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

David Hyde, of HydeSoft Computing, joined the ASP July 23, 2002, and is online at www.dplot.com

Jerry Stern, Editor, ASPects

 
David Hyde

My college training was rudimentary at best (CS majors would say non-existent): Introduction to FORTRAN and a steel frame analysis class that involved hours and hours of typing punch cards, standing in line (don’t you DARE drop that stack!), then several minutes after feeding the cards in, getting a syntax error due to a typo on card 786 of 1324. One diagnostic at a time, so the cycle was repeated MANY times. What I learned from that class was mostly that I didn’t want to work with computers , though I did pick up enough FORTRAN to get by.

In ‘82 I went to work at an engineering lab. Most computer work was done at a dumb Tektronix terminal (that had REALLY good graphics for the day–no pixels, instead vectors were… well, vectors) hooked to a Honeywell mainframe. And then PCs came along and POW. I fooled around a lot with BASICA and IBM’s FORTRAN offering and hoped that jazzing up my hotrod 6Mhz system with a 9Mhz clock crystal wouldn’t cause the building to catch on fire. I fooled around with a lot of graphing stuff and pretty basic physics problems. I also taught myself assembly language to optimize graphics and create my own menu system (all of which became irrelevant when Windows took over the world, but it was good experience).

Then in ~’88 our director dictated that each of five labs should publish a report/manual in some sort of electronic format, and I jumped at it thinking it sounded like fun. At the time I was involved with a big test series and figured I’d come up with an electronic version of my report, complete with 16-color pictures (How in the world did we put up with that?) Thankfully that project got delayed and delayed and delayed some more and, because the deadline for an “electronic version of ” was going to occur before that project was completed, I chose instead to publish an electronic version of a technical manual our lab had contributed quite a bit to, including all the calculations and… this is the important part for the private me… graphical output of those calculations.

If the test program had kept to the schedule… well, I’d most likely not be an ASP member or have ever heard of the other ASP members in our newsgroups, and that would be a tragedy.

Profile: David Hyde is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

Here are 6 things that you should check on your programs:

Code signing

Signed executables are important at many stages nowadays. Even though the customers usually wouldn’t notice the actual signatures, they will notice the reduced warnings that a signed executable causes. This warnings do not only come from Windows during the installation, but also from antivirus programs and other security software which rate the “trust” of each program. That’s why you should not only sign your installer, but also all ‘.exe’ and ‘.dll’ files that you’re installing.

High-resolution icons

I never noticed this one myself until a customer told me. The 16×16 and 32×32 icons in my programs looked pixilated and outdated. You can add higher resolutions to your “.ico” file with the freeware IcoFX. Be sure to keep a backup of the old “.ico” file because not all IDEs allow linking the new “.ico” files. As a workaround you can use the command-line tool ReplaceVistaIcon (available on Codeproject) which can replace the “.ico” section in your executable with the new “.ico” file.

Common controls 6

The new version of the Microsoft GUI will allow applications to have a “nicer” look, for example the slightly rounded buttons. You can activate this by adding a manifest file with a “Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls” section. You can either specify the manifest file in your project settings or use Microsoft’s manifest.exe command-line tool.

UAC

Many customers now have Windows versions with split rights accounts. In normal mode a lot of things will fail, like installing a service or creating a shortcut in the startup folder. If your program requires full admin rights for any of its actions, you should be aware of this. If the function fails you should either give the user a **helpful** error message or handle the UAC “elevation” to full rights automatically.

You can detect the type of account your program is running under with GetTokenInformation and TokenElevationType. It is not possible to elevate a running process. You have to start a new process with ShellExecuteEx, specifying “runas” as verb.

Progress bar

If your program includes any sections that display a progress bar for some time, then you should support the Windows 7 feature of displaying the progress also in the Windows task bar. The details greatly depend on your programming language. Use IID_ITaskbarList3 as a starting point.

Larger fonts

The screen resolutions have become so ridiculously high, that it’s difficult to read the text on the screen. That’s why many customers have activated larger fonts in Windows. This causes Windows to automatically scale up all dialogs. This works nicely with most standard dialogs but can cause problems with custom controls. Check your application while large fonts are activated.

Thomas Holz is the owner of ITSTH and the author of outlook tools to synchronize, remove duplicates and use boilerplate texts and writes in his devblog, if he still has too much time after optimizing the website.

