Tag: tech

Will free software kill shareware? – As an independent developer who relies on intellectual property rights for a living, I am somewhat resistant to the “free software” movement, though I fully support the right of any programmer to decide how to license (or not license) his software. As the author of this article points out, “free software” has only become a player in the market because it is no longer run by “the little guys,” but pushed and funded by mega-corporations like IBM and Novell. A “little guy” (not in physcial presence, mind you) like myself needs to be able to charge for his work if he is going to earn a living doing what he is gifted to do. Will there be room for shareware if “free software” takes over the world? What will happen when people become used to getting software for free? The only thing that I know for certain is that a market that exists due to the abilities of mega-corporations like Novell or IBM to fund free software will not help “little guys” earn a living from their craft unless those “little guys” want to work for those companies. And as the author concludes his post:

“I wonder — if free software kills shareware, who is going to write all the truly useful applications?”

[Post updated on 8.29.04-1.17pm]

I’ve been using the “preview version” of Windows XP Service Pack 2, and I must say that Microsoft is doing good with this update.  I do have a few complaints about their new download warnings, as it may turn off neophytes to downloading good software, but otherwise it’s a worthwhile update.

Of particular importance is that Internet Explorer now blocks all pop-ups by default, and it works much better than any pop-up blocker that I have used before.  This is great, because when the designer that controls over 90% of the web browser market blocks pop-ups by default, it’s going to send pop-up pimps packing.

The wonders of CSS…

If you edit web pages and do any coding by hand, then you need to get TopStyle Pro. I did a little redesign of this site, incorporating improved CSS utilization mainly with the navigation links on the left, though I still have a way to go to get the whole site redesigned with CSS. But I did completely redesign www.Bible-Topics.com with the help of TopStyle, and I heartily recommend it. As time allows I will eventually rebuild all my sites with style sheets, and wouldn’t want to do that without the help of this great program.

Here is proof that you don’t have to check your personality at the door when you work at Microsoft: Tweakomatic This is probably what my wife likes to call “programmer humor,” (something she says when I tell her about something that made me laugh while I read a technical manual) and it may be that it isn’t nearly as funny as I think it is. But I laughed!

I’ve posted an update to my free MD5 file integrity checker.