Force for a twenty-year career retiring at a grade of Lt. Col. Toward the end of that twenty years, Apple put out this thing called the Apple II and, being interested in technology of all kinds and having previous experience with the larger computers, I went to a local Computerland and took a look. After several times in the store, talking with the manager, I got one at a good price in return for my writing software reviews for a second company he had that published such things. Thus was born my company Computer Knowledge (how’s that for bragging?) and I started getting bunches of Apple II software, testing them, and writing reviews.

Got pretty good at it and when IBM came out with their PC the manager arranged for me to get one of the first of those and I continued doing reviews for both platforms.

About the same time I became a life member of the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) and was active in their Los Angeles chapter to the point where I eventually started a computer subgroup for the LA chapter. Since most of the financial software of the time was based on the spreadsheet I became rather good with them and that led to my first book, “What If? A Guide to Computer Modeling.” While it was an interesting job writing it, the book never really took off as the last chapter, inserted just before publishing, mentioned that a new spreadsheet was just coming onto the market: Lotus 1-2-3.

Since that program exploded onto the scene the book was quickly dated. Several other books that were nothing but collections of past reviews that had been updated followed but none of those really took off.

After the Air Force I did some teaching and was given the chance to start the microcomputer program at El Camino Junior College in the LA area. Wanting to give the students something to read on their own computer and wanting to learn some programming that did not involve rows and columns I latched onto Turbo Pascal and wrote a program that read coded data files and presented them to the user a screen at a time. The students found the program useful.

Watching the market I had noticed some software being sold on a try-before-buy model and so I put TUTOR.COM on the market using this model. (You can see how original I was by naming the program after the executable name.) It became quite popular and the 22 June 1987 issue of Info World carried a PC-Sig story that highlighted the program as number three behind PC-Write and PC-Calc. Given that this put me just behind Bob Wallace and Jim Knopf (Button) it was  something of a high for me. (Indeed, about that same time I attended a Houston meeting with those two and other shareware authors of the time and out of that meeting came the Association of Shareware Professionals, now the Association of Software Professionals.)

Over time, the minicomputer tutorial morphed into a complete DOS tutorial and, along with that, a virus tutorial was written to try to explain computer viruses to a non-computer audience. If you look hard enough in a search you can even find the original DOS versions of these programs still on some download sites.

As my day job edged out the physical software business and as I did not bother to learn Windows programming, the shareware programs turned into freeware and, eventually, the virus tutorial became a main feature on the Computer
Knowledge website.

As that website grew, one page on the site, a list of file extensions and the programs that used them along with links to those programs, became quite popular. I eventually peeled that page off the CKnow site and from that arose FILEXT.COM which grew like the proverbial weed.

Finally, after FILExt peaked I decided to sell it and retire. I still maintain the CKnow.com site and some personal sites but not actively as I’m having too much fun in retirement.

Profile: Tom Simondi is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

ISVCon 2012 will feature panel discussions and presentations from software industry professionals worldwide. Seminars are designed to cover all of the topics that are critical to the success of small software development firms, including software marketing, developing apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, marketing Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, the latest developments in cloud computing, search engine optimization (SEO), and software security.

The program on Friday is designed for established software publishers as well as startup companies. On Saturday and Sunday, seminars are divided into two tracks to accommodate less experienced software developers and experienced software marketers.

ISVCon’s $425(US) registration fee includes three days of wall-to-wall education and networking opportunities plus a Thursday evening reception, Friday Exhibit Night with events hosted by major software industry vendors, and break rooms full of snacks and helpful representatives from the conference’s sponsors. Continental breakfasts and lunches are included in the registration fee, so developers can network with fellow industry members throughout the day. You can even sign up for a post-conference meeting on Monday July 16th with fellow attendees, and continue to share business-building ideas and develop relationships with other software professionals.

Sponsors for ISVCon 2012 include MyCommerce from Digital River, Avangate, the Association of Software Professionals, K Software, Emurasoft, DAIR Computer Systems, and Greentram Software. Visit http://www.isvcon.org/ for more information about attending ISVCon 2012. Or visit http://www.isvcon.org/sponsors.php to learn about sponsoring the conference.

Update Your Software Marketing Skills at ISVCon 2012 is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

Here are this month’s articles, available to members of the Association of Software Professionals.