6 Things to Check on Your (Old) Programs is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

Shareware was one of the surprises of the early personal computer industry. Who would have thought that you could make a living from software paid for on the honor system? Make it publicly available, invite people to make copies of it and give them to their friends, and base your income prospects on a little notice asking people to send you a few dollars if they found the program useful.

Michael Swaine, Dr Dobbs, January 2000

Early shareware pioneers including Andrew Fluegelman, Jim Knopf (Button), Bob Wallace and Marshall Magee proved the commercial viability of the shareware concept, reportedly making millions.

The Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) was formed in 1987 to promote shareware as a business model and to further the interests of shareware developers. Today it has over a thousand members. But times have changed. It is no longer necessary to distribute software by sharing floppy disks or to pay with a check in the mail. Many consumers, fairly or not, have come to see “shareware” as short-hand for “amateurish”.

Today, the Association of Shareware Professionals announced that it was renaming itself to the Association of Software Professionals, following a unanimous vote by the board. It has widespread support from the members in doing so. It also follows in the footsteps of a number of other organizations who have already dropped “shareware” from the name, including SIC (formerly ‘Shareware Industry Conference’, now ‘Software Industry Conference’) and ESWC (formerly ‘European Shareware Conference’, now ‘European Software Conference’).

I approached a number of shareware veterans to find out how they felt about the name change. I asked them:

• How do you feel about the ASP name change?
• Do you think the term ‘shareware’ is still one that small software developers should use?
• The try before you buy model first popularized by shareware is completely standard now. But, unlike early shareware, it is usually limited in some way until you pay. Do you feel the idea of shareware won or lost?

Here are their responses:

• Jim Knopf (Button)
• Marshall W. Magee
• Nelson Ford
• Rob Rosenberger
• Paris Karahalios
• Jerry Medlin
• Rosemary West
• Gary Elfring
• Paul Mayer
• Mike Dulin

I don’t like the new name.

Jim Knopf (Button), one of the earliest and most successful pioneers of the shareware model, his Buttonware company reportedly grew to 35 employees, a broad line-up of shareware products and a $4.5 million gross annual income before its sale in 1992

The consumer software industry has changed and I applaud the ASP for adjusting its strategy as well.

I believe we’ve seen the shareware concept brought forward over the years and the original concept has sustained the test of time. At the end of the day, people like the option of trying something before they buy it.

Marshall W. Magee, Founding President of the ASP,
he released Automenu in 1983 and became one of the first shareware authors to make more than $1 million dollars in sales. Automenu is still for sale

Shareware was invented as a means of taking advantage of the underground sharing of software (usually copyrighted commercial software, but sometimes, small utilities and code fragments). In the early days the great majority of this sharing took place on BBS’s and user groups and then came shareware distributors who reached a broader and more business oriented audience.

I suspect that the distribution methods which shareware was supposed to take advantage of are all but gone.  Obviously, there are still shareware sites online, but I don’t know if they generate significant sales for programmers.

The idea of shareware won if the programmers made more money with it than they did without it. My shareware company, PsL, not only got software out to users all over the world, but we took phone (and later Internet) and mail orders for hundreds of shareware authors, so we had a pretty good idea of how different programmers were doing.

Of course, there were many, many thousands of shareware authors, all of them expecting to make a lot of money from their software. Supply and demand tells you that just can’t happen. The people who made little or nothing tended to blame shareware, despite the fact that some authors made a lot of money, and a few made a LOT of money.  One of the most successful shareware programs of all times in terms of sales was WinZip, and it was marketed in the purest form of shareware – completely unlimited, nothing sent to the customer but a receipt.

Nelson Ford, ASP founder and member since 1987, founder of the Public (software) Library – the largest commercial library of public domain and shareware software

I’ve always advocated an evolutionary model for shareware. Our quick adaptability gives us a decisive edge when we compete with “the big boys” who can’t make decisions. If our evolution has led us to the point where we should drop the word “shareware,” then so be it.

And we really can make a case to drop the “shareware” moniker, given the fact everyone uses the shareware sales model these days. We now distinguish old, non-evolved sales tactics as “oh, that’s one you can’t try first” software. So why not change our name to keep up with evolution?

Consider the analogy of the telephone’s evolution here in the U.S. When wireless handsets first came out, we described them specifically as “cordless phones”. When radio phones first came out, we described them specifically as “mobile phones”. But the concept of wireless is now so pervasive (except in the U.S. government and military), that we distinguish the original non-evolved phone as a “landline”.

At some point you gotta admit “Homo Erectus” isn’t good enough to describe this evolved species. Let’s call it “Homo Sapien”. At some point you gotta admit the same thing for shareware. If the membership feels we need to give it a new name, then it’s time to give it a new name.

I’ve always been against crippling because I believe in the “pervasive” theory of software distribution. In particular it explains why antivirus software is so pervasive – John McAfee wanted his name emblazoned on every desktop in the world and he made it so. His non-shareware competitors quickly realized their traditional non-shareware sales channels didn’t hold a candle to McAfee’s aggressive electronic giveaway scheme.

I think shareware achieved a big win with its “time-limited fully functional” sales pitch. In the early days, shareware authors were constantly looking for better ways to make a sale. We had so many different people trying so many different techniques that we were bound to come across the better ways of doing business. Those who limited the product’s functionality were perceived as not trusting their customers; those who committed the user to a decision were perceived as simply making the customer give a definitive answer (“yes I want it” or “no I don’t”).

We see this philosophy in other “shareware” realms, like auto dealerships. Some people take a dealer’s car home with them for 24hrs, then they have got to buy it or return it. I once took a pickup truck home to make sure it fit in my small garage – why wouldn’t I want to do the same thing with a piece of software before I invest money in it? That’s a big win for shareware in my book.

We won in 1997 when Microsoft released a 120-day fully functional copy of Office.

Rob Rosenberger, ASP member since 1988,
publisher of the Shareware Compendium

The Shareware Industry Conference changed its name to the Software Industry Conference in 2007. Twenty plus years ago, when many (most?) PC users were still hackers, the term “Shareware” had wide spread recognition. Although, even then, there was some confusion between shareware, freeware, crippleware etc. Nowadays, the term is nebulous at best, and very misleading. It’s mainly used to describe “everything one can download from the Internet” (as an aside, a very useful experiment would be to ask 100 teenagers and 100 business people what they think of when they hear the world shareware).

The SIC had been created to bring together “small” developers, all of whom, at the time used to be software authors distributing their products as “shareware”. The industry changed over the years, the term shareware lost its token value and many SIC attendees use a number of different marketing venues for their wares, so the term “shareware” was no longer describing the conference.

I think as a concept, the shareware distribution model was instrumental in convincing mainstream software vendors that users are more likely to buy a product, if they get to try it first. And, let’s not forget that not all products distributed as shareware were fully functional, even in the old days. That was one of the early requirements for ASP membership, but a lot of us fought for years to use that requirement as a convincing argument to get users to choose ASP member products, and not other “shareware” products which had limited functionality, were time limited, etc.

I think the name change has been a long time coming. The ASP has come a long way since the days when I was a member, and I think changing the name to “Software” will help the association grow, as it will probably attract developers that may have felt there was a perceived stigma associated with “Shareware”. Though I don’t have any hard statistics, I think similar to the SIC, many ASP members distribute their software through many different channels, one of which is shareware, so for the association name to reflect “just that marketing channel” was restrictive.

Paris Karahalios, SIAF co-founder, Software Industry Conference board member and co-founder of Trius Inc

I’m not sure anyone outside the ASP will notice the change, but I’ve found the word “Shareware” less recognizable over the last few years, so it is time to drop the word from the organization name.  Fortunately, the ASP can still use the same acronym. Words come and go from our language and the “Shareware” has had its day. The “try before you buy” model is now the most common way to distribute software.  As Rob Rosenberger said a few years ago “we won”.

Jerry Medlin, involved in shareware since 1984, founder of Medlin Accounting software

The ASP name change reflects a long-standing reality. This is the software industry, and ASP members use many different marketing methods. By adopting a broader, more inclusive name, we are not rejecting the past, we are living in the present and welcoming the future. Developers who feel that the term “shareware” is still an important part of their identity can go on using it with pride. But it’s not really necessary. “Try before you buy” is the norm and no longer needs any explanation or special terminology. The focus should be on the product, not on the marketing technique.

Shareware was always about the process of experimentation. From the very early days, developers tested different customer incentives, and over time adjusted their methods to better work with their evolving user base. The core philosophy behind shareware, try before you buy, has never changed. Steve Lee’s catalog used to bear the slogan, “Someday all software will be sold this way”. It was a bold statement at the time, but he was right. One by one, the biggest companies in the business started doing it our way. It was the small, independent developers who set the standard, and we continue to do so with benefits like niche-marketed products and personalized customer service that most large corporations still can’t match.

Rosemary West has been involved in shareware since ‘the late 1980s’, she has held various board positions in the ASP and ESC

Shareware is just a marketing concept and is as subject to change as software is. Just as my first CP/M program won’t run under modern Windows computers, shareware, as it was originally conceived, doesn’t work the same way now.