Call for Nominations: ASP Hall of Fame
by Gianfranco Berardi

The ASP Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who go above and beyond the normal levels of volunteerism to contribute to the organization. The Hall of Fame award is a way of providing recognition and thanks for those people who have made significant contributions to the ASP… (page 1)

ASP News: 2012 Officers, Budget approved
(page 1)

Trade Show Calendar
(page 2)

Getting Followers on Social Media
by Jiri Novotny
Is your Facebook page a wasteland, with more tumbleweed than fans?
     If yes, then this article will help you to start building your follower base. I’m referring mainly to Facebook and twitter in this article, but all the following applies to other social media too, including G+ and LinkedIN.
     This article talks about getting followers on your company/product social profiles, not friends for your personal profile. When it comes to your mISV business, you should always focus on your company or product social profiles, and not your personal profiles. Even if you are using your own name and personality in your marketing, I recommend you to create a dedicated business social profile just for your business… (page 3)

R&D Tax Credits There For the Taking;
How Software Developers Can Benefit
by Dawson Fercho
Any established and successful software developer most likely follows a rigorous process in designing, developing, and testing their releases. Doing so can certainly lead to a healthy bottom line through successful product launches. Unfortunately, many development firms are far less disciplined in maintaining records that could have substantial impact to their financial success by taking advantage of available Research & Development tax credits.
     The federal R&D tax credit has been available to U.S. corporations since Congress passed the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981… (page 6)

New Outreach Committee Chair
by Gianfranco Berardi
Growing the membership means adding to the value you get as a member of the ASP. With a diverse, vibrant community, you have more ideas to share, more business opportunities, and more chances to grow as a software professional… (page 7)

News & Press Corner
Microsoft and Nokia to Invest Up to 18 Million Euros in Mobile Application Development Aalto University (page 7)
SIIA Survey: Publishers Prioritizing Multiple Platforms as they Develop Content Distribution Strategies (page 8 )
FTC Testifies on New Framework for Protecting Consumer Privacy (page 8 )
Survey Shows Webmasters’ Struggles with Hacked Sites (page 9)
FTC Permanently Stops Two More Operations Charged with Using Fake News Sites (page 9)

ASP 2012 Budget
(page 10)

April 2012 ASPects is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

Here’s another in our series of profiles of our members. All we asked was this: How did you get started?

Harold Holmes, of Lincoln Beach Software, joined the ASP on May 16th, 1992, and is online at www.lincolnbeach.com

My beginnings…

I didn’t know what I wanted to study when I graduated High School but in my last semester I took a fun class learning how to use/program an Apple computer. I was hooked! We got our own TRS-80 Color Computer with dual disk drives and 64k of memory! I wrote lots of “for fun” stuff for it. A short time later on an IBM I started out writing a construction spreadsheet using LOTUS 123 that would allow builders to enter layout dimensions for a home and it would calculate all the necessary lumber/hardware to build the house. Then I put it into a BASIC program but I couldn’t see “giving away” the source so I picked up a C book and started learning Turbo C. In the process of learning C I abandoned the idea of create an building app and wrote my first official product that I would sell. It was the DOS installer “First Impression.”

The online world back then was Bulletin Boards (BBS). I remember logging in and updating several sites each night. My wife was my document editor and moral supporter.

I attended the first Summer Shareware Seminar (SSS) put on by Public Brand Software, now the Software Industry Conference (SIC) and sitting next to Ed from Contact Plus and seeing his shiny product box and thinking “I thought this conference was for the little guys.” hahaha… That was pretty much the launchpad for Lincoln Beach Software. Had my first sale at SSS, to Carl from Pine Grove Software! Since then I’ve been COB and President of the ASP, and served on the Shareware Industry Awards Foundation.

When Windows became the future I dragged my feet for as long as I could. Then I took the plunge and bought a copy of VB and Delphi 1 and wrote the same program in both to see which platform I liked. Delphi won hands down and since them I have written over 30 different apps. That’s my story and I’m stick’n to it!

Profile: Harold Holmes is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

Here’s another in our series of profiles of our members. All we asked was this: How did you get started?

Tom Guthery IV, of Flix Productions, joined the ASP on January 5th, 1995, and is online at www.flixprod.com

Tom Guthery IV was born in Middlesex England, where his father was stationed in the United States Navy. After graduating high school, Tom joined the United States Air Force and was stationed at Bergstrom AFB, Austin TX, where he worked as a computer operator for four years. Upon his honorable discharge he received the Air Force Commendation Medal for meritorious service. He soon went to work for the State of Texas as a computer operator. In the meantime, he developed his skills as an animator, doing classical, hand-drawn, animation. (His first film was completed while he was still in high school.) He did some work for television advertising, but decided this was not the field he wanted to pursue.