Shareware was developed as a way to market software by people or companies that had no other practical way to reach their target audience. With the development of the internet, the major barriers to directly reaching your customers, no matter what your size, have been removed. At the same time most software companies offer free trial versions of their software.  So for all practical purposes shareware as a marketing concept no longer exists.

The ASP lost the war to market the term shareware to the general public years ago. It was never much of a war in any case. The ASP never had a budget to practically address that issue in any case. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again- your customers don’t care what term you use to describe your software. Spend your time marketing your software, not arguing about what to call the method you use to sell it.”

I think it is about time for the ASP name change.  I don’ think “shareware” is a term developers should use. The term shareware can have one of three possible connotations in a customer’s mind:

1. They have never heard of it so at best it confuses them.
2. They have heard the term and have a negative association with the word.
3. They have heard the term and have a positive association with the word.

Unless you believe that the vast majority of all people fit into class 3 above, you are better off avoiding the word altogether. If you don’t use the word at all you have no negative connotations or confused customers.

The original idea that shareware could not be limited or crippled in any way was an accidental by-product of the first meeting of shareware authors. This group of shareware authors wanted to keep a particular person out of their “club”. The rules that prohibited limiting a program to encourage payment were designed to keep someone out of the club. Things would probably have been better if those limits had never been imposed. No one now tells us how to market our software. We do what we feel is best for our businesses and our customers. Shareware is an idea whose time has come and gone.

Gary Elfring has been in business since 1979, he has held board positions in the ASP, SIAF and ISCF, he is founder of Elfring Fonts

I feel that my “way of life” may be changing. As one of the first shareware developers who started before we called it “shareware”, I still use the term in all of my software as well as in all of my marketing.  And since it is the well-known term for the try-before-you-buy method of marketing, I will continue to use it to let people know that we want them to try our software before they pay a penny. This is why we have 100% satisfied and happy customers, they didn’t pay until they were sure our software was what they were looking for. So I guess I will be a member of the Association of Software Developers, but will still sell my software through the shareware method of marketing.

If developers want to use the term “shareware” like I do, then they should be allowed to. And even when they grow through the years as we have in my company, if they want, they should be able to continue to use this well know term to describe the way they market their software.

Shareware definitely won. If you look on the web, most software companies including Microsoft now have trial downloads just like we do. And a lot of it is not limited at all with the exception that it stops working after a number of days exactly like we do with our software. We set the trend and now as you see, the rest of the software world is joining us, maybe not as members of the ASP, but as “shareware distributors”.

Paul Mayer wrote a number of Freeware programs in the 1970s for Heathkit computers, full time shareware author since 1991, President ZPAY Payroll Systems Inc

The role of the ASP really won’t change. What will change is the perception that people and companies might have had of the organization because of the word “shareware” in the name. The ASP will still be the organization that software developers, vendors and marketing people join to enhance their business.

The ASP’s private targeted forums are unique in many ways. Probably the best thing about them is they are where people and companies who have been in the business for many years will help out the new guy. The monthly newsletter ASPects always has articles that inspire you to do things, or make you think in new ways. The members only website too has great value. At $100 a year it is a real bargain, especially when you take advantage of offers that member companies only give to other ASP members.

Most importantly though, the ASP will remain a friendly organization dedicated to helping small commercial vendors thrive, whatever you may call them – microISVs, independent developers or shareware authors.

Mike Dulin, current ASP President, CEO  of sharewarejunkies.com and sharewareradio.com

Overall response from ASP members has been very positive. Personally, as an ASP member, I support the name change.  I avoid using the word “shareware” on my own product website. Most of my customers don’t know what it means, and those that do may view it in a negative light. I believe many of the aspects of early shareware, such as honour based payments and fully functional trials, were artefacts of the technology limitations of the time. The key concept of shareware was being able to try before you buy. It is easy to forget how radical an idea this was at the time. Before this software purchasers had to rely just on reading marketing materials from the vendor and magazine reviews of questionable independence. Try before you buy has been instrumental in improving the overall quality of software and providing a better experience for software purchasers. That was a battle that the shareware pioneers well and truly won, and they can be justly proud of this achievement. Does this mean the ASP is obselete? Not at all. The ASP still has a very important role in helping small, independent software developers to be commercially successful. Have you considered joining the ASP?

Shareware is dead – long live shareware!