With the aid of three film grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (administered by the Southwest Alternate Media Project), Tom was able to further his development in the field of animation, producing several animated films which won international awards. By 1990 the personal computer had matured to the point where Tom could combine his interests in both computers and animation. As an animator, he had not been impressed with the quality of the graphics and animation in most of the children’s software available at that time. Producing full-screen, high-resolution animation on the PC’s of 1990 proved to be quite a challenge. But after nearly six months of effort, and with the aid of the GRASP (GRaphical Animation System for Professionals) language, he completed his first animated educational program, “Animated Alphabet”, on his birthday, May 21, 1990. Using thousands of drawings, Tom’s programs give smooth movement and detailed animation to a degree that many programmers had thought impossible at the time.

Tom’s company, Flix Productions, is really a family affair. Tom focuses on the design, animation and programming, while his wife Deborah handles most of the administrative chores. Their three children, Tommy, John and Kelly, are the main “beta testers” and also get paid for stuffing envelopes and formatting disks. Tom’s mother, who has taught first and second grade for over 20 years, has been his primary educational consultant.

The Guthery children have also served as inspiration. According to Tom, “Before I had children, I would have probably exploited this ability to do silly or strange cartoons (most of my grant films could be described this way). But after reading ‘Mother Goose’ to my children several hundred times, and playing innumerable games of ‘Uncle Wiggly’ and ‘Candyland’, I suppose something must have rubbed off. I decided that since I couldn’t find any children’s software I was happy with for my own kids to use, I would write my own. The humor that I used in my animated films became a big part of the animated children’s software I eventually developed. Years later, I read about a study Children’s Television Workshop had done when they were preparing to develop ‘Sesame Street’, and among its findings were that children were engaged by humor, especially humor derived from incongruous situations (an elephant jumping out of a compact car, for instance). I had stumbled across the same universal truth by watching the reactions of my own children as I developed my first program, ‘Animated Alphabet’, and the element of silly comedy has remained a mainstay of all my programs.”

In addition to online and shareware marketing, several of Tom’s programs have also been made available to the public in LCR (low-cost retail) packages, published by SofSource. Additional programs have been produced exclusively for retail (available at Sears, K-Mart, CompUSA, Osco, Waldensoftware, Best Buy, Electronics Boutique, Computer City, Software Etc., Office Max, Babbages, Eckerd Drug, Meijers, and many more outlets).

Coincidences

Have you ever read C.S. Lewis’s “Screwtape Letters”? There’s a neat passage in there about how God works through what seems like coincidences–people expect big miracles, but most often it is through things that just look like chance.

My little journey in shareware came through these “coincidences”:

We got a PC for my wife to do a typing biz, but it didn’t work out, so we had an expensive PC sitting around and nothing to do with it.

My dad gave me a book about shareware (I had never heard of shareware before).

My neighbor brought home a shareware catalog (I didn’t know shareware catalogs existed before that).

I got a modem and discovered 100’s of Austin BBS’s and shareware.

I discovered the GRASP animation language on BBS’s.

I found a copy of GRASP ver. 1.10c in a shareware catalog.

It was an old version and when I tried to register it the letter came back address unknown.

I spent 6 months trying to track down GRASP – I knew there was a newer version, but I didn’t know where it came from (they had version 3.2 run-times on BBS’s). A guy on a BBS newsgroup (or whatever they called them in those days)told me that GRASP was published by Paul Mace.

I contacted Paul Mace Software and found that the newest version of GRASP (3.5) didn’t require royalty payments for each copy distributed. Had I found GRASP six months sooner the royalty requirement would have killed the possibility of shareware–imagine paying a royalty for each copy of a shareware program on a BBS.

I didn’t have the $350 to buy it, but my Dad needed some work done and paid me $350.

The rest is history

If any of those things in that chain of events hadn’t happened, or in some cases happened when it did, I wouldn’t have jumped into the untested waters of spending a ton of time creating “Animated Alphabet” in the hopes that someone would buy it.

Oh yes, one more “coincidence”. The reason I got into shareware was financial–I hadn’t gotten a promotion from my job as a computer operator for the state of Texas in 6 years. Guess when I finally got the raise? Two months before I quit my job because shareware was doing well and because a guy in NY saw my shareware on a BBS and hired me to do medical animation (I worked for him for 10 years). If I had gotten the raise sooner I wouldn’t have tried doing shareware.