Andy Brice runs a business selling seating planner software using the try before you buy model, writes a blog aimed small software businesses and provides consulting on marketing and usability to microISVs and other small software businesses. He would like to thank the many ASP members that contributed to this article with quotes or suggestions.

Shareware is dead – long live shareware! is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

I hope this year the ASP will become even more popular (this is also the main 2010 goal of Jim Coutu, the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of the ASP) and will welcome more software authors.

A few changes have happened inside the ASP board: it has a new Chairman and 3 new members have joined the Board for a two year term. Jim Coutu from GatorData Inc is the new Chairman of the Board of Directors for this year. The three new members who have been elected for the board, that I wish to welcome wholeheartedly, are:

Don Waterfield, senior programmer/analyst at Aqumix, Inc.	Laura Look, project manager at Bitsmithsoft.	Michael C. Battilana, president of Cloanto.

A big thank you on behalf of everyone at ASP goes to the 3 members whose term ended in the Board of Directors, for all the enthusiastic work done in ASP: Henk Devos, Greg Weir and Dave Gjessing.

Get involved!

ASP depends on the commitment of professionals from the software industry. For the ASP to effectively represent you and our software industry we invite your participation. We are actively seeking passionate and capable professionals to join the ASP and serve as officers or committee chairs. Get involved at the ground level and offer your skills to help.

State of the Micro-ISV-osphere

For 2010, I think it would be a good idea to start with an assessment of your current software business situation, in comparison to the shareware industry statistics.

Our colleague Rob Ellison parsed through all the PAD files available in the ASP PAD directory (76,066 products!) and generated answers to some questions regarding the Micro-ISV-osphere state – do check it out, you might find something of interest!

So, what would you like to see ASP doing for you in 2010? Please comment below.

Happy 2010 with ASP! is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

The ASP funded the development of a software certification service called Safer Downloads (SD) through the trial stage.
It now wants to divest itself of this property and is soliciting bids to transfer ownership.

Up for sale, as a package, are the:

• saferdownloads.com (.net & .org) and safeshareware.com domain names (4 total)
• USPTO trademark registration of the seals
• ownership of the proprietary software and content used to power the site
• activity and test records, as they exist on site

All funds offered by initial prospective customers (less than 10) have been returned. Most bank balances have been recovered by the ASP. An existing CD (time deposit) will be recovered soon and so there are no financial assets transferring to buyer under this sale.

NOT for sale are the domain hosting, and DNS, Corporation shell (negotiable), records, and PayPal account. Buyer will be expected to supply own legal, financial, and internet environment. The buyer will also be expected to operate the site independently of the ASP and not imply any ongoing ASP approval, involvement, or participation.

The ASP explicitly reserves the right to not accept any bid for any reason or apply arbitrary ranking offsets. Extent of cash payments to ASP and special pricing for ASP members are two anticipated ranking factors. ASP expectation is that bidding start at $1,000.

Contact VP@asp-shareware.org with SD4SALE anywhere in each email. Such email correspondence may be quoted in whole or in part among ASP officers, directors, and volunteers having access to ASP boardroom. We ask that you register your intent prior to Midnight Dec. 13, 2009.

Safer Downloads for Sale is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

In many cases, they show a beautiful virtual 3D box shot, but somehow neglect the same eye candy on their product screenshots. What I am talking about here is the use of various artefacts such as not properly clipped window borders, weird shadows or the most obvious “dirt” on background.

So it is important to have pixel perfect virtual boxes (which don’t even exist in reality), but the quality of screenshots of products itself doesn’t matter ? Or are there some other obstacles that make producing nice screenshots a hard task ? Lets have a look.

New Windows 7 & Vista Aero theme look

With the arrival of the new Windows Aero theme, new problems related to taking screenshots emerged. The new see-through Aero Glass windows with rounded corners look really cool. But in the moment you capture images of your software with traditional print screen tools, you will also capture everyting you see beneath the glass parts of window. A new term was coined to name this – “a dirty background”. Dirty backgrounds may look weird, out of context and act disturbing. We all know having additional links on shopping cart page may distract customer from the buying act, so why should we tolerate distracting elements on images whose main purpose is to persuade potential customers to buy as well ?

Have a look at this screenshot:

I just grabbed the above screenshot, while writing this article, from the current website of one well-respected ASP member (hope it’s ok Andy ).

Notice the “dirty background”. Also, the corners of the clipped window look tufty. Looking at this real example makes my eyes wander to the dirty background area trying to recognize what was beneath. I think this is distracting, because I should be considering the quality of the help file window and not puzzle dirty backgrounds.