Profile: Tom Guthery IV is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

As of today, Gregg Seelhoff of is the new ASP Games SIG Charter Executive. He was instrumental in forming the SIG and brings over 30 years of experience in the video game business to the job.

Congratulations, Gregg!

Gregg Seelhoff is the new ASP Games SIG Charter Executive is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

Here are this month’s articles, available to members of the Association of Software Professionals.

March 2012 ASPects

Why Social Media Matters to mISVs
by Jiri Novotny
Dextronet.com

I’ve noticed in ASP Newsgroups and other discussions that many software business owners think that Facebook is a waste of time for their business. In other cases, small business owners are creating Facebook pages for their businesses and don’t really know why; they just feel that they should do it, because everybody else is doing it. They don’t want to miss out–but on what, exactly? (page 1)

Trade Show Calendar
(page 2)

ISVCon 2012: Call for Speakers
by Sue Pichotta, ISVCon Manager

ISVCon, the new Software Industry Conference (SIC) is issuing a Call for Speakers. ISVCon is a non-profit conference for ISVs, or Independent Software Vendors: developers who sell their own software. ISVCon will be held July 13-15, 2012, in Reno, Nevada at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa. Please consider supporting the conference not only by attending, but also by sharing your knowledge with others. We invite you to submit your proposal to speak at the conference… (page 5)

ASP News:
Gregg Seelhoff appointed as Games SIG Charter Executive (page 5)

Getting Started with Google Checkout’s HTML API Integration
by Jerry Stern
Webmaster, PC410.com

Routine software sales should go through a specialist company. OK, got that out of the way. Selling a software product online is best handled by a company that will do all the work for you, creating a secure ordering page, accepting credit cards, providing downloads, handing out registration keys–the list is endless, and just because we have a tradition of re-inventing the wheel doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
     That said, for some sales, it’s handy to be able to setup a sales link that’s flexible enough to handle transactions for other items, like upgrades for extra services, or an open amount payment form with no pre-determined purchase amount. Google Checkout can do all that… (page 6)

Juggling 1000 Balls and Automating Your mISV Business
by Jiri Novotny
Dextronet.com

At the beginning of the New Year, I’ve been thinking long and hard about how to take my business to the next level. I’ve come to a realization that without proper strategy in place and approaching things differently, it will be impossible. I’ve developed some basic ideas and concepts, and published them on my blog. The post was called “Seriously, Stop Sabotaging Your 2012 Goals”. That was at the beginning of January.
     After that, I’ve been working on this particular issue for a few more days, purely from the mISV perspective. And today, I would like to offer you the results of my work and give you an actionable guide which will help you to get (and stay) on top of things and ultimately grow your business. Think of this as a systematic approach of doing software business… (page 8 )

March 2012 ASPects is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

“When everybody else is doing it, don’t,” said Robert A. Lutz in his book “Guts – The seven laws of business that made Chrysler the world’s hottest car company.”

Lutz was the former President and Vice Chairman of the Chrysler Corporation. He has some fascinating ideas about marketing, including ideas that can help microISVs sell more software.

Following the herd, Lutz believes, can result in disaster. In most cases, the prudent decision is to not get caught up in the currently popular fad. The world doesn’t need another me-too application.

Lutz talks about a number of alternatives to following other companies: For example, you can pay a lot of attention to detail. Make prospects believe that, if you spend a lot of time ensuring that one small thing is done properly, you are no doubt equally passionate about ensuring that the critical things are done right.

Don’t be confined by what is currently being done in the industry. Instead, try to find a category-buster – an idea which, if implemented properly, can put you at the top of your software niche.

Lutz believes that we should let our brands be known for excellence in one or two specific areas. Never try to be all things to all people.

That’s a good software marketing strategy, too.

– by Al Harberg, the Software Marketing Glossary guy

Me-Too Software Marketing is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

We aim provide free access to a comprehensive selection of game development topics taught by leading industry experts, and to create a space where bright and innovative voices can be heard.

There will be tracks on Education, Programming, and Design & Production featuring prominent speakers such as Ian Schreiber, Alex Champandard, and Mike Acton.

While the conference is free, registration for the individual sessions is still required.

Game Development Webinar Conference This Weekend #AltDevConf is a post from: Association of Software Professionals