So I made one small improvement:

And, because Perfect TablePlan relates to organizing ceremonial events, I themed the same screenshot on a background with wedding table image plus one reflection effect for the screenshot itself. Have a look:

However, in the last example, the background is back again, which may distract users from the screenshot objective. I think in this case we have a better kind of distraction, because the wedding table image background  relates to the screenshot itself, while the previous window with random dirty background was completely unrelated.  The screenshot in this example can be further improved by putting more focus on the captured window itself, while keeping related background image present.

For this purpose, I made the original background image as half transparent against solid black background producing the following result:

Does it matter ?

Now that we improved Andy’s real-world screenshot, the most important question still persists – does it matter? Would it improve the overall perception or even increase sales? The fact is Andy is successful even with dirty background screenshots. So what, would he need it ?

Looking for an answer I have found following articles:

1. Bob Walsh in his “Why Hammers Sell Better Than Your Software” article wrote “A really good screenshot… this one screenshot sold me on this task management application”, (referring to culturecode .com). Really, this Mac-shot is very clean and the magnifier effects help emphasize the focus even more.
2. Stephen Anderson in his blog post claims that “Eye Candy IS A Critical Business Requirement“. My favorite slide from his presentation shows very nicely that eye-candy is also about trust.
3. Brandon Staggs on his web design service page claims: “Everyone knows the power of a first impression. The first judgment a visitor makes about your web site is how it looks”. So here is a question for Brandon: What influence does have screenshots made with various “artefacts” on the “first impression” factor ?
4. Apple – absolute perfection in design. If you look at any Apple software website, you can clearly see only  artistic crafted screenshots created in 3D space with shadows and reflections. Apple claims “design is function”.

So the conclusion of the above examples is that yes, pretty screenshots matter. The main reasons are:

• It helps to better target customer FOCUS.
• Pretty screenshots build customer TRUST.
• Pretty screenshots (on pretty web page) make a good FIRST IMPRESSION.

How can you do it ?

Lets move on to the technical part – creating a clean and pretty screenshot in the new Windows Aero environment. My main concern here is to explain how to get rid of the “dirty background” problem. There is a myriad of screen capturing tools but only 2 and half of them are able to directly capture clean images of windows in Aero Glass environment (none of that tools is from Microsoft tough).

Note: Besides “dirty backgrounds”, another problem is how to capture gradual surrounding shadow of windows.

Without tools

Essentially, you don’t need any tools to make a clean screenshot in Windows Aero. The trick is to position the window being captured against some solid color surface, then capture it and crop it. Just follow tutorials like this one.

With this approach, to get the solid background, you can do any of these two:

1. Set desktop wallpaper to some solid color and remove icons in some greater area to make space for windows positioning.
2. Open an empty white page in any Internet browser and lay Aero windows against the empty white page.

After the capture, a cropping step is required, because you are capturing either the whole desktop or a greater region with traditional capture tools. Depending on the tool, some may have a built-in cropping function.

There is also the option to turn off Windows Aero theme. This makes windows non-transparent, but it doesn’t solve the problem with rounded corners and window shadows. Finally, you must position the window against a solid background to properly handle rounded corners and shadow.

Last but not least, cropping itself may become an aesthetics problem. In most cases, you will have to do it by hand, which will produce unequal margins on more screenshots. And it may look unprofessional to have multiple screenshots – each with slightly different margin around. Of course, you can crop right around the window border – loosing shadow and possibly producing tufty corners.

The final problem which cannot be solved through this manual method is the fact that the captured images are already combined against its background color. Further adjustments as shown in the  examples above (with wedding backgrounds) are due to the lack of Alpha channel information, almost impossible to do without a professional tools.

With tools

Another approach is to use a tool which captures clean Windows Aero image (possibly with Alpha transparency channel).  There are only a few options here. A total of 2 applications can capture the clean image of Aero windows with Alpha channel and 1 application can capture the clean image, but without Alpha channel in captured window.

As you can see, the lack of tools might explain why many vendors tolerate the lower quality of their screenshots. It’s logical – if it’s tedious or hard to achieve, they simply don’t do it.

The Tools (sorted by price)

1. Window Clippings by Kenny Kerr, price $18

This tool simply does it. Captures clean Windows Aero images with complete Alpha transparency channel and shadows around. You can capture multiple windows at once, add watermark or send resulting image to FTP. Images produced by Window Clippings can be reused in external tools such as Photoshop for creating more sophisticated compositions (eg. themed backgrounds, reflection effects, 3D perspectives etc.)

2. WinSnap by NTWind software, prices starting at $24.90

This tool only does half of the job. It captures clean Windows Aero images, but without the underlying Alpha transparency channel. It simulates the surrounding shadow, which is a consequence of not recording the Alpha channel itself. As a result, images produced with WinSnap cannot be fully reused in Photoshop for more sophisticated compositions, because transparent parts of windows are already combined against white color. WinSnap on the other hand offers built in effects – reflection, contour, rotate, resize and watermark. It also has a sophisticated function for capturing all application windows at once.

3. CrossGL Alpha Screenshot by MicroInvention Ltd., price $29.95

This tool does it too. It captures clean Windows Aero images with complete Alpha channel and shadow around. You can capture multiple windows individually and position them mutually in a built-in Image Composer. Images produced by CrossGL Alpha Screenshot can be fully reused in external tools such as Photoshop. The program has built-in reflection, rotation, resize and 3D perspective tools and can put an arbitrary image on background. Watermarking, FTP and Send by Email are also included.

Use of these tools makes it quick and easy. They also automatically crop Windows Aero screenshots with constant margins, so your screenshots don’t suffer from the crop-by-hand variable margins problem.

Pretty Sells – Does it Relate to Screenshots? is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

We all know that we should be spending more time reading good books about business, sales and marketing. But it’s difficult to find worthwhile books. Here are some tips for locating the best business books, buying them affordably, and building a library that will pay dividends year after year.
Choosing Good Business Books
Amazon.com has more reviews than other book sites. But it’s often difficult to tell if the book being reviewed is relevant to the software industry in general, and to mISVs in particular.  Many times I’ll buy a marketing book based on amazon.com recommendations, only to find that the book is targeted at larger enterprises. Most of us don’t need to read about strategies that ensure that our marketing staff is communicating effectively with our manufacturing managers.

In addition, there are a lot of books whose principles simply don’t translate well into the world of software development. A better source of information is to listen to recommendations from fellow software developers.

• Read book-related threads in the ASP newsgroups;
• Read the Software Marketing Book Club postings in the Educational Software Cooperative’s (ESC’s) blog;
• There are more than 30 reviews of marketing and sales books in the archives of my Marketing Newsletter. All of them are written from the perspective of a mISV in the software development industry;
• Ask for recommendations from other mISVs, and share information about your favorite books with the community.

Finding the Books You Need
Once you’ve chosen a book, the least expensive way to acquire it is to borrow it through your local library. Here in the US, town libraries’ book catalogs are searchable online. I’m able to easily search the catalogs of 20-or-so nearby towns. All local libraries here in Connecticut have inter-library loan programs that allow you to borrow books from any library in the state, for just a dollar or two.

Online stores such as amazon.com offer discounts on most books. And you can find deeply-discounted bargains in the used-book category for many business and marketing books.

Local bookstores are a great source for recently-published books. Generally, you can spend as much time as you like checking each book, to ensure that it will be useful in your business.
Building a Library of Marketing, Sales, and Business Books
There are quite a few bookstores on the Internet that sell remainders. My favorite is Book Closeouts. Remainders are books that publishers sell at deep discounts because they printed too many copies. Or they’re books that have been returned by book stores to the publishers, and the publishers don’t want to carry tiny quantities of them in their inventories.  Book Closeouts offers more than 50,000 books at deeply discounted prices, including some really great marketing and sales books. These books are so inexpensive, it’s easy – and affordable – to build a library.

Here in the US, local libraries sell used books to raise funds. A small town library might offer 15,000 books at its weekend sale. Larger libraries can have up to four times that number. The typical mix of books is 95 percent donations from the people in town, and 5 percent library discards. While books can cost between $2 (US) each and $5 per bag, you can generally expect to pay $1 for each book you buy.

At each book sale, there are typically a dozen-or-so dealers with their handheld PDAs and phones, reading barcodes and making big stacks of books. But most of the books are bought by book-lovers and bargain-hunters. You’ll find books that simply aren’t available at bookstores. And you’ll be helping your local library. Don’t go to these sales expecting to find recent tech books. But you’ll often find great business books, and books in every category. To find book sales in your area, visit Booksalefinder.com.

Finally, there are book-trading clubs online. You list the books that you want to trade, and you’re given credit for each book that other club members request and receive from you. You use your credits to request books from other members. All you pay are the shipping charges to send your book to another member. Check out Book Mooch.
The Bottom Line
Programming might be the most enjoyable part of your business. But building a successful software development business requires a lot of knowledge about business, marketing and sales. Spend a couple of hours each month reading hard-hitting business books, and watch your business grow, year after year.

How to Find Great Business Books for microISVs is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

… if you had to start your software story again?

As a software industry enthusiast, I am curious to know how others see their business development and what they would change, in hindsight and with a set of brand new 2009 eyes.

Neil on Business of Software Network asked the community a similar question (If you could wave a magic wand…) related to the marketing of software. Answers such as focus on usability, better knowledge of customers poured in (the discussion is still open).

Some even expressed their wish to get into their customers heads completely, or even in their competition’s financial reports, to see if it’s worth outrunning them anyway.

When asked the same question, some ASP members mentioned for example the need to have had a team right from the start or outsource the skills they did not have, instead of doing it all by themselves.

“If I were to start my software business again, I would find teammates and split the ownership. Or, I would have come to the realization much sooner that my dream of bootstrapping my own sweat investment into a good rate of return was not succeeding” – Mark Walsen, from Notation Software.

S Gupta from SSGIndia agreed on the necessity of partnership and even stated willingness to find such partners inside ASP “I would have started with partners with equal stake, commitments, diverse capabilities and Networking abilities“.

Riaz Faride from UpClick also stressed some interesting points on the ASP discussion lists, such as the need for community building even before the product launch and better security assessment:

“I would start working on a thin client less than 5MB in size, which will be managed by a central network (same as Cloud Computing approach). The thin client would be distributed free of charge. All the features of the software would be subscription based or pay-per-use based. In this way, I would’t have to worry about protection, because we all know that no matter how hard you try securing a software, crackers always find a way around. Most importantly, I would be able to generate recurring revenues“.

I think the “what if” question is useful even if all it does is making you stop and evaluate where you are or if it makes you admit your mistakes along the way.  Some of the mistakes and pieces of advice I frequently hear from some ASP members or other software business professionals I have interviewed are:

• Bob Walsh mentions problems that microISVs often have, such as not having a clear USP (Unique Selling Proposition) on their website, the lack of customer testimonials, being coy about the price and not presenting real contact information on the website;
• Eric Sink‘s advice is to make sure, first of all, that your software is needed out there, that people will want to talk about it and that the current customers are your top priority, even before getting new ones;
• Dave Collins warns about the failure to focus on marketing. He also recommends software authors to outsource the activities related to graphic and website design, press releases, SEO, AdWords, accounting and so on and to concentrate on development;
• Marty Cagan says that the biggest mistake is confusing customer requirements with product requirements and often speaks about good product management – I recommend taking a look at his articles from time to time.
• Nico Westerdale as well says one of his regrets is not moving faster in business development from the beginning and mentions the need to take high risks.

Andy Brice, another ASP member, even got a full presentation on the top 10 mistakes microISVs frequently make, that I warmly recommend watching.

So, what would you do differently if you had to start your software story over again? Please share your experience and lessons with us. It would be greatly helpful.

What would you do differently? is a post from: Association of Software Professionals

… the idea behind it:

This new resource is intended to help you as a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals share your experience and learn from others on various topics of your interest.

… main benefits you can get from the blog:

I’m sure many of you are advocates of blogs in general. What’s in it for you on this one?  First of all, you will know how others handled various aspects of their business, what was successful and what went wrong. You can learn from their know-how and calibrate your strategy in the right direction, avoiding pitfalls.

Secondly, you can benefit from important advertising / promotion opportunities via the ASP Blog. Don’t get me wrong, we won’t encourage or accept blatant advertising. We encourage real knowledge, tips, ideas. The more you contribute, the more your name will be associated with Software Industry Professionals.

… contributing to the blog:

Any ASP member can post on the blog. You just have to send your request to blog@asp-shareware.org and you will get further details via email.

… what you will read about:

Apart from official organization announcements, the blog’s content will be entirely generated by ASP members, so the topics and posts will reflect the subjects you consider to be important -  software development, marketing and distribution a.s.o. This said, we look forward to receiving  your suggestions regarding blog categories or any other issue related to the blog.

Last but not least, I want to renew our invitation to drop by the ASP Hospitality Suite at SIC (July 16-18, 2009 in Boston, Massachusetts). Be sure to come where you will be able to talk to us and to other members over a cup of coffee. For a more elaborate discussion and schmoozing, you can join us at the ASP Lunch!

Welcome.

Welcome to the New ASP Blog is a post from: Association of Software Professionals